Surino!

If you were one of the people who saw Surino at TNNA and have been patiently waiting....it's finally here! If not, then I'll give you the stats.

Surino is our brand new yarn! It's a triple-first for us, it's our first Suri alpaca yarn, it's our first sport-weight yarn, and it's our first yarn milled in the US! I know- seriously exciting stuff. Let's see....it's 70% suri alpaca, 30% merino, comes in 7 colors and has 175 yards per 50g skein. The colors, top to bottom: Daffodill, Gray, Sage, Baltic Blue, Plum, Natural, Rose Quartz

My sweater! It's in Gray and with a little luck and a lot of midnight knitting, it should be ready for TNNA in Long Beach. It's soooo soft- I think I might need a bag of Surino in every color.

Anyhoo, that's our little Surino teaser to get you craving some suri-softness. Happy Knitting and have a great day!

Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them

I bet you think I am going to write about men, right? Well in my life it is a computer. I am sitting here typing on a compouter with no "u", a "j" that is about ready to fall off and an "o" that only works when you hit it hard. I sent a whole message to my sister without any "o's" before I realized I had a problem. Believe it or not it isn't this computer I have had the problem with. Just about one month ago my main point of sale computer stopped working in the middle of running a report. Like all of us have done a million times when the computer locked up I turned it off, waited, and turned it back on. Little did I know I would never again see the information on that computer. After countless numbers of hours trying to retrieve all of the 6 years of information it was decided to send the computer to computer heaven. I know everyone is asking how could I not have all of my data backed up? Well my external hard drive stopped working. I bought a new one at the same time as the dyeing disaster. It came with its own software and I never took the time to learn how to use it. Now the computer was also a fancy computer which was supposed to create it's own backup with a mirrored drive system but as luck would have it this also failed. I may not have helped myself but I can't begin to tell you the number of friends, family, and customers that now are backing up their system that didn't a month a ago. Oh yea ours also backs up every file that was changed the day before at midnight. Lesson learned and thank goodness for good old fashioned hard copies.

Join us for Super Scarf Knitting!

We'll be at the Creation Cafe on Wednesday, November 17th from 6-9pm

Address is 337 West 11th Street, Indianapolis IN 46202

Yarn and needles available for $15, knitters handy to get you started! Free wine tasting for those knitting and giveaways and prizes from Creation Cafe and Euphoria. Should be a great time!

Crunch the 3-legged cat has been extra chatty today. She's either telling me that she would like some Gravy Lover's Fancy Feast or that she would like to wish all of our readers a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

quiet...too quiet

So one of the things we are working on is really connecting with the knitters instead of only yarn store owners. We still love our LYS owners, but we love to talk to EVERYONE. Me especially- I'm quite the chatterbox.

So if you're on Ravelry, we'd love to hear from you. We're got our own group (Alpaca With A Twist) and you can see all sorts of fun things like news, new colors, and now there's a thread of people's projects (mostly just mine so far, but I would really love to see yours!). To make it a little more interesting over there on Ravelry, Jennifer and I have decided to put together a little goodybag for our winners every month. "But Paige!" you say, "how can I win said goodybags?"

It's easy! Go to the "What are you making?" thread and post a picture of your projects with Alpaca With A Twist yarn or fiber. If you're working with our roving, we totally count handspun as a project. Then talk about your project a little bit. Say something along the lines of Hi, I'm blergety-blerg, and I'm making a sweater for my blerg with some Highlander. And then at the end of the month, I'll go through and put all of the people who submitted pictures into a drawing (multiple projects count for multiple chances!) and then I'll pick one name totally at random and then send you a goodybag.

"But Paige!" you ask, "what's in the goodybag?".

I don't know yet, but it will be awesome. Go get your chat on over there at the Alpaca With A Twist group, and let's see what sort of awesome we can dish out. Can't wait to hear from you!

oops

So remember that neon yarn from the last post? We've been slowly rehanking and tidying it up for a while now and you know what- it's not bad. It's actually kinda cool. There are some really awesome skeins in there (one of which may or may not have "Paige Is Awesome" written in to it with blue dye) so we're going to let you guys get some of our new limited-edition colorway called "oops". There's absolutely nothing wrong with it- it just didn't quite match the color we needed it to. Jennifer took it out West last week to a show and a few people got a bunch to sell for October/Breast Cancer Awareness month since it's a little on the pinky side.

