The Sheep and the Wool

Last weekend I made my annual trek to the woods of a nearby pretty little town, for the local the Sheep & Wool Fair.



Our week has been rainy and foggy for quite a while, but luckily on on Saturday it was only foggy and began to clear as I walked through the tunnel of forest, over the woodsy brook, to the fair grounds.



I love this Fair so much and have been going to it for about....well, over 10 years! It used to be in another town, in the south of my state, but for the last few years has been much nearer. This means I get there very early and go back the second day.



I love the "just the right size" nature of this fair - I can visit and talk to every vendor in a day and over time, I've gotten to know quite a few!

My first visit this year was to Ball & Skein (pictures of booths on my blog are all with permission):



Her booth was Beautiful! Everywhere I looked there were the colours and the images of nature - leaves, vines, ocean waves, sea glass, abalone shell, beach rocks, flowing garments, natural coloured yarn, glowing natural woods... it was amazing and very striking! And very hard to resist! I got a pretty fingerless mitt pattern with an oak leaf design and two skeins of yarn - one in deep green and other in a dark, complex brown.

I was next distracted by the Sheep Dog Trials. I love to watch these happy well-trained dogs herding the sheep or the geese into the little pen across a wide and hilly field! What I like best is that the dogs are so joyous in their work - the just love to hear that "good dog!" from their trainers and when their turn is finished and they head out of the gate, their tales are wagging and their heads held high. I love a happy, well-cared-for dog.


(the dog is that dark spot behind the last sheep)

Next, I wandered through the several barns, perusing what might well have been every single skein and accessory!





I love especially the small farm vendors and always find treasures. Here is Tidal Yarns, a spinner and dyer new to me. Her natural colours just glow:



And here is Persimmon Tree Farm, who I first met at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Fest in Virginia where I fell in love with her single spun Pot Luck yarns:



I fell hard, and although her yarns don't have colour names I think the green one is definitely seaweed-like, and the magenta yarns so closely match the cherry blossoms in bloom at my house right now!



I don't know what it is about these nature-dyed yarns. I love the subtlety and depth of the colours so much more.


These are silks from Longridge Farm - Earthhues Natural dyed yarns...



And speaking of gorgeous colour, I visited the DyakCraft booth both Saturday and Sunday, to visit with the wonderful Linda and to finally make up my mind about which interchangeable needle set I wanted!



Their needles are Darn Pretty! Each one is hand made by Linda's husband Tom, hand polished, hand tipped and pointed, individually tested. You don't get that just anywhere! Only with an artisan company where the owners are the crafters of each individual tool.

The colours above are, from left to right, Hazelnut, Vermont Apple, Sunrise, Bubblegum, Winter Sky, Sunrise (again), Bloomin', and Vermont Rosewood. I had a hard time making up my mind - they are all so beautiful - and Linda allowed me to order a mixed set. I can't wait! But I have to wait - for Tom to get the wood and to make them by hand - each one, just for me. Linda will make my case and Tom will sign it. There is just no comparison. I'll love using my exceptional knitting tools!

By now I was so near to the animal barns that I could hear the sheep baa-ing and the alpacas whistling! Wandering through the animal barns and visiting the owner's booths is another joy of this particular fair. I always look for handspun yarns that are labeled with the names of the 'real owners' - the animals themselves!!

feeling cosy and sleepy:



Here's a happy friendly fellow - this particular alpaca was quite outgoing and social!:



Recently sheered, but not minding one bit:



And my favorite small farmer of the Fair: Dillner Hillside Farm



and the yarns - the beautiful, incredibly long locks fleeces - were kindly donated by the angora goats, Max and Primrose:





This handspun will lend itself well to a simple vintage shawl pattern. I'm searching my 1840 - 1860 books for the perfect pattern!

By this time, it was starting to drizzle, and my bags were full.



