The Market at OFFF

Saturday, Sept 22nd, came in bright and shiny, if a tad cool.  The weather just got better during the day, never too hot but hot enough to burn off the heavy dew and allow us to leave our sweaters in camp.

Shopping at OFFF is something of a contact sport ~ the event officially opens at 9:00am but the crowd gets there at 8:00, growing by at least 300% by 9.  You can't walk fast from one booth to the next ~ it's more like swimming upstream, gradually insinuating yourself into the actual environs of the booth of choice while about 25 other shoppers are attempting the same thing.  In short, OFFF is very like every other fabulous fiber festival and it's all good.

Well, most of it is good.  We get there early so some other knitter or spinner doesn't buy 'our' stuff, and unfortunately sometimes we're not early enough and we see someone carrying off the exact thing that we wanted.  Darn!

In spite of that, this year we we're very happy with our shopping experience.  We did Toots, Carolina, Clouse, Michael & Sheila, Lisa, the other Lisa and then all the rest or at least most of them.  There seemed to be hundreds.  They were in two big buildings, the barns, the grassy plaza, everywhere.  It was awesome.

Michelle LeBlanc of Toots LeBlanc, purveyors of fine and rare yarns.

Sheila & Michael Ernst, makers of awesome glass needles, buttons and more.

Cheryl Newhouse of NewHue Handspuns

Lisa of Dicentra

We were buying for ourselves and also door prizes for the upcoming early November Knitters Retreat at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA.  Our plan was to not go discount but to go with quality over quantity, hence the above mentioned vendors.  It's so fun to spend other peoples money!

We did manage to find some of 'our' stuff in there, so we bought:

Mystery Fiber from Fantasy Fibers ~ P

Shetland Fleece from Whistlestop Shetlands ~ P

 

 This is Brandy Chastain from Whistlestop Shetlands & a good shot of the Sunday Fiber Sale

 

Corriedale Fleece ~ R

Cashmara Sock Yarn from Fly Designs ~ R

Corriedale Fiber dyed by Lisa of Dicentra ~ R

Merino Bamboo from NewHue ~ R

By the end of the weekend we were ready to go home.  The awful traffic at/around Tacoma is becoming an annual ritual, not something we look forward to but at least it means we're only an hour (once we get through it) from home.  Sometimes that means 90 minutes, sometimes 2 hours, but we have our books on cd, snacks from the cooler and plenty of patience. 

A very satisfactory way to spend 4 days.

We must do this again sometime.
Maybe next year. 

 

Camping and Koi at OFFF 2012

It's about time we went back to OFFF.  It's been a few years and during that time we gathered 'grown-up' camping equipment so that we could camp in a semblance of comfort:  largish tent and self-inflating queen-size air mattresses for starters.  We had one lantern and a few flashlights, but were lacking a stove, another lantern and, who knew we would need one, a heater.  These we borrowed from good friends and we will use the coming year to invest in our own.

We checked the 10-day and the 7-day forecast and here's what we were expecting: 75/52, mostly sunny.  Here's what we got: 64/48, heavily overcast Thursday/Friday, rain Thursday night, and then 68/50 and sunny on Saturday/Sunday.  We moved the kitchen into the tent and refreshed the  propane canisters twice, as that little heater was getting a workout.

We called my son, who lives in Portland, to meet us at the campgrounds and help us set up the new tent, which was way easier than anticipated and left plenty of time for beer after.

 

 

Friday dawned cloudy and gray, the tent dripping and the ankle-high grass soaking our jeans on the way to the outhouse about a block away.  Note to selves: consider a travel toilet...

Evanne was camping w/ Tazo about 30' away; she had minimal goals for the free day: get a pedicure, visit the dahlia gardens and get some 'hammock time'. 

 By 10:00 Friday we were all three sitting in the nail salon, Evanne with her feet in a tub and Peggy and I having our fingernails done.  In Oregon they have a law: you must buy a 'nail kit' which includes an emery board and a buffer for hands plus a callus buffer for feet.  $1 or $2.  Or you can bring your own.  We love this, for obvious reasons.

By 11:30 we were at Swan Island Dahlia Farm, which we walked through for at least two hours.  Think of the Tulip Fields in the Skagit Valley, squared.  Bigger blooms, taller flowers.  And a Koi pond!  The Koi are for sale, just fyi.

Koi Pool

Waterfall

Crowd

Big head

Big mouth

Bigger mouth

Orange

Orange and Gold

White and Yellow

After dahlias and Koi, we stopped at a fruit/vegetable stand, checked out the Canby Ferry on the river,

 

meandered back to camp, fixed chicken sandwiches and then spun for awhile.  It was the only long-term spinning time we had for 3 days because on Saturday things got really busy: 

OFFF officially opened for the weekend.

Labor Day carding projects

We spent the Labor Day weekend on regular weekend chores with a little 'special' in there once in awhile.  I did some carding while working with the laundry and Peggy went to work to get ready for a big event in her department.

The carding involved the second time through the carder with my pale gray shetland, Strudel, and the third time through on the Corriedale "Birch", which I bought at Whidbey Spin-in in 2011.  Both of them evened out, became consistent in coloration, especially the blue Corriedale.

 All of Strudel laid out.

 Once through the carder.

 Finished carding ~ all evened out, color-wise

Bag full of Corriedale named "Birch".

Dyeing the washed fleece with 3 different blues.

Three times through the carder.

Early Monday I went back to carding, working on a 50/50 blend of brown CVM named Humphrey and apricot Alpaca name Alessandro, hoping that the alpaca would brighten up the CVM.  Sadly, the opposite happened ~ the brown overwhelmed the apricot and, once spun and 2-plyed, gave me a drab, lifeless color that I do not want at all.  I also don't want to dye either one, so on to:

Plan B: card the CVM by itself; it's a nice color and there is enough for a sweater if I do it well.  Then find a nice white fleece and try the apricot alpaca with it, hoping for a glint of color from the alpaca.  I have less than 2 lbs of the alpaca so I can't afford to experiment very much.  I think I can get a hat out of the CVM/Alpaca blend I've already spun and plied.

We have plans for Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival later this month, so perhaps I'll find an appropriate fleece there. A few months ago Peggy and I put ourselves on "NO NEW FLEECES" status (the fiber room is full of plenty of fleeces ready to be spun), but there is no need to be unreasonable if the right fleece presents itself.  I'm pretty sure that's one of the "Spinners Rules of Acquisition".

Spinning BFL

Ashland Bay Natural Colors Blue Face Leicester

(or Blue Faced, if you prefer. I've seen it both ways.)

Fun stuff. I tried my larger whorl and put my drive band on the big wheel to see if I could spin bigger yarn, by bigger I mean not lace or fingering weight, which is normal for me. I acquired one pound, purchased from Heidi at The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble. Love her shop ~ if you get a chance, stop by. She has a weaving annex now, and gives classes.

Three hanks, 647 yards.

Prewashing, it's not so sproiny.After washing: sproiny!
The swatch is worked on 8's, 7's and 6's.

The 8's gave me a nice fabric and there is probably enough yardage for a vest. Or maybe a shawl/wrap. I briefly considered buying another pound but I have plenty of other fibers to spin right now and so I'll just move on. By the way, when I washed the three hanks to set the spin, the water was filthy brown. Not oil, dirt. I have heard that Ashland Bay fibers are processed in China and this may be true, I don't know. I do know that I haven't yet run into fiber quite this dirty. I have also heard that Blue Face (or Faced) Leicester are called that because they look sad, not because their color is blue. I know they aren't blue, but can that 'sad' bit be true? Surely not...

Fleece Sale

On November 14th Melinda, Peggy and I traveled I-5 from Edmonds through the Skagit Valley to Burlington and our destination: Jonnasson's Farm for the annual fleece sale there.

The Skagit Valley

We didn't stop for Alpaca.
You would think we would have
but perhaps some other time.
We didn't stop for cider either.

A typical Skagit Barn.

The Jonnassons, along with 3 or 4 other sheep breeders, hold a fleece sale every year and the prices are quite reasonable. Inexpensive. Cheap, even. The goal for me was Dorset, as Sam, an amazing spinner and knitter in our NwRSA area 2010, had shown us her Flying Geese sweater (if that link doesn't work it's because you're not part of Ravelry. Get on that!) she made from what she called the filthiest little Dorset fleece and said it was a fabulous fiber, once it was cleaned and carded (or words to that effect.) Thanks for the lead, Sam!

I've been looking for Dorset roving ever since. It's not available. Not at Black Sheep, not at OFFF, not at Whidbey Spin-in, not at Madrona, all fiber conferences with large, if not huge, markets. So then I figured I'd have to find a fleece, since my search began prior to jumping in to the 'fresh off the sheep' part of spinning. No luck at any of the fiber conferences for fleece either, but then, finally, Gretchen at Gretchens Wool Mill gave us a lead to this fleece sale which the Hordyks of Sand Hill Farm are part of and and they raise Dorsets and would have some available, which we knew because we called to make sure. yea! We've been looking forward to this for a month.

The exit to Burlington and
to the North Cascades Highway.
North Cascades Highway is a worthwhile road trip
if it's not winter.Although I suspected we did one,
I was assured that no U-Turns happened this trip.
The Jonnassons farm building
which housed the fleece sale.

There was fiber and fleece available,
dyed and natural.
Eileen Hordyk shows Peggy the crimp in
a brown Dorset/Rambouilett cross fleece.

Melinda weighing the pros and cons
between two brown Rambouilett/Dorset cross fleeces.
One was darker, a ram fleece and 7lbs;
the other was lighter, from a ewe and 6lbs.
We took the 6 pounder and
will have it washed before we split it three ways.
It was only $24.00.
Peggy bought some Mohair.
The Dorset fleece.
This turned out to be the only one at the sale.
Of course I had to buy it ~ it was only $18.00. For 6 pounds.
After washing I should have at least 3 pounds,
enough to spin for a sweater.
6lbs of Dorset Ewe #1011
Like Sams, it was very filthy
but also very crimpy.
Eileen, who owns the ewe this fleece came from,
showed me how to remove the damaged tips before washing.
So when we arrived home I immediately worked with
a little of the fleece because why wait?
This is rinsed just once in hot water.
And here it is washed one time with Dawn and hot water.
Through the carder once.
Spun and 2-plied.

Not the best spinning job but I rushed it.
It's bouncy and cushy. This will be great!

And in closing,
some of the Jonnassons Fleece on the Hoof.

Apples in the Jonnassons front yard.
It is such an interesting tree that
I had to take a picture.