101st Connecticut Sheep & Wool Festival

Did you go to the 101st Connecticut Sheep & Wool Festival? If you did, then like me, you had a great time too! The weather was beautiful -- a little crisp in the early morning, later giving way to the warmth of the sunshine -- and there was lots to sheep and do!

At first my kids were not too happy about waking up so early in the morning, but once we arrived and they met up with their cousin K. they were happy campers!

K.'s mother, Nancy, of Woolen it be Nice, was one of the vendors selling felted flowers and kits to make your own -- in fact, if you watch the slide show above, uploaded by Paula Moliver for her article here, you can see Nancy and her beautiful flowers at the minute + mark.

While the kids hung out together (they did some needlepoint and some crocheting in between shopping excursions, even checking out car plates to see who had the coolest: ISPIN, ALPACA...), I helped my fellow CGOA Chapter members in offering free beginner crochet lessons & demonstrations. I loved how people were waiting for us to arrive so they could begin their lessons -- some stating it was the main reason they came to the Sheep & Wool! Wow! How awesome is that! ?!

I was gifted some amazing wool roving by HHCC member, Chava. She brought it all the way back from Ireland, and dyed it herself using acorns, ashes, and koolaid. She wanted me to use it for the crocheting with unspun roving demonstration -- what a dream; everyone at the demo loved petting it!

One of the best surprises of the day for me was running into my buddy Guido! We had met a few years back when I was teaching at a yarn shop in Stamford (now closed) and met up a few times after that. We always kept in touch with emails from time to time and through Twitter, but it had been nearly two years (I think) since we last saw each other. We were all giggles & stitch talk -- he with knitting and I with crocheting. Or was that I with knitting and he with crocheting? LOL Either way, we had fun catching up! And he interviewed me, so you never know, I might end up on one of his future podcasts. It was a fun reunion! Guido wrote, "It was great to hang with you and to pick your brain about the crochet scene." (OK, before you all comment, I don't know what was up with my hair being all wild looking; maybe it was all that brain picking, spilling all my crochet secrets! LOL; I'm kidding!)

I also got to see Tammy; another reunion! Yea! Tammy is a member of the ConnecticutCrochet yahoo group that my Chapter hosts. She is so much fun to chat with! You can read about her fun at the Sheep & Wool Festival here.

What did I buy? I didn't get much, I'm still on a "fiber diet." But I did buy a bar of soap (Dee Jr. really loved the way it smelled), and a Sheep & Wool T-shirt. Hopefully by this time next year I'll have used enough of my stash to need to seriously restock. ((grins))

We had a sheepish-lly good time and can't wait to do it again next year! :)