Time for me to wend my way back through the woods to my cosy home for a warm afternoon of tea of knitting, and hugging my new yarns.

a Fair day

Mother's Day weekend is always the time for the local Sheep and Wool Fair. I've been going to this fair for many years, never missing. So when I heard that this weekend was going to have occasional thunderstorms, I didn't think twice, but put on my mosquito repellent and got ready to go. I did pack a retractable umbrella and stepped out onto the porch to test the weather, but since the sky was grey but dry, I just threw on a long light sweater and jumped in the car. Halfway to the fairgrounds, the downpour started. I didn't have a hat or a jacket and I found on first opening, that the umbrella I'd brought was broken in two spokes, so.... not the most effective rain protection. Did that deter me? Did I turn back? No, no, no, no, no. After all, I did have boots on my feet! My back might get soaked (it did), but my face and my feet would be dry enough!

The first couple of hours were very quiet - I had a great time wandering around my favorite fiber booths. I'd come with a mission - I wanted a Golding's Lucet and - if possible - a beautiful Nostepinne. I also needed to supplement some gorgeous Ancient Colours handdyed silk boucle that I hadn't gotten quite enough of last year.

The storm, predicted to be brief and passing, continued all morning and turned the woodland paths into ankle deep muddy lanes. The food booths were hard-pressed as rain lashed in under their tents and people tried to find dry corners and eaves to stand under while they ate (the picnic tables are uncovered). Some people stood in the rain, others ducked into the animal barns with their lamb and buffalo and apple crisp and fried dough dredged in sugar.



By 11:30 am, the covered barns were getting overwhelmingly crowded. My LYS, The Elegant Ewe, was the busiest of all! I only had the chance to stick my head in to say hello because both Marcie and Hal were moving at the speed of light to assist all the customers. They had some great specials going on, though.

The Green Mountain Spinnery always sets up a lovely colourful display and they gave me permission to take a picture of all the pretty:



My stash already has a big representation of their yarns, so I limited myself to getting a couple of patterns, the Hooded Scarf and the Elfin Hood, in preparation for next winter:



I was lucky - in the first uncrowded hours I'd been able to find the booths I was particularly looking for. The first was Ancient Colours from Long Ridge Farm, a local natural dyer. From this artist, I bought the 100% silk boucle, so that now I have enough for a summer sweater. I also couldn't resist some colourful skeins with two different silk yarns twined together - these are for scarves. And finally, I was excited to find some gorgeous naturally-dyed, very soft wool in a colour called Toad. I got enough to design a long-sleeved sweater, and a matching skein in lace-weight for trimming the collar and cuffs.



I told myself that I wouldn't buy any more yarn from Decadent Fibers, because I still have beautiful skeins form previous years. But.... they had a special Sale Bin and I just couldn't resist! I found three matching skeins of Marshmallow - an Alpaca and Merino sport-weight yarn in the colour Delicious Apple. I plan to use this for a summer sweater - the pepper-y red goes so well with summer sun!



The last on my list of favorite hand-dyers was Ball and Skein, a Vermont artist. Last year I got her gorgeously delicate Seaglass shawl and the cashmere to make it (started, but hibernating temporarily), so I didn't think I needed anything else. But, as usual, her artistic eye for colour and fiber drew me in. I never regret it. I was captured by her new "Elise" yarn - a blend of silk and merino in "Haze", which is a subtle blend of moss green, olive, and misty blue-grey. This yarn is enough for a sweater with 3/4 length sleeves and I'll probably use it for something from Kim Hargreaves new book, Misty. The bright green skeins are a very silky blend of silk and merino that she had especially spun for her - single plies - and they are to supplement some of the same that I bought last year. I probably have enough now for the Herbivore shawl.



As the rain moved more and more people inside the barns, my phobia of large crowds kicked in and I got more and more uncomfortable. I was trapped between a big group of chatting woman, a single file line of shoppers pushing me from behind, and a very grouchy elder woman who wouldn't go around me, but seemed intent on actually pushing through me. I had to turn into the group of woman to create a little space for her to pass. As the Elder shoved me from behind, she shouted an insult at me for all to hear. I think the unrelenting dark dampness and the crowded barns might have tried people's patience a bit. But that was it for me. I longed for my cosy house and a cup of tea. I wandered around for just a little more, and left at about 1 pm.

Before I went, though, I found what I'd been searching for. Here is my new perfect Lucet - it's in Walnut - from Goldings, and - my most gorgeous Nostepinne in Cherry wood from Ball and Skein!



