Of Black Sheep, Inventory, & the World's Greatest Fiancee

I'm baaaaack! Five days gone, all for Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. My first big(gish) fiber festival, and my first time as a vendor (don't worry, they were gentle).

I traveled with Elena, aka Knitopotamus, my spin-buddy extraordinaire. We managed to get all our camping gear and about a metric ton of COLORBOMB crap -- yarns, BOMBatts, BOMBits, displays, promo materials, etc. -- crammed into her Saturn 4-door, but I forgot to take pics. Meant to get a photo of the pile o' gear, but oh well. But I *did* capture this shot of her driving as we left town for parts north. Isn't she cute?

We left Thursday morning at about 10, right on schedule. We wound up the coast, stopping briefly at A Perfect Yarn in Crescent City, where I was hoping to pick up some 12" circs to start my Latvian wedding socks. No such luck, and I had a verbal tussle with the owner when she tried to correct me about stranded colorwork ("That's called fair isle, you know" said she.). But still a nice stop; it's a really lovely little shop, with a lot of variety and high end yarns. Almost bought the last Needle Gauge Pendant she had.

Stopped in Grants Pass for lunch at Wild River Brewing & Pizza Co. - yum! I always get a Rueben and a Bohemian Pilsner, and this time was no different. Love that place! No money and no room for the purchase of a case, though. Oh well.

Got to the Lane Co. Fairgrounds at about 6:30 as expected, and pulled in to the parking lot next to the campground (just a big ol' grassy field across the creek from the fairgrounds proper). When I asked the folks camping next to us if we'd left enough room, we found out they were members of our very own guild! It was the Southern Humboldt contingent, including Ace and family of Ace 'n the Hole Ranch (Romney sheep) in Myers Flat, Janet Heppler of Nebo Rock Textiles in Covelo, and Janet Finch of Aunt Janet's Fiber Mill in Whitethorn. We scored on neighbors!

Friday was, thankfully, slightly cooler than the Thursday; I think it only reached about 85. For us thin blooded Humboldtians, it was freakin' HOT! But I liked it. I was supposed to set up the booth the night before, but my booth-mates were busy assembling the tent and weren't ready to set up until almost opening time Friday morning. So I managed to get my table set up in about 40 minutes.

As you can see, I went with an orange color scheme. I really like it. Scored a great woven fabric at Joann's for the tablecloth, and picked up a boatload of plastic containers at the Dollar Tree for displays. Plus Cole, who is the most supportive fiancee a girl could ask for, made me 2 tabletop racks to match the floor rack he made me for Christmas, so my yarns were really shown off to best advantage.

And there's a bucket of freebie Smarties, a bowl of sale yarns, a bowl of BOMButtons & keychains (with knitting- & crochet-themed pics), and you can see Betty modeling my Dread (K)naught Hat using LoopyDoopy yarn, so people could see how they knit up. I also had The Fez with me, for an example of WoolyBear yarn, and I was working on Wrong Number, in a (S)craptastic yarn. I meant to have swatches of *all* my yarns, but it just didn't happen in time. Next year...

There's more pics in my COLORBOMB Live! set on Flickr, if you're interested. But they're all of my booth; not a one of me, or Elena, or the animals, or the other vendors, or camping, or... Doh! I was so busy having a great time that I just never thought to pull my camera out of my bag.

I *did* have time to peruse the 'competition', though, and pick up a few things. I bought 2lbs. of an undyed merino-Rambouillet-Targhee blend, an another 12oz. of the same blend dyed a screaming acid yellow-green, both from Veronica of Ronnie's Handspun, whom I shared a booth with. (Thanks, V!) It is just *the* softest roving ever, and I might start carrying it in my shop, so keep your eyes out for it. Isn't it purdy? I got some other fibers, and played Black Sheep Bingo with the other Ravelers there, and, and, and... Check back tomorrow for pictures of the shwag I bought, and more of the story. :)

Tags: Black Sheep Gathering, BSG, COLORBOMB, COLORBOMB Creations, yarn, artyarn, handspun, fiber