Saturday, July 17, 2010

Wool & Sheep part 2: the people

Please don't all collectively keel over with shock, but I have none of the semi-mandatory Fibre Festival pics of assorted unbearably cute ovine & camelid species.

In fact there was absolutely no interaction with assorted fleece -bearing livestock this time round at all
none
nada
niente
zip
zilch
zero

just totally ran out of time I'm afraid

and the reason ?
just too many people I needed to hug / chat with / buy stuff from / have coffee with
wherever one looked there were small groups foregathering - frequently in the middle of the road - mostly sporting Ravelry badges
I wonder what the appropriate collective noun would be for a group of Ravellers ?
A rave of Ravellers perhaps ? or a ravelling ?

I'm afraid the cute-and-fleecy didn't get a look-in

Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. When you read you begin with ...
[ Okay. I'm back! Slight detour into Sound of Music territory there ]
Anyway WE started of the morning at The Flower Shed where I left most of my yarn/fibre budget in the hands of Mandie from Ewe Give me The Knits

There was time for a hug with the giant green bunny [ Charlie from IxchelBunny - she who was the recipient of the great big blanket 'o love ]

A little later, while the fashion show went on largely ignored - at least by me - Jeanette and I had coffee / chai with the lovely Bells, seen here wearing her Coraline cardi
and Brangian shawl

... mmmm cashmere

and DrK [ aka Kylie ] wearing Ysolda Teague's Rose Red Beret made by ... guess who ? ... RoseRed ... appropriate, yes ? ]

Also at the table with us: Bells' friends, the delightful Knitabulous [ Ailsa - on the left ] in her Ishbel beret, and Randomknits [Donna ] wearing a beautiful "Gretel" beret by Ysolda Teague that you totally can't see in this photo and "Aran Scarf" by Veronica Manno. Right at the end as they got up to leave the table - and after this photo was taken - they both pulled on truly amazing gloves. Luckily for you lot, there are details on both their blogs.



True to form, Bells whipped out the current travelling knitting:

her aptly named Bendigo socks.
In a moment of shockingly unprecedented short-sightedness, I had signally failed to come likewise prepared ... bad Catsmum ... bad ... bad ... bad !
I was so much in danger of withdrawal symptoms that I had to come home and cast on a new shawl straight away
but that's a post for another day

and in a postscript to yesterday, Tara has kindly offered to pick up a lambieskin for Noah tomorrow.
Her blood's worth bottling!

8 comments:

Rose Red said...

Ah, good Tara, I knew you'd get a volunteer sheepy purchaser! (As an aside, I was given one for Connor and he loves it!)

I didn't visit any animals last year either - too busy buying yarn and meeting people!

Doris Sturm said...

Everyone looks so happy. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. I would have enjoyed it there too...I'm glad you had fun.

Happy weekend,
Doris :-)

Alwen said...

Okay, this is weird, but the building you are all in looks just like one of the fairground ones here in Michigan, and I know it can't be, but I still have a mad urge to drive over to it and see you and Bells and all!

Sue said...

It looks as though you had a great time. I have no idea what Ailsa and Donna are wearing in their photo but I am sure it is mentioned on their rav page!

bells said...

it was a great time! I'm so happy we got to meet finally! You are lovely!

catsmum said...

It was SO great to finally meet you too Bells. You are just as sweet in person as you seem on your blog ... and a note to the rest of you :
if you haven't discovered Bellsknits blog yet, do yourself a favour and go visit.

gayle said...

Glad you had a fabulous time, even if you didn't get to see any cute little camelids.

colleen said...

Great photo of Mandie! You would have had to be quick. I seem to never be in the right place to get a Ravelry badge, so nobody knows who I am. I would have loved to say Hello in between my stint on the North East Yarns stall and networking with other stallholders and having fibre fun. Everybody had a great time.I had my camera with me all 3 days but not one photo did I take! Grrrr.
Cheers