I promised Gail that I’d post about black sheep before Sunday and thus I present to you Black Sheep Gathering: Part 1 - Stash Inhancemnt
warning: this will be a image heavy post
Before I got down to Eugene I gave myself a dollar amount that I could spend there on fiber (which actually I stayed under) and then told myself that I wouldn’t buy any yarn because, well, I work at a yarn store - do I really need to buy any yarn at Black Sheep when I can just buy nice yarn at Twisted? (don’t answer that…)

In regards to weight, this is the biggest thing I bought. It is a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep 2 Shoe in the Puck’s Mischif colorway. 8.5 ounces of superwash merino which I will, unsuprisingly, spin up for sock yarn.

So my favorite booth was the Crown Mountan Fibers booth - I went back enough times that the guy who was running it would tease me a little. This is 8 ounces of Blue Face Leicester pencil roving (despite the look of that first bit on the top - it was also originally in a hank) in the As Above So Below colorway. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, I’ve been spinning some of it up with my new drop spindle though.

And because Crown Mountain Farms is really wonderful I also got 4 ounces of 50/50 yak merino blend. I’m pretty sure they get it from Ashland Bay. They also had a 50/50 silk cashmere blend that I almost bought but figured I could buy online later. And then there were silk hankies and lots of bombyx top dyed by Nancy Finn and 100% yak….

Staying on the natural colors route - I got 2 ounces of alpaca Its really, amazingly, soft and this lovely dark brown.


And then I got 4 ounces each of gray shetland and 66.6/33.4 black shetland/tencel from the booth that everyone seemed to be calling “the shetland booth” that I’m going to use for mittens out of the Selbuvotter mitten book. There are 2 2 ounce batts in each bag and they look wonderful


And then there was the booth across the way from Crown Mountan Farms that had buffalo…don’t ask me what I’m going to do with it - I know it’ll be lace weight and that it will be spun woolen….

No - I’m not done yet. Chameleon Colorworks was selling these little containers of fiber that they called “Fiber Parfits”. They have a half ounce each of angora, camel, tussah silk, 50/50 baby camel tussah silk, merino/silk, alpaca, optim, and yak. Basically a bunch of stuff that I haven’t tried spinning but want to. they will probably all become lace weight samples.

And then there’s this. This is a freezer bag full of raw rambouillet (if I’m remembering correctly) that Judith Mackenzie Mccuin brought into the To Spin a Fine Thread class and told us to take so she woudln’t have to take it home. After the class ended I asked her if she could bring some fleece to Rhinebeck this fall and she told me to email her my address at school for her to send stuff to!!!!! One more reason why I love Judith, just one more reason.

More BFL dyed top, 4.3 ounces from Its a Colorful Life

I’m petering out…hand dyed hankies from someone….I don’t remember but its not from Crown Mountain Farms (suprising I know). that being said I”m really excited to spin with it - I’ve never spun silk hankies before.

Again - another fiber I had never spun before. This is Pygora (as you can tell from the picture) from Peppermint Pastures. I started spinning some of it this evening and I really like how it spins - makes me that much happier that I took Judith’s class on Sunday. Oh and they also come with little 1.5ml vials of pure peppermint oil!

I also bought a batt from Velma Colorbomb Creations. I think I’m going to make some coiled yarn out of it.

And last - but not least, I bought the Triple Play roving in the Edgar Allen colorway. A blend of Corriedale, Romney, Merino, viscose, and silk noil.
And that is the end of the first installment of my Black Sheep Gathering commentary if you will. Up next, classes, supplies, and samples.