Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Fiber (the wooly kind) Fun

The second part of the weekend was Jana and I going to the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival at the Washington County Fairgrounds:
For the non-yarnies (Paul's most recent knitterly adjective) out there, a fiber festival is an event with lots of vendors selling yarn, wool roving (to spin into yarn), accessories for knitting, weaving and spinning; demonstrations related to all these things as well as sheep shearing and sheep herding.

We saw lots of great stuff!

This beautiful roving at the Foster Sheep Farm booth:
I was tempted to get it because it's totally my color.  But.... other things tempted me.  More on that later.

There were these totally adorable angora baby bunnies and their mama:
Cashmere goats:
Their fur was soooooooo soft, just like cashmere.  This one has blue eyes, which I've never seen before.  He looked a little creepy if you ask me- made me think of the Michael Jackson Thriller video with those weird contacts they were wearing.

And I always love to go visit the border collies, waiting to do their sheep herding demonstrations:
This one was at-the-ready, staring at the sheep being sheared in the sheep shearing tent.

Ok, then there was this most unusual but totally genius apparatus
:
An exercise bike that has been converted into a spinning wheel!  Get your exercise while you spin wool into yarn ---- I need one of those.

So, here are the goodies I got:

A very fall-ish home accessory:
A needle felted pumpkin!  (which is right next to my favorite cranberry chutney candle --- did I already say how much I love it?)

Some very pretty roving from Into the Whirled, who has a whole array of beautiful roving and yarn:
Don't you just love those colors?????  Somehow, I have to figure out how to fit some spinning time into my schedule.....

And, the piece de resistance.... an infinity scarf kit:
You totally can't tell how great this is by this picture.  The sample in the booth was in these blue colors and it was terribly pretty.  Jana and I both got a kit (but she got some earthy colors in her kit) and then we convinced Lisa, who we saw there, to get one (she got the same colors Jana did).

This is the thing about having a knitting addiction:  I totally want to start that scarf kit.  BUT, I'm working on my Dahlia sweater and two samples for classes I'm teaching, plus my lunchtime socks (which I knit on during my lunch breaks),  plus I want to finish my Brigid Jacket which I started during the knit-a-long this summer (but abandoned at the seaming part, so I could start something else),  and start the Umaro blanket that has been waiting for me and I COULD GO ON AND ON!!!!

Here is my Dahlia progress, by the way:
Pretty, huh?

I just went back and re-read this post and realized how many times I used "totally".  I'm totally sorry about that.  (But I'm not taking them out because that's how it came out, so that's how you get it!)  I'll totally try to pro-actively not put so many totally's in there next time.

2 comments:

  1. Exercise spinning wheel ... excellent!!! genius!!! :)
    The Border Collie reminded me of those wonderful books by "?" ... author writes how much he loves his collies - so much so that he bought sheep for them to herd. The author lives up your way .. first heard him interviewed on 90.3 in Albany, and everytime thereafter. Anyone know his name ?
    Love your blog!

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  2. I think Jon Katz is the author.
    The Dahlia is gorgeous! Will be amazing.
    The Infinity scarf is very intriguing - all those skeins- very pretty

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