So here's our color- which you can buy at the cost of normal, non-handpainted Socrates. But you might want to call quickly- I don't think it will be hanging around very long.

Our Beautiful Mess

So a few of you might know about Yarns on Stage, a cool event where shops can buy this package that consists of 5 or 10 skeins of a limited-edition handpainted colorway from 10 different shops. The people that are running this asked us to come up with such a color, and we jumped at the chance.

It wasn't until after we had committed to this project, we remembered....we don't actually do any of our own hand-dyeing.

But "problem" is just another word for "opportunity", right?

We checked out some local dyers and finally settled on one whose subtle colors had us buying half of her etsy shop stock. Over a couple weeks she came up with several colors for us and we all agreed on a pastel pinky-orange with greeny bits. Great description, huh? Anyhoo, she cranked out a few sample skeins, they got sent to designers, patterns were made and the colors were shown off at TNNA, yarn store committed to purchasing packages of yarn and when we got our final number, we were ready to start dyeing. At the end of day one, our dyer brought us 2 garbage bags of soaking wet, tangled yarn that was...well...NEON. And it bled all over the place. Jennifer and I nearly double our work hours over the next 2 days to clean up and untangle the 100 skeins that had been neoned. There were tears shed, regrets voiced, and then the dyer quit. Mind you, we've got 1200 skeins to dye, dry, hank and label within a 2 week window, and we have no idea how to recreate the original pastel pinky-orange-with-greeny-bits that we need. The dyer agreed to give us her "recipe" which we followed to a T but somehow ended up with a beautiful aubergine color. I actually prefer the aubergine color, but we were committed to the pastel pinks.

Jennifer spent the weekend dyeing little tester skeins and then calling to ask my opinion. Eventually we came up with a color and then quickly realized we were going to need some serious help if we were going to prepare these hank, dye, hank and label and get it done quickly. We bought stoves, we bought steamers, we had electricity and plumbing installed in the warehouse basement and we had people come in to help. We were ready to go.

So we soaked the skeins 15 at a time before dyeing them, also 15 at a time over 3 burners. They went for an hour. Then they cooled, then were soaked in vinegar for a while and then moved to the next station to be painted, one at a time and very slowly. After that, we wrapped them all up in cling-film and stuck them in the vegetable steamers for half an hour, where they turned in to yarn-sausages. Piping hot, we stuck them in more clean water to cool and get the vinegar smell out as we ripped open the little sausages and dug for yarn. After that came the hanging of the skeins, and after we had about 300 on the lines we had to get a little creative with spacing. On sunny days we were able to move some of the nearly-dry ones outside for a blast of sunshine. On windy days, we swore under our breaths while we picked them up off the ground and lost a few to dirty spots and vegetable matter from their trips to the ground. I started with the hanking and finished about half before we collectively decided that since I had twisted the skin off my hands, I was too becoming too slow. After the dyeing was over (and we have a few to spare, even!) all efforts went in to hanking and then labeling, and just as the crazed-twitches and nervous breakdowns were starting, we began packing them up and sending them out. After two days of 4 people hanking and labeling, we were able to call it quits.

And I will never complain about the price of handpainted yarn EVER AGAIN.

When you find yourself unexpectedly needing to dye 1200 skeins of yarn in a very short time period (more details to follow) thanks for friends and friends of friends who I now call friends. A huge thank you goes out to Rita Polen and Jo Basey who pretty much double handily have helped us get out of a tough spot. Thanks to both of these ladies we would like to introduce to you our Yarns On Stage yarn called "Fruit Smoothie" (thanks for the name Jo).

