WI Sheep and Wool Festival

We went to the WI Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend located at the Jefferson County Fair Grounds.  Kudos to the festival team for yet another great show. It is just a flurry of activies for groups of all ages.  Herding competitions, sheep judging, sheep shearing, fleece sales, classes, food, displays. and of course all the wonderful goodies for a fiber freak like myself to purchase.
Although I have a very hard time justifing buying anymore yarn or roving, I could not pass up at least one skein of sock yarn.
I purchased this skein from Happy Hands Hand Dyed Yarns, http://happyhandsyarn.com/  it was just irrestiable. Her colors are just fantastic, so vibrant and alive. She also has samples knitted for you see what the yarn will look like when knitted. When you walk into her booth you are greeted with friendliness and enthusiasm.

How could anyone restist that face?  Not sure that she is real happy being here. She's probably thinking, "haven't you ever seen a sheep before." 

 I turned my attention to the many, many sheep that were to be sheared that day.
When I looked over at the herd all I saw was skein after skein of yarn.  I found myself wondering how many skeins were there.

hmmmm.....I wonder if thearpy would help.  There has to be a twelve step program, don't you think?

Okay, tell me you don't see them too. 

Signs

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blockin' out the scenery breakin' my mind....

The lyrics to that song came to mind the other day when I was sitting on a bench waiting for my husband to retrive me from the local grocery store.  I had already done the horrible job of buying groceries and had settled on the bench by the door, took out my knitting and was enjoying the time I had to add a few more rows to my sock. As you may, or may not know, I ALWAYS have a project bag with a sock in progress with me.  Anyway, back on track.  I happened to look up to take stock of  my surroundings. As I did, I noticed all the signs the store had posted all around, some printed, some handwritten. As the song goes, "do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign".....I was amazed at how we as a society depend on all those signs.

The one that I found most astounding was the sign that had been carefully handwritten and placed directly on the top of the ATM machine reading, "Please don't forget to take your money".  hmmmm......the sole purpose for going to the ATM machine is to obtain money.  Have we become so hurried that we need all these signs to remind us?  Perhaps it's time to step back, slow down and learn to enjoy the simple things. 

How about a wonderful sunrise with the sun turning the top of trees golden, or the simple task of collecting eggs in the late afternoon sun.

New Hat

I needed a smaller project to temporarily take me away from the lace project I am currently working on. You know how those can be. One tends to develop a love, hate relationship with lace projects. The love comes when you choose the wonderful yarn and the gorgeous pattern, that you are certain will look magnificent. The hate comes when you are about half finished and if you do one more yarn over, and SSK you are going to stab the knitting needle in your eye. That brings us to the smaller project.

I made this hat from yarn dyed by http://stonebarnfibers.com/. It was the first time I had used yarn from them and it was very nice. Very soft and great color saturation. I didn't use a pattern just sort of made it up as I went. Came out good. She thinks it did. The hat is certainly off season for the sundress, but she didn't seem to care.

Oh to be young and not care.

Harvest Day

Today was harvest day, we pulled onion and beets and dug potatoes. Due to the wacky weather we have had, and the lack of care our garden received this year harvest wasn't as good as we would have liked. However, we did manage to get enough onions, potatoes and beets.

I had a little help with the onion harvest. She decided that the sun was just much too bright and thought that Ama's garden hat would be a great solution to the problem.

Sami the cat thought maybe beets would be okay...but then again maybe not.

As I was making pickled beets, and they were staining my hands a wonderful dark pink color, I couldn't help but think what a wonderful color that would be for dyeing some roving.

Ah...perhaps another day.

Blogging Virgin

This is my first attempt at blogging soo........I'm sure things will get much better. :-)

Today here in south central Wisconsin things are hot and sticky. Great for the garden, not so great for humans and animals. Chickens are hanging out in the holes they have dug for themselves, and the dogs and cat are hanging out with the humans in the AC.

Knitting group meets at 1:00 today, so I get to see what wonderful creations everyone has been working on. If you ever loose your knitting "mojo", meeting with a group of creative knitters will give you the inspiration and boost that you need to get back on the needles again.