Monday

Sheep Dogs and Sheep

In Lexington, Kentucky at Masterson Station Park just over the hill from the Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival the Bluegrass Classic Stockdog Trials were happening.  After a brief shuttle trip and we were in puppy dog land and even more vendors.  This was a real treat because neither of us had seen anything like it.  

Sheep Dog Working

Sheep Dogs Resting

Sunday

Third Annual Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival

What a blast for only $3 admission (and a 5 hour drive to get to Lexington.)  I really wanted to attend the Ky Sheep & Fiber Fest in 2011, but my family was very uncooperative.   A few days from now I'm going to be 50-years young.  I was pretty persistent about making the trip to Lexington, Kentucky this year.  So, my mom and planned the trip together. We had a very nice mini-vaca with no fussing or disorder!  Lucky us!  Back to the festival...located in Lexington the venue for the fest was the Masterson Station Park Fairgrounds and was so easy to find - mom was driving - she found it!  The previous day - Friday - the workshops were scheduled and unfortunately I was able to attend any workshops but maybe another time.  We did visit the classrooms.  The ladies and men were creating some beautiful handmade baskets and brightly colored dyed yarns.   


Lunch was a priority when we arrived to the festival.  Our breakfast was a stiff cup of Wolfgang Puck coffee provided by the hotel.  We spent the early morning visited a subdivision hosting yard sales.  We needed fuel to continue on our journey.  Greek salad with fresh goat cheese and marinated chicken for me and mom chose a Greek Philly steak on a hoagie with fresh veggies. Thank goodness for the shaded picnic table.  The heat was hot with a slight breeze.  


This building hosted the workshops and skein contest and the necessary rooms.  Behind the building under the canopy were vendors, and the Llama and alpaca brought to the festival by the Kentucky Llama and Alpaca Association. They were very cute and welcome being petted and fed out of the hands of small admirers.  


 Look at the colors - all so beautiful together.  I collected quite a few business cards from the vendors.  I recognized some of the business names on the cards from websites I have visited on the web and most have brick and mortar yarn stores.  So going to a fiber festival has the advantage for you to visit stores that have gathered in once venue and they did the traveling instead of you.  There were vendors from near and very far from all over the United States. 




This little mom bird was probably quite surprised to have a sheep & fiber show right where she laid her eggs.  There were chairs and ribbon warning folks not to enter the area where she was sitting.  Many,like me, stopped to photograph her with her family. She squawked at everyone all day in protest.  

This large tent held the roadside market and bistro Kentucky Proud local food vendors.  Mom enjoyed  strawberry and rhubarb sorbet after she ate the mint leaf and pansy It was served with the cutest little clear spoon too. 



This was a very large tent and buzzing with activity.  On the right, looking at the picture, was the Sullivan University (Cooking School) sheep cooking contest.  The chef students were wearing their Sullivan University embroider chef's coats.  I could hear the announcer asking for the presentation of the plates.  On the left of the picture there were spinning wheels lined up one next to the other with children sitting on quilts watching the spinners spin.   

Crochet Storage & Recycled Jars


When I was cleaning up the kitchen I washed out the jars, like always, but this time it was different.  I felt the need to recycled.  So for the love of all things yarn I thought why not crochet the jars - kind of a yarn bombing on the jars.  Even though cleaned thoroughly, the jars still smelled of salsa, spaghetti sauce and even more salsa.  I placed one dryer sheet in each jar with the lid placed and they smell much better and not all all like food.  And while I thought this was an original idea - it certainly is not.  I Googled "crochet jar" images and found many photos of jars covered in crochet.  
 

And what a gorgeous trio they turned out to be.   Just eyeball the diameter of the bottom of each jar, crochet in the round using the back stitch only until the height reaches the size of the jar.  I kept trying the cover on as I went to make a good fit.  Once the size you need, use a big-eyed needle and cinch up the top around the neck of the jar, give it a good pull and tie-off.  Work your yarn tail in.  To cover the jar lid, crochet a circle large enough to cover the top and the side of the lid.  Use two-sided tape on the top and around the side to secure the crochet cover to the lid.  


Bernat Mosaic "Optimistic" is the yarn used for this project.  It is 100% Acrylic, but doesn't it look like hand spun?  I think so too!

Colors of the Forest

Falkland Combed Wool Top





The blended colors of this combed top wool remind of the colors in a forest when you're walking through on a path with the sun shining through the trees and you can see the sky peeking through above colors of gold, green and blue.  This is yet another fiber from my Happy Fuzzy Yarn fiber club.  The fiber weight was 4 oz.  It spun up to a WPI of between 12 and 15 and 112.8 grams.  It's soft and you just have to pet it, but not too much so it doesn't felt.  As you can see from the picture, I'm still spinning kinks and I need to learn how to slow down and keep them out of my yarn.