Alpacas, Sheep, Goats and... a whole lotta people

On Saturday, after a night of birthday debauchary at a co-worker's 50th birthday bash, I headed off to pick up my friend Dora in Hudson. Switching to her car, nursing some dehydration (beer, laughing and dancing can really make you dry), we headed to Springfield, MA. 

One end of the market

 What's in Springfield? Besides the Basketball Hall of Fame? New England Fiber Festival. Started last year (or was it two years ago?), this little indoor festival has greatly expanded... so much so that it takes up one of the Big E (Eastern States Exposition-- kind of like a state fair,but our N.E. states are kinda small, so we group them all together) fairgrounds.

Aisle after aisle of vendors, all hawking yarn, fiber, spinning wheels, spindles, and much much more. We saw at least 8 kinds of spinning wheels, more spindles than you can shake a stick at (mostly at Amy- Spunky Eclectic's booth) and oodles of sock yarn. If you are a sock yarn ho, this is where you need to be. MILES of it.

After catching up with friends and chatting while walking, we had a yummy and relatively healthy lunch (grilled chicken wrap with blue cheese, crumbles, cranberries and pecans) with a questionably
healthy snack (cheese fries), we headed back to finish off the shopping. I started to feel like this:

the other end of the market

It's a LOT of people.

I left with enough sock yarn from Dorchester Farms for two pair, and a shawl kit from Judy's booth. And a few patterns. Not much more. I've been pretty underwhelmed with what I see in the booths, mostly because I know how much I have in my stash at home.

All in all, a great day with great friends. This is a festival I can see myself going back to, but i'll be honest, I miss the "outside"-ness of an actual sheep fair. And it was a nice trip to Springfield. In my part of the state, the Snowtober storm didn't really impact us ---some crappy slush is all we got. But, my friends to the west? Hammered. So many trees down, so many STILL without power, but what great stories of compassion and fellowship: neighbor helping neighbor. Say a little prayer of thanks for the hard working line crews and tree trimmers. We saw them still hard at work on Saturday, clearing the roads to make them safe and passable.

Mouse mittens will be appearing here soon. Pattern is being written for them soon.

G'night. :)