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Oct. 21st, 2004 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purleweIt is all starting to become a blur. Like a really good dream you that you remember upon waking, but slowly fades as the realities of your work day take over. These are some of the things I remember, but don’t take my word for it.
Sue and I spent the weekend at my aunt’s house in New Paltz. If I have never said it before I will say it again, I love visiting my aunt’s house. They own a hay farm and 3 horses, 3 dogs and chickens. Very relaxing to stay there, and spending time with my aunt at the sheep and wool festival was a wonderful bonding experience.
We arrived at the festival and started right with the bunny barns. I would love those bunnies more if I wasn’t so bloody allergic. We were oohing and ahhing and moving along through the barns, but the first purchase was at Shelridge Farms from Canada yarns and kits. They have several illusion knitting kits. Something my aunt had never seen. I was enamored with a gorgeous blue fair isle sweater they had that had a mini shield pattern all over it. (I am sure there is a much better technical term than Mini shield, but I’m sticking to my description) My aunt was so enamored with a sheep illusion kit she hardly looked at the rest of their patterns. She asked me if I would knit it for her if she made it. I’ve always wanted to join the ranks of the Shadow Knitters society and said yes. It was wonderful they ahd the sweater on display so you could really see how it works. So in the bag went a new shadow knitting kit and a promise to make it “when I have time”
We wandered around. Saw quite a few ME vendors (Amy I was thinking about you quite a bit then) and wandered into our 4th building where we were surrounded by Llamas and Alpacas. OO so cute. I ahd never seen one before and I was so happy. My aunt has been wanting one for awhile (about as long as she has been wanting sheep.. and they are getting closer with that goal every time I go there.) Spent quite a bit of time in that barn, even though all we were doing was oogling llamas and alpacas. Talked to a few handlers about them and got to pet a few. I am sure they just hated being penned in so close and having all these weird sounds and people touching them.. very shy lot. So we stayed there until we were hungry and then we made our way to lunch. Lamb burgers. Yum. Judy got a coffee and while standing in line I noticed t he spirit trails 3 booths away. I dropped by, said hi to Jenn, Martha, Amie, Annie and Sheila and checked out her yarn. Gorgeous stuff folks. There was a carny music guy there driving them batty, but we had fun meeting each other and I pawed through the corset kits until I found the one I liked. Judy, Sue and I finally wandered over to the Border Collie trials. Now I know what kind of dog my cat would be. Lehnen is a Border Collie. through and through. If she could be any more dog we would have to have sheep.
After a while I got cold sitting watching the dogs so I left the family and went off on my own. I went through a barn and a half when I met a wonderful person using a charkha. I’ve been wanting to get one, since I have limited space and all. Carolyn Partridge of The Good Shepherd (sorry no link, but she lives in Windham VT) was demo’ing it for a woman who has a spinning wheel, but while she snowbirds she misses spinning in FL. She was really nice and we spoke for awhile about charkhas, cotton, etc. I would really love to get one some day.. but as I am not a big fan of cotton knitting (don’t tell hush hush, I don’t want her to know) Next to her was an amazing assortment of handwoven baskets that I can’t even describe b’c it would not do them justice. I knew that I needed to get my aunt back into the barn. The baskets were exactly what she would buy. I went and got her, and while Judy picked out her basket (see I told you I knew she would want one) I spoke with the charkha lady again. We talked about her farm in VT. How much she loved dying wool and spinning. I asked her if she ever gave tours of her farm, she told me to give her a call if I was ever in VT and she would give me one, providing it wasn’t while legislature was in session. She is a state legislator!! I was amazed and happy. A wonderful all around person who works at the state level and farms and dyes and spins, I was blown away. How awesome is that?
Judy was still picking out her basket and I wandered around a bit. Found a seller of coned yarn who had the exact yarn I am using for hush hush. I was truly tempted to get a rayon cone they have.. it was a great color combo but it is not a color I could wear. So when Judy was done I took her out to the coned yarns while I was making my decision. That is when I took the picture of Bo Peep and her sheep. I turned around and saw the most beautiful sweater I had seen all day. (And I really need to say that if I was blown away by it after seeing a dazzling array of sweaters that day.. it really was gorgeous.) So I told the owner it was the absolute best sweater I had seen all day. She thanked me and told me she had knit it on a Brother knitting machine. I know zilch about knitting machines but we started talking about how she manipulates 4 different colors at a time to get the different combinations she had in her sweater. She has been taking classes in this technique and has started designing her own line of sweaters. Now why am I going on at length about this woman and her knitwear? She was none other than Karen Allen of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame. My aunt told her she looked familiar and asked her if she knew her. Ms. Allen simply said she had been in “a few movies” and quoted her famous line “I can drink you under the table.” Sue at this point figured it out and was dumbfounded. Judy goes no, its not that.. do you have horses? Perhaps I’ve sold you some hay. I have by know gotten a clue and said Judy, you have seen her in movies, I know you have. Judy is still.. no it must be horses or hay.. are you sure we’ve never sold you hay?? Ms. Allen is polite but says, no you haven’t and then starts to ask me what I think of coned chenille as a machine knitting yarn… Finally I drag Judy away whispering in her ear.. I tell her the title of the movie.. Judy doesn’t register .. about 20 minutes later Judy says “really.. are you sure?” 2 hrs later she is in the car going O MY GOD I am so stupid! She’s kissed Harrison ford!!” we all had a good laugh in the car. I am still thinking about that gorgeous sweater though. I might just have to try to find her for the pattern.
