New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival 2011

Spinning from the rabbit! See the live rabbit on the spinners lap?
Gorgeous live bunnies above, lovely knitted bunnies (knitted with bunny yarn) below.
And hats knitted with rabbit yarn.
The booth across from me was the New England Border Collie Rescue.
You can find alpacas, alpaca yarn and maple sugar at Sweet Maple Alpacas.


Grace and Miss Mouse Soaps, above and below. Very sweet display.

There were a group of farms and small yarn producers who had several booths together.
They had beautiful hats for sale.
Lovely inlaid wooden boxes and nice yarn.
These gorgeous quilts were part of their display.

Here's more of their yarn.
A hand-knit sweater for sale. Wonderful colors!
More yarn in lovely rustic colors.

The charming guy below was in our barn.
Along with rug hooking and spinning
Wooly Beers yarns and Knits of Durham, NH.

Another cutie!
Wonderful felted animals.


Spinners' Warren of Acton, Maine was our neighbor again.
Sheep dog puppy!
Shorn sheep.
Have you heard of fainting goats? The Wonder Fall Farm has them. Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO2P5Vw05ZA
More sheep, I love the sheep!


Alpacas. We heard them hum. Quite the noise.


Adorable goats.

Here are the youth sheep events. It's wonderful to see young people with their animals.

My husband took this lace photo.
And this baby.

My husband came with me on this trip and we stayed with our friends in Derry, Stape (painting buddy of Scott's) and Kathleen Kearns (Kathleen is my web designer). You can see that the yarn bomb which Karen Jelenfy put on their lampost a year ago is still there.
Happy spring!
Kathy

Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival 2011

Hand-dyed roving from Purple Fleece! Debbie nearly sold out of this beautiful roving and has been very busy this week dying more for the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival, where we will both be next weekend, May 14 and 15.

My husband (who had just returned from a five week painting trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas, and skirted wild fires and tornadoes on the drive home) and I went to the 102nd Annual Connecticut Sheep, Wool and Fiber Festival last weekend. On the way down and on the way back we stopped at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts to visit our daughter (we went to a magnificent garden, about which I will make a separate post). On our way home we also visited the Old North Bridge (of shot heard round the world fame) and Old Manse (where Nathaniel Hawthorne and his delightful wife Sophia, among others, lived) in Concord. I'll also make a separate post about this.

Below are spinning wheels from Purple Fleece. Spinning is hot these days, and Debbie sold several of these during the Festival.

One of my favorite things to watch are the sheep dog trials.



Another wonderful thing to see at sheep and wool festivals are the baby animals. Who could resist a baby goat? Last year I saw a sheep in the back seat of a small sedan. Must have been an impulse purchase.

It was a glorious day.

The New England Lace Group always has demonstrations at this Festival.


This year one of the lace-makers explained to me that although lace making looks complicated, you are only working with a few (I think she said 3 or 4) bobbins at a time.
Her bobbins were beautifully painted.

Oh, such gorgeous yarn at the Festival!
The gray yarn above in Angora rabbit from Honeybuns Rabbitry and Apiary in Lyndeborough, New Hampshire.
More roving.
I love maple syrup.


Gorgeous yarns from Jan Marek Raczkowski. Jan will also be at NH Sheep and Wool.




Ball and Skein, above, was also my neighbor at SPA, Knit and Spin (organized by the New England Textile Arts Network) in Freeport, Maine last February.



Lovely needle cases above from Crippen Works.


Above is the Pick-Up Stitch tool, for which there is a video on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmTLhg8SNcs.







For a complete listing of vendors, go to the CT Sheep and Wool website.

Also, don't forget about the Pleasant Mountain Fiber Arts Workshops in Denmark, Maine June 17-19.

Come see Knitting Out Loud at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival this coming weekend! If you miss us there, we will be at the Acadia Fiber Faire on May 21st, along with Purple Fleece and Village Books (with a great selection of fiber books!).

-Kathy