A Crowd Filled Weekend

This weekend was the busiest of the fall for me. Saturday was the Virginia Fall Fiber Fest and Sheepdog Trials in Orange, Virginia. This was the first fiber fest since I really took up spinning. Maryland Sheep and Wool was only my begin-to-spin fest.

Wallis and I jumped in the artsy mobile way early on Saturday morning and drove across the state to Orange and a wonderland of fibery goodness. The day was sunny with a nice light breeze - perfect for looking at alpacas (soooo cute and fuzzy headed), sheep, fiber and yarn. I ended up being pretty responsible, although there were an incredible amount of real deals in fiber.

The second place we stopped I fell in love with this 70/30 alpaca/merino blend.

I waited until later to buy it, but it did come home with me. Then we encountered a bunny farmer with an offer of all the fluff you could stuff in a bag for $1.

As you can see - 2 ounces! Could have fit more, but the top had to close. Wallis says people are coming into the yarn shop looking for angora for Santa's beard on Christmas stockings. Hmmmmmm!

Finally the Blue Faced Leicester (BFL). I wanted red, but I went for the white - 1.5 pounds of it.

I could have gotten superwash for a dollar more a pound, but I wanted to try spinning the real thing before I tried the scale-less.

And finally, to try and make the yarn I'm looking for instead of whatever comes off the wheel, my 2 technical purchases.


The Mabel Ross book is out of print, but this copy is in beautiful, never used condition. Well worth what I got it for. Wallis' eagle eyes picked it out! Later I also looked at complete fleeces. I went in adamantly denying I would get one and came out saying "Maybe next year.....".

We spent the rest of the day watching the dogs herd the sheep in the field and checking out the sheep and goats. I wish I had pics of them. Again - next year. Now that I have this blog I need to carry my camera everywhere.

Sunday I watched more dogs - all shapes and sizes at the Chesapeake Humane Society's annual Bark in the Park. Every month I go to Petsmart with the Humane Society to try to get cats adopted from the city shelter (others work with the dogs). But the first Sunday in October I work the big Bark in the Park. As usual yesterday I was selling raffle tickets - this year was for a gas card. Its a time to see all kinds of dogs, meet up with friends, and pass out treats all around.

From here on out weekends calm down some. The crowds will be smaller, at least. Time for more knitting and spinning!