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
2 comments:
What a cornucopia of yarnie goodness! However did you fit it all in your car - with the baby goat as well? Actually you are probably inured to all the bling - LOL
Sorry to hear that your trip with fraught with danger...
It takes a while to get inured to all the bling. Years ago my husband and I almost bought a baby donkey at a fair, it was just the cutest thing we had ever seen.
And my yarn stash is HUGE.
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