On a rather cold and dreary day (yesterday, in fact!) a friend and I went to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York. For almost five hours we walked around booth after booth after booth, barn after barn after barn, just everywhere natural fibers and all the tools of the trade to weave, knit, crochet—basically anything you’d need to make fiber arts by hand.
One of the many stars of the festival. There were sheep of all imaginable kinds, angora rabbits, goats, alpacas and llamas. Not just for display, either–many of these animals were for sale, of course, in case you want to build out your herd!
An award-winning alpaca. She looks rather happy with herself, doesn’t she?
Some of the freshly-shorn sheep got jackets to protect them from the cold!
A bag of raw wool, ready to be picked, carded and then spun into yarn. I love how it feels and smells!
Speaking of spinning:
There were countless spinning demonstrations around the festival. From modern spinning techniques to older techniques (complete with spinners in historical garb), it was very tempting to pick up a spinning wheel and give this a try for myself. But then I realized that it takes me forever just to knit a project, so I’d really better stick to what I’ve got going and not take on any more hobbies!
… but when you see the beauty of spinning wheels like this one, it is sooooooo tempting!
So much raw fiber ready to be spun… any cat would have a field day with these.
Funnily enough, even though I was looking at booth after booth after booth of yarn, I don’t have a single picture of actual YARN from the whole festival. There was just so much of it that it seemed almost pointless to try and capture the sheer volume of yarn (of every imaginable kind! Including Alaskan Musk Ox!!)
It’s definitely an estrogen-fest—very few men to be seen here, except the ones sitting by a corner, looking bored, those poor guys!—and it’s a great time to shamelessly indulge your more domestic side.
The Sheep and Wool Festival is also a popular destination for Ravelers (ravelry.com members). There was a big Ravelry party on Saturday that I missed, unfortunately, but I did get to go to the meetup on Sunday and meet some fellow members. Many were wearing their best knitted finery. It was nice to meet everyone!
(Here’s my Ravelry account, add me if you like!)
It seems my previous IKEA hack was pretty popular, and though these aren’t hacks they are IKEA related:
This tote I made from IKEA canvas fabric (bought 1 yard of it). The key I purchased at Portobello Road in London at one of those random trinket stores along the road that sells old findings. Just wanted a reason to put it somewhere I guess. Didn’t have a pattern for the tote. For some reason it looks oddly droopy in this picture, but it’s not.
Other item:
It’s a roll-up knitting needle case, also constructed using IKEA canvas fabric as well as scrap fabric from an old pair of H&M pajama pants that I loved years ago. (I save stuff like this for future projects, what can I say.) I even re-used the H&M pj drawstrings for the cording to roll up the case.
I took a look around my apartment this evening and realized that a lot of my personal effects really don’t make sense when dashed together:
I am also probably one of the only people under 40 who actually owns a 5-cd changer stereo in addition to an iPod. Oh, and a best of David Bowie LP set. With a knitting Hello Kitty. With Greek pop cds. With feather fascinators. And mountain biking gloves.
I’m confused now.
The real news is this baby:
My new Janome sewing machine! I sold my trusty Singer on craigslist to someone who needed it more than I, and upgraded to a machine that’s a lot more heavy-duty and can work with the weird projects I’ve been making lately. Seriously seeing this on my doorstep was the highlight of my Friday.
![[VAR]iable expression: Maria Varmazis' blog](http://mvarmazis.com/mvarmazis_banner.png)