Livestock and Alpacas

I wish I had the flair for writing that Paige does. My posts seem so boring compared to Paige's but I occasionally have some piece of life to share. As many know my farm life has changed greatly in the last 2 years. I went from managing a farm with as many as 40 alpacas at one time to living in downtown Indianapolis. I have wanted to keep as much of farm life as possible and so with just 5 females left I decided these were mine to keep. This would be my little breeding herd. Of course my best animals were sold so of the 5, 2 are from my original purchases over 10 years ago. However, 1 of the 5 was a granddaughter to a male of mine and a daughter of one of the best white males in the country who I was lucky enough to have owned. She, Copper Ridge's Pinkstar aka Pinky, was what I had left to show for 11 years of breeding. I took her to AOBA Nationals in May and she won a blue ribbon. While a blue ribbon was great it was not nearly as exciting as the fleece scores she received. She seemed to have an extremely above average fleece. As I write today my little herd has dwindled to 4. This is because Pinky got ill last week and within 24 hours of arriving at Purdue she died. The alpacas are so frustrating. By the time they are showing you any signs of being sick they are really sick. We didn't wait she went right away and arrived at Purdue much healthier looking than most but as we waited for Purdue to get started working on her we could see her going down hill quickly. This falls' crias will help make the ache of the animals lost a little less painful but here's to hoping each experience helps us to take better care of the next.

So exciting, your head might explode

Okay, it's not *that* exciting, but we think it's pretty cool.
We have kinda-sorta introduced a new product! Starting now, we're going to sell blank Baby Twist (in a special 100g/220 yard quantity), undyed Socrates, and undyed Fino to Indie dyers everywhere! So if you are a dyer or know a dyer and would like to try out some of our totally awesome yarns, then give us a call, leave us a comment or make a really obvious alpaca-shaped smoke signal and we'll get you some information! (Must have tax ID number)

We're also really close to having people move in upstairs! Hooray for neighbors! It's been a huge team effort to make it possible (I painted the bathrooms, part of a hallway and some of an office!) and it's fun to look for all of the little changes that happen over the course of a day. They're putting in some really awesome things like cubicles....

And a copy machine (I'm totally going to copy my face tonight when they leave!)

And a wheelchair ramp/bridge from the parking lot. I was really hoping they'd put in one of those Bridge-of-Peril things that you see in Indiana Jones movies where it's made of rope that's billions of years old with wood steps that makes a toothpick feel significant....and of course we'd need a moat, preferably filled with anacondas and alligators (but I'd settle for large, ill-tempered garter snakes). But since that was pretty much what we had before (minus the moat) they decided to put up something a little safer and less...Amazonian. Here's a picture of what I was hoping they'd install...and then one of the bridge they're actually putting in.

Seriously, where is their sense of adventure? :p

Single Skeins: Highlander

Name: Highlander

Color: Hawthorne Pink

Sign: Libra

Yardage: 145

Story:

"I'm just your typical outdoorsy lass looking for that special crafter to bring out the best in me!"

Perfect Match:

"I'm a very easy to please yarn that works in all sorts of projects. I'm looking for someone who is fearless and loves working with ruggedly adorable yarns like me! :p I work up best on 7's to 10's for you knitters out there and am a snuggly blend that makes sweet sweaters and awesome accessories!"

Perfect Date:

"While I may come in girly colors, I'm no girly-girl! Take me hiking, camping, or rock climbing. I also love a good road trip and any adventure is good enough for me!"

Movies/Music/Books

"Braveheart is the best movie ever. End of story. I love pretty much anything on the Discovery Channel and am totally addicted to The Deadliest Catch. I love reading anything by Sir Walter Scott and love Scottish and Irish pop and punk music like Snow Patrol, The Coors, Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphy's. And I might have an Enya CD or two. You know- for chill time."

Anything Else?

"I can do a great Sean Connery impersonation and make a mean Shepherd's pie!"

Single Skeins: Fino

Do you feel like you're missing something in your life? Is wool or cotton just not enough for you anymore? Do you need your yarn to be as passionate as you are? Well, Fiber Crafters, you have come to the right place! Welcome to Single Skeins, the website devoted to matching you to the alpaca yarn of your dreams! Name: Fino
Color: Silver Belle
Sign: Aquarius
Yardage: 875

Story:
"Hello there, my name is Fino. I don't normally do this sort of thing, but I thought I'd give it a try! A lot of people find me intimidating since I'm a little....you know...lacey, but once you get past the whole little gauge thing, I think you'll like me! I'm a silk/baby alpaca blend and I enjoy everything from stockinette stitch to mind-bending lace patterns."

