So we went! (BTW, is my husband awesome or what? Hours in the car for a sheep and wool festival because his wife wanted to go? How many guys would agree to that so easily???)
Guess what - we all had a great time! It wasn't as big as I was expecting, but it turned out that it was plenty to keep us busy for the day. We got there around 9:20 AM and didn't leave until 3:30 PM. The first thing the kids did was check out some Angora rabbits. They were in a pen on the grass so we were looking. Then one of the girls asked the kids if they wanted to - *gasp* - hold the bunnies! You can probably guess what the answer was....
Next we headed to the 4H building to see where the workshops were held.
There was a Kool-Aid dying kid's workshop scheduled for 10:00, but they were ready to go and let my kids be their guinea pigs on a first run even though it was only 9:45. Because we had walked past the drop-in spinning tent on the way there, both kids picked roving instead of yarn to dye. It was super easy! I have some bare sock yarn from Knit Picks that I'll need to dye at some point, so now I know how to do it. After dissolving the Kool-Aid in hot water in a ziplock baggie and adding their roving, they had to leave their baggies for an hour then go back to rinse it out in the restroom sinks. Here's the finished result:
The kids with red & blue Kool-Aid dyed roving
As soon as they were done dying, there was an adult workshop on plying yarn starting. Plying is when you take two or more strands of spun yarn and twist them together. It's a workshop for spinners to further their skills. I had never spun anything before, but figured what the heck. Chris took the kids back to the bunnies and to check out the sheep while I stayed to learn how to ply.
Out of the six workshop participants, four had their own spinning wheels and the remaining two of us had nothing so the presenter let us use her spindles. Now the other woman had taken a spindling workshop a week or two before. Me - I bought a spindle in mid-May but had no idea what to do with it. (I was starting to get a sense that maybe I didn't have the prerequisites needed for the workshop.)
Luckily, I kicked total butt and picked it up quickly and was soon spinning some roving into a strip of yarn that I then plied with itself. After that, we got two already-spun fibers to ply together by spinning them together in the opposite direction of their initial spin. Pretty cool! So when I came home that night, I immediately had to pull out my fresh-off-etsy spindle and try it out.
Freshly spun blue yarn on my very own spindle
Next we were off to the drop-in spinning tent so I could learn to spin on a wheel. It was my thing. I wanted to learn. Me me me. So why did Francesca get to learn first???
Here's the scary part - she was good at it! She wasn't treadling (using the pedal), but she was really good at drafting (drawing out the yarn) and letting it twist. She kept the pace nicely and her yarn worked up pretty even. The bar was set pretty high by my little spinning diva.
Me next! Me next! Oh, wait. Never mind. My other child was desperate for a turn. It was Dominic's turn to learn to spin.
By this time, I was getting antsy. I wanted to get my hands on a wheel already! Luckily, the main helper lady (Jamie) finished up with another new spinner, so I jumped on her wheel. She treadled, I spun, and she asked me if I had ever done it before because I was doing so well. I was so proud and just a teeny bit giddy.
I'm spinning! I'm a spinner! Well, I just let the wheel do the work...
Then she said, "Okay, you take over" and got up and walked away, leaving me to do it all! One foot and two hands at the same time doing different things! Panic! So yes, I did end up breaking the yarn several times at first when the roving got too thin and pulled apart. Turns out the wheel was set to pull the yarn in faster that I could handle so Jamie adjusted it and then I did much better. I spun all of my strip of roving a dubbed myself an official spinner.
I finally dragged all of us off the wheels (the kids would have spun forever) just in time to see a sheep shearing demonstration. The kids shared a chair - miraculously without fighting - and watched a guy on a little stage remove the wool from a surprisingly docile sheep. I guess the sheep get used to it - they just lay there and let themselves been manipulated and flipped around.
By this time, it was almost noon and we were getting hungry. As we were checking out the food booths, I couldn't resist looking at the wares of a few vendors in that area. And so I bought my first sock yarn of the day. My precioussss....
Nightingale Fibers sock yarn in Cranberry
Oh, and I bought lamb chili for lunch. Baaaa.... Shear 'em, milk 'em, and eat 'em! It was pretty good. Chris had a cheeseburger, plus we had packed food and snacks for the kids since with their allergies we never know if places can accommodate them. There were picnic tables all over, so we had a nice lunch in the sun - it was a beautiful day! Sunny and around 80-82 degrees but not humid, so it wasn't overly hot.
After lunch, I bought some roving to play with on my spindle at home. Maybe I'll be able to make a hat out of it once it's spun.
Orange roving to spin
I also came close to buying a spinning wheel. They are so expensive, though. Many of the smaller ones are in the $600-1000 price range. But there was a woman spinning at a booth with her husband and he makes these adorable small spinning wheels! They were $300-380 depending if you wanted a single or double treadle (use one foot or both feet). They even let me try one out, so I got to show off my new-found spinning skills. But I resisted the urge! I fought it! And I walked away without buying one. (Probably because then not only would I have a new hobby, but I'd also have to knit the yarn that I spun, thereby continuing my current hobby. And there's just not enough time in the day.)
Amazingly, after I posted on my Facebook site about spinning, a friend of mine replied that her husband has a folding/travel spinning wheel and he said I could borrow it! Wow! So I definitely want to do that at some point - maybe after I get back from the Usborne Books Convention next week. Or after the Fourth of July. Or once the kids go back to school in the fall. Yeah, I'll have to do that.
After more vendor browsing, I scored an excellent deal. First, please note that many nice sock yarns are $20-26 for 100g of yarn, which is enough to make a single average pair of socks. The Holiday Yarns booth had a bin of yarn where for $20 you could get as much as you could hold in one hand. What? A challenge? Oh, you bet your sweet patooty I was up for one. Check it out - 761g of sock yarn for twenty bucks (and two of the skeins are over 90g each)!
My $20 haul from Holiday Yarns
While we were there, Dominic also fell in love with some yarn in their "Night Fury" colorway. For any of you who have seen the movie "How To Train Your Dragon," you'll know that the main dragon was a Night Fury dragon named Toothless. This yarn also came with a free sock pattern called - you guessed it - "Toothless." At some point I'll have to make Dominic some socks.
Holiday Yarns sock yarn in Night Fury
More vendors, more sheep to look at, a baby ram to pet, yarn to squeeze, Italian ice to cool us off (Doritos for little Miss Orange Face), and then we were ready to head home. It was a wonderful day that the whole family enjoyed (hallelujah!).
Maybe we'll have to hit the New England Fiber Festival at the Big E November 4-5. I'd better start saving my yarn money now!
Awesome! I want to take up spinning and would love a "fair" close to me for hands on workshops! :-)
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