A Whirlwind Weekend

Where did the week go? My head is still spinning from the whirl of last weekend. On Friday we headed to the west side of the state to the Michigan Fiber Festival (MFF). The MFF I believe is the oldest fiber festival in the state (I could be wrong, but that’s what I heard). On Friday I attended a workshop on writing and publishing your own knitting patterns…hmm, my mind is swirling with tons of ideas. Then Saturday morning  I attended another workshop of making rag rugs. Now I have to shop around for a good sturdy loom because rag rugs are definitely going to be part of my future. Not sure where a loom would go but I’ll squeeze it in somewhere. Saturday afternoon I was the judge for the hand spun skein competition at the MFF. I love judging skein competitions because I can get up close and personal with each skein of lovely hand spun.

Judging the first skein. There were 46 entries.

There are some very talented spinners out there. Some of the skeins were just gorgeous.

Explaining to the audience why I placed certain skeins and what characteristics stood out.

Decisions, Decisions!

It took me about 1.5 hours to judge the 45 skeins.

After the skein competition we had to “evaluate” all the vendors. Over 120 vendors with some beautiful fibers. The only fiber I purchased was some camel hair and camel down. I needed the camel hair for my homework project but I wasn’t having any luck with the vendors. Well I was pretty lucky because this year is the first year the festival brought in a camel.

Humphry the camel. Very friendly camel.

And the owners were selling his hair and down. Jackpot! Humphrey was HUGE. His legs were as tall a me! How can such a beastly looking creature produce such wonderful fiber? Keep it coming Humphrey.

Then back home to feed the 45+ mouthes at our place. By 7 a.m. Sunday morning we were on the road to the antique tractor show in Oakley (mid part of the state, near Saginaw). We don’t get to this tractor show that often and wanted to go this year. I saw enough tractors to last a lifetime.

That's an old one.

All colors.

Thank goodness for tractor evolution.

Father and son talking some serious tractor.

A bad storm blew through the tractor show the night before so “mud” was the word of the day when we were there. But that didn’t stop the tractors!

After leaving the tractor show and returning home, we loaded up some sheep in the trailer for the unfortunate drive to the livestock auction, which was an hours drive south. A necessary, heart-wrenching task especially because we do get pretty attached to our sheep, but reality is reality.

Then as things settled down during the week, I had a chance to see what was going on in my garden.

Now it’s Friday and another weekend is just around the corner. Plans are to stay close to home. Yay!