Turn left at the chicken

Em and I dragged Kai and Abi off to the Michigan Fiber Festival today. I didn't really put a lot of forethought into keeping the twins happy so Em and I could do our thing but it worked out quite well.

First, we saw the animals...

This guy's name is Dark Chocolate. He was for sale. I have no idea for how much but I bet it's a lot. I heart him. What could be better than an alpaca *drool* named after my favorite chocolate *drool*?

For some reason, besides the fact that he is a such a cute little bugger, we have a whole bunch of pictures of this guy. I don't know his name but he was for sale too. His tag was marked "sold." I tried to talk Em into trading in all her guinea pigs for angora bunnies. After all, what good are guinea pigs? We can't eat them (well, we could but...yuck) and their hair's too short to spin. She's not agreeable. Damn.

We watched a little of the sheep judging. This dude was one pissed off sheep. I'm sure his handler was cursing him as he hung on for dear life. I tried to get a better pic of demon sheep but he was mostly moving too much. I have no idea if he won a ribbon because I was dragged away by two kids dying of hunger.

We made our way to the food trailer by way of meandering through the vender exhibits in the front part of the animal barn. Hey kids, this IS the way to the food--just hang on (damn, I'm good).

I sooo want to make this guy. The vendor had kits, including pattern and materials, for $20. But Em and I agreed to wait until we'd seen everything before deciding on any purchases. We ended up back at that vendor later but didn't buy a kit.

A lady was spinning with a drop spindle just outside the door and we watched for a few moments before being dragged off to the food.

Sorry, no food pics. Actually, be grateful. The $25 spread of a plain sausage, a corndog, 3 cups of fries and some drinks wasn't all that appealing in person.

And then it was off to the main exhibit barns...the motherload of vendors. I was so overwhelmed with fibery goodness, I forgot to pull my camera back out of my bag. Until I met this...

Oh. My.

One Trick Pony, 70% Coopworth, 15% Mohair, 15% silk from Hidden Valley Farm and Woolen Mill

But...I don't own a spindle or wheel. And I don't know how to spin. But...it's so purty.

Em and the twins pulled me away. Kicking and screaming. Well, not really. I couldn't expect the kids to behave if I wasn't, could I?

I'd promised the twins we'd get elephant ears after we looked through all of the barns. And the elephant ear stand was about halfway back toward the barn with Mielke's Fiber Arts. (See, I told you I was good ) So we enjoyed our elephant ears in the carousel pavilion (or whatever it was), while listening to some lovely singing. And then we went back to do some shopping...

Em got the purple bag on the right...a drop spindle/roving/how-to book kit. I got that fancy-shmancy Kundert spindle (I picked it because it was purty, the young lady who helped us said it was a good one because it would work for a beginner but I wouldn't grow out of it). Then we bought a 3 oz bag of Pewter (40% white icelandic, 40% white mohair and 20% black alpaca) roving from Orchard Hill Fleece Farm to learn to spin (spindle?) with. They had a basket of small samples labeled "one free with purchase" so I chose a bit of creamy alpaca.

What's that? I haven't mentioned those three large balls (bales?) of roving that purty spindle is stuck in amongst? Uh. It followed me home? Um. Peter, are you reading this? No? OK. Since I bought a drop spindle, I thought it might help me to learn to spin really well if I had a bit of incentive. And this stuff is seriously gorgeous. Go look at their roving (Lady of the Lake, Midnight at the Oasis, Shanghai Nights *double drool*), though the pictures do not do them justice.

Bags in hand (Kai took great pride in LOUDLY offering to carry my balls), we finished off the day with a stroll through the historic village. Which the kids insisted on seeing and it was on the way to the car (see...good, I tell you). They were a little disappointed that none of the buildings were open. Not as disappointed as when we got to the car and realized I'd left the headlights on. Hey kids, can we say "dead battery?"

So. I called AAA (glad I remembered my cell) and when the nice lady asked directions to where--specifically-- we were at the fairgrounds, I got to tell her "turn left at the chicken (on top of the fairgrounds entrance) and we're about 10 cars down."

I just wish I'd thought to take a picture of that big ass chicken while we were waiting for the tow truck to give us a jump. I guess Kai and Abi and I were just too busy taking pics of flowers and bugs to think of it.