Perfect Match:
"I'm really not very picky- I understand I'm a little higher maintenance than most...so perhaps a more experienced fiber crafter? I do really well with shawls and scarves and would love to wrap myself around you to keep you warm this winter!"

Perfect Date:
"I love to be spoiled! Take me out to dinner and then an Opera or the Symphony- I really shine on a fancy night out!"

Movies/Music/Books:
"I love a good costume drama, whether it's Jane Austen or Shakespeare. There's just something so magical about the vast English countryside, quaint manor life, and the cliffs of Dover. Some of my favorites include Jane Austen's Ply & Prejudice and Silk & Sensibility. I quite enjoy classical music and as I mentioned before, I adore opera. There is nothing quite knitting along with a good aria."

Anything else?
"Once on Spring Break in Cabo, I won a poolside competition for "Best Plies!"

New Patterns!

Hey there! We've got a whole bunch of new patterns that we're adding to our collection! We're super-excited about them and we're in the process of getting them put up on the web site so that you can see all of our shiny new patterns! Until then, here's a little taste of what's headed your way! (To order these patterns, contact your local yarn store. We don't sell patterns online.)

Dragon of Happiness by Sharon Winsauer- 2 hanks Fino in Ruby Slippers

Smocked Socks by Amy Polcyn- 1 skein Socrates in Khaki

Lovely in Lace by Christina Wall- 6-12 skeins of Tempation in Glacier

Wrapped in Ivy by Cheryl Beckerich- 2-3 skeins Socrates in Wednesday Night Green

Georgette by Christina Wall- 5-13 balls of Baby Twist in Berry Sorbet

And there's tons more! So check out the website in a few days to hopefully see more of these fun knits!

Won't you be my neighbor?

As always, exciting things are happening here at Alpaca With A Twist! Well...not actually here, but up one floor. We're getting warehouse-friends! The warehouse from where all of our products ship is a big nearly-empty warehouse downtown Indianapolis and while it's really nice to wear whatever I want to work and crank up the radio whenever I feel like it, it will be really nice to have other people in the building.
So far it's just been a lot of work to get the upstairs looking like offices. Some days its two guys up there and some days it's twelve, but it's been quite loud here for a while. These are two of our favorite guys that are working upstairs, Jeff and Cameron.
Aren't they awesome? We think they are!

Congratulations and Thank You!

So firstly, I'm going to send out a huge THANK YOU to every single one of the fabulous fiber artists who entered our Jumbo-hank shawl competition! We had some really great entries and the final decision was really really hard, so drumroll please!

(brrrrrrrrrr) (yes, that's supposed to be a drumroll)

Congratulations to Michelle Maurer of Kent, Washington!

Her fabulous design, "Hearts and Diamonds" will be available soon from Alpaca With A Twist. Check out this awesomeness!

And once again, thank you all again for your beautiful entries!

Alpaca Fiber & The Oil Spill

Alpaca breeders all across the country are helping to clean up the largest oil spill in our country's history. A couple of weeks ago we sent over 25 lbs of fiber to the gulf coast where the fiber will be put in stockings and used to skim off the oil from the water's surface. This weekend at the national show in Fort Wayne, Indiana we along with other breeders cross the country donated a large horse trailer full of fiber going to help with the spill. Don't worry this isn't the great fiber used in your favorite yarns and garments but a lot of the short, dirty, course fiber we get when shearing and the fiber need just happen to take place while the alpaca industry is in the middle of shearing the over 100,000 alpacas in the US. Here is a link to a article with more information http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html

