That'll do

There is a page on Ravelry, the incredible online fiber community, where all kinds of contests are listed. While many of the contests involve chance (post a comment and a random generator will pick a winner), some involve some kind of participation or skill. Two weeks ago a contest called "Name the Alpacas" was posted. That'll Do Farm in Grafton, Ohio ran out of names before they ran out of baby alpacas - crias - and needed two more names. The only requirement for the names is that they had to start with the letter "b".

My suggestion was Balderdash for the gorgeous black female and Bourbon for the handsome golden brown male. Much to my surprise, the name Bourbon was chosen! His full registered name is "That'll Do Black Forests Bourbon Buzz" but you can call him Bourbon for short - his friends all do. You can read the farm's droll account of the brias and their names and see photos of the gorgeous alpacas at their blog.

So what did I win? That'll Do Farm sent me a gorgeous skein of 90% alpaca and 10% Merino yarn in a rich dark brown/black shade. It looks just black at first glance, much like our cat Spenser, but look at the yarn in the sunlight and you can see the brown tones, too. I tried and tried to take a good photo, but this is the best I could do:


The photo does not show the subtle sheen of the yarn. It is gorgeous, decadent and soft. And get this: the 90% alpaca in the yarn came from Bourbon's mother, Charlie's Angel - that'll do, for sure.