Oh, Baby

Presented for your review: the first baby thing I have ever made & given to the happy parent.  A quick project and fluffy (if small) lap blanket.  The pattern is the "corner start" blanket and after a few moments of skepticism it was surprisingly simple to work.

The yarn was free and when I was done with the border I had maybe 3" left.  A crafting success if ever I had one.

In other news, today was the second day of the Vista Fiber Fair (held at the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum). Some of the vendors bailed out because of the rain but the hardy souls who remained were much appreciated.  I brought home only one skein (on clearance!) and one pattern so I call that a win.  Even better was seeing old friends and sharing the event with a new friend.  Everyone should experience the joy of the AGSEM.

After we were done there it was time for a taco lunch in Oceanside & visit to my friend's rental place.  I got in a respectable amount of work on my Bosc Pear shawl.  I may need to take a break tomorrow to rest my fingers.

LA County Fair Results

After much impatience and fingernail-nibbling, we went to check out our entries at the LA County Fair Tapestry competition. I am pretty glad that Denise needled me, and that I made the deadline... by 4 minutes.

Best in Show: "Hyacinth" hand dyed silk from Chasing Rainbows, spun fine and chain plied. This was the remnant yarn from the black and rainbow shawl... and I remember a lovely afternoon plying up a passel of half filled bobbins. Me at the spinning wheel and Kip with a blowtorch and a transmission *sigh*. You can see Denise's lovely bamboo singles off to the right, with a ribbon of its own.

First: Hand dyed wool of my own, spun very fine. It is much, much more orange in person: The lighting in the hall and in the display cases was horrendous. Down with flourescence!First: 'MacKenzie' wool / silk blend from Ashland Bay. Spun and plied to a nice fluffy DK weight, I believe. It is a beautiful, vibrant navy blue, not the funny gray it appears. Second: Naturally green cotton singles, spun on a charkha. This is the yarn I use for weaving discloths. Hmmm, and I need to get moving on that order before Martha sets her last one on fire.

Third: Natural colored yak/ silk blend singes, also to be used for weaving.

It seems that the judges had an eye to color, now that I think about it. There were many lovely naturally colored wool skeins that were sadly ribbon-free. I will keep that in mind for next year. I knew I made good yarn, but I am grateful for the outside validation. Now if only there were prizes.... even $7 to cover my potato at lunch would be nice.

A Fair Day

I went to the OC Fair yesterday and helped wrangle goats. Here are Vegas and Reno, who won their show. They are Boer goats, which is a meat breed. These two are does, and they went off with another farm to get bred this week. I guess these events really are a 'meet market' *yuk yuk*. At least it wasn't me hooking up with someone short, furry and funny smelling.It is harder to think of them as dinner when they are sleeping. Not so difficult when you are trying to wrangle them to the show ring or when you are mucking out the stall after 14 hours at the fair. But this is the kind of goat I want:It is an Alpine, which is a dairy breed. How can you say no to this face? I love the coloring and those sweet upright ears.