Finger Lakes Fiber Festival '08
Posted by knittymom at 9/26/2008 8:14 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
One of my favorite events of the whole entire year is the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival. This year it was held September 20-21 and I was there both days. The first day, which was just as stellar as a weather day as you can get, we went as a family. The second day I went solo for a class and some serious shopping. The festival is held at the Hemlock fairgrounds. Hemlock is a very small hamlet (The hamlet of Hemlock? Omelet anyone?) along Hemlock lake, one of the beautiful Finger Lakes formed in the rolling hills in western and central NY state at the end of the last ice age. (Rolling hills also courtesy of the last ice age.)
So here goes a fairly picture heavy post.
After some lunch, we took a wagon ride around the grounds -- always a favorite for us and the kids. If you look over Aidan's head, past the fried dough stand ("Mmmmmm, fried dough." said in my best Homer Simpson), you can just barely see the sheep dog presentation in the background.
There were all kinds of fiber animals in attendance. Here we are admiring some lovely alpacas who really did not want our attention. It was like some kind of magnetic repulsion -- No matter where we walked they managed to stay on the opposite side of the pen. They didn't want to look at us either.
Aidan really enjoyed watching the sheep shearing demonstration. He actually got hold of the the big picture -- wool grows on sheep, wool gets cut off sheep, wool gets made into yarn for Mommy to knit.
Erin, Megan and I learned about the production of silk. In an extremely compact space, this informative lady was feeding silk worms (caterpillars), showing cocoons, boiling cocoons to loosen the silk fibers, and winding the silk fibers on to a wheel. Each cocoon has about a mile of filament -- that blows my mind as the cocoons weigh almost nothing and are about the size of my thumb to the first knuckle. We were able to "pet" the silk caterpillars which were quite a bit larger than I expected, a solid 3 inches, given the size of the cocoons. The caterpillars felt like suede.
More alpacas. These were in a friendlier mood.
Close up alpaca! They are just as soft as they look.
Angora bunnies were also hopping around representing the pocket pet fiber animals. Also just as soft as they look.
Representing the slightly-larger-than-pocket-pet fiber producing contingent: Shetland sheep. Yep, she's full sized.
(An aside: I did not intentionally dress all the kids in tie dye though it did make it easy to spot them in the crowd.)
The above is my personal set of acquisitions from the Festival. Stay with me here. Starting from the top and going clockwise:
-- Blue and purple wool and mohair called Sugar Magnolia from Steam Valley Farm. This was Megan's pick.
-- White in wool and alpaca from Stone Edge Fibers. They had a sample of some yarn spun from this fiber and it was just so heavenly soft. They also had pictures of the sheep and alpacas that the fiber came from and that her daughter raised.
-- Blues, yellow and sparkle. Starry Night from Tintagel Farm. My personal favorite.
-- Tan in wool and alpaca also from Stone Edge Fibers. Same heavenly softness.
-- Coffee mix of wools from Nistock Farms. I love it when the farmer names the sheep the wool is from. All made from her herd.
-- Roses and greens in merino and tencel from Spinning Bunny-- that's destined for some socks.
-- Purple and green in superwash BFL wool from Spinning Bunny
-- White with some purple,pink and gray in merino wool and silk from Clover Leaf Farm.
-- Oranges, pinks, yellows in BFL wool from High Bid Farm. This is Erin's pick and will probably become a hat and mittens.
-- Greens and Browns in BFL wool from also High Bid Farm. Will be something for DH.
-- Roses and oranges in BFL wool from Winterhaven Fiber Farm. Maybe a scarf for me.
In the center: a spindle from Golding Spindles in purple heart wood in their tsunami pattern. It weighs about an ounce and will be perfect for spinning sock yarn. Also a sheep magnet (Thank you, DH!) now stuck to the back of my van just to make people wonder.
Totally enjoyable couple of days. Doesn't compare to Rhinebeck as far as scope or scale but it just the right size for the kids and for me to take everything in over a few hours. Can't wait 'till next year!
So here goes a fairly picture heavy post.
After some lunch, we took a wagon ride around the grounds -- always a favorite for us and the kids. If you look over Aidan's head, past the fried dough stand ("Mmmmmm, fried dough." said in my best Homer Simpson), you can just barely see the sheep dog presentation in the background.
There were all kinds of fiber animals in attendance. Here we are admiring some lovely alpacas who really did not want our attention. It was like some kind of magnetic repulsion -- No matter where we walked they managed to stay on the opposite side of the pen. They didn't want to look at us either.
Aidan really enjoyed watching the sheep shearing demonstration. He actually got hold of the the big picture -- wool grows on sheep, wool gets cut off sheep, wool gets made into yarn for Mommy to knit.
Erin, Megan and I learned about the production of silk. In an extremely compact space, this informative lady was feeding silk worms (caterpillars), showing cocoons, boiling cocoons to loosen the silk fibers, and winding the silk fibers on to a wheel. Each cocoon has about a mile of filament -- that blows my mind as the cocoons weigh almost nothing and are about the size of my thumb to the first knuckle. We were able to "pet" the silk caterpillars which were quite a bit larger than I expected, a solid 3 inches, given the size of the cocoons. The caterpillars felt like suede.
More alpacas. These were in a friendlier mood.
Close up alpaca! They are just as soft as they look.
Angora bunnies were also hopping around representing the pocket pet fiber animals. Also just as soft as they look.
Representing the slightly-larger-than-pocket-pet fiber producing contingent: Shetland sheep. Yep, she's full sized.
(An aside: I did not intentionally dress all the kids in tie dye though it did make it easy to spot them in the crowd.)
The above is my personal set of acquisitions from the Festival. Stay with me here. Starting from the top and going clockwise:
-- Blue and purple wool and mohair called Sugar Magnolia from Steam Valley Farm. This was Megan's pick.
-- White in wool and alpaca from Stone Edge Fibers. They had a sample of some yarn spun from this fiber and it was just so heavenly soft. They also had pictures of the sheep and alpacas that the fiber came from and that her daughter raised.
-- Blues, yellow and sparkle. Starry Night from Tintagel Farm. My personal favorite.
-- Tan in wool and alpaca also from Stone Edge Fibers. Same heavenly softness.
-- Coffee mix of wools from Nistock Farms. I love it when the farmer names the sheep the wool is from. All made from her herd.
-- Roses and greens in merino and tencel from Spinning Bunny-- that's destined for some socks.
-- Purple and green in superwash BFL wool from Spinning Bunny
-- White with some purple,pink and gray in merino wool and silk from Clover Leaf Farm.
-- Oranges, pinks, yellows in BFL wool from High Bid Farm. This is Erin's pick and will probably become a hat and mittens.
-- Greens and Browns in BFL wool from also High Bid Farm. Will be something for DH.
-- Roses and oranges in BFL wool from Winterhaven Fiber Farm. Maybe a scarf for me.
In the center: a spindle from Golding Spindles in purple heart wood in their tsunami pattern. It weighs about an ounce and will be perfect for spinning sock yarn. Also a sheep magnet (Thank you, DH!) now stuck to the back of my van just to make people wonder.
Totally enjoyable couple of days. Doesn't compare to Rhinebeck as far as scope or scale but it just the right size for the kids and for me to take everything in over a few hours. Can't wait 'till next year!
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