Oops, one more!

I forgot to include this photo in my entry about this year's Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival - a lovely picture of beautiful rovings from Gale's Art:

Maryland Sheep & Wool 2008

This past weekend was the ever-wonderful Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. For my loyal readers (or, reader), you might recall that last year’s festival was where my lifelong refrain of "I’m a knitter, NOT a spinner!" began to break down. In fact, the breakdown took the form of a lovely drop spindle and about a pound of vegetable-dyed roving from Handspun by Stefania. The harder they fall...

So, a year – and one Schacht Matchless spinning wheel – later, I went down to this year’s festival with my friend K. On Saturday, we shopped. And shopped. And shopped. We must have spent a good hour going through the fleece show and sale alone. Imagine, two obsessive spinners with a yen to try fiber processing (and don’t get me started on my wonderful, stupendous, and as-yet barely used Strauch drum carder), in a barn with several hundred fleeces of every breed, color, and quantity. So fun.

My haul from the shopping extravaganza:

- One skein of Yarn Place’s Graceful Lace Yarn in shades of purple, from Carolina Homespun;
- Two 4oz Bluefaced Leicester rovings from Gale’s Art - nicest dye jobs I saw all day! - in Rose Garden and Stormy Sea colorways:


- Some unidentified wooly yarn goodness in two shades of purple to knit a felted bag;
- One skein of VERY GREEN yarn from Made By Eye that has already started to become a felted bag;
- Some acid dyes in shades of green and purple;
- Vegetable dye stuffs: Madder, hibiscus, alum, and tartaric acid from Stoney Mountain Fibers;
- A high speed whorl for Miss Ruth, my Schacht Matchless ST;
- One entire Rambouillet fleece (blue ribbon winner!) from the fleece show/sale: 5.25 lbs. from Roclans Farm:

- One entire Finnsheep lamb fleece from the fleece show/sale: 3.25 lbs. from “Max” at Shady Grove Farms:

- A lifetime’s supply of bamboo circular needles;
- A cute little sheep-shaped tape measure;
- A book on cheesemaking;
- Pretty much every kind of lamb sandwich, gyro, and other form of yummy lamb goodness that I could fit into my stomach.

The Rambouillet fleece is currently out for washing and processing at Morro Fleeceworks and will be split with K. and a woman we know from Ravelry.

I also slobbered all over a gorgeous Golding spinning wheel they had on display. Someday...

On Sunday, K. and I brought our three respective children down to the festival to see what all the fuss was about. After a week of weather forecasts involving rain for Sunday, the day turned out... perfectly sunny and dry. Not a cloud in the sky!

The kids had a good time, although Ivan was pretty tired and cranky all day. He did enjoy seeing the sheep, and the bunnies, and the sheep dogs, and he ate an entire ice cream cone. He also (being my son), tested out both a Schact Ladybug ("This is a wheel for little boys, mommy?!") and an Ashford Joy at the Carolina Homespun booth:

It's a Process

Things I have learned since Miss Ruth arrived: 1) I really, really want to be good at spinning on a wheel; 2) while I am a fair spindle spinner, I suck at wheel spinning, as in, I can't even keep the wheel going in the same %#&@% direction; 3) Corriedale is stickier than molasses and I don't like it any more on the wheel than I did on the spindle; 4) my wheel is the most beautiful thing on earth.

Happily, my friend K. came for a visit yesterday afternoon, played with - I mean, tested - the wheel, fiddled and adjusted, spun for a while, oiled the heck out of all the moving parts, and talked me through my own spinning. The result? Absolutely horrific yarn, but still... yarn. I can do this!

A New Addition

So, having been completely hooked on the spinning thing this fall, and having spun an entire skein of purple Corriedale wool on a drop spindle:


I dove in for real: I bought a spinning wheel. Not just any spinning wheel, but what is sometimes called the "Cadillac" of spinning wheels - a Schacht Matchless, single treadle. I bought this particular wheel because, well, it is freaking gorgeous, but also because I wanted one that would last me forever, whether I continued as a mediocre hobby spinner, or became more serious about it over time. Oh, and because my life had kind of gone to shit early this fall and I needed a pick-me-up. Now, life has somewhat reconstituted itself and I have a beautiful spinning wheel! Things are looking up.