Knitting in the Park

One of my personal favorite things to do is get together with a group of knitters, enjoy some sunshine, some freshly baked baklava (I have a compulsive baking problem- I should seek help eventually) and get knitty with it. But it just adds another element of awesome when you've got a bunch of knitters of all skill levels (from really-truly-beginner to needles-so-fast-they-break-the-sound-barrier) and all of these knitters have a common goal. This particular goal was Super Scarves, the fiber crafters of Indiana's way to say thank for the 2012 Superbowl volunteers. You may or may not know that Indianapolis is hosting the 2012 Superbowl and the committee who deals with such things decided that each and every one of the 8,000 volunteers (that's a lot of 0's. Just sayin') should have his or her own hand knit scarf. The thing with 8,000 hand knit scarves though, is that you need 8,000 knitters to do a scarf each or just lots of knitters doing lots of scarves each. Anyway you do the math, it's a bold goal. But here at Alpaca With A Twist, we think it's totally doable. And we think that something this awesomely huge should also be awesomely fun. So we hijacked Herron Morton Park last Wednesday with a box of our new yarn made just for the Super Scarves and a bunch of needles, snacks and drinks, and we all sat down in a nice kum-ba-yah circle and started knitting. There was quite a bit of teaching involved, but after a few minutes there was the harmonious sound of needles clicking and the chatter of knitters. Yup. People were having fun learning how to knit. Mission accomplished. Now we just need to do it again and again until we hit 8,000 scarves. Bring it on, Superbowl. If you'd like to join us, that would be really awesome! We're going to be meeting at Herron Morton Park on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month until it gets too cold to keep knitting outside. We cast on around 6 pm and would love to see you there! (And even if you're not knitting Superbowl Scarves, we'd still love to see you!)

Shear Madness!!!

Some of you may know that Alpaca With A Twist wasn't always Alpaca With A Twist, and the yarn company that is now was once an alpaca farm: Copper Ridge Alpacas. There are significantly fewer alpacas there now, but they still need to be sheared to get that crimpy awesomeness turned in to yarn. And so a week ago, I met Jennifer at the crack of dawn (okay, 8 am) and we jumped in the car and first headed to Sheep Street in the Martinsville area to drop off some stuff and talk briefly about shearing (and meet the Sheep of course. Plus Jennifer keeps 2 alpacas there still) and were on our way to Georgetown to shear those Copper Ridge alpacas.I had never sheared alpacas before, only sheep, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. With sheep, you throw them over on their backs and shear from there, and by the time they figure out how to get upright again, they're pretty much done. Shearing alpacas is a much more....involved process. It starts with looping ropes around their wrists and ankles (can you still call them wrists and ankles? Must ask Jennifer) and then lowering them to the ground, pulling the ropes tight. Someone has to hold their head so they don't get spooked and try to get up and get all cut up in the process, and for a while that was my job. Jennifer did all the shearing, and we had a couple other people there to help. Each alpaca took around 45 minutes to shear, vaccinate and trim up their legs and head into a nice little mop-style that only works for alpacas and punk rockers.
But who cares about the process! The pictures are so fun! And check out the baby- she was only 4 days old when we went down to shear!

Single Skeins: Temptation

Name: Temptation
Color: Spearmint
Sign: Gemini
Yardage: 109

Story:
"Hi there! I'm Temptation, a fun loving silk/alpaca blend that's looking for someone to love and knit me into the object of their desire..."

Perfect Match:
"I think that my perfect match is someone who is bold and can appreciate the silkier things in life. My ideal match uses size 7-9 US needles, but I'm open for anything! I am very flexible and can be your perfect scarf or that sumptuous sweater you've always dreamed of...want to try me on, baby?"

Perfect Date:
"A candlelight dinner, a walk on the beach, a trip to your favorite yarn store- I'm up for anything!"

Movies/Music/Books:
"I love all sorts of movies. I adore foreign films- if it's been to Cannes, it's probably been in my DVD player. I love a good slapstick comedy, and I love everything but scary movies- I hate getting my stitches dropped! I'm not much of a reader anymore, but in my spare time I like to tackle some Tolstoy, get lost in some Orwell, and I'm super-sweet on Shakespeare. As far as music goes, I'm really in to alternative music like Ingrid Michaelson and Fiona Apple. What about you?"

Anything else?
"You can get to know me a little better at your local yarn store. Can't wait to see what you can do with me..."

What do we do besides yarn?

So in the last couple of years I have decided I like plants. Maybe because I have some friends who do really well with them I wanted (needed) to try it too. This year I have cucumbers (the pickling kind), zucchini, catnip, cilantro, oregano, and lavender started in the house. I brought a table into by breakfast nook just to hold the pots. Could be fun or a real disaster.

