First and foremost is the purchasing of fleece(s). J and I will once again be stopping first at the sheep barn to stake our claims. My number one hope is to find an excellent grey/silver fleece that is also soft. I love natural colored fleeces and dream of having a new handspun handknit sweater (and probably a shawl, I love shawls). I’m also torn between doing the fun thing and buying something cheap and white (and ideally soft) to be used to play around with dying. The being torn part comes into play when you consider the fact that I really ought to finish what I have already. But where’s the fun in restraint?
I figure that will take us a bit and we’ll want to head back to the car to deposit the goods. At which time we can pick up some fruit and crackers and head next to the fancy cheese vendors! The food at MDSW is somewhat underwhelming generic fair food. But it has become our tradition to feast on cheese and crackers. This year we’re taking our planning even farther and bringing extra awesome goodies to the feast.
After satiating ourselves it will be time to do the rest of the shopping.
During last years TDF I spun up a yarn that is 100% angora. It was a pain to spin but the result is quite special. Unfortunately the result was limited in yardage. I’d like to find more raw angora that I can spin up to eventually knit the most amazingly soft airy scarf.
I am also on the look out for some amazingly dyed merino/silk roving. The giant shawl I just finished knitting was merino silk and I love the yarn that it produced. I want to spin something similar but with much more vibrant colors. Eventually I will knit it into a Shaelyn shawl.
Given my new-found fascination with dying I will be on the lookout for dye supplies. Namely powdered acid dyes, citric acid, and undyed roving. Some preliminary research however indicates that I may be able to get significantly more bang for my buck by purchasing online. So I’ll have to just wait and see.
There are also few specific vendors that I want to check out. I’ve always heard amazing things about Bosworth spindles. I suspect I will once again check them out and exercise restraint, but we will see. Recently I’ve started watching the amazing items that are produced by Jennie the Potter. I’m pretty sure she has something of a cult following in the fiber community so I’m not exactly holding my breath that I will be willing to shell out the cash for one of her items. But definitely worth checking out methinks.
J and I are also planning to check out the tool/equipment auction. From what I’ve read online it can be a pretty mixed bag of what is available and the prices. And while I know I really shouldn’t be thinking about such exorbitance I really can’t help but consider what awesome types of wonderful things may be up for offer (looms, drum carders, and wheels - o my).
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