My son has already named her "Miss Ruth," after one of his day care teachers. It suits her! So without further ado, here be she:

Even Preschoolers Like to Spin!

October Update

So, I'm been amiss in not updating on a few things. First, the garden. Far from being the rather barren, grassy spot pictured in a previous post, my hope of creating a real, food-bearing garden in ony a month or two was accomplished! Ok, I didn't get much more than a few tomatoes and some basil and oregano, but considering that I didn't even break ground until August, that's not bad. Next year: the real test.

Here's the garden as it looked just a couple weeks ago. The weather has turned to fall recently, so it's not quite so green any more.

My other update is that after a lifetime of knitting, I have been well and truly sucked into that fringe cult - people who spin their own yarn. Yes. It's that bad.

I blame my friend K., a.k.a. Harmless Drudge. I had resisted the call to spin for many years, but then with her influence, plus a truly eye-opening (and wallet-opening) trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last May, I was bitten by the Spin Bug. I now not only have a stash of yarn, but a stash of roving (unspun wool). Oh, and I ordered a Schacht spinning wheel, due to arrive in November. Oh, and I already have two drop spindles wound with my fairly successful first attempts to spin. Here's one, with some partially-spun purple Corriedale on it:

Sheep and Wool Heaven

Two weekends ago, I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. Baa! Held at a fairground outside of Baltimore, it was a two-day extravaganza of sheep breeders and their flocks; bundles of wool and other fibers of all sorts; yarn, yarn, and even more yarn; and all sort of fiber crafts. Oh, and lamb. As, in to eat. Yummers! Surprisingly to those who understand my deep passion for all things knitted, wooly, and farm animalish, I had never been to any sheep and/or wool festival before. Apparently, these things happen all over the country – who knew? Not I.

Oh, the things I bought. I bought two big balls of roving (unspun wool) plant-dyed with indigo and some other plant-like substance, some undyed yarn, a little stuffed sheep for Ivan, etc. etc. I really could have spend hundreds of dollars there – thousands, if I had any place to store sheep... Most importantly, I got a nice, sturdy drop spindle, since I’ve picked up yet another hobby – hand spinning – thanks to my enabler friend K., a.k.a. Harmless Drudge

Check out the amazing drop spindles. Mine isn’t anywhere nearly as decorative, only because I am completely broke:

Look, purty yarn: Look, purty wool:

Look, pit lamb!

Now that I’ve been to such an event, I have of course become addicted, as is my wont. Next up will be the New York Sheep and Wool festival in Rhineland, NY. Whilst in Maryland, I discovered how very much I love sheep. No, not in that way, pervert. They’re just very pleasant animals, and I’d like to have some. They make a nice sound, smell pretty good for hairy farm animals, are reasonably friendly but not in that pushy goat-like way, and plus, they make wool. And they’re tasty. I don’t think they would enjoy the stairs to my apartment, though.

Regardless, the breed I liked best at the festival was the Border Leicester. So very, very cute. Such lovely wool.

When I returned home from my adventures, I showed Ivan all of the many pictures I had taken, explaining to him that sheep fur is called wool, that people spin wool into yarn, and that yarn is what I use to knit with. All the while he had an expression on his face like, “are you shittin’ me, mom?” No, son, I shit you not.

Knit Therapy

You know what really keeps me going? I mean, when every person in my life is either an idiot or a monumental asshole, and I just wonder why I can't be Queen of the Universe and control everything and everyone because really, it would all be so much better... it's knitting. I think about my current project, and about how after I have slain dragons all day at work, picked up Ivan at day care, fed him, bathed him, played with him, and (God willing) put him to sleep, I will be able to sit my tired ass down on the couch and KNIT. And I feel better. Really. I have something to live for, and look forward to. And it's knitting.

Kind of sad, really. But it works for me.