This past weekend I had went to the
Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI (held at the Jefferson County Fair Grounds) and I'm really glad that I went. It was great to be around a lot of yarn lovers. To my surprise, there were two large barns full of vendors and I certainly did not walk out empty handed. At the festival, a lot of people brought their spinning wheels and I'm surprised by how much roving people were selling mainly because I haven't really seen it around in shops. To be honest, the first knitting store that I have ever seen roving was in Mineral Point and that was about two weeks ago. It was great to see what everyone had - there was so much to soak in too. A lady from Michigan taught me how to drop spin, which was fun and I ended up getting a drop spindle from her. I probably won't be able to start spinning until fall break or so due to classes. Until then I will have to stick to what I know, if I even get a chance to do that - knit. I had also got roving and yarn that is absolutely gorgeous.
The yarn that I ended up purchasing is from Briar Rose Fibers and they have hand painted yarns. I ended up getting six hanks of their "Collette." I originally saw a knitted vest that I liked on display and was going to find yarn for the vest, but then I saw the Collette on sale, so I purchased it instead. It was a real toss up because at the time if I had purchased the Collette, I had no idea what I was going to make and if I got the yarn for the vest, then obviously it was a done deal. I chanced it and ended up purchasing Collette and found a pattern right away once I got back to school and was able to look through my patterns. With the Collette, I am going to make a Wheat Ear Cable Yolk sweater that is from Interweave Knits (picture shown below). I think that the cables will look absolutely wonderful in the variegated yarn. Unfortunately next year I will be in Poland when the yarn festival is taking place. Instead, maybe I'll find lots of wonderful European yarns.
