Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair . . .

It could not have been a more perfect day to go to the fair yesterday. Darthknitter was up for the weekend, on her way to school for a week, so she stayed with me and went up to the fair! Ooo - she took me out to dinner, too, at Fresh Starts. Can I just say YUM?! Thank you very much :-)

KniftyRed came with us, and we hit the road early to get to the fair just about when it opened at 10 a.m. Although the fair seemed to me to be smaller this year than in the past two years, it was still lovely, and there were a lot of favorites there. Linda, Jamie and Rachel (with me, the usual gang of four :-) ) met us there, and they brought their friend, Chris! AND we got to see some of our friends from The Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling! It was a very fun day :-)

I think I'm just going to pop the photos in and go from there . . .


Pretty much at the front door, a bear named Frank - that's me, on the right :-D OK - I'm sort of crouched down - he wasn't really as tall as I am :-)



I know I've said this before, but who doesn't like Briar Rose?! It was great to see Chris of Briar Rose again! And this time, I fell in love with a particular skein of her Abundance (the worsted weight), but there was only one. So, lucky me, she's going to dye some up for me that I'll pick up at the Michigan Fiber Festival!! This photo got sort of washed out with my flash (in fact, my camera is acting a little cranky and I'm not sure why :-S). I have tried to adjust the color, but it's even darker than it shows here - it's destined to become "Two Hearts," from Lisa Lloyd's book, A Fine Fleece :-)

Who's that woman behind the Foster Grants?! Why, it's Tammy, the DarthKnitter! She of travel and Knit Together podcast fame. She fell in love with some Brooks Farm Primero yarn when she saw one of my Clapotis shawls made with it. Much to our surprise, Brooks Farm did not have ANY Primero with them at the Fair! Wow! But never fear, I destashed a little, and Tammy went home with two skeins of some darker blue that I had and had not used :-) Yay!


And here are two people I always love to see at the Fair - Janet and Leslie from JWRAYCO. They have some of the most amazing colorways - Leslie is the main dyer (I think), and her eye for color is so spot on. There's never a chance of what I am wont to call "clown barf" with anything she has touched. I picked up a beautiful skein of their sock yarn called "Scottish Garden," and I can hardly wait to knit it up. I know, I know - I said no more variegated sock yarn for me - wait until you see it. You'll know why it came home with me :-) I was also able to pick up some Addi Turbo needles from them - size 4's in the 47" length - I have a sweater button band to make :-) And, I wanted to introduce Tammy to them as they belong to guild not too far from where she lives. Yay!

OK, would be a fiber event if I didn't have a photo of Linda, the Chicken Lady and KniftyRed? I think not! Here they are modeling some of their beautiful handiwork. I forgot to ask Linda what vest she was wearing, but Kris is wearing her newly completed Celtic Icon. Cables, a hoodie, and a zip up the front - how perfect is that?!


Here's the majority of the gang (just minus Jamie and Chris - don't know where they got off to!) L to R, in the back, Rachel, Kris, Linda, Pat, Tammy, Janet and Ana. In front, Janet's daughter and friend of hers :-)


Here are Rachel, Jamie, Chris (doing the hair flip :-D) and Linda. They are laughing because I just told them to stick their "girls" out :-D


So - at just about the end of the day - and Kris decides she has to have a drop spindle called a "Trindle." Gale Rogers at the Gale's Art booth was selling them. I think Tammy got one too!


And speaking of Tammy - she was the biggest shopper of the day, at least in my car :-D Here's Kris, trying to make off with Tammy's haul!

And what did I get? Well, I was positively restrained! I'm serious! Tammy helped me make a list (GodLoveHer) the night before, and the woman has a photographic memory! So other than the Briar Rose and two skeins of sock yarn (I'm so serious - you HAVE to get some Briar Rose!) I pretty much stuck to my list, which was mostly yarn for a series of shawls I want to knit. Yay me!

Let's see - L to R, in the back, there are three skeins of Socks That Rock lightweight, in the Muckity Muck colorway, for a shawl (purchased from Toni from The Fold - it's always so good to see her!!). A little 2 oz. bump of Merino from JWRAYCO to play with, a Marudai for the Japanese braiding class I'm taking at Stitches in September. A beautiful pottery dish, and two braids of Gale's Art, Black Blue-Faced Leicester Roving in the Deep Blue Sea colorway. (I already had one that I spun up and was thrilled to get two more.). Then in the front, there's that skein of Scottish Garden - a little washed out with the flash (sorry), and a skein of Socks That Rock, lightweight, in the Carbon Dating colorway. Some Bergschultz buttons for the sweater I'm working on, and two skeins of Touch 2ply, from Touch Yarns in New Zealand - again, for a shawl.

We headed home at about 3 o'clock. I dropped KniftyRed off, and then Tammy and I made a stop at the Sports Authority so she could get some shoes, and then went to dinner and home. And after all that walking (and we both worked out in the a.m. before we even left for the fair), we were both beat! I subjected her to some Bollywood music videos (I'm not so sure she shares my and Linda's love of them, however :-D but she was a pretty good sport about it). :-)

Slept in today, and Tammy headed out on her way to her class this morning. I finished up the sleeve on a sweater I've been working on, and now just need to block it and do the button band - but I'm pretty much just relaxing, and figuring out what to knit next. It's just that kind of day.

Next month's fiber "event" for me will be the Michigan Fiber Festival - I'm already looking forward to it! :-)

Comments

Linda said…
What's not to love about *any* visual experience that has gorgeous, hot men in it? Those are the Bollywood videos I like! ;-)
Kris said…
Good times! Thanks for letting me tag along, what fun!
Darth Knitter said…
I had a fabulous time - thanks again! Especially for parting with the Primero - I think I'm going to have 3 Clapotis' on the needles all at once when I get home!

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