SAFF Stash

We had a glorious time at SAFF as is exhibited by the lovely new goodies I'm going to show you here. One thing we tried to do is avoid purchasing any items that we could easily get elsewhere. Going to a fiber festival is all about finding the new and unusal, the things not easily obtained for many of us. I didn't buy any commercial yarn--no Trekking, no Noro, none of that "common" stuff! ;-)

Zeilinger Wool Company's booth is always one of our favorite stops. Here's what we got! Daughter gravitated to a bag of multi color bright fleece balls. Husband went for the black mix, and the blue is all mine.




One thing in particular that I was looking for was a drop spindle for daughter's friend who wants to learn to spin. I ended up talking to Leslie at Kokovoko and bought her learn to spin kit. It includes the drop spindle shown here with yarn on it, a book by Connie Delany (which I'm told by several people is the best drop spindle instruction book), and a ball of fiber. The other drop spindle shown here was made by a man in Washington, and it is likely going to stay to live with me.

We're not sure who the maker is. Husband asked the vendor several times "Do you know who made this spindle?" and she never seemed to grasp that he would have liked her to provide a name. All she'd say was "Yes, I know who made it." We finally did dig out of her that a man in Washington was the producers! It was comical.

We couldn't resist the fleece show and sale. The two in the back of this picture are colored Corriedale. They are very clean and soft but are raw fleece; they came from Van-Dir Ltd. Daughter has started spinning her fleece in the grease, and it is coming along great. I included a slightly fuzzy picture here. The bag of fleece in the front of this picture came from a sheep named Peace who lives at Humbug Farm and is border Leicester. It had been washed and was somewhat compacted. A couple of passes through the picker has fluffed it up nicely.




Here is the rest of the stash!

Back row: Strauch flicker, very soft black fiber (baby alpaca, bombyx silk, and superfine merino) and white cashmere from The Little Barn, shawl pins from Catherine at Knitting Notions, white brushed mohair yarn from Kid Hollow Farm, circular needles from a vendor who's name I cannot remember.
Middle row:Bombyx silk roving from Windy Acres Fiber Farm, bags of dyed tussah silk from Little Barn, blue 50/50 silk wool yarn from Brooks Farm Yarn, silk hankies and silk bell from Windy Acres.
Front row: soaps and hand balm from Blue Ridge Soap Shed.

Not pictured are a cedar Bosworth Midi spindle that I got from I See Spots, some alpaca socks that daughter bought from Creekwater Alpacas, and a custom embroidered shirt made by Needlestrokes. The shirt has an applique of an angora goat with the saying "Angoras have Mo-hair." I'll try to get a picture of daughter wearing that later.

Finally, I bring you the piece de resistance. This lovely Winsome Timbers Serena wheel now lives with us. Husband bought it from Wauka Valley Farm. They threw in the bag of fiber from one of their own sheep along with the wheel. The wheel spins like a dream.


Coming next....photos of our cabin, some fiber action photos, and a photo of my buddy Carolyn and me.