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8/10/2011
Bon Appetit

horssamplers

Hors d’Oeuvres wool sampler kits are back, this time in every color of the rainbow. (I’m giving serious thought to becoming a hoarder so I never have to part with any of them.)

Each kit contains:
- 4 oz of fiber
- 5-8 different breed samples
- Unmeasurable amounts of fleecy goodness

 

Jazzturtle posted a great tutorial on dyeing fleece in mason jars using the summer heat, so I decided to give it a try. It worked out very well, and it was nice to be able to dye such a variety of colors all at once. After all, our poor air conditioner already has to work so hard this time of year without having to combat the oven heat from the kitchen in addition to the sun. The only frustrating part of this process was waiting for my watched-pots to boil.

Here are my jars, ready to have the boiling water poured in:

powderinjars

 

Jars cooking in the blistering heat of the patio:

morejarsinthesun

 

And finally, a rainbow of Rambouillet drying in the tub:

ramborainbow

 

First things first, we stayed at the Copper Oaks Bed & Breakfast in Sapulpa, OK. It was AWESOME. In addition to the killer homemade breakfasts, we were surrounded by trees, tweeting birds, and cows that moo “Hello" when they see you coming. We had a good laugh one morning when someone on the property was walking a tiny dog; his little legs moved him so slowly that he chased a bird and it ran away on foot and escaped. The inside was filled with antiques that I never got tired of looking at, including an old timey projector and 2 boxes full of glass plate slides (which I very carefully looked through and found some really neat fiber-related pictures, seen here). There was also a pool outside and separate air conditioner controls upstairs, so Adam was able to turn the room into an igloo just like at home.

copperoakscollage

 

Everyone recognized us immediately when we arrived at the fairgrounds. (We got 31 mpg on the drive!)

priustowing

 

I brought all my combed top, carded batts, handspun yarn, Nom & Foot Fetish dk sock yarns, sari ribbon, angelina, firestar, and a few buckets of dyed fleece that I had prepared just for the festival. My favorite part about being there was getting to listen to the comments people made as they looked at my stuff. It was interesting to see which products people gravitated to, especially the ones that aren’t big sellers online but really seemed to catch everyone’s attention once they could see & feel it, like the banana silk. I finally started leaving one of the bags open so everyone could cop a feel.

Even though my booth was waaayyyy in a back hallway of the festival, I lucked out because one vendor didn’t show up and their empty space just so happened to be right across from me. I was able to spread out onto both sides of the area and have a little more breathing room than I thought I would have.

boothbattsandbraids

boothangelinasandsign

 

Even though it was quite a long drive (20 hours round trip) I had a lot of fun and met some really great people. Now I’m back home and getting ready for Kid ‘n’ Ewe in November!

 

Head on over to the Phat Fiber blog today for a chance to win a skein of Nom in the Henri colorway!

(A blog post about my adventures at Fiber Christmas in July is in the works for tomorrow. Stay tuned.)