NH Sheep and Wool Festival 2012

This morning I was out the door bright and early to head to the NH Sheep and Wool Festival, at its new location in Deerfield, NH. I have to say right off the bat that I really liked the new venue. It's about 25 minutes closer to my house, and there is a lot more indoor room for the vendors. When I left, at about 12:30, the barns were starting to get pretty crowded, but I sure felt like I had a lot more elbow room than at the old venue.

Obviously, I saw some sheep.

This one was particularly friendly

And some alpaca

Some with a lot of hair

Some who had already had a haircut

And a goat who thought he should hang out by standing on top of his poor mother.

Happy Mother's Day to you, Mom.

And a couple of nuns carrying some bags of fleece. (I should try to edit this picture so you see it better.)

I was just totally surprised by the nuns.

I also walked by Thea Coleman of Babycocktails, wearing her newest pattern:

And then I totally Kinneared her from behind. She's on the left. I should have just said hi and asked to look at her sweater. I'm a dork.

I think I did an excellent job with my purchases!  Here they are:

2 Silk Hankies (for a friend), silk cocoons, a wristaff, a shawlette pattern, green yarn to knit the shawlette, a skein of natural colored Coopworth wool, 2 skeins of undyed sock yarn, and 4 oz. of Border Leicester to spin on my drop spindle.

Here's a picture of the yarn close up:

The green is a wool, cashmere, nylon blend, and it is so soft and shiny!

And here's the skein of kid mohair/silk I forgot to include in the picture:

The colorway is "Roses"

This came with a free pattern to make a ruffly scarf. The vendor had several samples, and they were just gorgeous! The skein was only $10, so I totally let myself go with the impulse purchase.


So, as far as my shopping went, I did okay.

I saw several beautiful niddy noddies, but they were all more than I wanted to spend. I saw three different wraps-per-inch tools, but I really only liked one of them. It was beautiful carved wood, and could be worn as a necklace. Truly, it was a work of art. But I wanted something less in the "work of art" price range. I just saw a wristaff the other day, so I added that to my list, next to the WPI tool. Somehow I missed that they could be used for yarn as well as roving, so I'm pretty excited! I didn't see any knitting T-shirts, and I bought the Border Leicester instead of BFL to spin (awesome price!) Also, the Color Affection shawl was not in the forefront of my mind, so I can't say I even looked for appropriate yarn.

Although not on my official list, I had it in the back of mind to look for some Coopworth to knit something up for Rhinebeck's Skein and Garment competition (it's this year's featured breed). I figured since I'm going, I may as well participate fully. I also had it on my mind to look for some cocoons, especially after a friend asked me to pick her up some silk hankies. (I do wish I had thought to pick up some hankies for myself!)

I had saved some money specifically to spend at this event, and only spent $10 above that (dipping into my Rhinebeck savings). I'm thrilled with all of my purchases, and can't wait to start knitting with them!

Today though, I started knitting a Bakersfield Shawl with handspun I won from a friend. Totally loving it!

Happy knitting!