This past weekend I visited the Saanich Fair: at 145 years, it is Western Canada's longest continuously running agricultural fair. For this lovely farmland area on Vancouver Island, this is something to be proud of. My friends who grew up here all used to attend as children, and now take their own. "My mom used to enter the pie competition..." or "My sister used to bring her jam in to be judged..." were comments that I heard. 
The fair has something for everyone: varied activities as face painting, pirate school, Cops for Cancer head shave, food eating contests, magic shows, horse shows and jumping, people doing aerobics on top of draft horses, a farmers' market (Oldfield Orchard and Bakery's peach-blueberry pie was delicious!), dog shows, blacksmithing, and of course the ubiquitous judging of numerous animals, crafts, flowers and foodstuffs. Oh, and what fair would be complete without a ferris wheel and random rides that make people like me nauseous! 
However, I confess that the one thing that caught my attention the most (being a self-acknowleged yarn junkie) was the Fiber Fest. The Vancouver Island Llama and Alpaca Club had judging and shows, and owners had lots of lovely roving and yarn for sale! I limited myself to one skein: a beautiful Sangria alpaca/silk (98%/2%) blend from Pacific Sun Alpacas. While I don't really need more yarn at the moment, I love to support my local fiber fanatics. 
It seems the thing to do, if you want to start conversation, is to wear a hand-knit sweater, which I had done (yes, that's it on the left there!). "Did you knit that?" I heard from behind me. Jennifer, of Pacific Sun Alpacas was on hand, and we got to chatting about dyeing, among other things. I found out that she had braved the Canadian weather (which admittedly is very mild on the Island) to plant indigo! 120 plants this year. She has already harvested them, stomped them etc. that is, started the process to set up her indigo vat. Brave woman! Anyway, she said she would love to have a photographer capture some of the process, and since I very much wanted to see the work, a quick verbal agreement was struck.
So stay tuned for scenes of a working indigo vat! It may very well be the only one in Western Canada...
Jennifer of Pacific Sun Alpacas, the indigo woman, herself!
While the girl isn't sure about the mini llama, apparently llamas are extremely family friendly.
This is "Llangford." He loves to pull his owners' children around in a cart on their farm.
Pacific Sun's alpacas! I am the owner of a lovely skein make with the fiber from one of these happy creatures. These guys were humming to themselves while I was chatting with Jennifer. Such a unique sound.
Someone at Silver Rill Corn has a sense of humor...
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