I judged the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA) spin-off for the Kentucky Classic Alpaca Show. Essentially, i graded freshly shorn and packaged fiber, hand processed a small part of each entry including spinning then gently washed each small skein to grade the resulting yarn. It was a lot of work, but i completely enjoyed seeing the variety of natural colors pass through my hands. I admit i was apprehensive at first - i've never met a fiber i couldn't work with, so how could i judge? But after i got moving and saw that it wasn't about each fibers usefulness, but more how each satisfies listed criteria and responds to processing, etc. the whole event made more sense to my fiber loving mind. Plus: i got to spin loads of lovely local alpaca and (hopefully) give breeders useful feedback, right?
All in all it was interesting and fun - that's right, fun work (:
Back to fighting the phone and the new lameness. Maryland reports soon!
