When I arrived on Wednesday, I took a picture of the gate to the Allegan County Fairgrounds.
Wednesday afternoon, I taught a class on I-cords. In this class, we knit a sample version of a wrist wrap pattern that incorporates I-cords on all edges. One workshop participant had her daughter with her. The daughter was quite taken by one pair of wrist wraps that I’d brought as samples. You can find a free copy of the wrist wrap pattern as a pdf file on my website.
On Friday, a photographer from the Kalamazoo Gazette took pictures at the festival, including some pictures of me teaching beginning spinning. I insisted that his photos make me look 20 pounds thinner. That didn’t happen. Take a look.
Friday was also the day that the vendors open for business. I promptly went to Carol Wagner’s booth, Hidden Valley Farm and Woolen Mill. With Carol was her friend and Spinner Extraordinaire, Laurie Boyer. Laurie spins the most amazing art yarns. One of the yarns she had for sale this year incorporated q-tips! Can you believe it?! Her most stunning yarn this year was a skein of yarn that had been wrapped multiple times and then had cut-aways. Spooky but spectacular! I covet her yarns.
A close up:
The many steps:
Saturday morning I took a class from Galina Khmeleva, “Handspinning Orenburg Style”. Great class. I am taking to heart her advice of practicing at least 15 minutes a day. She says it’ll take about 2 weeks of this daily practice to develop some proficiency. Hmmm….
I had time to visit the barns on Saturday afternoon. Pygora goats were the featured fiber animal at this year’s festival. They are really really cute. Here’s a picture that shows off the beautiful coat of a couple pygora goats from Great Lakes Pygora .
I stayed with the pygora theme on Sunday, taking Patsy Zawistoski’s class, “Positively Pygora”. Another great class! We got a good look at all three types of pygora fleeces.
Type A (rather like kid mohair)
Type B (more like cashmere)
Type C (even more like cashmere, but way more guard hair)
Sunday afternoon, there was a new event at the festival: a sheep costume parade. I got one picture and then the batteries in my camera died.
Next year, next year….
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