The wool festival and what I found there

In September I went, as usual, to the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs, Ohio. How can I resist? It's a great festival with a lot of variety in vendors and demonstrations, and it's only an hour away. This year I opted not to take my camera, but to just enjoy walking and looking instead. The shepherd-dogs were there, with the cantankerous ducks who just cannot be made to go over that little bridge--at least not when the dog wants them to. There were alpacas and llamas and many sheep, although the Border Leicester who was so outgoing last year was either not there, or not outgoing this time. There were tiny tiny angora goats, and big fluffy angora rabbits. I nearly bought a Greensleeves spindle but didn't (I don't spindle much, and my Dyak spindle is more than sufficient for my uses, being both elegant and effective); I nearly bought fleece but remained strong (although I just committed to buying a large white Corrie fleece, but I'm forcing myself to use the majority of it, maybe all of it, to dye up pretty locks for the shop).

I did, however, select a variety of pretty-hand-dyed things, and my mother, who likes to accompany me on these jaunts into Woolville, and who has often bought me a fleece out of sheer good nature, bought me a hank of yarn instead at my request. Really, I have a LOT of fleece.

OK, so I got a little fleece.



This was just about perfect: five ounces of BFL. I've never worked with BFL, and I do love trying new types of wool. But I sure couldn't afford, and didn't need, an entire BFL fleece! So this vendor, she had just exactly the right amount already bagged up, and I snapped it up. Alas, I don't remember her name, which is a shame as we did remember each other by sight from previous years of the wool fest.

The soap is from Earth In Arts, and it's really great stuff. It had been a while since I saw this vendor at the Wool Gathering, and I was glad to see she was back.



That is Polwarth/silk roving, and I couldn't resist it. Probably should have gotten more, to be honest. At $10/4 oz. I knew it would go fast, so although I normally don't purchase anything until I've been through the whole festival once, I snapped this up when I first saw it.



River's Edge top. Er. I think this is BFL and silk? Tencel? I know I can dye it myself, but you know what? I didn't! I didn't dye it myself, and it's a brown I don't normally dye up, and it looked so fluffy and pretty that even though it wasn't labeled yet, I asked the vendor to please sell me a braid. She labeled it up and the sale was achieved.



Bullen's Wullens (I always forget the spelling) is a regular at the festival. Their work is beautifully dyed and they're always very nice. I loved the intense mustardy gold of this--another situation where others' color sense delights me, and it's always nice to have fiber I didn't have to dye. ;) This was BFL/silk and really sumptuous.



Happy Hands' BFL top in "Mother Earth," a new color for them. There were a few balls of this left, but only one of the yarn--



--which is what my mom picked out, independently of me, only to be pleased as punch when she realized we'd picked the same colors.

So that's it--and that's plenty, since I don't even have last year's haul spun and knitted yet. Seriously: no fooling.