Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival 2012

I've been on a bit of a summer break, but now that fiber season officially ended with Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, it's time to do a little catch-up.

We couldn't have asked for a better day to be at the fairgrounds in Canby. The weather was in the 70s, the skies were clear, and the fairgrounds were packed with vendors.

Not to mention the animal barns! As always, lots of bunnies, sheep, alpacas, llamas, and goats.

Some pretty Border Leicesters gave us the stink-eye:

Lovely merino on the hoof! Give me some scissors and let me set my wheel down -- these babies are ready to spin!

The famous blue faces of the Blue-faced Leicesters:

And such pretty locks on the Angora goats! Mohair on the hoof!

But if you really want to turn my crank, let me comb out these pretty little cashmere goats. Their neighbors, the pygora goats, were just as lovely, but wouldn't hold still for a good picture:

What really makes OFFF, though, is going with friends. We set up on the lawn with our wheels and our knitting and spent the afternoon just enjoying ourselves. Katie spent some quality time with her Roadbug:

Nanci got an impromptu lesson on spinning with a Turkish spindle, and came away with a new spindle and fiber:

Nanci and I met up with Betsy who was tending a friend's booth:

Patch and her mother joined us with little Gwen, who insisted on doing more shopping, seeing animals, and came away with a giant chocolate muffin:

After organizing and posting my stash on Ravelry, including my spinning fiber, I decided I needed to slow down on my buying and swapping. If I knit at my usual rate, it will be at least three years before I can truthfully say, "I don't have much yarn and I need some more." And that's not counting the two fleeces I'm working on. Consequently I put myself on a yarn diet. Mind you, "diet" in a nutritional sense means "eat moderately" not "stop eating altogether," so a sensible yarn diet allows for a little moderate buying now and then. Being rather "full" of yarn does make all the lovely things a little less "must have NAO!" My loot was a beautiful silver and enamel scarf slide from Gita Maria, a third hank of purple yak/merino fiber from Abstract Fiber to go with two others that I have, which should give me enough to make a vest, and a fat skein of Twisted yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Y'see, there were these felted chicken slippers on display at the Blue Moon booth, designed by Mary Scott Huff, and Nanci and I couldn't resist (Nanci especially couldn't resist since she keeps chickens in her backyard). The real selling point? The little "chicken slipper bits" packets sitting right next to the slippers. I'm sure dozens of knitters thought like we did, "Oh, hey, here are the little bits of red and yellow yarn you need for the slippers, right here, no buying whole extra skeins!" Alas, I don't see the pattern on Ravelry yet to link to. When I find it I'll post it.