Fiber Festival Fun and Frolic

Today was a great day for a knitter. I went to the CT Sheep Breeders Association Sheep, Wool and Fiber Festival in Vernon/Rockville with WifeMomKnitter, Mad Knitter, CostumeChick, Yankee Lagniappe, and Blog-free Pat. It was my first time there and although I knew it would be much smaller than Rhinebeck, it was bigger and better than I'd imagined.

As one would expect, there were sheep.

There were alpacas.

There were angora rabbits:

There were spinning wheels. (That's an antique that reminds me of the one in my parents' living room. No one ever actually used it for spinning because no one knew how. When I was a kid, I would stand at it in front of the window and pretend it was a ship's wheel and I was the captain. Or it was a steering wheel and I was the bus driver.)

There were spinners in pajamas. (I didn't actually expect there to be spinners wearing their pajamas, but I figured there'd be spinners.)

Then there were other things I really didn't expect.

There was an extremely kind spinner who let Yankee give her spinning wheel a . . . well . . . spin.

She even let her take the yarn she made with her. Look how proud she is!

And there were cute kids in funny t-shirts. Yes, it says mama is a yarn ho.

Best of all, there were friends.

I wish I'd gotten a picture with Pat in it, but she must have been busy shopping.

Here's my haul for the day. First, three pins made by two delightful little girls who had a little table set up at their mom's booth. I was happy to support the young fiber lovers.

Two lampwork glass bead stitch markers from Glastonbury Glassworks.

A beautiful sterling silver shawl pin/eyeglass holder from Leslie Wind.

Tiny - and I mean tiny sock earrings from Things by Jeanne.

And my favorite purchase . . . a drop spindle and fiber!

I bought the Kundert Spindle from The Wheel Thing from a fine young man who the girls and I lovingly refer to as Spinning Boy. When I was shopping for a drop spindle I went to The Wheel Thing's booth and asked about the difference between various types of spindles. This appeared-to-be-about-16 -year-old kid very enthusiastically explained what I wanted to know - and he knew this from his own spinning experience. He told us that he got into spinning after going to a spinning guild meeting with his mother. How can anyone not have a little crush on this kid? We were all gaga over him. Spinning Boy.

After a quick lesson from Mad Knitter and CostumeChick, I was off and spinning. Look what I spun so far!

I did that during the ride home. It's so much fun! I don't know if I'll ever spin enough to knit anything with, but even if I don't, the fiber is beautiful and it will look great just sitting on a shelf.

Now if someone tells me to go sit and spin, I will.