Shepherd's Harvest Festival 2014

The Shepherd's Harvest Festival is an annual event held at the Washington County Fairgrounds near Lake Elmo, MN and I have gone for the last four years. It was me and my mom hitting the festival again this year. I like to get there when it opens on the first non-class day so I get to see the most amount of yarn and wares from the vendors. (Greedy little yarn diva that I am - I don't want to miss a thing with building up my yarn stash!) 

This year we decided to start in the last building first as that building tends to get high traffic and is hard to maneuver, and that is all because of the gentleman above who graciously welcomed me and my mom when we walked in the door. That is StevenBe who is also known as The Glitter Knitter and he is just the warmest, kindest person. He is doing a tour this summer across America with Stephen West and my head kind of explodes to even think of that level of awesome combining. (Ok - Enough with the fan girl!)

So the festival this year had three buildings set up for vendors rather than four, so it did feel a little scaled back to me. This is also the first year that they charged for entry, so I thought that was interesting. Frankly I think they should have charged all along as it is such a wonderful festival, and anything that they can do to sustain it is good with me!

There were spinners here and there, like this gentleman from the Blackberry Hills booth. So fun to watch! This was a busy booth and is you can see behind where he is spinning, they had some gorgeous handmade shawls for sale along with their other items. The shawls were just beautiful!

This is another example of a vendor booth. So much yarn and fiber goodness! This was at the entrance to one of the buildings and had great light and you pretty much just walked right in to an explosion of color and fiber fun when you walked into the building. So awesome.

Although I am not much for fleece, I do appreciate what it gets turned into, so that makes me like the fleece even if I have no use for it. (I WILL NOT SPIN! If I keep saying that it will be true, right?) It was pretty much impossible to walk buy a bag of fleece and not plunge your hands into it.

Here is a picture of me holding the reins of Lonnie the Llama. Lonnie is about 8 years old according to his human and he was so majestic. We were walking across the fair grounds and I spotted him and had to go meet him. My mom snapped this shot of me grinning wildly up at Lonnie. I just wanted to hug him and take him home!

After meeting Lonnie we headed over to the critter barn and got to see some llama's and alpaca's. It is always so fun to get up close to these guys and see them in touching distance.

 

Next we were off to the Sheep shearing which was just impressive. This gentleman can shear a sheep in no time and we watched him shear several breeds of sheep and learned a lot about the sheep as well.  Really neat!

So I managed to control my splurging this year better than years past. This is the haul I came home with. Some ridiculously reduced price yarns at one booth - like the Boku and the Nashua yarn. The white skeins are 100% alpaca from a vendor that I search out for at this festival every year. Really nice guy and the yarn is like touching heaven. Am quite pleased with my stash enhancements this year and also proud that I controlled myself a little bit.

My other bit of wonderful I picked up is this mug. Both me and my mom got the same mug and I use it all the time. It makes me smile every time I see it and it's just a fun addition to my festival memories.

All in all it was just a wonderful time. I love going to this festival and it was great fun spending the day with my mom and touching fiber and talking yarn and eating deep fried egg roles while sitting in the grass and watching the people with all their hand knit items being worn (quite a fashion show!) while they walked the fair grounds. I look forward to this every year and it's just something special.

Sort of Afghan

Project Name: Sort Of Afghan
Pattern Name: Stratford Circle Afghan by Lion Brand Yarn
Yarn: Patons Rumor 5 skeins = 420.0 yards (384.0m) in Colorway Hibiscus Heather

Hook: 8.0 mm (L)
Size: About three feet across - Lap blanket size
Love: ♥♥♥ - Medium Love. I like the pattern - but I needed A LOT more size for this to be useful for humans

You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.

This was a stash buster for me. I had these 5 skeins of Rumor yarn in my stash and I wanted something different to work on at lunch - and this is what that turned into.

They no longer make this yarn so I couldn't order more to add to the size of this. It was a bit splitty and shed A LOT, but it also hid my oops well because is was a furry yarn. (Part Alpaca!) It also kept my lap very warm while I worked on it. Nice since it has been bitter cold here for the last week.

I intend for this to be used for my Cat Izzi in her cat bed. She has bad knee's so we have a pet heating pad in the top bed of her Kitty Tower, and she loves it when we put a blanket over her and she can curl up in the warmth. This will be a better size than a human afghan and will look a little better too!

I really liked this pattern. It was free from Lion Brand.com and it was a great beginner pattern for a crochet blanket.

Shepard's Harvest Festival, Part 2

For my Part 2 post on the Shepard's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival I thought I would share some animal pictures from the festival. But not quite yurt. First - A photo of a YURT!

I decided not to wonder in (Lots of people and a little warm out) but I did admire the yurt and the awesome Spinning Wheel. Even more intriguing to me was the the loom in the shape of a giant triangle. This is a Shawl Loom and the lady working it said she can get a giant shawl in just an hour or two! Amazing! I found a link to Triangle Shawl Looms here if you want more info. I find it fascinating! (Can you imagine the stash busting possibilities??!)

