MDS&W, Part II

Returning early this morning rather than staying later to brave the crowds yesterday was a good choice. I'm possibly getting over whatever illness I had, but I'm coughy, and after walking around the Fest with the boy from 8:50-10:40, was more than ready to go.

It was much, much calmer this morning than yesterday morning. The Koigu booth was closed (rumor has it they sold out yesterday), so the only ridiculously long line was for Galway. I walked right by -- I didn't even want to know what was in there, because today was about taking my time and just wandering, rather than kamikaze shopping.

We started the visit with a trip to the sheep cheese people, just like yesterday. Got some farmer cheese that I actually like, which is surprising -- I'm not a goat cheese person at all, and usually not fond of sheep milk, either, but this stuff is light and smooth. I took more time in the Main barn today, stopping by to chat briefly with Jen at her very cool booth. Made it all the way to the ends of the barn, feeling lots of roving as I walked around, and showing things off to Tim that I'd seen on Saturday. I ran into a wool booth that I'd completely missed, and bought some black roving with silk noils:



It should spin up into a neat, textured yarn. I may even ply it with some of the pure black merino that I also picked up today. I've been wanting to experiment with plying thicker singles of my variegateds with thinner singles of black, so that will be the next thing to go on the wheel, after my current batch of fluff is spun.

I sat at a Lendrum castle wheel to test out the Woollee Winder. Yep. Still want one. Also want a Lendrum castle wheel. Someday, perhaps.

Also spent more time watching the Sheep to Shawl competition, and petting the non-sheep livestock -- alpacas, llamas and bunnies, like this guy:


...and puzzled over the booth that included commercially-produced yarns like Noro, plied with other yarns:


I don't really understand... if you want to knit something with Noro and mohair, can't you just hold the two together and knit? Do you need them to be plied for you? I guess it lets the sellers show off what they think are cool color combos, but still, just seemed kinda odd.

Anyway, more pics in the slide show, and a couple more of the stuff that came home with me: