score for 4!

The Connecticut Sheep, Wool, and Fiber Festival is an event that all four members of my family enjoy, all for different reasons, but all in a big way. The 2008 festival, yesterday, was no exception. Scott had a blast selling his glass buttons and beads, sharing a booth for the 2nd year with one of our soapmaking friends. He just loves to chat it up with anybody who stops by and gets a kick out of how many say they remember him from Spa 2007 , or they read this blog, or they too are homeschoolers, or they know Leah from some event or guild. He didn't expect to discover that one of them is a not-so-distant-but-long-lost relative, but there you have it.

There were, of course, eleventy billion skeins and batts to fondle, wheels and spindles to try, workshops and demos with knowledgeable fiber enthusiasts.

There were many cute critters to pet. I spent much of the time cuddling a baby angora bunny, which seriously cut into my knitting plans, but the soft snuggliness of those little fiber fluffballs is irresistible. There were also plenty of bigger types of fiber fluffballs looking beautiful.

It's a big enough festival to offer a good variety of things for sale and things to do, small enough to not be overwhelming and exhausting. It also happens at a time of year when being outside, in the sunshine, among the blooming everything, is a much-needed breath of fresh air.

(An aside: Have I told you about the yo-yo obsession here? I don't think so. Jesse is yo-yo obsessed x 4 months now. We have had videos and books from the library about the diff. tricks. We have bookmarked websites with instruction. The yo-yos go everywhere with him -- one for his own use and at least one more in his pocket for anybody who wants to join in. He taught somebody at the Polynesian Cultural Center when we were in Hawaii, he taught some kids at Old Sturbridge Village, and he put on an impromptu show for a group of girls at the fair yesterday. Good stuff.)

What I can't capture in this group of photos is the non-stop stream of old friends we ran into and new friends made along the way. Everywhere I turned, there was somebody we knew from some fibery aspect of our lives, and then there was a Ravelry meet-up where I put faces to the online names and those virtual acquaintances turned into local friends and neighbors. I was going to do a linkfest here, but there are just too many. Such fun!

Bonus prize: We'll see a bunch of them, and more, again today. Can't wait.

knitters' pre-game festivities

We used to spend Super Bowl Sunday with a lot of rowdy people having an awful lot of fun. Yesterday, at the Webs Big Game Bash, I realized it's still rowdy and raucous and a ton of fun, but the beer has (mostly) ;-) been replaced by yarn. Once again, Leah and I made the trek north to spend the afternoon in Northampton. We met up with friends from New Jersey and a growing number of acquaintances with whom we can talk like old friends because there's that instant connection and easy flow of conversations that start with "What are you knitting?"

Leah was especially looking forward to this event. She made sure to wear her "Love to Knit" shirt from Creative Fibers, which has become our local yarn store. She had plans to score a bag of yarn to knit into her first sweater and also to chat with every person in the store. She certainly didn't expect to win a generous door prize -- including a $15 gift card, Eucalan, needle gauge, and tape measure -- but she did! And then I won a door prize (4 skeins of yarn and a scarf pattern to go with it, Eucalan) too! Thanks for a great party, Webs!

This morning, I cut the steek on my handspun cardigan and am wearing it at this moment. Still need to bury the yarn ends, sew on the buttons, and block it, but I can tell already that it's likely to become my favorite sweater. Yahoo!