Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival 2006

On Sunday Kathy (Kathrows) and I went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Fiber Festival, where we dyed merino roving, ate lamb hotdogs, got rained on, and bought stuff:

From top left: Corriedale and silk roving dyed in osage, indigo and madder, pygora roving, dyed silk hankie, camel down (for my sp), and two dyed blends of alpaca, llama, silk and wool. I had vowed to only spend cash and quit when my wallet was empty. Only the fact that the ATM machine was out of money and most of the vendors didn't take credit cards stopped me from seriously running into debt.

In the morning, we took a dye class called Hot Rainbow Dye. Little did I know it was to be taken literally. Here's our dyed merino rovings, 28 ounces worth:

The first three are handpainted and set in the microwave (by Kathy, by us collaboratively and by me, respectively). The next two are from a round pot with a divider in the middle, supposed to keep the dye from blending together and the last two are from a rectangular pan, supposed to blend the dyes more. You can see a lot of undyed fiber, especially in the last two.

How will they spin up? We'll have to wait to see! Right now I'm busy with this:

Pygora--from the pygmy angora goat. It's soft as kittens. Literally. It spins up hairy and smooshy and unevenly--I'm loving it, despite my decided preference for smooth yarns.

Here it is on the bobbin. I think I will ply it as it is so soft I'm afraid a singles might not be strong enough on its own. I can hardly stand to go to bed or eat supper while it is sitting there waiting to be spun.I'm going to start saving now for next year. I think I'll double the amount I have to spend.