I was sick all the next day, so didn't go back, and missed seeing all my friends there. But all in all it was a good fair day and I'm so grateful that so many regionally local artists braved the rain to bring us their beautiful fiber goodness!

Oh Shenandoah....

I knew the world was a beautiful place, but the more I see of it, the more amazingly beautiful it seems to me. This past weekend, my bf and I went to visit friends in Washington DC for a few days, and while there, we spent a day in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia (only a little over an hour away).

It was one of those perfect autumn days, where the trees are at their most colourful - orange, red, burgundy, gold, deep greens, and purples - and all these colours are echoed in huge baskets of apples that catch your attention from roadside farm stands. The further we drove from DC, the less frequent were shops, businesses, and even houses. Rolling green fields were dotted with huge black cows and noble-looking horses. The few houses were nestled against the far borders of these fields in stands of oak and maple trees that still flourished with leaves on the branches. Many houses - and even barns - were build of local grey stone, a testament to endurance.

Our destination was the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival. We arrived a few minutes before they were open, which you know I love, and so were the only customers at the just-opening yarn booths. The first one was a nearby alpaca farm, where they spun and dyed their own yarn. These handsome alpacas had been raised by this couple from babies, so they were very tame and liked to give kisses!



My bf picked out some yarn from this farm for me to make him things. The blue for mittens; and the natural chocolate and grey mix for a sweater (very intimidating because he wants cables!):



We all enjoyed browsing the barns and booths and talking to the farm owners with their sheep, llamas, and alpacas. We sampled apple butter and watched a very smart dog herding his flock of sheep right down the field road and into a pen on the little hill!

Of course we bought more yarn - my friend crochets - and made so many plans for so many knitted and crocheted gifts!

This yarn is from Rock Creek Fibers, a local Washington DC dyer. The pink, called Cherry Blossom, is 100% single strand silk, and the other is Blue Faced Leicester sock yarn - so soft! She had so many others that I wanted, like a cashmere blend, but I'm on a BFL kick for socks at the moment...



These next yarns are from The Flock Bransonas - I don't know what that means; perhaps it's their name? The first is 600 yard of 100% silk lace. The second, which I mean to pair with the first, is a most beautiful deep dark claret handpainted Mohair/Silk lace-weight. And the skein on the end is a handpainted, hand spun yarn from a woman who shears and spins the fleece from her own flocks of Romney sheep and alpacas (this skein is a blend of both). It's called "Playing With Fire" and though it's only 200 yards, the colours were so stunning I couldn't resist it:



A real high for me was the booth for Solitude - Small Batch Artisan Yarns. Their flyer says: "We are two Loudoun County Virginia shepherds who love wool". They're both spinners, and dye the yarns - the ones that aren't left in their gorgeous natural colours - with natural substances, many found locally. They say, Solitude treats dyeing as art - each dye is inspired, not controlled."

I bought these yarns for small projects, hats, gloves, mittens, an Ishbel shawl...



The colours are so much more vibrant, subtle, and striking than my sorry camera-phone photos convey, but here are some details...

1 & 2: The first two skeins are 100% light weight wool, the first - a deep green/blue is dyed with indigo and goldenrod. The second is the same yarn dyed with tomato vine, and is a very light lime green/grey.

3: The third skein is a silky-feeling DK/light worsted weight from "Border Leicester and Leicester Longwool - both English breeds with heavy, lustrous fleece and a wavy or curly crimp". The colour is a bright cyan green dyed from indigo and weld.

4: The fourth is a gorgeous single-ply from Shropshire sheep - they have a "down-type wool". It's handpainted in variegated fall colours like olive and deep rust, brown, sienna, umber... and it's called "Leaf Pile".

5 & 6: The last two skein are the same type - a two-ply blend of Tunis sheep ("a down breed with fairly fine, soft, springy fleece") and 1/3 red alpaca. It's very soft against the skin, yet feels sturdy and seemed perfect for hats and gloves. The blue skein is dyed with daffodils and indigo, and the mauve skein is dyed with cochineal. I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but this yarn has two plies - one is the naturally dyed coloured strand and the second is the natural red alapca. From a distance, this makes a subtle soft colour - you can only see that the two plies are different when you look close up.