We finally wrapped it up at the festival and went home to dinner. Morehouse Merino was having a party in their store until midnite (obviously a yearly event.) Sue and I headed to Morehouse after dinner where I made my only Morehouse purchase: laceweight merino in reds for Lola.. I am thinking about changing it up tho and adding a lace border to make it more girlie. One can never have enough girlie.
Sunday I went back to the festival by myself. I figure I only saw about a quater of the festival the first day. I basically decided to cruise the rest of it and check out things I had not seen. I started in the competition building. I saw the knitwear and skeins that had been judged. I also stumbled into the sheep to shawl exhibition and fell in love with a group of guys called the Hudson Valley Rams. They were spinning up purple fleece to make a lovely chevron shawl on the loom. Unfortunately they came in 3rd, but I really enjoyed getting to talk to them and taking pictures of them. I wandered around and met up with a very nice couple who had Navajo Churro yarn. I have been wanting to buy churro yarn since I read this website. We talked about the new museum in Washington DC and the artisans they were representing (they had a lot of native jewelry with them) and then I spent some time picking out 2 skeins of churro wool for me. I saw Brooks Farms and I completely understand how people lost their minds in this section of the festival. GORGEOUS yarns. I am almost thankful that I had no money on me. I think I’ll be checking them out first next year. I did run into the lunching bloggers and had a quick lunch with them. It was really nice to put names to faces and get a hug from Norma. Stephanie was a wonderful person to meet. Very funny and nice. I gave her some yarn in payment for the free Snowdrop pattern and she declared it something she would have picked to buy for herself. I really enjoyed hanging out with them and listening to everyone’s stories. Seems like they had a lot of adventures for just one weekend!!! I wandered around a little bit more.. truly it is all a blur now since I can’t remember anything more remarkable about the day other than seeing some gorgeous yarn and seeing the blog table.
Tomorrow. Pictures of the animals.
Sue and I spent the weekend at my aunt’s house in New Paltz. If I have never said it before I will say it again, I love visiting my aunt’s house. They own a hay farm and 3 horses, 3 dogs and chickens. Very relaxing to stay there, and spending time with my aunt at the sheep and wool festival was a wonderful bonding experience.
We arrived at the festival and started right with the bunny barns. I would love those bunnies more if I wasn’t so bloody allergic. We were oohing and ahhing and moving along through the barns, but the first purchase was at Shelridge Farms from Canada yarns and kits. They have several illusion knitting kits. Something my aunt had never seen. I was enamored with a gorgeous blue fair isle sweater they had that had a mini shield pattern all over it. (I am sure there is a much better technical term than Mini shield, but I’m sticking to my description) My aunt was so enamored with a sheep illusion kit she hardly looked at the rest of their patterns. She asked me if I would knit it for her if she made it. I’ve always wanted to join the ranks of the Shadow Knitters society and said yes. It was wonderful they ahd the sweater on display so you could really see how it works. So in the bag went a new shadow knitting kit and a promise to make it “when I have time”
We wandered around. Saw quite a few ME vendors (Amy I was thinking about you quite a bit then) and wandered into our 4th building where we were surrounded by Llamas and Alpacas. OO so cute. I ahd never seen one before and I was so happy. My aunt has been wanting one for awhile (about as long as she has been wanting sheep.. and they are getting closer with that goal every time I go there.) Spent quite a bit of time in that barn, even though all we were doing was oogling llamas and alpacas. Talked to a few handlers about them and got to pet a few. I am sure they just hated being penned in so close and having all these weird sounds and people touching them.. very shy lot. So we stayed there until we were hungry and then we made our way to lunch. Lamb burgers. Yum. Judy got a coffee and while standing in line I noticed t he spirit trails 3 booths away. I dropped by, said hi to Jenn, Martha, Amie, Annie and Sheila and checked out her yarn. Gorgeous stuff folks. There was a carny music guy there driving them batty, but we had fun meeting each other and I pawed through the corset kits until I found the one I liked. Judy, Sue and I finally wandered over to the Border Collie trials. Now I know what kind of dog my cat would be. Lehnen is a Border Collie. through and through. If she could be any more dog we would have to have sheep.
