NH Sheep & Wool Festival; Part II ...

Otherwise known as "The many faces of fiber."

First the DH and I met up with Sara the FabricNFiberFanatic ...

Who was just as busy as I was at taking pictures all day. Altho, we both thought about getting a picture of the 2 of us together ... somehow it never happened. I think we were too busy, "Oh Sara, look at this! Feel that!!" and "Rhonda, come over here. Oh, my goodness look at that." LOL, we were like kids.

On our way to finding some sheep we stopped to watch a Border Collie demonstration. There were a few collies and each took a turn at showing us what they could do. It was interesting to watch how they could move sheep without a single bark and using just their eyes sometimes.

But we DID get some pictures of the real source of our fiber addiction ...











Don't ask me which is which. They're all sheep to me. Ewes, Rams, and Lambs!

But of course there were Alpaca's there ...


I fell in love with their faces ...






What stylish haircuts too ...






And yes there were Llama also.


Altho, on the most part I think they're not as cute as the others. Heck, in fact I'm more intimadated by that underbite ... and wouldn't want to get too close to these guys. Scary eyes too.




Sara got to try out a wheel too and learn a little spinning ...

And once again I was able to restrain myself and kept away from it. Afterall, the DH was standing right there and I didn't want him to have heart failure. Of course, he never thought about me wanting to take Alpaca home with me. (and you wouldn't tell on me would you?)

Okay, it's time to go home before I get into trouble ...



Now where could I hide one in the backyard ... mmmmmm

I didn't have a baaaaaaaa-d time ...

Nope. It was a GREAT time at the NH Sheep & Wool Festival!!

And here are some of the meager goodies I bought. Believe me, I wanted to buy more. But I kept my spending to a minimum. To just the unusual or what was different for me and what I might not already have. Well almost. I did buy a little yarn. But the buy was great. Such as the Zephyr by 'A Touch of Twist' ... beautiful soft luscious lace yarn for only $4.99 a skein for 300 yards each of merino & silk. I couldn't resist.


I also couldn't resist ordering a lace scarf kit with an extra skein of yarn from Ball and Skein but I'll show you and tell ya about that when they get here since I ordered those from The Knitspot rather than picking out what was at the booth on the fair grounds. I wanted to see more color choices.

But I also got this neat Song Bird Nesting Ball from the FiberDreams Processing Mill. They don't have a Web site, other wise I'd give that to you also. I think this is not only the neatest thing but really fun and pretty to look at hanging up in your yarn or on a front porch. Birds can take puffs of wool roving or yarn from it for their nest building in the Spring. You just replace as needed. I love it!

Oh BTW, there really is bird seed in that feeder. It's another foot longer than what shows in the picture. Time to refill soon tho.

And see this colorful ball of fluff in my hands?

Well it's call "Silk Noil" and I understand that noil means scrap ends. I was looking around for something to go into my needle felting but didn't need regular supplies or roving. I wanted something different. Now this is DIFFERENT ... Silk Noil from the The Irish Ewe.

Look at that beautiful bunch of color. The feel of it is amazing. It's all scrap ends to be used in spinning with other fibers or needle felting. It was only $3.00 for one ounce. Love it!

Now the other fun part of going this Fair has to wait until tomorrow. I'll show you all the faces of fiber that we saw there. Including my blogging friend Sara from FabricNFiberFanatic.

Can you believe there were no pictures of me taken?

Now how did a "Ham" like me manage that?

I is for I-cord Makers ...

I is for I-cord makers. Which do you use? Which is faster? Do you even make I-cords? I do. One is looser and best for creating felted I-cords. The other is tighter for when you want a sturdy cord and it's not to be felted.

And so … there you have it!

I = I-cord makers.

Added note: There are many styles of these little plastic I-cord makers out there. The one in my picture is the one I got because the top piece turns with my thumb and I don't have to turn the whole piece as I knit off the yarn over the ends at the top.

I had a homemade "knitter" when I was a kid. I used the ropes to make rugs & coasters. Anyway, the homemade kind were empty thread spools, which in the old days was made of wood and not plastic. (we could use those empty wood spools for all kinds of things ... called recycling today.)

Four nails were hammered into the wood evenly spaced around the hole in the spool. We either used a crochet hook or even a nail to lift the yarn off and over the yarn we wrapped around the top of the nails. We would give the rope that came thru the hole in the spool a gentle pull and your knitted rope would then appear to grow. Like I said, I then made little rugs or even coasters with the ropes.

