Sheep Shearing, Festival Hopping.....

It's been a couple of busy weeks around here.

On Saturday, May 10, I attended my first sheep shearing at Watson's Farm in Jamestown, RI. I learned a lot about the sheep as well as picked out 2 fleece to purchase. One, a Border Leicester and Cheviot cross, was "yelling" and looking right at me. I think he was demanding I buy his fiber. He kept baaaaa-ing at me and coming up close to the pen door where I was standing, and up the fence to me outside in the shearing yard. Today was a lovely day for fleece washing. His fleece is drying in the shed right now and is snowy white. The other fleece is a texel cross and I didn't see the animal it was from since this was one of the first fleece to be shorn before I got there. We had a fun day talking to people and spinning into the late afternoon. Here's a table of freshly shorn fleece, sheep shearing, and a lamb from the farm.


On Sunday, May 11, I spent the day with my husband. We rarely get an entire day together since we are both so busy. He took me to the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Show where I met a few of my friends. I was riding up with them, but when Pat said he wanted to take me, I gave up my seat in the van. Another person canceled her seat and went with her husband, too. It worked out well, because others needed a ride. I found the Golding booth and bought a very nice walnut finished 1.9 ounce spindle. At the other end of the same building, I found Grafton Fibers and bought a bright pink, fuschia, and purple batt. We spent some time walking around for a while looking at everything, and taking pictures of the Alpacas.
I loved the speckle spots on this one. The black alpaca kept humming to me.

Near the alpacas, I found EOW Farm who was selling some pretty roving. I ended up with a pink and a blue one.

The only other purchase I made was at BallandSkein. On the display wall was the laceweight I had been looking at online. Three skeins of "Pokeberry" which is a blue/purple color is now in my stash. My totebag was getting full, so I stopped shopping. On the way home, Pat and I stopped to visit friends in Massachusetts.

On this past Saturday, May 17, the day was spent at Coggeshall Farm at the RI 2nd Annual Wool & Fiber Festival. This is a working historical farm which does have tours. Some of the booths:

It was so great to meet so many Ravelry friends. After many attempts to meet, DkKnits and I finally succeeded. It was Becky's first try at a festival and I think it went well for her. I know she had some gorgeous selections of hand dyed sock, lace, and silk yarns. Personally, I bought eleven skeins. There were a few more I could have added, but, wouldn't allow myself to do it. I also was given a beautiful skein of yarn as a thank you from her for suggesting the festival to her. Her bright pink columns made her booth stand out. She also had lettering on the front top where you walked into the booth and on the back wall. Here's a shot of myself and Becky.

As you know from previous posts, DkKnits group on Ravelry was having a KAL for the No Purl Monkey sock. Becky made posters with pictures of all our finished socks and had them displayed in the booth. It was fun to see all the socks and it gave people a good idea of how some of the colors looked knitted up, since everyone had used a different colorway.

Next door to DkKnits was Manmade By Jonne. I bought a set of Indigo Hound combs from him to work some of my longer fiber with. These are serious dangerous tools. I think I will have to use them outside so the cats don't accidently get stabbed with the lethal tines.

On the other side of Becky was Fibers4Ewe Mill with Liz and Sandi. I bought the other fiber I had lusted after in CT. It's a deep red with angelina sparkles in it.

I also bought a skein of laceweight yarn which was from Sandi's sheep. The fiber was sheared from her sheep, processed and spun into laceweight all before she dyed it inthe most scruptious raspberry pink color.
I seem to be back on my purple/pink/blue kick again. I know these are my favorite colors, but I have been trying to venture away from them a bit. It just seems I head back to them all the time. lol

I did buy some Alpaca fiber and some Merino/silk fiber. Then I stopped shopping.

The Bayberry Spinners and the RI Spinner Guild were doing a fleece to shawl demonstration. Both shawls came out beautifully. The fiber used was from the sheep at Coggeshall Farm. The shawls were then part of a silent auction with the winning bid benefiting the farm. This is a picture of the RI Spinner Guild Shawl.

Of course there was the usual Wednesday night at Panera last week. This week, I was alone. Everyone was busy with other things. I wasn't going to go, but the soup and half sandwich called to me as I drove down Reservior Ave.

I'm not sure about MA Festival right now. I might still go. I will see what happens during the week.