Garden State Goodies

Last weekend was the Garden State Sheep Breeders' Sheep and Fiber Festival.  I drove out on Sunday all by myself! It was fun to pet the angora rabbits and talk to the baby llamas, and I ran my fingers through tons of raw fleece -- but much to D's relief came home with neither fleece nor llama nor bunny.  (Though I will be looking into raising angora rabbits.  How much trouble can they be?  And how totally worth it would it be to grow my own fiber?  Really!)

I did bring home some beautiful alpaca worsted to knit into Katie Himmelberg's Best-Fit Jumper from Simple Style, which I have been drooling over for a while now.  (The pattern calls for an alpaca-merino blend and my yarn is just alpaca, but I am going to knit the ribbing with a smaller needle in the hope that it will retain its memory -- I'm testing it out on the swatch.  If it doesn't work I have no doubt but that I can find some other use for this delicious yarn!

While you're admiring the yarn, take a gander at my new swift!  Life has recently become significantly less arduous for the wool-winders in the Martin household.  I think D agreed on my purchase (special sale at Knit Picks!) because it freed him from his bondage to the almighty skein -- possibly more so than as a reward for my hard labor driving K to camp in the Pinelands and schlepping her to the beach all summer.  In any case, I am loving it!

(Stay tuned to see the other goodies I brought home from the festival, as well as progress on the Wonky Blocks quilt...)

Quilt show booty

Early this afternoon the three of us trooped off to the Love Apple Quilters' 2009 "Spring Into Quilting" Show -- what fun! Or it would have been, if K had not been so gosh-awful whiny. Turns out she was coming down with a fever and upset tummy; we plopped her on the couch with some ginger-ale and crackers when we got home. So I didn't get to see many quilts, but I took a turn through the vendors' exhibits and picked up a handful of flyers so I'm now aware of a number of upcoming events. And I rummaged through a lovely merchant's vintage linens to find this embroidered pillowcase -- see how pretty?

I have a book called Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase that gives directions for turning this into an enchanting sundress for a two-year-old girl, and while I currently do not know any two-year-old girls, I expect to know about three of them in the not-so-distant future. Hence.

Then I found some delightfully soft and vibrant scraps of wool. I wanted them so badly but couldn't imagine what I might use them for, so I walked away from them, noting as I did the enormous basket of (clearly hand-dyed) wool roving on the table nearby. On my second pass by the woolens exhibit, I fingered the roving for a moment, then dove in. I came out with the Easter egg colors below:

I know that wool roving is used in needle felting but I've never tried that; the only thing I've ever done with it is make felted rocks, which is probably what I'll do with this roving. I've also seen instructions (in The Creative Family by Amanda Soule) for making little round felted balls, about the size of superballs -- which little children supposedly love -- but they look like a ton of work for not much reward.

So when I went to purchase the roving I asked, just for kicks, what the scraps were meant for, and was told that they were for felted wool appliqué -- which of course never occurred to me because I am mortally terrified of appliqué and have never once considered trying it. But felted wool is all the rage these days, and I know that it is unbelievably forgiving -- and these wool scraps had such a soft hand and such rich and gentle colors. I took a deep breath and bought some. and I found this on Amazon when I got home. I should have it by Wednesday, so look out!