Sorry, no pictures. I forgot the camera in the flurry of getting out the door (I also forgot my music for choir practice; good thing I'm the librarian and had the library with me).
The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival takes place in late September at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby. It's not as big as the Black Sheep Gathering but it does offer a good selection of fibery items for freaks enthusiasts like me. Most are local people selling the year's production but there are also outside folks who come in. I recognized one vendor who came from Utah to sell spindles and wheels. My goal this year was to find Romney roving I could use to practice spinning on a drop spindle. While there were many kinds of fiber available from merino top to guanaco wool, most fiber was either washed but unprocessed or processed into top. One outfit had a veritable palette of dyed Romney locks that you could bury your hands into. Very tempting but not what I was looking for. I did find some tucked in a corner of a vendor's booth: creamy white Romney roving that was nummy to touch that whispered "Learn with me!" At the same booth was a tiny spinning wheel that looked like a child's wheel but turned out to be an antique wheel from the Balkans. The vendor told me that all the wheels found there were small because they took up much less room than the wheels we're familiar with. With its small ratio it spun very quickly, which is ideal for making very fine thread and yarn. The wheel itself was less than a foot in diameter; the distaff above the flyer was three feet tall.
My thrill was finding the booth for Interlacements Yarns and meeting Judy and Clay Ditmore. I initially pulled myself away from the booth but later returned heeding the call of Toasty Toes yarn. It was rewarding as I will tell you later. For now, let's just say I've been floating like I'm in love for the past 24 hours and making plans. And no it's not a girl.
Tee hee....
No comments:
Post a Comment