Rhinebeck!!!

Woo Hoo! Saturday the twins and I went to NY Sheep and Wool Festival!!! Love the festival!!! I'd been going through some SERIOUS fiber fair withdrawal. Thanks to the pregnancy and due date, the last fair I went to was Maryland in 2003. Okay, whine over :) For not having gone in a while, I'll have to say that I was pretty darn well behaved and kept my purchases to a minimum = hehehe.

While I went with a moratorium on new fleeces (I do this for every festival - NY2002 came home with 5 ;), I bought a beautiful fleece. Only one. This is 7 lbs of cormo/corriedale cross in beautiful shades of gray. It is so soft and the colors are so beautiful. They called to me and I had to make the fleece mine. I think either a sweater and/or a shawl is called for.



I got a wonderful spindle from some of my favorite people, the Bosworths. It is a featherweight in Red Cedar, weighing in at a super scary lightweight 9 grams. I was spinning a frog hair out of a lock of Laurie's shetland and as the picture shows, there is still more from this ONE lock.



I got three pounds of roving from Little Barn. Love their pre-order system! Instead of waiting forever in line for them, I browsed from the comfort of my desk, sent an email, paid with paypal and walked to the table, picked up my bag. Easy as pie. I got a lb each of Rambo, CVM and Polwarth. I just love those fine wools.



While I've started an Orenburg shawl using an Australian merino fleece and my Lendrum Saxony wheel, I was intrigued by the spindles the ladies use. I've been toying with the idea of buying one or two when faced with a website that sold them. Well, there was a booth at the festival that sold the shawls, laceweight yarn and a spindle kit. In the box is: one spindle, one plying spindle, a support bowl, 3 circles of cardboard for use as bobbins, a book, a hank of silk, baggies of fine fiber (cormo, merino, cashmere, etc). I'm really looking forward to trying my hand with this spindle.



Just so you don't think that the knitting hobby was overlooked (we won't mention that most of this yarn gets knitted after being spun up :) I bought some knitting stuff as well. 2 skeins of supremely yummy angora/silk yarn from Chris! (Hi Chris :) Evil being she is. She was wandering around the fair with a scarf around her neck that she knitted up from this yarn (in a different color). I had to fondle it. I also had to get some for myself when she mentioned that she had skeins of it in colors perfect for baby stuff :) Thanks Chris! :) I also got a nice knitting carryall/totebag which I'm now using. It's really nice and so far so good works well for commuting. Sneaking into this picture is the noste that I got from Janet Lynn of The Wheel Thing. Last but not least is an 8oz skein of sportweight 100% alpaca yarn from A Touch of Twist. It is soooo soft. I think it wants to be a vest for me, but we'll see.



I even managed to get some work done on Kat's sweater this weekend. I finished the second sleeve to the armpit and am working up to the decrease area for the raglan. Another row or two and I'll be there. I have to start thinking about buttons for it.



More about the festival tomorrow!