Reference

Ok. I know I said that I wasn’t going to do this; but I figured that if I didn’t show you the stuff that I got at Sheep and Wool, you may never see it at the rate I move.

But first, let me tell you what my philosophy is when shopping the festival: “Shop like you may never see it again!” As you may have guessed from that statement, I am not one that goes into these things with a budget. My thought is that the festival is my only chance to actually see, and in some cases, buy, the yarn and fiber from some vendors. There are a lot of independent dyers and farms that are at the festival, and in some cases, MSWF is the only festival that they do. I rarely get things at the festival that I could get at my LYS or from a general Internet retailer. (This wasn’t always true, as when I first started going to the festival, there were no Internet retailers. But that was over 20 years ago.)

In any case, this is my haul:

This blurry pic is of the sock yarns I nabbed. Starting with the one that has already found its way to my ballwinder and work clockwise:

• Purchased at The Fold – Socks That Rock mediumweight in the Carbon colorway. I got this because I have heard so much about STR, but have yet to work with it. Since very few places carry this, I figure that I would pick up a skein and see what the fuss is about. Luckily, one of the colorways that I liked was still available late in the day on Saturday.
• Purchased at Spirit Trail Fiberworks – ‘Brigit’ which is 100% superwash merino. I see these as winter knitting. The change in color in both skeins seems subtle enough that I might be able to do some pattern work in it. We shall see.
• Purchased at Cloverhill Yarn – From Unique Sheep: Luxe (silk and wool) in Sunrise on the Sea and Tinsel Toes (tencel and wool) in Fireworks and From Chewy Spaghetti – 100% superwash merino sock yarn in the Pragmatic colorway. These are going to be summer knitting, I think. If summer is long enough….

And, of course, there is Sheila’s yarn that I also got at Cloverhill to make the socks for my mom.

Hopefully, my mom will have them before Father’s Day!

And then there is the spinning fiber:

Starting with the bag and working clockwise:

• Purchased from Tintagel Farms – 1 pound of 50% Romney – 50% mohair in the Tide Pool colorway
• Purchased from The Barefoot Spinner (sorry, no website) – 1 pound of 50% Romney – 50% mohair in a blue-green
• Purchased from Cloverhill Yarn – 4 ounces of merino from Mama E’s C*EYE*BER Fiber in the Black Watch colorway
• Purchased from Spirit Trail Fiberworks – 4 ounces of merino in brown, red, and orange.

and something that I have already started spinning

That is one of four ounces of merino from Gale’s Art in the Woodland colorway. I am spinning it from the fold (thus the pieces that Mr. Penney calls troll hair.) I have an ounce of the stuff already spun up.

Not a quick spin, but I am liking the result.

When I met up with Roseann and my enabler, my enabler gave me this:

Ain’t that sweet! Mr. Penney and I have to make it out to Hawaii some time!

Now all of that, was done in about three hours on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, I had to go back out to pick up my entries in the skein and garment competition, giving me a chance to pick up this:

Lots of laceweight silk from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. They joked with me, asking if I would like to buy the rest of what was there (they were in the process of packing up the booth.) My idea for this is a weaving project. Exactly what design, I am not sure yet, but it should be on the loom in a few months.