Sunday, September 23, 2012

Fiber-liscious Festival!

We headed off to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival yesterday on a perfect Fall day.  Sunny, fresh warm air, leaves starting to fall as we drove down the Sandy River gorge towards the freeway.  The festival is held at the Canby Fairgrounds south of Portland.  We always enter in the main entrance and head right and this same vendor always has a huge plethora of brightly colored yarn.  
My friend Shirley and her husband John joined us - it was their first time and although she isn't much into the spinning end of yarn, they both enjoyed the animals and all the things you can see and learn here.  These are hanks of ready to spin fibers. 
We headed outside to enjoy the sunshine and see all the spinners and vendor booths. 
Different spinning wheels of all kinds, ladies enjoying the perfect Autumn weather! 
How about some spinning in the sunshine? 
I led us to the animal judging and we got to see which Angora kids won the Blue Ribbon.  These guys are SO adorable and have such a sweet "talk".. maaaa MAAA! 
The Cashmere goats were BEAUTIFUL!  I love their long coats - the soft Cashmere is the undercoat. 
This one's face was simply sweet. 
The Jacob Sheep are a favorite of mine.  I love the spotted fleece and the horns.  They have the cutest little faces, too. 
See the horns?  They have 4 of them!   
Some of them only have 2 and they go backwards.  Weird, huh? 
These are Icelandic Sheep, they were so fluffy! 
Cute face, huh? 
Sheared Alpacas certainly have a comedic appearance, don't they? 
We need to fence our property and populate the farm with these sweethearts. 
Aren't I cute?  Take me home with you! :-) 
Angora rabbits.. so cute and fluffy! 
There were Llamas, too.  Isn't he handsome? 
Look at me! 
One blue eye and one brown.. cuteness. 
Another Angora bun bun. 
Kids and bunnies.. sweet. 
Hanks of silk.. ohhh. 
Tools of the trade.  Drop spindles and more. 
Selling patterns for finely knitted Angora lace shawls.  I saw LOTS of shawls and shawlettes being worn by ladies at this event. 
I was pretty restrained with my purchases.  I got another basket, a skein of grey Alpaca already spun and a pair of carders for the finer fibers such as the 4 huge bags of raw Alpaca that I was given in the Spring.  We then headed off to see the flowers at the Swan Island Dahlia Farm.  How about THIS for flowery goodness? 
We have had virtually no rain for over 2 months.. amazingly rare for Oregon.  They were watering their flowers.
They also had a beautiful Koi pond with several gorgeous fish. 
How about some close ups of the plethora of Dahlia species?   
Hello!  Gorgeous purple! 
I love these unusual ones. 
Spider shaped ones. 
Color me pink!
Rows and rows of them. 
Yellow pompom. 
 Just a hint of purple on the yellow.
"Dinner plate" sized ones. 
Big sunny yellow ones. 
Huge red and yellow one. 
Can you believe the variety of these flowers? 
Then home.  Look what was on the back porch?  Yes, I've been doing some retail therapy on eBay and Etsy.  I will leave you wondering what was in the boxes as this post is long enough already.  :-)   
Here are my carders. 
And my Alpaca. 
And last but not least, our 3rd egg from Buffy!  One more and we can have breakfast.  LOL! 
We are expecting a delivery soon - our 3 year old grandson Caleb is coming for 4 days and 3 nights while our son and DIL head off on a long awaited vacation, sans little boys.  Her mother is taking 4 year old Hayden.  This should be an experience! LOL!!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

23 comments:

  1. Oh oh oh,,,,,my heart was beating so fast! How I would have loved to have been there too!! Loved everything about this post! And shame on you for making us wait.....
    XO Kris

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Kris! I LOVED everything about this post. Fiber events are some of my favorite activities and I'm sorry I missed this one. The fiber, the animals and the flowers. Oh my. There are no words for the beauty contained in this one post Teresa. My favorite flowers are the purple dahlias and the yellow with the hint of purple on the tips. B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.

    No baby yet! Still waiting. Have a happy Sunday Teresa and thank you for the eye candy today. :-)

    Blessings,

    Betsy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow and wow and wow and wow Teresa what an amazing collection of photographs. The fibres, animals ( how gorgeous are those sheared alpacas ?) the shawl, the dahlias (so beautiful and always make me think of my dad who loved them). And you are getting your grandsons for a sleepover :-) oh yes and the parcels and fish and another egg! wonderful!!!!! Love Anne x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tis Paradise on Earth! Wow beautiful colourful photographs! Oooo Ooooo what's in them boxes? Good luck with your house guest, have you got your energy drinks ready? xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tease.. what's in the boxes... I need to peek :) I've never seen an event like this, it looks wonderful, a feast for the eyes. The flowers are amazing, the animals so cute, I could have sat and watched the ladies spin for ages :) xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, what a colorful day! Looks like so much fun. Talk to you soon. XOXO

