Friendfest!

A fantastic cure for a lame workweek is a fun-and-friend-filled weekend, for sure. On Saturday, my dear friend Katy arrived and we went to the Rhode Island Sheep & Wool Festival held at a really neat historic working farm: Coggeshall Farm Museum. The grounds were spacious and pretty with a few barns and a farmhouse build in the 1790s. We caught a glimpse of home life 200 years ago:

Hearth-cooked lamb stew

Salt-cured bacon and locally grown garlic

We saw lots of friendly animals:

Gulf Coast Native sheep being sheared

Fuzzy bunnies! Grey angoras, I loved them.

Not-so-friendly turkeys

And of course, lots and lots of pretty yarn:

Everybody say, "Hi, Katy!"

The really great thing about these wool festivals is that I discover yarn companies and products that I might not have come across otherwise. The Play At Life booth was my favorite of all the lovely vendors there. The colors were gorgeous and they had a nice selection of different items. I spent a solid 20 minutes hemming and hawing over what to take home with me and finally settled on this:

Silk hankie, colorway Firenze

I have played around a bit with silk hankies (or mawata) before, but have not tired spinning it yet, which is what my plan is for that lovely teal creation pictured above. (No, those mittens are not done yet...)

After the wool festival we drove up to our friend Bridgit's house for a backyard bar-b-q and lots of nice relaxing knitting time. I even (finally!) got both of them to give spinning on my spindle a try. We've determined that it's a good thing I have wholesome hobbies because otherwise my determination to get everyone addicted to the things that I love doing could be very, very dangerous. I'm a yarn-and-fiber pusher, and I am not ashamed. :-D

Hope your weekends were wonderful, as well! Happy knitting.