The Ballad of Sheep and Goat

I was in fiber heaven on Saturday at the Michigan Fiber Festival. Early in the morning I headed up there alone to do some intensive browsing/shopping before meeting up with David and his bro & family. I really, really controlled my buying impulses...I thought that I'd be worse off without having Jess, the guru or Jenn there to help me exercise spending caution, but now I realize that those 3 are dirty enablers, the lot of them! I received a lot of compliments on the Honeymoon Cami I was wearing (but I have to shorten the straps again, because I think they stretched a little after I washed it), and I got to speak to a lot of spinners. Even though I haven't been practicing that craft much, and can't do much more than spin a bunch of single ply on a drop spindle, I bought a little bit of roving to practice on -- some alpaca (of course), wool and a mohair/wool blend. It was pretty cheap, and is just enough to get my hands dirty with.

I learned a lot about fleece by watching this woman, who was the judge of the wool fleece contest. As she weighed, pinched and fondled the bags of wool entered into the contest, she commented on each category and why the fleece met or did not meet the requirements to get full points. The fleece in this pic looks like a whole sheep lying on the table, but that's just its hair!!!

Here's my stash, small as it is -- maybe the recent Suss sale prevented me from going more insane. The white stuff was some really inexpensive undyed wool that I'm thinking of Kool Aid dying. The roving is in the front (alpaca in the middle), and the pink and green Lamb's Pride was selected by my niece Annika to be made into hats for her and her brother Alek. The festival was really cool, but a lot smaller than Rhinebeck or MD S&W.

There were only a few alpacas and llamas, but rabbits, sheep and goats were plentiful. Alek and Annika really enjoyed looking at the animals, even though the border collie demonstration was kind of a comedy of errors. Imagine a dog being afraid of a sheep! But then later he gets his courage back and chases them into a folding chair, over a barrel and around and under a trailer...you get the picture. Apparently it was just a young dog, but we enjoyed the show in any case, and border collies are really cute.

After the fest we headed up to Saugituck, MI, a really cute town on Lake MI. We went to see Talladega Nights with A Second Breakfast & her special friend, her parents, and our friends, Ruthless and Em. That movie was SO FUNNY and SO BAD!!! At the same time! I couldn't stop laughing, but it was so stupid. I highly recommend it.

Hey, how about them Yankees?!?!