    ReplyDelete
  7. That looks very similar to the festival I just attended! Your animals were much cuter though ;) Your neighbors grow the most beautiful flowers. Their property looks enormous! I would love to just stroll up and down those gorgeous rows.
    ~Lacey

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Teresa, What a fabulous festival! I feel like I was there, your pictures are so complete and beautiful. I love the animals and all the different types of sheep. They are all so different and the yarns are so soft, can't believe you walked out of there with only 1 skein. WILLPOWER! I have never seen such beautiful flowers and so many. What a great weather day you all had. Can't wait to see what's in all the boxes!!!
    Thanks for the great festival, xoRobin❤

    ReplyDelete
  9. Fantastic pictures Teresa!!! as always, love all of the fibre.
    I have my 11yr old grandson for almost a week at the moment, he is
    a sleeper lol, very easy, but was different when he was 3, have fun ☺☺

    wendy xo

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Teresa...Your last 2 posts left me with a good feeling of seeing beautiful colors of flowers and yarn! Very uplifting! The dahlias were spectacular! Happy Fall! ~ Hugs, Patti

    ReplyDelete
  11. I see all that yarn and I just wanna throw myself into it. Kinda like when I had hot flashes and wanted to throw myself into a snow bank. Such nice photos you took and looks like your day was wonderful.
    Susanne :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I would have loved to attended this festival. Great photos of the sheep. Wish I had some here on the farmette!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Once again you are Grandma and Grandpa of the year. What an amazing and very colorful day you have had. It looks like a perfect way to spend the day with people you love, amongst the brilliant colors of yarn, fiber and flowers. I think I would have bought everything.
    Hugs to you,
    Meredith

    ReplyDelete
  14. One word....jealous...

    OK, two.....stunning

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a wonderful fair. Those alpacas are so sweet - I do hope you get one or two then we can see more pics of them often. I used to enjoy seeing an alpaca at our local shopping centre. He would travel in the back of his owners little red car and you'd often see him with his head out of the window of the parked car (in shade of course) waiting for his owner to come out of the shop. He always attracted lots of 'friends' and was a local celebrity. Always seemed to be happy but the do-gooder authorities put a ban on him going in the car with his owner because they thought it was cruel !!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow, what a wonderful post! I love the beautiful flowers, the fibers and the knitted shawl was just awesome. Just seeing it made my hands twitch to start knitting it, it was very lovely. Did you get the pattern to make it?

    Your pictures are always so lovely. Thank you for another wonderful post.

    Blessings always

    ReplyDelete
  17. I "wowed' my way through this post and enjoyed the comments as well, Teresa :) Thank you for making the time to post your fun and informative commentary as well as your fabulous photos!!! I just got back from the OFFF festival, but enjoyed it even more from your viewpoint. Bravo's for Buffy!!! Has Caleb helped you open all of your boxes?
    xxx from Gracie

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Teresa, you do such a wonderful job taking pictures of the places u visit it makes me feel like I was there ... Oh! Wait... I was there at the Flock and Fiber Festival...I just didn't take such wonderful pictures as u did and I didn't post any yet... Will try to do it tomorrow...
    The only thing I missed was to be able to meet you in person... I hope some day we can do that :)
    Again...I love all of your pictures !

    ReplyDelete
  19. Your festival is very much like SAFF only in warmer weather. I absolutely adore going....except for the angora bunnies. They are so sweet, but I'm allergic...talk about sneezing! But there is so much other stuff to look forward to! What did you get at the festival? The carders and alpaca? Beautiful photos!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. What a great festival Teresa and such a lovely sunny day for it. Those alpacas were so funny! Good job you were restrained with you buys as it seems there was plenty waiting on your porch :0) I am intrigued what is inside ;0)
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  21. Teresa, what a wonderful weekend! That first photo with all the yarn.....oh my! All the animals were so cute and the flowers were gorgeous. I would loved to have been along for the trip. And goodies waiting when you got home. How great is that? Can't wait to see what your boxes hold, I'm sure all kinds of great goodness.

    Hugs,
    Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  22. Don't you just love Canbyland?
    Your photos of the sheeps in the barns turned out very well. Good job. We went on Saturday and it was simply gorgeous weather this year.
    Lots of shawlettes being worn and knitted.
    If you want to see more pics:
    http://runningwithrocket.blogspot.com/2012/09/flock-fiber.html

    ReplyDelete

I absolutely love comments and thank you so much for taking time to leave me a note. :-)