miniscule festival haul

I was SUCH a good girl! ok, really it was forced by lack of fundage more than my stunning self-control, but i like to think that i was restrained and mature in the face of SO MUCH temptation. I did not come home with an angora bunny. I also did not put down a deposit on the Hitchhiker travel wheel, even after i saw Helen plying away on hers (formerly Cate's mistaken lefty). So what did i do at New Hampshire Sheep & Wool on sunday?

I went with my friend Mia, who knits and only very recently started spinning, and was patient enough to listen to me prattle on about fibery stuff for nearly 5 hours! The weather was rainy and unexpectadly cold on sunday. yuck! We were also there towards the very end of the festival, and many of the vendor's shelves were starting to look a little bare (which is really a good thing when your self-restraint is thin to begin with!) First, we watched some of the sheep dog trials... too cute. Then we started making rounds through the barns. The very first booth we found was Helen of Bay Colony Farm! I couldn't resist some of her blue/green/gray angora and icelandic mix roving. the colors remind me of the x-files for some reason.

There were tons of other things that i really really really loved, but i was on a very strict budget. I made it through several more buildings without buying anything. The big purchase came when Mia was purchasing some eye-bleedingly pink mohair locks and i bent down to admire a beautiful cormo fleece. wowie wow wow was it nice. Two other ladies came up and also started oohing and aahing over the same fleece. We all agreed that if we had space or money for the whole thing, we would want it. Then one of them suggested splitting it 3 ways. twist my arm, why don't ya?! There was 5.5 lbs of fleece from a Cormo named Bella, and i came home with 1/3rd of it. You gotta love fiber people! I don't think there are many other situations where total strangers would offer to go in on a purchase together. it was quite funny. Turns out that Diane and her friend (ack. bad with names) spin with the Island Pond Spinners group, some of whom i met when i went to the spin-in at the Textile History Museum in lowell.

now, looking at the festival booklet and map, i see that we actually missed almost half of the vendor barns!! But we were underdressed, underfunded, underfed, and people were starting to pack up towards the end. We decided to book it out of there with minimal purchases all around, and the knowledge that the MASW fest is only two weeks away. (I will miss the webs fleece sale due to previously scheduled maid-of-honor duties).

i've already got pictures of a bit of the cormo fleece washed and spun, but since this post is rambling on i'll hold off on that until tomorrow. i'm such a tease. ;)