Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival with Friends

Friday morning at 4:30am, about the time my husband gets up to go to work, Ginger taps on my living room window and we're off to OFFF before I have time to register that I'm even awake! Next we pick up Emma. On Gingers site you should see how thrilled and awake we all were. She was snapping pictures all over the place.
Most of the trip was a blurr. It was still dark till we hit the coolest gas station that looked like it belonged on some castles grounds. There besides getting gas we got a great view of Mount St. Helens with the sun behind..just coming up.
We got lucky and got to park inside the first day. At first we thought.. is this all there is??? The Festival actually didn't start till Saturday. We walked around and saw that very few people had set up and this place had the potential of being HUGE! Ginger had a class right after we got there so Emma and I sat and spun for a few hours..moving here and there to either get some sun or avoid it. We all got very burned.
Sometime during that day we hooked up with Betty and her mom Martha and Teresa. Betty has the coolest and most unusual spinning wheel. If you saw it there..you'd remember. LOL!
Well, I won't get into the day by days. Lets just say we all had a wonderful time. Bought way to much!!
I in particular felt horribly guilty about my purchases. It seems I left my glasses somewhere on Friday. The ones my husband had given me so much crap about buying in the first place. I knew I was gonna "get it" when I got home so.. mmmm.. should I buy more and just roll with it.. I mean I'd already be in trouble, right. Or, be more conservative? Really, how often do I get to these things? Like never!! Ginger was surprised to find out that this would be the first time Bill and I had been seperated for more then a day.. ever! I'll get back to the glasses story in a bit.

Ginger, Emma and I shared a room at the Super 8 motel in beautiful Wilsonville. I was a bit worried. After all, I'm nearly twice their age. Not been away from home or family for probably 35 years. Used to Scratching ,belching and farting at will. LOL!! I think we all slept very well except for me on Saturday morning I went to shift/ turn in bed so as not to shove Ginger out and flipped my stupid self outa bed onto the floor on my knees!! OH yes I did too fall outa bed. How embarrassing!

The rest of the weekend was kinda a blurr. I'll try to remember. Saturday I hung out with Martha, Betty's mom, cuz we both move kinda slow. We looked at all the animals.. goats, sheep, yaks, llamas, alpacas and 2 young camels. I bought some beautiful alpaca that was spun by the ladies selling it which was made from a combo of all these ladies alpacas. I also bought some a hank of silk roving and a hank of merino roving in the same colors.. Deep purples. I think I'll spin them seperate and then ply them. I went to wander threw one of the buildings looking for Ginger and came across the wooly winder guy. I don't know why I thought they wouldn't have one that fit my Ashford Traveler but they did. I couldn't buy it fast enough!! It didn't even matter how much it cost. Which leads me back to the glasses............

Sunday morning, I check with lost and found for the umteenth time and still no glasses. Sigh!! I wandered threw one of the buildings with Ginger and Emma for awhile and run into Sam and Jen at Sheila's booth glassnut booth, afterwards, I decided to go outside to sit. So, I sat at the same table I'd been sitting at on Friday. All day Saturday a group called PDX bloggers had been sitting and knitting/spinning. I'd given up finding the glasses ever. I turn to look at the booths and there in the middle of the table are "MY GLASSES.. WTF!!!" Some guy sitting near started laughing(I'd said it rather loudly) and told me that things happen for a reason which I took to mean I needed to BUY MORE!! But, since I found some of the members of the afore mentioned group to thank them for my glasses maybe I was supposed to make new friends? Who knows!! After that I relaxed a TON and bought some more.. lol

Here you see most of "the Spoils". On the bottom is a brushed Alpaca shawl from Peru..left to right.. very pale green (kid mohair) roving (1.1lb) the purples I mentioned above. Some Aqua squeeshy stuff (1lb) that I had to have. A PINK drive band for Beatrice (my wheel) and a Woolie winder also for Beatrice. the black and white is a little over a lb of Jacobs fleece (like the sheep on the left) from a 5 mo. old sheep named "Thistle" I had to buy it. NOTE: One of my favorite Vases ,that I made years ago is called "Amy and Thistle" the painting is of a young girl with a Fairy sitting in her palm. The girl is the picture is a remake of a drawing my mother made of me when I was 14. The Fairy was just for giggles. Anyway.. I had to have Thistles fleece. The gentleman that sold it to me told me her brothers name is "Thorn" and her mama "Bramble" I love that little touch of history.
Here are Emma,Ginger and I after buying our fleeces.