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I failed to pack my camera cord, so cannot download photos….will post them when I get home.
MS&W is big - hugely big! The traffic was a bit much trying to just get to the fairgrounds…and the fields of automobiles was staggering…no wonder gals were worried about locating their rental cars at the end of the day. Me? Piece of cake! I had arguably the ugliest rental car on the field Saturday - a PT Cruiser - an ELECTRIC BLUE PT Cruiser. Just not me!
I packed comfy shoes and it’s a good thing I did as I was there from 10 am until about 4 pm. I also took advice and got into the restroom line before I was desperate. That, too, turned out to be a good plan.
- The shopping? Wow! Numerous outdoor vendors, one giant exhibition hall, and several smaller buildings. I would just guesstimate about 3X the amount of vendors at BSG. There was yarn everywhere! Oh, and much spinning fibers, too. I was just surprised at the ratio of yarn to spinning fibers. BSG has a higher ratio of spinning fibers. Neither is good/bad, was just my observation.
- My purchases? Two Golding spindles (that booth was heavily picked over by the time I got there….), 4 oz of a local Romney fiber blended with silk, and a Loop batt. I was a good girl (and knew how much suitcase room I had left!)
Terry
As of this afternoon - I am SO out of here!!! DH and I always take a weeks vacation together in May. Last year it was the San Juan Islands. This year we are flying to the east coast. Yep - DH wanted to visit Gettysburg - and - ahem - I asked him if the first week in May was ok. He was happy with that. Ha! What he initially didn’t realize was that his wife (moi) totally scored on a visit to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! Tee hee hee - I am laughing myself silly. Work has been a nightmare and I am so ready to cut loose!
I’m not sure what he’ll do all day Saturday…..it’s my day and I’m going to spend it fondling/drooling over fiber! Ok, and maybe test driving a Golding spindle or two…..
I know that very few people read this silly blog, but if you do, and are going to be at the festival - look me up!
Yahooooooo!
I’m hoping that spring is finally here! No snow for two weeks and my lilacs are begging to come out. And I’ve finally had a tiny bit of time to work in the studio. Several of you have asked where we’re moving to - we are staying in this area, just relocating to another place - we’ve been looking in Lewis County.
The term “left overs” usually generates (in my mind) food left over from the previous day’s meal….and maybe something not so nice….
What happens when you card upteen lbs of wool, silk, and Pygora goat fiber? You get lots of left overs! Good left overs!! As I card, I generate little bags of left overs - they’re not really carder cleanings because the fibers have good length - it’s just fiber that doesnt all come up out of the carder when doffing-off. We usually sell them in our show booth and they always go quickly….
The first step is to sort by color….greens, blues, orange/yellows, red/purples
Orange/Yellow Blend
The Blues
Greens
Terry
….are white and sticking to my lawn. Whaaa! I am so tired of the snow!
Work continues to be crazy - so crazy in fact, that I screwed up the other morning, my mind in a fog, and went to work wearing my barn muck shoes. The really funny part of the story is - NOBODY noticed! Crazy, I know, but I work in a paper mill where everyone wears steel-toed boots. I had told Susan what I’d done - she thought it was rather funny. By the time I met her in town - early that evening - I’d forgotten about my unstylish footwear. That is, until I jumped out of my car and she began to laugh out loud. Good thing I live in red-neckville!
The goats are all sheared (except bellies - but now it’s snowing again!). My clipper blades are already back from the sharpener place and everyone has had another foot trimming. Now we are all waiting for spring to arrive!
We’ve put our place up for sale - yep - time to move on to another greener pasture. Now if I could find a multiple listing website that had “barn” as one of the search amenities!!! We won’t be moving far…..!
Our poor blog has been so neglected of late. Nothing fun to write about, I guess…both our places of employment are rapidly (and painfully) downsizing. Will spare you the gory details -
And I hear it’s horribly boring to type about the weather in a blog - so will skip the 10 inches of snow we had on Saturday. Ugh, I am so ready for spring!
We have been busy carding up more new blends for this year’s shows. That continues to be a bright spot in our lives - that and our dear little goaties! The Spring Fiber Sale at Abernethy Grange was great fun - that venue has continued to grow each year.
I will leave you with cute photo - I couldn’t find the cats tonight when I checked on them in the garage. We lock them in at night. So I went looking for them - it’s supposed to get below freezing again tonight and apparently they both knew that - they were found snug inside a large box of fiber for our guild. They look a bit cranky that I disturbed them……ha!
We’ve all been waiting FOREVER for this up coming weekend to arrive!! Why, you ask??? Because it’s time for the “Wild Goat Women Winter Weekend” at the beach!!! I can’t wait! See the blog entries for last year here (I hope!): http://pygorablog.rainbowyarnsnw.com/?m=200701
There will be great food, plenty of wine and margaritas, walks on the beach, games (Cranium!), spinning wheels and fiber…..Just.Can’t.Wait!!!
See ya next week!!!
I’m sure you all think I’ve dropped off the face of the earth since I haven’t added to this blog for a long time. But the truth is I’ve just been overwhelmed at work and seem to have such limited hours to devote to the other things in my life.
Just wanted to make a quick comment about shearing as I’ve been faced with the same shearing challenges as Terry and Laura Ableman. This winter has been very difficult for fiber goats. They won’t stand out in the rain or snow (which is a good thing!) preferring to hang out in the barn and, although they stay somewhat drier and cleaner, they tend to get a bit cranky and push and shove each other around in an attempt to stave off boredom. This results in a lot of friction between bodies and, as any fiber person knows, friction plus a little bit of moisture equals FELT! Big, huge, hard, dirty balls and clumps of FELT. I have numerous feeding stations set up in an attempt to minimize the friction.
There are years where it is just about impossible to harvest a decent fleece off most of your animals and then there are years when every goats’ fleece looks wonderful. This is NOT one of those years. Every goat I’ve sheared thus far this month is having a really bad hair day. I only took off the good parts, leaving their bellies, legs, rear ends and chest area still covered to keep them a bit warmer. Yesterday, Sunday, one doe did look quite lovely so I removed all of her useable fleece. But wouldn’t you know it, last night it was clear and dang COLD – 26 degrees this morning when I walked down to the barn at 3:30am. Brrr.
Sure enough, Jasmine was laying in the corner shivering a little. I called her name and she came quickly, knowing I felt sorry for her and that she was going to get a bowl full of grain. While she was munching away in the stand, I located by box of goat coats and pulled out one that would fit her perfectly. I purchased my goat coats from Mary Lannen. Mary used to own Pygmy goats but more recently has had dairy breeds. She has a little home based business called “Gotcha Covered” and she makes the best darn goat coats, hay bags, collars and show leads, and she’ll ship them any where. Over the years I’ve ordered all of these products from her. Here’s a link to her business – I highly recommend her:
http://www.gotcha-covered.net/
Jasmine doesn’t mind having the coat on at all. In fact her shivering stopped almost immediately. So today she’s the best dressed goat out in the pasture in her fleece lined purple coat. In a pinch, if a goat get really cold, I put them in a stall thickly bedded with straw and may add a heat lamp. Yes, I know, heat lamps can be very dangerous and I do my best to be careful with how I set it up. Premier 1 Supplies has the best new heat lamp I’ve seen. It’s made in
http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=18266&criteria=heat+lamp
Susan