Bridgett, her kids, Dear Daughter and I made the trek to the Bethel, MO World Sheep and Fiber Arts Festival again this year. It's about a 3 hour drive north and west from here. Which is way closer than Rhinebeck, I have to say, and likely will have to do for me this year as late October doesn't look like a promising time for me to travel.
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There were sheep herding demonstrations, spinning classes, and sheep shearing demonstrations. See Dear Daughter there in the middle? She had a great time learning to spin from Judy. I wish I had gotten Judy's card or info so I could link her. Bad blogger.
The shearing guy? Jim something? He can shear 321 sheep in a day if he has to (that's his record). Man oh man, what a tough way to make a living.
Rachel and Scott and Sandy and Ed and their son also made the trip -- it was fun to sit and watch the shearing with them. We all shopped.
Bridgett and I arrived early enough in the day to submit knitting. We got seconds and thirds. This is the first time I've submitted my knitting to judging, so I'm using the experience to learn what the judges want in a piece of knitting and I don't feel too badly about losing to a Hemlock ring made out of black and blue Sockotta. Well, ok, I kind of do, feel badly that is, but now I know that tension has to be perfect and your ends have to be absolutely invisible and you have to knit out of busy shapeless yarn so the above two things don't show.
You can see Bridgett's absolutely gorgeous pink cabled sweater next to my Hemlock. It too got second. To an American Girl entrelac back pack that would hold my ipod. Really. And it was felted. She got the ends weaving in thing docked too. No sour grapes, just learning what to do for next time.
I also could have sworn from looking at the flyer that there was a category for things knit from your handspun and I love my Irish Hiking Scarf. There being no actual category for that upon arriving to the festival, I submitted it anyway under the just plain wool category. And it's not a true feat of knitting prowess by any means -- it's just a cool looking scarf. Got 3rd. These judges would prefer cables out of single colored yarn thankyouverymuch.
But hey, now I have award winning knitting to add to my resume. And you know, more than half of life is just showing up and I'm good at that... Edited to add: You do know, don't you, that there were very few entrants into this contest, right? Like these ribbons are really attendance prizes. This does not diminish my happiness, I just feel the need to clarify.
After shopping and lunch and walking around in the sun a lot, I sat and waited for Dear Daughter to finsh her spinning class and I worked on the socks. I've turned the heels and I'm in the home stretch. Everyone still asks if I'm knitting socks from the same yarn or from two different yarns. Maybe they are fraternal enough to wear together after all...
Here, Bridgett's daughter M is doing in her stroller what I wished I could do...
Aquisitions, you say? But of course!
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The first is 8 ounces of merino, dyed with Osage Orange branches. I learned that if you chop up the wood, and put it in the water with fiber using a steel pot, you get this beautiful celadon color. If you use a copper pot, you get bright neon green. If you you use a cast iron pot, you get army green.
The second is a Corriedale lamb fleece. 4 pounds 1 ounce. Very clean. It's soft and lustrous and I need to borrow a drum carder. A fleece is something I've wanted ever since I started spinning, and I looked at several last year at Rhinebeck and my practical self, and Bridgett, convinced me that carrying a fleece home on the plane was nuts. Well, driving one home is easy. So there.
The last is a Bombyx merino blend, 16 oz, hand dyed. Gorgeous.
So, when I went to work yesterday, what I needed to do was buy more fiber! Sheesh, but I have a credit with Rachel.
And she's been dying the cashmere merino (superwash merino?) that I helped pick out that day that she and Lenora came over to play. So I got 4 ounces each of two colors. And then there is the pencil roving (is that what we are calling this?). Because she's written such a cute pattern for it (click her name).
Right. So spinning fiber? I'm good, thanks. Better get on that.