Road Trip to Wonderful Woolies

041412 3lb, 10oz pre-wash. Humphrey, the moorit wether. The woman I bought it from said Humphry was a ‘fleece machine’ but sadly ‘his own brother’ so couldn’t be shown in a judging situation. I don’t know what that means; we tried to figure it out on the way home but couldn’t. I will email his owner and ask.

I haven’t spun CVM yet, so since I was attracted by the light brown (with some color variation) and the price was right for my budget, I bought it.

The woman I bought it from suggested soaking it in cold water for a few days, even up to a week, so some of the veggie/dirt loosens and breaks down. Peggy and I both have our fleeces soaking out in the garden so we can pour the gunky water on the new spring growth ~ a little natural fertilizer.

This was our first time attending the Wonderful Woolies Fiber Sale outside of Bellingham, WA. We arrived shortly after the 10:00am opening, only to find 2 friends, Natasha and AnnMarie, had been there ahead of us and purchased all the good fleece. KIDDING! They did get some good ones but not the sort we were after so, whew. Lot’s of Romeldale and CVM, some Shetland and Lincoln crosses. There were some beautiful black fleeces, SO gorgeous but out of my price range. Besides, black? I’d go blind. Seriously.

This is more than just a fleece sale. There was also processed roving, yarn, Turkish drop spindles, and more. There were at least 3 farms involved and I overheard a conversation about a 4th who missed it because her processor couldn’t get her product to her in time. I think she had sent out her fleece to be spun.

An overall excellent adventure. We will no doubt be returning, if not every year than at least every other. This year we were shut out of Blacksheep because we didn’t make a motel reservation in December for the June event. Apparently there are Olympic trials happening in Eugene that week, as well as some other huge event and Blacksheep. Motels were completely booked by early January. Who knew? Lesson learned, though.

The Wonderful Woolies Fiber Sale is not a substitute for Blacksheep, because, really, how can you compare them, but it did take the sting out of not being able to go. We will definitely do it again.

The road-trip to Bellingham was excellent. Peggy, the Other Peggy and I left Edmonds around 8:15am, had breakfast at Fanny’s in Marysville ~ to mixed reviews. The service was good, the french toast was hot and so was the syrup, but it was served with a margarine/butter blend, which took it down a notch or two. The cornbeef hash was not good. The eggs were fine. BIG glass of orange juice was only $1 more than a very small glass of grapefruit juice. We didn’t try the coffee.

We stopped at a nursery on the way back, bought some ground cover strawberries and a whacked out pine thingy that looks like something from Little Shop of Horrors.

We also stopped at NW Handspun in Bellingham. A very crowded shop on the lower level, it was a relief to go upstairs to the spinning section. Other Peggy bought some Potluck fiber to use in her fledgling spinning career. Peggy and Other Peggy sat down with the Hansen electric when we got home, shortly after 6pm, and with snacks and glasses of wine, we had us some good spinning. Other Peggy took the Hansen home with her, to keep the vibe going on her own. We think she’ll be just fine.

For lunch we went to Fairhaven to one of the Other Peggy's favorite restaurants: Colophon Cafe and Deli. We enjoyed the food, walked around the neighborhood a little, found a new yarn shop which has been open only 2 weeks and is in the midst of serious growing pains as they only had Cascade products, and a very tiny amount of other things. It's a nice space, Mrs. Hudson's Yarn & Tea. I didn't see any tea, but I also didn't look for it. I was drawn next door to a kid's store with shiny objects that I just had to look at.