My other great passion is dogs. Many of you may have seen the 2 puppies that came with me to TNNA in Columbus a couple of years ago. Unfortunately having a dog that needs a home has become a little bit of a habit. Our latest resident was Huckleberry from Indianapolis Animal Control. He went to Vermont to a new home but was with us for 12 days before he went on his journey north.

The First Little Contest Was So Much Fun...Let's Make It Bigger

We had such a good time hearing your suggestions for naming a new color we decided to venture out and ask for help again but this time in a MUCH bigger way. We have been working on a set of patterns to make a triangular shawl out of 1 hank of Baby Twist (or 5 balls). We have 4 so far and a 5th coming from our favorite lace designer, Sharon Winsauer. We would like to finish out the series with a 6th from you. The details are below. If your favorite local yarn shop doesn't carry Baby Twist just have them give us a call and we'll be happy to help them out. Happy knitting!

To enter the competition:

1. Simply design and make a triangular shawl out of 1 jumbo hank (549 yards) of Baby Twist or 5 50g balls of Baby Twist. If you are using 5 balls, be sure to only use one color. Be sure to write down the design as you go, you’ll need to send it in to enter the competition.
2. The shawls and patterns must be received in our warehouse at 950 S White River Pkwy W Dr, Indianapolis, IN 46221 by June 1st, so please plan accordingly for shipping. If you would like your shawl returned, please enclose a self addressed envelope large enough for the shawl.
3. The winner will receive $250 and a jumbo hank of Baby Twist in the color of his or her choice.
4. The winning shawl and pattern will become property of Alpaca With A Twist as part of a shawl collection. However, the winning designer may sell their pattern themselves as long as it is promoted using Baby Twist and is not available to other yarn manufacturers. Our published pattern will also include the designers name and location.
5. The top 10 entries will all receive a replacement hank of Baby Twist in the color of his or her choice.
6. The winning shawl will be displayed in the new products section at TNNA promoting our single hank shawls.
7. Please be sure to include basic contact information (full name, phone number, address and if applicable, e-mail address) in the same package as your completed (and blocked if desired) shawl and pattern.
   

We look forward to your entry!

And the winner is......

Wow we got a great response for help in naming our new Baby Twist color. The names were all so great I want to go and develop additional green colors just to use more of the names. Key Lime Pie and Spring Green were definitely 2 of the most popular. It was really obvious everyone is ready for spring. My favorite as most of the names were coming in was Honey Dew because several of the new colors already had fruit names but then Victoria Hunemuller from Waterloo, Iowa suggested Pucker Up and I had my winner. Here are some of the other great suggestions: Iguana, Anole Green, Catkin, Sour Grapes, Melon Camp (very cute!), Apple Jacks (this is our warehouse cat), Forsythia, Dandelion, Promise of Spring, Sprout, Yummy Lime Jello, Kiwi, Green Tomato, Green Tea, Bamboo Shoot, and Margarita. This is only a partial list. Thank you to everyone who participated. We have a bigger and better contest coming up so you will have to check back for more information.

Baby Twist 10 packs and 7 new colors

We finally recieved a shipment of Baby Twist 10 packs. The shelves look much better and backorders will ship tomorrow. The exciting news is that in addition to restocking we also received 7 new colors. The colors are pictured on the left. (sorry I took the picture this evening without natural light) With the exception of 1 these are actually colors we had previously used for Punch. The one new color is the bright yellowish green and it needs a name. (it is slightly greener in real life.) We are coming to you for help. Please submit your suggestion of names and the we will send the winning person with the winning name a 10 pack of Baby Twist in this new color. Email us at jennifer@alpacawithatwist.com with your suggestions.

New Colors of Socrates!

So we've had a really big week here at Alpaca With A Twist! On Wednesday, a huge order of Socrates came in and we worked like crazy people trying to get all of the orders out the same day. Luckily for us, our favorite UPS guy ever, Chris, was running late and we were able to process and pack all but three but the time he got there. So you should be getting your backordered Socrates any second now!
But the really exciting news...somewhere hidden in those 26 boxes of sock yarn were 2 new colors, 0409 (Oil Slick) and 0292 (Coco Bean). I got to name these yarns and I'm so excited with how well they go with some of our other colors like 0100 (Natural) 0208 (Khaki) and 0403 (Charcoal). I'd really love to make a men's sweater out of all of these colors in a fun but very manly stitch pattern. (I just need a man I like well enough to knit a sweater for!)

