Loot

It's been fiber festival time the last couple of weekends. Here's the accumulated loot.

First, from Shepherd's Harvest where I got to see my fiber buddy Kerry, a trio of berry colored rovings--three bumps of Coopworth in the Secret Garden colorway from Hidden Valley Farm, 2 bumps of 60/40 Wool/Mohair (the wool is .75 BFL/.125 Romney/.125 Suffolk) from Morning Sun and one bump of dyed Tussah from Carpool.

Next up:
a couple of bags of Bluebells & Periwinkle from Fae Ridge Farm in Iowa. It's a cloud preparation composed of Wensleydale lamb/Mohair/Tussah/Silk noils. The cloud stuff from last year was so fun to spin; someday I want to send a fleece out and have it processed like that. The natural colored roving is Romney/Silk/something else I can't remember. It's from Morning Sun, too, and so very, very soft! Plus, I couldn't resist a painted roving from Rivers Edge Weaving Studio. Carol's fiber braids are absolutely scrumptious. Need to find just the right way to spin this one up, though. My first crack at it tended to look a little muddy.

Once again, I couldn't pass by the Tall Tale Basket shop without getting one of their baskets.
This one is called a bicycle basket (see the little loops meant to hang on the handlebars). Instead, I plan on hanging it from some of my wire storage bins for additional room.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a fiber festival without a little fleece.A very little fleece--just a one lb. bag of luscious Cormo from Riverwinds in Boyd, WI. This is from a girl named Alice and is delightfully soft and crimpy.
Kerry also surprised me when she handed me a bag of Cheviot that she'd brought to have processed. Yes, just gave it to me! Already washed, too! She'd just picked up the other half of the fleece (this was one she'd gotten in the silent auction last year and dyed one half--see her blog) and decided she'd had enough of it. I just filled out a new processing form and off it went to Morning Sun. Watch your mailbox, Kerry, fiber is winging it's way to you as I write. :)

Then yesterday, it was the very small Shepherd's Market at Whitefish Bay Farm up in Door County. The place was packed and much of the good stuff seemed to have been sold before I got there.
My main shopping was in one booth--Goathill Farm. Found some lovely soft wool/mohair roving in a plum colorway. Also, some natural Red Mohair locks (no, the locks aren't red but that's what the goats are called) that I plan to use for those Mohair mittens from the cover of a long ago Spin-Off. For kicks, I got a package from a Fiber Sandwich with mainly black/white/pink colors. Should be fun to spin. And, because I drove way up there, I ended up getting the little sample Niddy Noddy. It's Mahogany and has a stem on it so as to be easier to use. I kinda regret that last purchase because I already have 2 little niddy's so I'm putting it up for sale--$23 including shipping. If interested leave me a comment or e-mail me vsever AT mac.com.

Both festivals were much busier than they were last year. Don't know if it's an increase in spinners or chatter on Ravelry about some of the other festivals that have knitters searching them out. Either way, it's fun to support the local fiber folk and catch up with friends.