Let's pretend it's still May for a moment

Damn, I've been busy. In a good way, but enough so that I've barely had time to knit, let alone blog. So belatedly, here's my Mass Sheep and Wool Roundup...brought to you by the letters "I-S-U-C-K-A-T-B-L-O-G-G-I-N-G-R-E-G-U-L-A-R-L-Y."

When we got to MA Sheep and Wool, it was immediately obvious we were among our people. Even in the parking lot...




Fleece on earth. Good wool to ewe. Nice.

Once inside, there was plenty to see. But I think the most impressive thing of all was Jenny's mad spinning skilz. My introductory spinning pamphlet said spinning can feel a bit like trying to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time.

Well, fuck rubbing your belly and patting your head, I want to be able to do this...

...Spin AND WALK simultaneously. She's kind of my hero. Also, in the intervening weeks, she has handspun some seriously impressive yarn (scroll down).

We took a break to fortify ourselves with "taco in a bag," arguably the single best festival food in the world, adorably spokesmodeled here by Jenny and blog-free (but super-crafty) Suzy...



We made friends with some fiber animals...



And came really close to talking Sarah into taking this one home. Doesn't she look happy? Doesn't she totally deserve a bunny of her own? And Jenny and I would be more than happy to take all that spinnable fiber off her hands.

Oh yeah, speaking of spinnable fiber...Meet The Sheep Shed's merino, one-half pound of billowy gauzy delight....I can make a whole lot of lumpy yarn with half a pound of merino.



And 4 oz. of Sliver Moon Farm Superwash Merino Tencel roving. Which could totally make pants-crappingly gorgeous sock yarn, were I a hugely better spinner than I actually am.



And since I clearly have a lot to learn before I can make my own sock yarn, I also picked up a skein of "Bambu" from Ancient Threads Farm...



I know I say this all the time, but this is my new favorite-est yarn. It's dyed entirely with natural dyes (turmeric, osage, cochineal, etc) and is so beautiful I have it on my coffee table so I can stroke it several times a day. Let's take another look at it, shall we?



The nice lady at Ancient Threads mentioned that she gets all her dyestuffs from Botanical Shades, who just happened to have a booth at the festival, too. So I'm now the proud owner (co-owner actually, with Jenny) of a natural dye starter kit, with enough natural dye extracts (and mordants and such) to dye ten pounds of fiber.

Now if only I had ten pounds of undyed fiber...

I'd better get crackin' on that.

Regularly scheduled blogging, reading blogs, commenting on blogs, actually knitting, etc. to return in a week or two.