Gathering of the Wool : A Trip to Wool Gathering,
Yellowsprings Ohio.
Ohio…to hear people talk it
is flat, dull and so boring that more US Astronauts have hailed from the state
than any other, or at least it seems that way! (With the joke being it is so bad that they are driven to leave
the entire planet!) But I find it has its own charm, especially mid-September
when Wool Gathering happens!
Held at Young’s Diary it
hosts over 100 vendors from around the mid-west, and some of the best ice-cream
and deep fried cheese curds anywhere around.
Although it has been held
for 23 years now, this is only the fourth or fifth year that my children and I
have attended. We look forward to it
each year and each have our own role to play as the day unfolds.
The roles start to show
during the nearly hour long drive to get there, once the radio station we
usually listen to starts to get fainter and more staticy the plotting and
planning begins. “Do you think they will
have my favorite shade of green?” muses TOB He has been looking for exactly the right shade for years now and never found it
The perfect shade is
somewhere between those colorways there.
“Will the Weavers Guild be
there” ponders TFB...
And of course they were and
he and his brother monopolized the demo looms for a while.
Wearing shoes while weaving makes things difficult,
but was required out during this trip.
TOB discovered he could angle
his feet and use just the outer edges to ensure he was only pressing down the pieces
he wanted to.
“Does my make up look alright?” interrupted The Drama Queen (Aka Knitwear Thief, Master-class.) After the laughing
from her brothers she explained she was the walking bill-board for a shawl that
will be published in Knotions at the end of this month.
(this isn’t it, just a demo
piece from one of the vendors that she tried on, it had pockets that went from
waist to just below the knees! Finally
something with pockets big enough to hold a cell phone, knitting project and
your car keys…but sadly it stayed behind when we left.)
I of course was pondering
visits with friends, I meet up with some of the dyers who provide yarn support
and was supposed to meet a couple of people from Ravelry but timing didn’t work
out, and more importantly what I wanted to buy!
We have a system…walk through
and look at everything once then stop, watch the sheep shearing
Sorry, the lighting was really bad in that tent....
Have a snack and then go through again having talked through our purchase plans.
Several of the vendors I
have visited with in the past didn’t come this year, but new to me vendors took
their places…there was of course lots of yarn to pick from.
Spindles and Wheels and Looms...oh my!
Beads and buttons, stuffed toys....there's more!
Unique scissors...now if I only thought I could hold onto them, scissors seem to mysteriously migrate at my house.
Blending Boards and Hand Carders...which reminds me I have some fleeces to scour....
Of course our “once more”
through the tents ended up becoming four times more through the tents as each
of us forgot where a vendor we wanted to revisit was! But in the end…
We were all satisfied with
our purchases and made one final stop…Ice Cream!
One last visit to the sheep and we were all tiredly on our way home!
My purchases? I was very restrained some sock yarn...
1500 yds of lace weight...I have a plan for this...it will be epic or an epic disaster....
And some yarn to do a test knit for my friend Peggy Jean Kaylor...you can find her patterns on
.Ravelry
All that walking and talking and eating of ice cream wore me out! Once home, I got kicked out of the mom's union for saying that ice cream was our dinner and crashed on the sofa!.
How has your week been?
~M