In one of the main buildings they had several tables set up with different breeds of Bunnies on the tables and nice cards that told you what breed the bunny was and what it produces for fiber, etc. They were all just so squishy and wonderful! Just wanted to go give them all a big squeeze!

A Trio of pretty Alpaca. They are so cute! They really curled up together a lot and would spend a lot of time moving away from the hands reaching out to touch. They are such sweet critters! In the background you can see some shawls hanging and some art work on display. Everywhere you looked here there was something else to draw your attention. It was fantastic!

It seemed there were a lot more llama in the barn when I went through than alpaca. These guys seemed to pose for me as I snapped my photo. They have such pretty eyes and expressive ears!

I borrowed my hubbies camera for the day and his camera makes a shutter noise when you snap a picture. This guys/girls (not sure of the sex) ears would come up AFTER each shot. Like they were wondering what that sound was. It was funny. Around my 4th picture the lady standing next to me started to laugh.

You got to love how proud this one looks even though some of it's lovely locks have been shorn. Behind him you can see the thin neck and cute head of it's neighbor who got shorn up to the head. I think they are so endearing when they are shaved and have these long scrawny necks. Just pen after pen of cute and funny.

And lastly for this post, a shot of the human animals walking around the pens. This is half of the barn - meaning there was another aisle just like this on the other side of the barn. There were a few critters I did not get to take pictures of as I couldn't get very close. The baby lambs had a big crowd around them of course!

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Shepard's Harvest Festival post were I will show off my haul!

Shepard's Harvest Festival 2012, Post 1

It was Mother's Day this past weekend which means it was also the annual Shepard's Harvest Wool and Sheep Festival in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. (YAY!) This year I went all by my lonesome since my hubby had an event of his own to attend. And this year the weather was amazing and the place was just A ZOO! I am happy it's so popular - but boy was it exhausting!

Instead of having a mile long post, I thought I would share a few pictures over several days. The web site has a wonderful description of what the festival is all about, so I will quote them here:

"Shepherd’s Harvest Festival is an opportunity for rural and urban people to meet and share information about sheep and sheep products and other fiber-producing animals. The Festival was started in order to provide a venue where wool producers, wool consumers and wool artisans could come together and share the excitement of working with sheep and their fantastic product – wool. Gradually, the Festival has grown to include other fiber animals such as angora rabbits, alpacas, and goats. The Festival strives to be a family oriented event that is not only fun but educational. Numerous classes are offered in the fiber arts — geared for all levels of experience — from the beginner to the expert. Each year, we offer some classes in the less well known fiber arts so students can expand their crafts expertise Many vendors of fiber and fiber animal related products show their wares at the Festival through a juried selection of vendors of unique products. If it’s fiber related, you probably will find a vendor with just what you have been looking for.
To add to the fun of the Festival, there is live entertainment each day. Demonstrations are ongoing for sheep shearing, herding dogs, spinning and knitting. Activities are planned to spark the interest of youngsters. Judging, showing and selling of fiber from sheep, angora rabbits and alpacas give you the opportunity to view some of the finest fleeces in the Upper Midwest and to compare your skills at selecting fleece with highly regarded fleece judges. There are many activities at the Festival. Feel free to peruse the activities listed in the right hand column of events at the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival. Then come and join in the fun at this year’s Festival! Thank you to the entire fiber community for making this event such a success!!"

This first photo is a view from the entrance of one of the buildings. These buildings are just HUGE and they were packed full of vendor's and music and demonstrations. It was just wonderful. I believe this was an area where you could go up and try different types of wheels. I am not a spinner, so I just admire all the doodads and doohickeys I see at the festival. There were so many ways to play with fiber being shown - it was mind blowing!

Here we have the same building but I aimed my camera down the other aisle. All the buildings had vendors down both sides of the buildings and then a row in the middle as well. I believe there were Four Primary buildings that were as full/busy as this and then other buildings with animals, classes, competitions, etc....

This was the food vendor area and they had sheep sheering here and a yurt set up and all kinds of cool stuff. I took this picture early on in the day - maybe 30 minutes after the gates opened. An hour later it was hard to walk around here there were so many people everywhere! The lines for the food were insane. I had promised myself this year I would get the Fried Walleye chunks with homemade tarter sauce - but alas. It twas not to be! I just couldn't bare waiting in the long long line on something that would blow my diet all to hell. I did get me some cheese curds though!  (DOH! So worth it though!)

I want to say these ladies were with a guild - but I can't remember now. You think you will remember all these details after you get home - but boy does it all dissolve into a colorful blur pretty quick! At any rate, these gals had several wheels set up and were spinning fiber. I know the lady in the red sweater was next to me in a line were I bought a whole bunch of stuff, and she said she was going to hit the booth owner up for donations - so I know they were with some non-profit type guild type thingy. (Oh boy - great memory Jen!)

