What A Weekend!

This dahlia about sums up what it was like last weekend at the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival! We had absolutely gorgeous weather both days! It was a chance to visit lots of animals, fiber and friends.

It was a beautiful drive down and back with all the colors of spring still in the landscape, too many to count. The mountain behind our house has a rusty cast to it with all the maple trees coming into flower and leaf. People usually think of mountains being covered with pine trees, especially in Maine but there really are a lot of other kinds of trees with leaves instead of needles.

Of course the sheep are the big attraction and there were lots of them, all shapes and sizes and colors. These ladies were no doubt discussing the accommodations, or maybe they were talking about all the sweaters and shawls they saw as people walked by them.

Hey, ladies - did you see the one carrying four bags of fleece? What do you think she'll make with all that wool?

Oh, my - this is such a big place and there are so many people! I think I'll just snuggle down in this hay and be quiet as can be. I'm new to all this. I think I'll just watch everything for a while and then maybe take a nap.

What's all the excitement out there? Why are they dressed up?

Every building had its share of old friends and new fiber finds, books, tools and interesting things to see. Then there were the tents and pens, more friends, and food.

How about all those alpacas? They came in lots of colors! And shapes!

This little one seemed a bit top heavy but didn't seem to mind.

I didn't really bring much home but I did find a pretty fiber blend at Friends' Folly to ply with some singles I spun from a BFL cross color blend I bought at Rhinebeck last October. If you look at the singles you might say the three balls lean toward blue/green but there are so many other colors in the blend when you look closely. There is a lot of violet and gold and bittersweet orange. The new blend is softer - has a blue/green base but also has a lot of the same violet and a soft gold. I just began spinning it last night and wrapped the first sample of plied yarn around one of the balls for comparison and to see how the combination would look. I think the blends compliment each other. The Pogo blend softens the colors of the BFL blend and the final yarn is going to have lots of depth.

You can see that each of the three balls of singles spun up showing lots of color variation. In the background is the new fiber for the second ply. It is much softer in general but has lots of colors showing. On the bobbin the effect is a soft gray blue/green - very pretty. It reminds me of seeing islands in the fog.

All too soon it was time to head for home. We gathered together at the round planter and while some sat and talked some checked out the bins at a nearby tent to see if there was something else we might have missed.

Carol, Rikki, Linda and Sue were just a few of fiber friends that day. It was fun to bump into each other here and there throughout the day and compare purchases at the end of the day.

I got home at 6:45 and grabbed a quick bite of supper before heading out the door to Stone Mountain Arts Center where Dan and I went to the Alasdair Fraser/Natalie Haas concert. It was a full day, but it was a great day!

Sunday I was up and on the road early to be back at the fairgrounds to demonstrate tapestry weaving at the guild building - but that is another story!