Back from BSG with a HAUL!

I'm baaaaaack! Black Sheep Gathering is my fave fiber festival. Yep, it was BSG #3 for me, & if I'd had any more fun I probably would have been arrested!

I traveled up to Eugene with Janet Finch of Aunt Janet's Fiber Mill, just like last year, & had fun camping with the Humboldt crew that also included Janet Heppler of Nebo Rock Textiles and Ace Vandenack of Ace in the Hole Romney Ranch. Janet & I drove up a day early, arriving early Wednesday evening, which made the whole set-up portion of the weekend SO much more relaxing!

Friday night I hosted the inaugural COLORBOMBers Pie & Beer! meet-up, and we had quite a party. That is Heidi/Ruthshands spinning with me (I'm trying out the handmade wheel Amy bought, but I don't remember what kind it is); Heidi has a couple more pictures in this post on Ravelry. I had an epic fail in the photo department (if you took any at the party, let me know!), but there's a better pic of the group taken by Nancy/tigereye here. Needless to say, pie was eaten, beer was consumed, & the spinning was continuous! There were about 20 of us all told, & by the time the tequila was busted out, the joint was jumpin'.(Thanks for that, Morgaine!!). If you missed it, look for COLORBOMB Pie & Beer 2.0 at Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival in September.

I packed Saturday full of visiting, including getting to meet some of my stalkers online friends in person! This is Shelby/Heartstone of Spinning Awesome Good and Miki/Knitzphat modeling their handspun, handknit Faraway, So Close shawls that they made in the SAL/KAL that Shelby sponsored in her Ravelry group recently.

Besides schmoozing, I did a lot of shopping, trading, & (happily!) accepting gifts! Shelby brought me a lovely birthday batt, as did Susan/WildOnion. TrishKoppala brought me the roving I'd purchased recently in her Etsy shop, Rogue Adventures. I won a prize donated by Amy/toadyjoe in the BSG Bingo game organized by TheBon & Violin Jodie. Despite forgetting my own contribution, I was gifted a bunch of fiber in the Ravelry fiber swap that Carolina/mimosaknits put together. Someone at the COLORBOMBers meetup presented me with some retina-burn pink & purple roving left over from their class. And Ed Jenkins gave me a replacement shaft for my Jenkins Turkish Delight Spindle. But mostly there was lots of shopping! Wanna see? I know you do!

That's my dyed haul, comprised of:

• 4oz Finn top in ‘Storm Warning’ & 4oz Wensleydale top in ‘Brilliance’ from Oregon Homestead Fibers
• Sheep 2 Shoe Kit in ‘Slayer’ & Socks That Rock Lightweight Rare Gems from Blue Moon Fiber Arts
• 4oz superwash BFL top in ‘Fun’ from Rogue Adventures
• 3.1oz Spinning Awesome Good birthday batt from Heartstone
• 1.5oz Happy V-Day birthday batt from WildOnion
• 2oz Spunky Eclectic 60/40 merino/bamboo top in ‘Berry Pickin’ from BSG Bingo game, donated by toadyjoe
• 1oz hot pink & 2oz purple/pink roving shared by a COLORBOMBer (can’t remember who that was dagnabit)
• 2 4oz handmade felt pieces from Aunt Janet’s Fiber Mill
• 1.25lb cone of salmon sparkle thread, 1/2lb cone of green sparkle thread, & 2 4oz cones of linen warp yarn in chartreause & orange from the estate sale booth
• 8oz handdyed mohair top, 5oz handdyed Lincoln locks, & 2oz handdyed angora fluff from the Ravelry fiber swap
• 2lb cone wool/poly yarn & 2.5lb cone of faux mohair yarn for plying from Linda’s booth

And that is my naturally-covered haul, which is:

• 1lb Pygora-Cormo roving & 1lb Cormo-Jacob roving from Bryn Hollow Farm
• 1lb Polworth top & 1lb 50/50 Silk-BFL top from Carolina Homespun
• 14.5oz washed black suri alpaca locks from Taylored Fibers
• Kookaburra Scour & Wash & drive bands from Woodland Woolworks

Last of the haul is my Pacific Northwest IPA collection, left to right:

FireStation5 Steampumper, Ninkasi Tricerahops DIPA, Cascade Lakes IPA, Laughing Dog Devil Dog, LD Dogzilla Black IPA, LD Alpha Dog, Oakshire Watershed, & Terminal Gravity IPA

Some of the other highlights included:

• brought a couple new COLORBOMBers into the fold: spincycle, palomaeatsyarn, LForsland, and dtjacobson all took home some of the COLORBOMB Silk Pigtails I debuted at BSG
  

• Test-spun the new Spinolution Hopper wheel in the AskTheBellwether booth; interesting, but not for me I think

• Tried the drool-worthy electric mini-spinner in the Hansen Crafts booth and fell in LOVE - this might be in my future!!
  

I ended the weekend by driving home with Ace and his sheepies, & the trip just whizzed by because he is a great storyteller. (It doesn't hurt that he drives like I do; he took 2.5 hours off the time it took Janet & I on the way up!)

So I've gotten a taste of the summer festival season, & it has left me wanting more I expect to be at Boonville and OFFF in September and then our local festival in Redway in October. Fun-ski! Hope to see you at one or more of those events!!

Tags: Black Sheep Gathering, spinning, fiber, wool