Scarborough Fair (well, really NH Sheep & Wool)

Since I never got around to blogging this last weekend, here goes. NH Sheep & Wool Festival is Mother's Day Weekend every year, and every year I meet up with my friend Katie K and sometimes Candy W who was able to come this year. We get a chance to visit and to look at the great hand spun and hand dyed yarns and beautiful fleeces, batts and rovings. And invariably, whichever day I choose to go, it rains. Which is did this year. It rained like hell. Luckily I had a couple of purple umbrellas I had bought at Ocean State Job lots a couple weeks before, or I would have been soaked through. Note to self: You've been telling yourself to buy a windbreaker or rain coat since last October. Do it already.

Anyway, this year, Heather S, of Sereknity, who is one of the Manchvegas group, had a booth for her gorgeous hand dyed yarns and rovings. I love her stuff.

I don't know it was the rain or that some of the festivals were very close together this year, but some of the vendors I look for every year weren't there. And some of the vendors that I look for every year had very little in the way of fibers to sell. The rain was just a killer this year. Some of the vendors who were in tents on the fairground rather than in the buildings were having to dig little canals to channel the water around them. We mostly stuck to the buildings this year. It was really cold too.

I was fairly good, meaning I really didn't buy much, because it was too wet, I was too busy visiting with Katie K and Candy W, and I knew I was going to Webs the following weekend for the tent sale.

Here's Candy W looking resplendent in her beret and red coat. Candy is quite possibly one of the nicest women that it's ever been my luck to meet.

Here's Katie K talking to Robin Russo, of the Spinning Studio in Bradford, Vermont, who was giving a demo on how to reel silk from the cocoons of silk worms.

I also got to see Marci and Hal of the Elegant Ewe. Marci, if you enlarge the picture and look where the purple arrow is pointing is attempting to hide. Hal didn't hide but just threatened me with legal action for taking his picture afterwards.

This picture shows the yarns from Ellen's Half Pint Farm, which I lust after every year. Some day I'll be able to justfy a purchase to myself.

The 4 oz bit of batt shown is my sole purchase of the day. It was from a booth called Spin-A-Bit, and I liked the shiny fiber in the batt.

Around noontime we decided to call it good and go to lunch, which was great. It was really too bad that the weather was not more cooperative.

On Mother's Day, we decided to get up early and go grocery shopping before we needed to go to Shawn's parents. It's a good thing we left so early. Reading the labels for the whole milk thing took two and half hours. I expect it will get easier, just as reading the labels for Shawn's diabetes did, but geez. I can barely make myself grocery shop normally and this is not going to encourage me. I was able to find a pancake mix and a brownie mix without milk or milk derivatives in it, so that was good. Did you know that most bouillion has whey in it? Which means I can't use it. I was not a happy camper, but I did finally find something I can use. You wouldn't believe how much stuff we had to get rid of.

The visit with Shawn's parents went well and I think she really enjoyed her gift which was good. It was nice to see some of Shawn's family that we hadn't seen in a while too.

Stay tuned for news on the Webs trip.

In the Wee Hours of the Morning

Okay, it is now 6 am, and I've been up for an hour already. My mother says that she stopped being able to sleep in and wakes up automatically since her thirties. Thanks a lot for the genetics Mom! Shawn and I are absolute opposites in this respect. The latest I appear to be able to sleep in is 7 am, whereas I don't think he'd ever get up if I didn't wake him up.


Today Mary and Claire are coming over so that we can handpaint yarn. We've been meaning to get around to doing this for a year, I think, so I think it counts in terms of the theme of my blog. I have some dyes and equipment that I have had for probably 8-10 years, which is wigging me out that (a) I haven't hand dyed anything for 8-10 years and (b) I have stuff that I bought at the Elegant Ewe that is now 8-10 years old. I keep thinking that I only moved to Concord a few years ago, but it will be 12 years in August. How did I get this old??


I have some of my hand spun from a Cormo fleece I bought at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival from Starlit Ridge Farms (the picture is the handspun) and some Bare Fingering in Merino and Silk from Knitpicks. I have a bunch of Cushing and Gaywool dyes from way back when, so we'll see how they hold up over time. (I do intend to test them on paper towels first to make sure the color is true still) I'll try to take pictures today in process and after so you can all see the results. I may use my Jetboil PCS to boil the water, as it'll be faster than the tea kettle. Another unorthodox cool use for Jetboil! Anyway, more on this to follow.




To update the progress on the last couple of days, there really isn't much! Wednesday after work, I stopped in at Lowe's and BJs to buy supplies for dyeing, and then I headed to Paula and Fred's. Fred made this amazing tart, which was like a pizza on cresent roll type dough, with cheese, red onions, herbs, and red and green grapes. I was really skeptical about the grapes, but it was incredibly good. The grapes once they were baked on the tart changed flavors slightly so they complemented the onions. I should know better than to question anything Fred does with food. I am almost through the 2 inches of pattern stitch edging on Mya's Jacket, and will start the body of the sweater soon.


Thursday night was almost a complete loss. I went to Michaels to try to find squirt bottles for dyeing, but struck out. I did get some new shells for the hermit crabs though. They are getting surprisingly big. Then I needed one thing at Bare Escentuals in Salem so I ran down to pick it up, thinking I would be in and out of there. There's a consultant in there who is the devil. She's lovely and knitter too, but there's something about her that just makes me buy stuff! I went in to pick up blemish treatment (I truly thought acne was suppose to stop once I turned 18...) and I bought a new Elegant kit, with three little eyeshadows, a blush and lip gloss all in a pewter coin purse, a new eyeshadow Puzzle (part of the proceeds go to Autism, so I had to right??), a new color of concealer, and two lipsticks, as well as having had my face completely made up. So no progress that evening, other than me rewinding the yarn for dyeing into much longer skeins.

Yesterday, again no real progress. I wound some more yarn into longer skeins, and I cleaned so the apartment was fit for Mary and Claire to visit, and to clear work space, but I was beat and went to bed three hours early at 10pm ish...which I guess could explain the 5 am thing...

Anyway, I'll post the results of the dyeing later...