After a while I got cold sitting watching the dogs so I left the family and went off on my own. I went through a barn and a half when I met a wonderful person using a charkha. I’ve been wanting to get one, since I have limited space and all. Carolyn Partridge of The Good Shepherd (sorry no link, but she lives in Windham VT) was demo’ing it for a woman who has a spinning wheel, but while she snowbirds she misses spinning in FL. She was really nice and we spoke for awhile about charkhas, cotton, etc. I would really love to get one some day.. but as I am not a big fan of cotton knitting (don’t tell hush hush, I don’t want her to know) Next to her was an amazing assortment of handwoven baskets that I can’t even describe b’c it would not do them justice. I knew that I needed to get my aunt back into the barn. The baskets were exactly what she would buy. I went and got her, and while Judy picked out her basket (see I told you I knew she would want one) I spoke with the charkha lady again. We talked about her farm in VT. How much she loved dying wool and spinning. I asked her if she ever gave tours of her farm, she told me to give her a call if I was ever in VT and she would give me one, providing it wasn’t while legislature was in session. She is a state legislator!! I was amazed and happy. A wonderful all around person who works at the state level and farms and dyes and spins, I was blown away. How awesome is that?
Judy was still picking out her basket and I wandered around a bit. Found a seller of coned yarn who had the exact yarn I am using for hush hush. I was truly tempted to get a rayon cone they have.. it was a great color combo but it is not a color I could wear. So when Judy was done I took her out to the coned yarns while I was making my decision. That is when I took the picture of Bo Peep and her sheep. I turned around and saw the most beautiful sweater I had seen all day. (And I really need to say that if I was blown away by it after seeing a dazzling array of sweaters that day.. it really was gorgeous.) So I told the owner it was the absolute best sweater I had seen all day. She thanked me and told me she had knit it on a Brother knitting machine. I know zilch about knitting machines but we started talking about how she manipulates 4 different colors at a time to get the different combinations she had in her sweater. She has been taking classes in this technique and has started designing her own line of sweaters. Now why am I going on at length about this woman and her knitwear? She was none other than Karen Allen of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame. My aunt told her she looked familiar and asked her if she knew her. Ms. Allen simply said she had been in “a few movies” and quoted her famous line “I can drink you under the table.” Sue at this point figured it out and was dumbfounded. Judy goes no, its not that.. do you have horses? Perhaps I’ve sold you some hay. I have by know gotten a clue and said Judy, you have seen her in movies, I know you have. Judy is still.. no it must be horses or hay.. are you sure we’ve never sold you hay?? Ms. Allen is polite but says, no you haven’t and then starts to ask me what I think of coned chenille as a machine knitting yarn… Finally I drag Judy away whispering in her ear.. I tell her the title of the movie.. Judy doesn’t register .. about 20 minutes later Judy says “really.. are you sure?” 2 hrs later she is in the car going O MY GOD I am so stupid! She’s kissed Harrison ford!!” we all had a good laugh in the car. I am still thinking about that gorgeous sweater though. I might just have to try to find her for the pattern.
We finally wrapped it up at the festival and went home to dinner. Morehouse Merino was having a party in their store until midnite (obviously a yearly event.) Sue and I headed to Morehouse after dinner where I made my only Morehouse purchase: laceweight merino in reds for Lola.. I am thinking about changing it up tho and adding a lace border to make it more girlie. One can never have enough girlie.
Sunday I went back to the festival by myself. I figure I only saw about a quater of the festival the first day. I basically decided to cruise the rest of it and check out things I had not seen. I started in the competition building. I saw the knitwear and skeins that had been judged. I also stumbled into the sheep to shawl exhibition and fell in love with a group of guys called the Hudson Valley Rams. They were spinning up purple fleece to make a lovely chevron shawl on the loom. Unfortunately they came in 3rd, but I really enjoyed getting to talk to them and taking pictures of them. I wandered around and met up with a very nice couple who had Navajo Churro yarn. I have been wanting to buy churro yarn since I read this website. We talked about the new museum in Washington DC and the artisans they were representing (they had a lot of native jewelry with them) and then I spent some time picking out 2 skeins of churro wool for me. I saw Brooks Farms and I completely understand how people lost their minds in this section of the festival. GORGEOUS yarns. I am almost thankful that I had no money on me. I think I’ll be checking them out first next year. I did run into the lunching bloggers and had a quick lunch with them. It was really nice to put names to faces and get a hug from Norma. Stephanie was a wonderful person to meet. Very funny and nice. I gave her some yarn in payment for the free Snowdrop pattern and she declared it something she would have picked to buy for herself. I really enjoyed hanging out with them and listening to everyone’s stories. Seems like they had a lot of adventures for just one weekend!!! I wandered around a little bit more.. truly it is all a blur now since I can’t remember anything more remarkable about the day other than seeing some gorgeous yarn and seeing the blog table.
Tomorrow. Pictures of the animals.
