Fiber Festival 2010
Posted By drsao on October 3, 2010
If you like fiber – to spin, to weave, to knit or crochet with – to produce felted pieces with or to use in your mixed media art projects -then I highly RECOMMEND the Fiber Festival! It is over this year but look for it next year in Montpelier, VA. Even if you don’t want any fiber you might want to go look at the beautiful animals – or go to eat the chicken and fried sweet potatoes! It was a fabulous feast for the eyes……and for the touch. There is nothing so silky as alpaca……..oh, I am in love with it.
Let’s see – adding to my TO DO LIST
– Think about getting an angora bunny
– Think about knitting an alpaca sweater
– Think about felting an alpaca embellished silk scarf
– Think about getting some alpacas to go on the FARM that I am going to think about that will be behind my BED AND BREAKFAST that I am going to be thinking about. Hey, they say it is the THOUGHT that counts – so I am going to KEEP THINKING!
– Think about getting a spinning wheel – REALLY – it looks like so much fun!
Even though my voice has suddenly departed (somehow some cold germs have inhabited my body) it was a GLORIOUS DAY. It was also filled with added adventure. First Catherine, Margaret and I diagnosed the meaning of the little red exclamation point on her car’s dashboard. It was a simple solution – WE put air in the tires. I say WE because I screwed a couple of the little knobs back on. Catherine said that Margaret and I looked like we were a NASCAR TEAM – but hey we had to run around the car from tire to tire because we were paying for this air and we had limited time before we had to put in more quarters…..but WE DID IT!
THEN the GENERAL consensus of the party was that sao needed to alter her footwear. I was wearing FIT FLOPS and Margaret pointed out that we were about to embark on a day walking around on a field of wet grass. SO our next adventure led us to a WALMART – that we just happened to find on the way – where I got a pair of MUCK BOOTS…..and I bought socks and wore a double pair. I HAD COZY HAPPY FEET the rest of the day!
I never saw so many beautiful fibers – alpaca, angora, wools, wool blends – the colors, the displays – it was just wonderful. I got some orange baby alpaca yarn for my socks that I am going to start knitting TONIGHT. Hey, 2010 is almost over and I need to meet my goal of knitting a pair of socks. I am super inspired – that is for sure! And the animals were just adorable. I came SO CLOSE to giving myself an angora bunny for Christmas!
Enjoy the pictures! Sorry Janie – I looked for a sheep with a black face to photograph for you but I didn’t see one! There were plenty of other cute ones to look at though. 🙂
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- Catherine made a SPECIAL necklace for the day
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- Margaret putting air in the tires
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- Good Bye FIT FLOPS
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- HELLO MUCK BOOTS
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- My Future Socks
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- SOOOOOOOOOO CUTE
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- Weighing the wool is serious business
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- sao having fun
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- My lunch – loved the sweet potato fries
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- Who would have thought to felt tennis shoes!
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- Fleece straight from the sheep
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- Beautiful
A trip down memory lane – Montpelier, Va – I have not thought about that in a long time. When we lived in Madison and husband was a state trooper, his parents would come up every year and with all the realtives who lived in that area, off we all went to the Montpelier Hunt Races. Nov. 6th this year. A lot of “like yesterday” memories of the horses, people dressed-up, the food we prepared, the guys betting on the horses and trying to keep up with the children in that wonderful environment and spending the day watching the races. That was in the early 1970’s. Wonderful memories from when husband was alive.
I love the muck boots – it is my wish this year to have red ones. BTW, Judy Laquidara of PatchworkTimes.com is having a sock knit along (KAL) starting Nov 1st . I did find my socks book (New Hampshire knit shop) and plan to get my yarn and needles as soon as the book gets here. I am thinking red variagated wool with cashmere and nylon to match my boots. Yeah !!!
I did not know that about Llama’s spitting. Thanks for taking that sign picture. As usual, the pictures and your post were wonderful.
Whata’ dreamy day – the BEST weather, the BEST of friends, the BEST event, the BEST of new discoveries, the BEST of new friends – filled to the brim with butterscotch candies, Mentos mini rolls, glow in the dark Halloween soft soap dispensers, rams head pewter buttons, curls and roving and yarns, oh my!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was almost censorial overload!!!!!!!!!!! I love, love, LOVE all my treasures, wonders and colors and mixes I have never seen before and the best part – we got to HAND PICK most of them, that’s right, the nubbier, curlier, knotted and wavier the betta’, what great, greeeeeaaaat, fun we had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the furry babies, it was just all so very emotional and when I get MY compound in the country, I shall have them ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will carry this day in my heart forevermore and am already dreaming wistfully of next year………. YEAH for fiber – good for your inside AND outside, fiber for everyone!!!!!!!