Loot.

Been a fucked up week at House O Samurai. Migraines, and asthma, and a rampaging kid (smart and bored, look out), and... and.

And it should be unlawful for young people to die. Ugh.

BUT! Happy stuff!

Last weekend, my MIL and I went to the Great Lakes Fiber Show. It's in Wooster Ohio, which isn't too far from where the in-laws live. Since I brought my MIL over to the dark side, she's enjoyed all the fiberly arts. So I called her up and said HEY! FIBER SHOW! and she said "oh, I don't know... sheep..." and I said THEY HAVE A MARKET PLACE! WITH LOTS OF YARN! and she said "WHEE! LET'S GO!" so we did.

I think Great Lakes is the ideal size for a fiber fest. Big enough that there's a lot of wonderful selection, but small enough that you don't need a map, flare gun, and canteen to make it around. There were three show barns full of goodies (it was held at the county fairgrounds, so imagine the usual display barns there), and a nice open space between them that held a few more vendors and a very smart couple of kids making from-scratch lemonade as fast as they could.

I took cash, and promised the husbeast I would not exceed it unless I ran into some spinning wheel parts I've been looking for. (I didn't.) I think cash is the best way to go at these things - you don't have to worry whether someone can take credit cards, and the vendors will love you because the credit card company won't be taking a bite out of their profit.

The main reason I wanted to go was to see Fiber Optic in person. It was everything I dreamed and more. I bought a few things, then once we went through everything, I ran back and blew the rest of my budget on more fiber.

They do gradients.

And hard-to-do combinations. (Every time I try this combo, I get tangerine everything.)

And gradients with YAK in them.
And this last one? It was when I was back to spend the rest of my cash. I'm spinning some blue merino/silk/cashmere right now, and I'd already got the blue yak above. Plus I've got two other blue braids from a momentary mind break earlier this year. I didn't need any more blue fiber. But it kept catching my eye, every time I turned, and, oh, heck...

This stuff is impossible to photograph, but it is the most intense blue I've ever seen done with dyes. Ever. Loooove it.

I got a bunch of spin-ins like Angelina fiber:
..apparently I have maxed out my photographic space on Google. Anyway, shiny bits of fiber here.

And some silk, Bobyx top and some dyed hankies. I'd tried spinning silk when I first learned to spin, and it destroyed my hands. So I thought maybe I'd try it again. Or use the hankies to knit mittens or knucks.

Oh, and a cute little dish with a sheep and flowers on it to hold my tea spoon, 'cause it was cute and what the heck.

Now all I need to do is FINISH SPINNING WHAT I'M WORKING ON, so I can dig into this stuff. Or, maybe, I'll go for volume during the Tour de Fleece.