Shepherd's Harvest 2016

Dave and I went to the fiber festival on May 14th and I'm just now getting around to writing about it.  Where else around here can you see this many people gathered together spinning, knitting, felting and sharing what they love with the public?  This was our second trip out to our local fiber fest at the Washington County Fairgrounds and once again we were impressed with the turnout and how family friendly it was. 

I was thrilled with the chilly, almost COLD weather we had this year!  Hand knits weather!  Last year it was hot and humid and the hard core people really tried to wear sweaters and shawls with sweat glistening on their brows.  This year it was not difficult.  I wore my Roosevelt Cardigan, my Wavy Feathers Wimple, and my Windschief hat.  Even wearing all this, I was still chilly at times which is how I like it!  I almost didn't wear my sweater because I'm not happy with how I finished the collar/neckband and didn't want all the other knitters to see it.  I'm glad I did though because I got a few compliments and questions about the pattern.  One lady briskly walked up to me and asked if she could put her hand in my pocket.  Excuse me?  Oh, you mean you want to see how the pocket is constructed?  Sure, knock yourself out.

We looked at all the vendors' wares throughout the buildings.  This was a table at the Mielke's Fiber Arts booth.  I've followed their blog for some time.  They are really neat people but I was too shy to go up and talk to them.  The odd looking drop spindles on the left of the picture are Turkish spindles.  I've never used one but they look so cool next to a garden variety spindle.

I can't remember whose booth this was but I was quite excited to see a charkha in person.  This is the apparatus Ghandi spun cotton on and they can be shaped like an open brief case or in this instance like an open book.  Last year my sister and her three small kids were with us at the festival.  We had a great time but I didn't have time to closely look at all the different things.

We watched this sheep shearing demonstration.  This guy made shearing a sheep look like peeling a banana.  He'd obviously done it a time or two before.  He explained sheep psychology and sheep handling and Dave and I kept saying we wanted to go home and try out some of his moves on Lopi.  We didn't.  We really enjoyed his presentation though.  And he was funny!  Everyone was engrossed in what he was saying and he'd grab a handful of wool and toss it into the crowd and they'd squeal in delight.  He joked that he'd looked to make sure no one was eating anything before he threw it--because of course the event was at the fairgrounds and therefore the first opportunity of the year to eat fair food!  He gave a humorous and informative talk.

I bought two skeins of an angora/wool blend of sock yarn from Kurth Valley Fiber Fiber Mill for $10/skein.  I also got 3 skeins of fingering weight from Knitting Notions for a baby blanket pattern in the book I picked up in Reno this year.  The yellow and gray/blue skeins are for that project although the gray/blue looks more lavender in this picture.  I was inspired by the upholstery on the train in Paris back to the airport...

That slate gray and pukey yellow looks so pretty together.  Those were the colors I was looking for at the fiber festival and I think I came pretty close.  This is the zoomed in picture of the seats...

Here is the complete picture of the train with my younger niece hamming for the camera.  What a nerd!

I love the cool weather because it is ideal for baking and drinking coffee and tea.  My mother is in town for a few days and I greeted her with cream scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam this morning.  We used Maynerd's dishes and had coffee *gasp* not tea because I had to go to work this afternoon.  The weather is going to get hot tomorrow and the A/C might have to go on for the first time this season.

The only good thing about hot weather is it drives the garden crazy.  I went shopping two weeks ago with my sister in law and picked up a garden gnome on clearance at Joann's.  I finally have a garden gnome protecting my tomatoes, so maybe he'll ward off the deer this year.