And here we have Elmo the sheep. I didn't understand this when I read about it in the notes, but we could bring handmade decorations to "decorate" Elmo. I would have loved to have brought something for him to wear!

And here is one more view into a different building. I was standing in the doorway looking down - and you can make out the other entry way way down on the other end. I think I can safely say there wasn't much that was not sold here! It was just amazing. I spent about 4 hours here and I was just pooped when I left. But I also had a trunk loaded with goodies! Stay tuned and I will share my Stash Enhancement Photos in the very near future!

Something Something Hat

You can tell I am sort of running out of names for hats. I was looking for a pattern in Creative Knitting, Fall 2010: Accessorize with Style and came across this pattern for a simple cap in a Single Skein of Blizzard Yarn. Why I would have purchased a single skein of a yarn with only 66 yards on it - I have no idea. I think the color and the squish factor made me do it. (Apparently this yarn is now discontinued which just makes me sad. It was so yummy!)

So I cast on and quickly got through the body. And then as I was getting ready to knit the last couple rows I noticed a twisted stitch half way up the hat. On sock yarn this would not be a big deal - but when you are working on something this bulky it REALLY stands out. So I frogged it and started over. Second attempt I got into the final rows of decreases and realized my stitch count was off and it looked BAD. Frog frog frog. Third time I managed to knit the hat correctly! So really I made the same hat three times in one day. It's a wonderful pattern. Very simple and I really only used about 50 yards of yarn.

It's one of those hats you just want to pet because it's so soft and cuddly. The rib keeps the hat from rolling up. A really warm hat. Instant gratification. I think I will keep the pattern handy as it would be excellent for one of those "Oh crap!" moments where you need a hand knit gift immediately. (Shocking how often that really does happen!) I might need to troll the Internet for more of this yarn.... It's really nice!

Upper Midwest Alpacas 3rd Annual Fiber Festival

Fate was working for me this year and the Upper Midwest Alpacas 3rd Annual Fall Fiber Festival was held on my B-day! So my hubby and I headed out to Hopkins, MN and spent an hour or two looking over local fibers. This is only the second fiber festival I have been to and it was tiny compared to the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival I went to in May. This festival was held in a school Gym and there were about 50 vendors set up.

I had an interesting talk with the vendor selling corn yarn about the milling process. He said that they had to change mills because of the road construction crews discovering that a biodegradable corn fiber mesh could be used to stop hillside erosion and now the mills are pumping out this corn based mesh like crazy. So the mill that would spin his fiber bumped him to a different mill, (smaller mill) and the fiber he got from this other mill is WAY softer! Interesting! (I found an article about this here if anyone is interested.)

We also had a nice chat with a lady selling Wassail cider and jelly. We picked up some of her spice packets and jelly for gifting this holiday (shhhhh) and she admired my Lucy Bag. She told me that she wanted to knit a bag and felt it and she went to the yarn store and the yarn cost her $200.00! She was horrified. :) I think I have gotten used to the sticker shock of good wool. Also - I thought it funny that she was horrified about the cost of yarn when every booth around her was selling expensive luxury yarn. Hee hee.

There were a lot of chatty people here who would just walk up and start talking to you. It was pretty welcoming and comfortable. I walked the entire circuit and then went back for the yarn I HAD to have. I ended up with four skeins.

This is 7.50 oz (469 Yards) of Black Alpaca from Enchanted Meadows in Wausau, Wisconsin. I believe this is about a Sport Weight (or DK?) and it's just squishy goodness. I new when I touched it that it was coming home with me. So. Awesome!

This Blue Lusciousness is 300 Yards of 100% Suri in Sport Weight from Riverside Alpacas in Lake City, MN. This yarn is so cool in my hands - it's almost silky to the touch. It is fun to just pet it over and over. I had to have this blue - my picture doesn't show the depth of color here - but it's just wonderful.

This skein is an Angora Rabbit and Wool Blend (60/40), it is worsted weight, and it holds 300 yards. This is from Angora Gardens from Clarks Grove, MN. They had really soft samples knit up at their booth and it made me want Angora Yarn in the worst way! This blend was pretty wonderful to touch and a little closer to my price range than the full angora I found sold at another booth. (Boy is it awesome to squish though!) This is the thickest yarn I purchased - which is funny since I am a bulky weight girl in most of my knitting.

And my final purchase was this lovely hand dyed sock yarn from Knit in Class Fiber Studios. The colors of the yarn were so wonderful! And the yarn is just squishy goodness. I try not to buy to much Superwash yarn, but this is a Superwash Sock yarn - in the colorway Smoke. 460 yards of soft yarn. Very lovely. I think it will make a nice shawlette.

I am quite pleased with my Stash Enhancement and have been having fun feeling the yarn and trying to think about what it wants to be knit into. Ravelry here I come! :)