Hubby and I drove to southern Ohio for A Wool Gathering fiber festival in Yellow Springs (near Dayton). It was a surprisingly sunny and hot day with temps nearing 90 degrees as we arrived at the festival about 2:30 pm. It was packed! We were lucky to find a parking place by the Inn. Those who parked out farther could ride a free trolley from the outlying parking lots.
Most of the vendors were set up inside 3 huge tents on the ground. Interspersed around them were many smaller tents. It was hot outside and uncomfortably hot inside the tents. Though still had a great time shopping vendors I've never seen at other fiber festivals I've been to in the past. I came home with lots of goodies and business cards in case I want to get anything else. :)
Young's Jersey Dairy Farm is the location of the festival. Their cheese and ice cream shop was so busy that the line went out the door. Thankfully, you could buy a cup of ice cream from a booth outside. Hubby and I sampled the vanilla and it was very good but melting fast. It helped us cool off a bit.
We saw a sword fight between two members of a group that dress up in medieval costumes. Sorry, I can't remember their name. I loved their outfits thought they were definitely too heavy to wear on such a hot day.There were activities for the kids. Two tents were set up where kids could turn a crank to make their own jump rope. Someone was driving a vehicle that looked like a plane at the front and end with little trailers linked behind it. The kids were having a good time! A batting cage nearby was busy with people hitting baseballs.
I was severely tempted to buy a small Shetland fleece at one booth. There were several mills at the festival where I could have dropped it off for processing. Wooly Knob and Ohio Valley Fibers were both there. I resisted the temptation to buy that much wool. They had a tent set up where you could watch them shearing sheep.
Here's a picture of my booty from the festival. A t-shirt for hubby, some Cashmere laceweight, a skein of superwash merino laceweight, 3 skeins of fingering weight, plus spinning fiber in natural and bits and pieces of colored. I bought Falkland, Cormo, BFL, merino, and Corriedale.
Here are links to the vendors:
(BTW, just checked some of these and they don't work. I don't understand vendors who give you a card with a website and it doesn't work.)
Cashmere laceweight - Stitch Sisterz
Hand dyed superwash merino laceweight - Carriage House Woolens
Grab bags of fiber - Happy Hands Yarn
Undyed Falkland - Bullens Wullens
Undyed Cormo - Wooly Knob Fiber Mill
It was a very long day. We left home about 9 am and didn't get back until 10:30 pm. Too many hours spent in a car in one day! I did get some knitting done on a baby blanket I've been working on.