If you don't like to make I-cords with DPNs, the little I-cord Maker or Knifty Knitter is worth a try. They're pretty cheap too ... not as cheap as my homemade one, but affordable.

And even a kid could do it while you did some REAL knitting, LOL.

Should I take a chance and ...

Tell you my weekend plans? Will the keeper of Murphy's Law get angry? Will he once again cause my plans to fall in? Will it rain on my parade?

Time will tell, because I'm going to tell ya anyway ...

We're heading up to Contoocook, New Hampshire and the Hopkinton Fair Grounds to the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival. I've never been and when I mentioned it to DH, never expecting a positive response, he said "Oh, I can do that."

Woo hoo ...

But please don't let it rain okay. I told him it wasn't going to rain up north. Only on the coast. Don't make a lier out of me, Weather Man.

Say did I show you one of the most beautiful Bleeding Heart plants around? Right in my back yard ...

From both directions it's outstanding ...

BTW, if I have to change my plans I suppose I'll just have to knit all weekend... oh what a shame.

When knitting needles go up in flames ...

You get something like the Mystic Light Shawl ...

Before blocking it was pretty. But lacked crispness and shape. Okay, it lacked the real beauty of lace. The magic wasn't there yet.



But once it was blocked ... Well all I can say is "I'm on FIRE!"















Definitely going into one of my "favorites things" pile!

What usually happens at my place?

More knitting. And I mean the cast on new and making some progress kind of knitting.

"Shoreline Cape" a Stitch Poet design by Champagne Maker ...

If you're interested in the pattern ... you can purchase it at Seed Stitch Fine Yarn in Salem.

And I've worked on the

Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf (free online) using Noro Silk Garden ...

Don't worry ... I haven't neglected the Mystic Shawl. I'm now on row 167 out of the total 174 I'll need to do before binding off. Each row takes about 30 minutes for me to do right now ... so no pictures yet.

Crochet classes finished up this weekend also. We had a great time. They all got to the half way point in the pattern so the rest will be easy sailing right? I took some pictures with a new little camera. BUT, when I downloaded the pictures ... well I don't know where they went to. I'll have to figure that one out later.

In the mean time, maybe the girls will see this and send me a picture of their scarf when they're done? Happy stitching, ladies!!

If only DH could take a good picture ...

This is the best shot I could get of "All Ruffled Up" at the moment. Maybe I can get someone else to take a picture for me later on ...



I love the way it came out and there may be another one planned in the near future. In green maybe.

You might also have noticed that I signed up for Zarzuela Knits and Crochets "Summer of Socks 2008" ...

Do you need the incentive to refill your sock drawer? Come join us!
I have the modest goal to knit at least 10 pair.

Will I do it?

CAN I do it??

Oh whatever am I going to do with my extra time, hey?

Busy weekend coming up ... (Scratch that!)

Note: The full day on Saturday has been can canceled. I am SO disappointed.

But I hear that Kristin was sick. I bet the few people that I know who went to the Sheep Festival in Maryland will be happy about the fact that Kristin has been rescheduled for September. Stay tuned for date and time ... Fall will be sooooo busy around here!

I might not get back here until after Sunday. I've been knitting of course and will keep on knitting every chance I get. That's a given. My beginner's crochet class finishes up on Sunday afternoon, so I'll take pictures of everyone's progress if I can.

Can you believe I got my pair of sock for my April Sock A Month KAL done in 2 days? Well ... they're toddler socks. I used the Magic 28 Sock pattern. Great pattern too. The foot measures about 5 1/2 inches and I figure that's perfect for a 1 year old. So these socks might be for my great grandson, James. (unless he has big feet) He'll be one in September. I might make a few more pair. Used Cascade 220 wool so his toes will be warm for the Winter next year.




I've also completed something else. Just started it last week. Remember Stitch Poet's "All Ruffled Up" by Champagne Maker? Well I'll just give you a peak, coz' it was on the blocking board last night. I'm wearing it right now, but I need to take pictures and then upload to Flickr.



And I'll be busy all day Saturday 'coz Kristin Nicholas, author of Colorful Stitchery and Kristin Knits will be at Seed Stitch Fine Yarn. The book signing at 4:30 is free. But if you'd like to see the slide presentation and/or attend the workshop, give them a call at 978.744.5545.

I'll be there!