Got OFFF?

We did, and boy did we have fun! Peggy, Ellen and I did a day trip to Canby, Oregon for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. We left right on schedule: 6:00 a.m. on Saturday the 23rd. First stop was about 5 minutes Southwest of my house at Starbucks on 35th N.E. in the neighborhood of Wedgwood. I love Seattle. There's a coffee shop handy to anywhere, open at 5 in the morning and smelling like 'awake'. Love it.

It was Ellen's first time at a fiber festival but not her last. She was asking about when the next one is on the way home and making mental plans for going to Black Sheep Gathering next June.

I was expecting to purchase a Van Eaton spinning wheel from a friend, after test driving it. What could go wrong, after all? It's a spinning wheel, I am a spinner so it must be good! Not. It and I did not mesh. We don't actually live on the same planet. I live on earth, it lives elsewhere. We didn't get along. At all. Happily, there were several spinners crowded around my friend asking about the wheel when we paused to say "good buy." My friend had purchased a ginormous wheel from Carolina Homespun and was happily, even joyously, spinning away on the lawn and answering questions about her new wheel and her Van Eaton for sale.

The lawn was where the spin-in was happening. Here's a bunch of Seattle Spinners:
I had planned on purchasing the wheel, so when that fell through I was forced to reconsider my vow to not buy any more fiber this year. I had, after all, gone haywire at Black Sheep Gathering in June and have an abundance of fiber at home. Ellen and Peggy were gently vocal about how much money I had saved, not buying the wheel, and it would be like...FREE FIBER, almost... They were very persuasive or I was very weak, one. I bought two colorways of Merino/Kid Mohair from Lisa at Dicentra Designs because I can't resist her gorgeous fiber. I thought I could, but then I touched it and realized I could either buy it or weep later that I hadn't.

Here's Eomund Z on the left and Gulf on the right. Just enough of each for a pair of socks!

Moving on. My other enabler, Jessica, rushed to show me her purchase of Romney/Coopworth/Angora. Yum-eeee. OMG. I had to have it. It's from a wool ranch named 'What A Zoo' in Priest River, Idaho and is run by Chip & Cindy Starritt (no website).

It's a lovely creamy gray. I purchased 17.43 oz for only $28.00. In Oregon, that's $28.00. No tax. I love Oregon.

I have one more photo. Peggy bought a basket:


If I had to make a suggestion to OFFF for next year: have more food vendors. There were three of them and at 12:30 the line for each was 50 people long. That's too long for comfort in the hot Oregon sun. What could we do but pass on food and go back to shopping? Good thing we traveled with grapes, carrots and fig newtons.

We arrived back at my house at 6:30 p.m., a mere 1/2 hour later than we expected because of a traffic jam in Tacoma and stopping for a snack at a fast-food joint. This is day-tripping at it's best!