Wool Gathering 2017

We weren't going to go.  We had agreed to that when we had our little shop hop a few weeks ago.  But like true addicts, we couldn't resist temptation.  Cindy and I ventured over to Yellow Springs yesterday to visit the Wool Gathering.  We went early, got a good parking spot ("princess parking" as she calls it) and beat the crowd.  Afterward we had lunch in Yellow Springs and then headed home with our treasures.  It was a nice practice run for Rhinebeck for me.

A group lovely creatures greeted us at the gate.    There were little goats

and big goats.

and alpaca of all sizes

and soft little bunnies

and various sheep who would consent to be photographed.

I had two goals for the day.  Find buttons for my Super Bulky Grandpa sweater and finding autumn colored sock yarn.

A basket of wooden buttons of varying sizes entertained us for a while as we sorted through to find 4 that matched.  Below they are resting on an almost finished sweater.  Last sleeve is on the needles.

I had a very specific idea regarding the autumn colors I wanted.  We came across some yarn that had no green and too much red.  I passed it by hoping to find something closer.   Later we came across a booth that had some that were closer to what I wanted.  I decided to buy this skein thinking this may be as good as it gets.  It lacked the green but it also was not too red.

Then later I found the almost perfect skein.  It was a lovely mix of autumn colors.  The colors are not showing true in this picture unfortunately.

Other treasures from our day included the following:

Tooth stitch markers that can double as earrings.  These will be gifted to my daughter who is in dental school.

The pack of mini skeins from Destination Yarn in the Ohio colorways.  I think I'll make a Hitchhiker scarf in these and name it Hitchhiking Around Ohio.

And my final purchase was 8 ounces of chocolate alpaca-silk blend roving.  It is a beautiful!!

We passed on buying skeins of 100% alpaca DK weight yarn.  The booth had a model of Caissa.  I thought about getting the yarn to make it but decided I'll wait until Rhinebeck for that purchase.

As mentioned above, the Grandpa sweater is almost done.  One sleeve is finished and the other is on the needles.  I should have it finished Monday or Tuesday.  I won't have a chance to block it before it leaves on a trip with me, but that's OK.  It'll get a nice bath after we return.

I recently pulled Relax out of hibernation.  It got tossed aside over a year ago.  It has become my fallback project.  I'm not setting a goal for getting it done.  It will just be my project to pick up when I need a distraction from other projects.