Meet the New Girls

 Today was a very exciting day on the farm. 

We welcomed two new alpacas to the farm.  They came all the way from Magical Farms Alpacas in Ohio.  Don and Dee went to Magical's Auction in October and they purchased these two beautiful alpacas.  Mychrona was bred and is pregnant and Vauneese will go back out to Magical Farms to be bred when she gets a little older.  I had a hard time remembering who was who, so this is how Leanne and I could tell them apart: Vauneese has very long hair by her ears and Mychrona is going to be a mommy.

 The boys were very excited to see the new girls.

 This is a peek at Vauneese's fiber.

 Here is Dee with Vauneese.

 The herd was very excited about the new arrivals.

If you are in the area on Wednesday we will be open from 10:00 - 4:00.

Wednesday Yarn Along..And the Coop Is Open Today

Happy Wednesday!

We have opened the coop up on Wednesdays this winter. I love it. It's a day dedicated to yarn, knitting, family, business and alpacas. Not bad huh? And I have book club tonight with a group of some of the best women you will ever meet. It's pretty much a perfect day for this mom.

For the readers out there, my book club just finished my recommendation, 

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I read it a few years ago and loved it. 

I just started reading The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. It was a Christmas gift from my husband. For those of you that follow this blog, I was reading Mrs. Kimble. I hated it. I couldn't finish it. It's hard for me to spend that much time on a book and not finish it, but I just didn't care about it anymore. And I also didn't think a picture of the exact same book with the exact same knitting project would be very inspiring. So ta-da....I bring you something new. 

Not very exciting, but knitting with purpose this week.

My son, Dalton is 10. He requested a grey (or is it gray) hat. He had specific requests. A hat with a big brim that doesn't fold up, one color, nothing fancy or girly, please. I don't know when the last time I knitted something "girly" for him, but he must have been afraid that I would.

And so I give you....

The Dalton Hat

 My latest cast-ons....

These mittens for Chase

and another hat in the grey yarn. For me this time.

The farm Coop is OPEN today from 10-4. Swing by if you're around!

We have restocked the store with socks, scarves, hats and of course YARN!!!!!

Fire will be on and we'll be there.

Happy Knitting!

Please be sure to stop by Ginny's. She's the one that started this whole thing!

-Leanne

Baby's First Snow Day

This past weekend, we had our first snowfall. A few inches that made everything look pretty without slowing life down. My kind of snow! Compare it to last year when we had a few feet of snow, couldn't get out of our doors, couldn't get our cars out, couldn't get the snow plows even close to our house, the alpacas didn't see a blade of grass for months, and it never looked like we would see the ground again! Big difference!

The snow is now melted leaving us with a muddy road, but I can't complain. It was nice while it lasted. Baby Bing and Wea had their first snow day.

 And of course this little boy had his first snow day too.

Hopefully you all had a great weekend!

-Leanne

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

I enjoy reading this blog that posts every Thursday with the title,

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

~ Capturing the context of everyday life ~

We spent the day in the coop on Wednesday. I snapped a few pictures and I thought they would fit in with this fun little theme of pretty, happy, funny, real

So here goes...Arrow Acres Style

Pretty

 Happy

 Funny

 Real

 It was a very cold day. Finn wore a blanket and Sean chopped wood to keep our fire going strong. 

 Liz hand dyes the yarn. Then she has to make into skeins. She has done this on her nitty notty but it takes her forever. So she and her husband put their brains together and made this handy dandy device. It works so much quicker!!!!

Wednesday Yarn Along

My posts have looked similar the past few weeks huh? Still working on this sweater. 

I have done more reading than knitting this past week. That happens sometimes. This Mrs. Kimble book is a strange one. I'm more than half way through and still not sure if I like it. Oh well. I'll keep going. I also picked up my son's nook. I'm a book lover...as in, cover, pages, the weight of it. Not sure if I will like this little device, but I'm going to try it. We'll see! 

The Coop will be open today from 10-4. Stop by for yarn, alpaca goodies, sign up for knitting classes, or just stop to say hi to the animals. We'll be there all day!

And don't forget to stop by Andee's blog for all her fabulous knitting projects and beautiful pictures.

Also joining in with Ginny at Small Things with her yarn along.

I have run out and put more wood on the camp stove now....

Happy 1/2 year birthday to my little man :)

Happy Knitting!

Leanne

Thankful

This past week, we had a wonderful visit with a writer from The Jersey Shore Magazine. Jen Enright came to the farm on Wednesday and spent some time with us and the alpacas. Somehow the magazine had heard about our farm and they wanted to do a feature article on us. Amazing right? So Jen came by, spent some time with our fuzzy buddies, hung out in the coop and asked questions. We swapped stories, personal and professional. Jen was wonderful. An animal lover at heart, mom of three kids and she just "got" us, if you know what I mean. I know she will do an amazing job on the article.

But the point to this post is that we are so very thankful. In the year and half that the alpacas have been on the farm, we have met the most wonderful people. We have been featured in articles, graced the front page of the newspaper several times and all of this without us asking for the coverage. People have been drawn to this little farm and when they leave, there is a smile on their face. Every day, I see cars idling on the road, sometimes moms with little kids in the back seat, sometimes couples, sometimes teenagers, sometimes grandparents with their grandchildren, all admiring the alpacas and always with a smile on their face. This farm is blessed. I truly believe that MomMom has some crazy super-human powers up in heaven and she has brought us this good fortune. Along with MomMom, our first dog, Arrow, whom the farm is named after, must be up there also bringing such nice attention to this little farm.

We are excited to see what Jen writes about us. The article should be out in March or April.

I'm sure she'll do a great job!

Fair Isle Hat

I finished up the little fair isle hat this afternoon. 

I knitted this hat in the baby size. It fits Chase perfectly.

I worked with the baby alpaca yarn from our farm store. I used almost one whole skein of the white, small amount of brown, tan and silver gray. I can't wait to make a few more. The color possibilities are endless. When I work on projects like this, I remember how much I enjoy color work. I get bored easily with stockinette stitch but add some color work and I love it.

We had our first yarn party in the coop last night. As Shea exclaimed over and over, 

"Party in the Coop! Party in the Coop!" I forgot to take pictures. Oops. But it was a success. We set up an old table, an odd collection of chairs, had the wood stove cranking, ate some pizza, home made cupcakes and a few glasses of wine. ahhhh...good times. We missed Tara. She had to work in PA but we did welcome back Cristin. It was good to have her back. Thanks, Dad for our clubhouse :)

Happy Knitting

Leanne

Wednesday Yarn Along

Camp stove is on, knitting is plentiful and the coop is open.

 Morning Frost

 I headed out to the coop this morning and got the camp stove going. I plan on being out there for most of the day knitting away with Chase. If you're around the area today, come on by!

 How cute is this itty bitty hat?! I used the pumpkin pattern from the Itty Bitty Hat book but knitted it up with a pink hand dyed yarn by Liz. It's knitted with our Barn Yarn "Mae". I love it. I also love that it only took a night to make it. I need to do more little projects while working on the big projects.

  This is our alpaca chicken. He has turned into the coop mascot.

Knitting this cute little fair isle hat in alpaca yarn from our store.

Still reading Mrs. Kimble. Yikes. Not so great characters in this book! I hope it gets a little happier.

 I have been able to get a lot done on this sweater. I love the yarn color and texture. It is working up much quicker than I had expected. 

Happy Knitting!

Don't forget to check out Ginny and all the other wonderful knitting posts today!

-Leanne