If that's not totally awesome enough, we have also finish a couple more shawls for a series of patterns we are doing that use one jumbo hank of Baby Twist! Stay tuned for some pictures!

Apple Jacks and the Alarm

So I should probably start with a few of the more obvious things you should know. We're in a warehouse. There's a series of really finicky alarms that have laser beams running all over the warehouse that make millions of little beeps throughout the day. And we have cats. Normally the cats are locked in the office at night (in a totally not-cruel way, they have all they need in there including the basic needs of kitties and lots of yarn) so the kitties tripping the alarm isn't really a concern. But this past week, everything changed.

We got a kitty door. At first both kitties, Apple Jacks (or Jacks, or Jack-attack, or don't-eat-that-Jack) and Captain Crunch (or Crunch, or Crunchy, or wittle-baby-kitty-girl) were absolutely terrified of this door. I seriously don't blame Crunch at all for this perfectly rational fear of kitty doors, she's missing one of her back legs and is already fairly imbalanced. But whatever.
But before I explain the sudden need for a kitty door, I have to go back a couple weeks further than that. I was working in the office by myself (Jennifer had a lunch meeting and would be in after a few hours) and I was doing the usual tasks of the morning like picking up whatever the cats had destroyed the overnight and checking voicemails. So mid-voice mail, Apple Jacks jumps over the desk to go smell Crunch or something, and spills my absolutely giant hot tea...all over my lap. So after a minute or two, I figured that since I was alone in the warehouse, it would be no big deal to take off my pants and continue working while my pants dried on a heater. Then I hear the fax machine going in the other room and I go to open the door to leave the office and find that...I've been locked in. The door was a really old and very heavy firedoor that was supposedly "fixed" so that it wouldn't lock anyone in...but here I am, alone in the warehouse, locked in the office with no pants. Great. I called Jennifer, who was still in a meeting. I called her again. Nothing. I start talking to myself like Jack Nicholson the in Shining. I realize that I'm talking to myself like Jack Nicholson in the Shining and then I call the owner of the building to explain to her that I am locked in the office and I have to pee and I'm really hungry. And she's all the way in Noblesville and is obviously no help to me. So she calls Jennifer, who is still in a meeting. I do some filing and then decide to call for help again. It's been about 3 hours at this point before Jennifer turns on her phone after the meeting and gets the eleventy-billion messages both I and the owner of the building left. And then help came. But by then my pants were dry and everything was okay again.

So now that you know the story of the Old Door, I will explain the story of the New Door. The New Door was ordered after the Old Door locked me in and it was discussed that while being locked in the office sucked, it would have been a lot worse had Jennifer been out of town and the phone lines were down and I had locked my Blackberry in the car or other infinitely worse situations, but the Old Door had to go. So New Door came a few days later, and while Jennifer had it specially made to fit the gap where Old Door was, it was still TOO BIG. So we had handy-man Jeff come in and saw the door down to where it needed to be to fit, put the door in and install the Kitty-door, and the cats were terrified. So Jennifer and I spent much of three days shoving cats through the kitty door and tantalising them with treats to get them through the door on their own. And then suddenly, Jacks discovered that he could go through the door on his own and stars would not collide, and the earth would not stop turning, and nothing bad would happen. So he did. A lot. And then the day that he figured the door out, we closed up shop for the night, locked the kitty door and shut the kitties in the office for the night. And then around 8 pm, I get a phone call.

"Uh, Paige, did you lock the kitty door?"

"Yeah...."
"Well the alarms are going off, I'm heading the warehouse."

Rats. Did I seriously forget to lock the kitty door the first day the cats actually figured out how to use it? No, I hadn't forgotten to lock the door. Jacks had tried to go through the kitty door, gotten a paw or something stuck, had a fit of rage/fear/probably a little hunger in there, and broke open the kitty door and was running around the warehouse with the bits of pieces of the kitty door laying on the floor. And then set the alarms off.

Never a dull day or night here at Alpaca With A Twist.

(Cat picture #1: Jacks. Cat Picture #2: Crunch)