...you know you've arrived at the Allegan County Fairgrounds and Michigan Fiber Festival.  I like to make the trip to MFF every year because it's a big enough festival to draw a nice collection of vendors and animals, but a small enough festival that you can cover it in a couple of hours if you have a small person in tow.  This year, the weather was absolutely wonderful and we had a great, if somewhat abbreviated time at the festival.

Since I didn't know how much time I would have, I made sure that I got my shopping in early.  I didn't really have any intention to get too crazy with my credit card, but I did have one booth in particular that I wanted to spend some time in: Briar Rose Fibers.-- I keep hearing such great things about their stuff, I knew it was time to add a little something something from their products to my stash.

This is my entire haul.  Starting at 10 o'clock and going clockwise...  1) 1200 yards of "Grandma's Blessing" from Briar Rose (a sportweight superwash merino) in blues and purples (darker in real life than in the picture).  Probably destined to be a vest. 2) 450 yards of "Grace" from Briar Rose (a fingering weight superwash merino, bamboo and nylon blend) in rosy reds and varying depths of lavender.  Destined to become the Rivolo scarf.  3) 2500 yards of "Angel Face" from Briar Rose (a laceweight 100% alpaca yarn) in wonderful cherry reds.  Some lace shawl will clearly be lucky to be made out of this yarn! 4) Opal Hundertwasser that I just couldn't resist when I found the Uncommon Threads coffee house in downtown Allegan.  Coffee and a small yarn shop.  What more could I want?  5) Blue Moon Socks that Rock,  Heavyweight in "Thraven" a wonderful black yarn with dark teal undertones.  This will be a pair of socks for John this winter.6) Blue Moon Socks that Rock Mediumweight, no color name because it's a "mill end" -- shades of brown and taupe with greys and and lavender (mill ends rock. $14 a skein!).  I think it's beautiful and will make lovely socks.  And, last bit not least, 7) Blue Moon Silkie in Walking on the Wild Tide.  Yep, more socks.  Definitely for me.    All the STR came from The Fold -- even though Toni isn't that far away from me in Marengo, IL, it's always a pleasure to see her at MFF!  This time was especially nice since I hadn't seen her since last MFF.


After that, it was all about taking Ms. Z to see the animals.  Last year, she was really too young to be interested in anything but an afternoon nap.  This year I made sure she got introduced to the entire fiber animal bestiary.  Starting with the angora rabbits and some alpacas.

As soon as we entered the sheep area, we heard all the "Baa baa" sounds of the sheep.  And Ms Z, joined right in with her own "ba ba ba!"  Clearly she is beginning to figure out her fiber bearing animals. This lovely Blue Faced Leicester was the first sheep she got to see up close.

Not too far away were these adorable Shetland sheep.  Ms. Z must have felt like she had something in common with these little sheep, because she reached out to them all on her own. 

After the Shetlands, Ms. Z decided that sheep were okay in her book, and these lovely sheep owners let her reach right in and touch their lovely Lincoln sheep.  I'd never touched a Lincoln before myself, and their curly locks really made you want to sink your hands right in.

Our last stop was to goat area.  Angora goats are just about the cutest thing on hooves.  These two little guys were curled up for an afternoon nap.


Ms. Z didn't really take as much of a shine to the goats as she did to the sheep.  I thought that if she liked the Shetlands she'd like the goats, too, but she didn't really reach out to them too much. I think John got some lovely pictures of them, though.  This sweet little buck looked so serious.

We rounded up the festival with french fries (Ms. Z's favorite treat) and fresh squeezed lemonade and some time running around in the grass. 

I think the best part of the festival was being able to share my hobby, even in a small way, with my baby girl.  Lately she's been all about grabbing my yarn and running around with it -- I think she likes both the color and the softness of it. I hope as she gets older it's something we'll continue to share, even if we share it in different ways.