Monday again!

Wow this weekend went by in a blur!

Saturday was the CT Sheep and Wool festival in Vernon CT. I picked up M about 8:30 Saturday morning (30 min. late as ususal) and we were off. Driving there was pretty straight forward – Mass Pike to 84 to 30 and there it was! They even had the cutest little sheep signs to direct the traffic.

The entrance fee was just $3 to park and then we were in. We started at the “Gold” building where they had some vendors and food. First coffee and donuts while we formed a plan. We decided, since we are both trying to be good, to take a quick spin around the barns to determine where we really wanted to spend our time and $. We toured the vendors in the Gold building, some interesting stuff including several people with nice spindles and some interesting lace weight. Next barn had several people with rovings from their own sheep, a vendor with new and used wheels, someone else with celtic jewlery, someone with some good used/out of print books, another vendor with plants etc. On the way to the Alpaca barn we went past a local farm with a nice selection of Alpaca. We didn’t buy on the way out, but did on the way back ;)

The Alpaca/Llama barn was neat. Several vendors with fiber, finished goods and a few cute alpaca for sale (do you think DH would notice that in the back yard?) The final barn was the one with the fleece sale happening in it. That was just too much to resist!

Overall it was a relatively small event, though well represented by local farms and with some nice fibers and things. All in all we were on the grounds for perhaps 3 hours (driving time was 2 hours each way) so we agreed it might be something to do next year if the weather is good, but if its raining we probably will skip it.

I did do “some” shopping and here is what came home with me:

1 celtic silver pendant

1 set Medium grade Viking Combs, hand made by someone in Canada of Cherry with a great holder/storage stand.

1 Tiger wood .5 oz spindle

1 beginner bottom whirl spindle

1 new Tulip wood orfice hook

1 painted dolphin spindle for A

8 lbs Oxford/Corriedale cross, dark grey fleece (for $3/lb!!!) Raw

2 lbs reddish brown (think caramel sauce) colored Alpaca (raw). M and I split a 4 lb bag.

1 lb faun alpaca roving

2 lbs really dark grey Icelandic Wool (raw)

1 book on Dye stuff (mostly historical info)

And here is a picture of the new spindle:

not a great picture but it will have to do for now.

And here is what I did with it this weekend:

This is 10 grams of the lighter colored alpaca, this photo doesn’t show the real color well (not enough light). There are approx 60 yds of yarn, 2 ply at 36 wpi. I’m considering knitting a lace scarf or Moebius from it, eventually.

The silk has not yet been plied. I was in a hypnotic trance playing with the new spindle!