In late afternoon it began to rain heavily. My friend's husband arrived back from his 50 mile bike ride and my bf emerged from checking his Blackberry and chatting with a local vintner. We dashed for the low, swampy field where the car was parked and drove home in a downpour so severe that it obscured visibility 2 feet from the windows. I would have thought it was a hurricane, except there was no wind at all.

Later, when it was calm and fresh again, we went to dinner at a little French restaurant across from the Ford Theatre and next to the house where Lincoln died:



My friend and I shared Escargot and Butternut Squash soup while our men wrinkled their noses and ate salads with cheese and sausage.

Luckily I had left lots of room in my suitcase for yarn, because when I packed, I noticed that I had bought more than I realised. You know how those skeins creep up and throw themselves into your arms, right? Now I have many dreams to make the actual items - gloves, socks, scarves, shawls, and sweaters! I even bought yarn for something for myself - imagine!

in search of petrol at the Sheep and Wool Fair

Sheep and Wool Fair today!!!

I love the fairgrounds where this is held...it's an old fairgrounds in the midst of an old wood. Every time I walk the winding path through the trees and over the meandering stream, I see some wildflower I hadn't noticed the year before.



This year it was two Lady slipper plants - hardly noticeable in the spring woods in their still-green unbloomed state. There were Star flowers and Solomon's Seal, and Checker berries too.

I wasn't the first one in this year; one of my friends parked right beside me and so we walked in together. She is so nice and really the best knitter I've ever known. Even the almost-strangers walking by noticed her gorgeous sweater and asked a hundred questions! She was meeting someone at the Fair and stayed near the entrance to wait, so I walked on. The first thing that I saw was the sheep-herding up the hill!

These animals need herding:



and here's a clever dog to do that job!



I was on a mission to find a skein of lace-weight in a colour called "Petrol" for my friend Nad in Germany. What colour is Petrol? I got various answers to that question throughout the day and they ranged from purple, to blue, to grey and finally someone suggested a dark olive green! What do you think? I've seen the petrol that comes out of the hose when I fill my car, and that is bright pink! I don't think my friend meant pink!

I first tried to find it at the Ball and Skein booth. There was nothing I would consider Petrol, but I did buy a beautiful skein of sea-blue cashmere for a shawl for my boyfriend's mother, and a shawl pattern called "Beach Glass".



I wandered on, passed some prize-winning llamas that were being shown round a ring by a group of young girls. They looked very proud and regal (the llamas) and so they should with their big royal blue ribbons on their pen door!



My next stop was at a vendor I hadn't ever seen before: Ancient Colours. This booth was set up with wooden slatted walls like a Japanese open-air tea room and most of the shelves were filled with glass bottles of brilliant powdered dyes and handmade Japanese bamboo camel-hair brushes for handpainting yarn and fabric. The colours were from natural substances, and they were deep and subtle...

Do you see any Petrol here?



I bought three colours fo yarn from this booth!

On the far side of the Fair, the Alpaca farms have their stalls and booths. This is one of my favorite parts of the Sheep and Wool fair because I get to meet the animals and their owners and get yarn that they have spun themselves. Some of my favorite farms print pictures of the particular alpaca that the fleece came from right on the skein label. I like to buy the yarn of Samantha, and Cinnamon, and Cinnabar and see them prancing happily in their photos.

This happy, curious fellow is the child of the alpaca who gave me a few skeins of very soft fibers for a new sweater:



and here is his cousin... Does his fleece look like Petrol?



My last stop was to see the dyers from Plimoth Plantation Colonial Village (Living History Museum). This plantation is on the coast in a neighbouring state, but two re-enactors who are the dyers and spinners for the place came to the fair to create demonstrations.



They use madder and wode, and onion skins, and sage with iron, indigo, goldenrod and cochineal and so many other herbs and plants and even bugs! I was so taken with all these colours and found myself especially drawn to all the shades that madder produces, from deep rosey pinkish-red to light orange...

The yarn they produce is called The Merry Little Lamb and I brought home two shades of madder and one deep goldenrod:



What nice people! We talked for a while about the dyes and authentic historical colours going back to medieval times until someone else walked up and began talking about a SCA group nearby....

So that was my whole day at the Fair. I still don't know what colour Petrol is, but I had such fun looking for it!