Black Sheep Gathering part 2

Welcome to the second part of a multi-part series concerning my recent odyssey through the great NW. Today's chapter: The Fiber Purchases.

I want to say immediately that I consider this fiber haul to be extremely minimal when you imagine skipping sock spinning kits, rug hooking kits, and say, a 10 pound fleece... Which I passed on because I was being "good."

Okay, The one pound white ball on the right is from Ronnie's Homespun, a blend of merino, targhee and rambouillet. It's soft and spongy. In a good way. I used to buy this exact blend from her on ebay before she stopped selling it there. I'm thrilled to have gotten my hands on another pound!

While I was there, she was telling us how her 9 year old grandson helped her dye wool, so I had to go ahead and buy the big braid you see at the bottom of the picture. That pound was dyed by him personally!

Moving on, the chianti colored roving in the middle is from the Bellweather and I'll be darned if I could remember what it is. Besides fluffy and pretty that is.

The white, shiny stuff on the left is soysilk. I plan to dye it but that's as far as my plans go. Color and purpose TBD. I haven't yet spun this fiber so I made sure to pick some up.

That brings us to the top row. The braid on the right is a blend of merino and tencel from Carolina Homespun. I've bought this from them before and it's nice when you want something shiny but not crunchy like silk.

And then I bought some yarn in Portland at Dublin Bay. The store was lovely and I fell for a big 250 gram hank of Hand Maiden "Ottawa." And then when it was wound into a ball it turned out to be comprised of 3 hanks tied together, only 2 of which match. You can tell in the top picture what is going on there.

It reminds me as a spinner and seller of homespun, hand-dyed yarn, to never tie on yarns in a hank like that. It's a let-down. I will do the every other row trick when I get around to knitting it but that could be a while. I've started on another pair of socks for the time being and I'm feeling monogamous to them.

Before you feel too sorry for me, I must admit I have a huge stash of fiber ready to go for the Tour de Fleece. Not counting the 3 pounds or so I scored at the Black Sheep Gathering. So, yeah, I'll be fine!