Lambtown

Today was the day I've been awaiting with fervor: Lambtown in Dixon, CA. It took a little over an hour to drive there, but it was well worth it for the food, the music, the animals and especially the yarn! The only thing I regret is that I went by myself as my only knitting friends were either busy or too far out of town.

First off, I had a lovely chat with Colleen (and her daughter Carla) of Fiber Confections. I learned a little bit about CVM sheep. Their farm had 2 sets of twin lambs born in March. The first set? Thelma & Louise. The second set? Lucy & Ethyl. I couldn't resist and bought a skein of each. (That's 2 skeins of yarn, because the twins' fleece was mixed) Because it was the lambs' first shearing, the yarn is sooooo soft.

The top two skeins are from Fiber Confections.
Thelma & Louise on the right, with Lucy & Ethyl the darker of the two.
I'll get to the alpaca at the bottom later.

Right next door to Fiber Confections was the Fishknits booth- a family business type operation in which all family members seemed to have a pair of socks on the go (2 at a time, no less). I was in awe of all of their yarn but resisted the temptation... until I saw their "Zombiefyed yarn." It seemed providential, because my best friend is having oral surgery that involves inserting a bit of jaw from a cadaver into her own mouth. We've all been joking around that she's going to be zombiefied, but I know it's a scary thought for her to be going into surgery at all and have been planning a care package for a while now. What would make it better than if I knit her a pair of cashmere blend socks in zombie colors? I managed to talk myself out of buying the yarn, thanked the family for their business card and walked back out into the sun.
And turned right back around and bought a skein.

Fishknits Opulence in "Zombie Stomper"(Etsy here)

It was just meant to be.
Anyways perhaps you remember that what I've been wanting was some soft, chunky, red wool yarn. And I've been saving money and waiting for Lambtown hoping I would find JUST what I was looking for. Well it turns out that most of the vendors at Lambtown seemed to be banking on the fact that sock yarn is a quick, easy impulse buy and there was little to no chunky yarn to be had. And definitely none in red.

I decided instead to turn my attention to exceptionally squishy and soft white yarn because I can always dye it red. This combined with a sale led to the purchase of the three skeins of white alpaca shown previously. I have no idea what it's going to be because I ended up finding something suitable for my mitten/hat/scarf set afterwards.

I actually bought three skeins (a total of about 21 oz) but the first one had already been balled up and so it was impossible to photograph. Ok ok if you want to laugh I'll show you what it looked like.

Hee hee. I love big balls of yarn.
Anyways this stuff came from Nebo Rock Textiles located in Covelo, CA. It's decently soft and chunky, and the color (hand dyed by Janet Heppler) is wonderful. It's not red, exactly, and the three skeins are not actually the same dye lot- in fact one of them has a slightly different fiber content- but by blending the skeins I think the set will come out wonderfully. Fiber content is 20% silk, 80% merino, except the one that has only 15% silk.
I can't wait to cast on!

But before I go and do just that, I'll share a few more pictures of the festival.

Sheep Shearing Contest

Shetland

 

Good Ol' Suffolk

Cutie little Corriedale

Rainbow sheep

"Mobility"
The coolest band ever because they're all decked out in their Air Force uniforms as they walk like Egyptians.
All 80's, in black sunglasses.

Eating the fence!

This sheep was the nicest one at the whole event. He rubbed up on me like a kitty and everyone gave him a nice big head rub.

Well that's it, you guys. I went to Lambtown and had a blast. I'm sure I'll go again next year, too. Now that red yarn is calling to me...

Happy knitting!