So I'm easily distracted... that's the only way I can explain why I have yet to do the latest update. And since I leave for Oklahoma tonight (well, Manchester, NH tonight and Oklahoma tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn), chances of it magically appearing here are slim to none.

I hope all of you have a spiffy next few days... I *promise* I will update once I get back from vacation (and theoretically, my monkey socks will be done by then!).

Fiber Frolic... a little late.

In the last post I said I was going to be posting a review of the Fiber Frolic. And... two weeks later, here it is. Better late than never??

Fiber Frolic, Saturday June 9:
My best friend Cass drove down from Bucksport and we headed to the Windsor Fairgrounds about 10am or so. The sky was overcast... the temp a little chilly... so I think the number of attendees was down a bit. I should note that this was my first Frolic... as soon as we walked through the gate it was like a little patch of Heaven. Tents and buildings full of fiber... fiber animals all over the place. We trucked over to Amy Boogie's booth first because I was trying to be really good about my budget and knew that if I didn't hit Amy's stuff first, I would be out of money by the time I did. And knowing that she had been working on some fabulous batts, I *had* to pick up some stuff. Her sock yarn was also on my radar for the Chevron scarf that is making the rounds in knitblog land.

As always, Amy's booth was busy... but can I just say how fabulous she is? There is just no one like her... her stuff is beautiful and she just has the best personality. I picked up a couple of her batts and a couple of skeins of Maine Sock yarn for the scarf. I was also eyeing a drop spindle, but decided not to get it.

Cass and I walked around the rest of the grounds... browsed and touched great fiber and scratched sheeps' heads. The bummer is that I had forgotten my camera and so I didn't get a single photo of Saturday.

What I brought home...
This is a batt of plain ol' wool... but I just loved the color blend. To be honest, I don't even know what farm it came from or what type of wool it is. It spins up wonderfully though... although that is for another post!


The two skeins of Maine Sock for my Chevron scarf...



The two batts I bought from Amy... I am *dying* to spin up the sparkly one, but I want to wait until my thin spinning is a little more even. I have no specific plan for them yet, but I would love to just roll around in them!



Cass and I had been walking around and had just loved touching the camel- silk blends that we had come across, so I picked up a little one just to try it out. This stuff seriously feels like buttah!


And this is my total luxury purchase... it's a half pound of merino and tussah silk mix. This stuff actually made me weak in the knees when I touched it. I'm hoping to get to a point where I can spin decent laceweight and turn this into a shawl.


Fiber Frolic, Sunday June 10:
I wasn't planning on going again on Sunday, but Sebastian was stir crazy, we didn't have a lot of cash on hand, and the weather was gorgeous and warm.

We watched the sheep dog demonstration first... Sebastian got the biggest kick out of watching the dogs chasing the sheep.


And now animals, animals, animals!












Cass and I had talked to one of the farm owners of these gals on Saturday... the spotted one is Mama and the other is Baby. Mama would start to growl if Baby would wander too far away from her. It was actually really cute!


This was my favorite rabbit in the whole Frolic. His body had been shaved, but his big fuzzy head had been left untouched. He looked like a lion.


And more animals!












What I brought home...
Well... remember that drop spindle I mentioned almost picking up at Amy's booth on Saturday? It came home with me on Sunday.


It's a Schacht... and I seriously love it. I never thought I would love a spindle as much as my wheel, but I've got to tell you... this is close. Very close. I'm currently working on spinning some white alpaca that I bought months ago from Village Farm Alpacas and hope to have enough to maybe do the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave.

I've got more stuff to show... some recent spinning, my second finished pinwheel baby blanket... but I'm going to put that in a different entry (hopefully this week since I leave for Oklahoma Friday morning).

Lots of updating packed into an itty-bitty blogging space!

I've been monkeying around!


Only one, though... the other is only one repeat into the pattern, and although I am anxious to work more on them, I have to finish some of the baby knitting and crocheting first.

And baby knitting and crocheting is coming along swimmingly! I finished the pinwheel blanket for baby Ezra...


and I decided to go a little crazy on the edges and change up the eyelets a bit...


Specs: Caron Simply Soft in 3 different shades of blue and size 8 needles.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy... and I've started on the pinwheel blanket for baby River-Kate...


I've got to finish it this weekend to make sure I have enough time to weave in the ends and such before I leave for Oklahoma at the end of the month, so I'm going to be bringing it to my parents' BBQ this weekend!

I've also finished crocheting the sweater for baby Ezra...


Specs: Two strands of Bernat Baby held together, Baby It's Cold Outside crochet pattern and size K hook. I love how it striped. I haven't put ties on it yet, but I'll pop those on when I weave in all the ends. I still need to start the sweater for River-Kate, and although I picked out a super cute pattern the other day, I might just use this one since it's like old hat and I am running out of time!

There's something fishy going on with my spinning wheel...


It appears that Flounder has decided that my wheel is a good place to take a nap. No matter, though, I have managed to do some spinning anyway!


This is some of the Spunky Club roving called Nightshade. I am absolutely over the moon for this colorway... but have been afraid that since my spinning is ok at best, I would end up ruining it. After going to the Fiber Frolic on Saturday I decided to just go for it anyway and spin up a batch to see how it looked. This is only a small portion of what I have- and I haven't decided on whether I want to ply it or leave it as is.


And the spinning is getting thinner, too! It's still not as pretty as some of the other spun Nightshade in knitblog land (Maryse I'm looking at you!), but I am really happy that I was able to spin something that wasn't as thick as my wrist for a change.

Today I got in the mail a package of yarn that I purchased from a fellow Raveler (I still like the word Ravelrista better, but I'll conform!)... Phoe from the UK. I've been wanting to try knitting with some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and she was looking to destash some. But that's not the coolest part. Not only is she super nice to correspond with, but she was an absolute sweetheart and sent these as a gift...


She makes jewelry and such and it is so so pretty! Her etsy shop doesn't have anything in it tonight, but you need to go check back because her jewelry is wonderful!

I've still got to post about the Fiber Frolic, and I was going to tack it on here but I've got a ton of pictures and figure it would be better to just make it its own entry. Instead, I want to finish with the focus on a project that is not mine... it is my mom's. I re-taught my mom to crochet a couple of years ago and she hasn't looked back. Scarves and stuff she's done, but she recently decided to tackle an afghan for the living room. She and my dad love the Southwest US area... the weather, the art, the culture... and their living room is decorated as such. Mom bought eleventy million skeins of yarn and started crocheting.

She ended up with one of the most beautiful afghans that I have ever seen. All single crochet... big enough to fit their queen size bed.



When I saw it finished and told her I wanted pictures so I could showcase it here, she looked surprised as asked why. I don't think she realizes how amazed I am that someone would have the patience to single crochet a blanket big enough for a queen size bed. And the colors are gorgeous. I can't wait to see what she crochets next!