Michigan Fiber Festival

What a day. A bussful of b*tches from Chicago rolled up to the Allegan Country Fairgrounds and created quite a buzz. Thankfully we were in a gunfree zone. That was good. Can't have women blasting each other over that last discount skein. In addition to the gun sign, a giant chicken adorned the entrance to the fairgrounds. I wish I had a photo.

We wandered aimlessly about the fairgrounds for a bit before getting sucked into the Briar Rose Fibers tent. We all oohed and aahed, but when two of us made no attempt to depart, the other two of us did depart. We perused a couple barnfuls of livestock and I photographed many animals. I call my favorite photo "guess this animal" which most non-yarnies can't figure out. For a minute, I thought that the animals really liked me, and then I realized my companion, Lisa, was eating a peanut butter sandwich. Oh well.

After making a sweep of the vendors in these barns we went back to look for the other two ladies we left behind. Why were they still at the Briar Rose Fibers tent? They made new faces of glee and wonderment with each new skein they discovered. I didn't get a photo of the faces of awe, but they look really excited anyway.

We then carried on perusing the other barnfuls of vendors. This called for a break. We helped ourselves to some elephant ears. Mmm. I was briefly tempted to run back to the stand and get another elephant ear, but I backed down. We reconvened with our long lost Briar Rose friends and hung out knitting in a barn. Lots of folks stopped by to say, "Hey! You're knitting!" It was a fiber fest after all, I was surprised that more people weren't knitting in public.

At this point I had made it through the Fiber Fest without purchasing any yarn. I had a pattern, 4 soaps, 2 goat milk misting lotions, and an alpaca teddy bear. Never fear, I pulled out the plastic and got lots of yarn from, yes, you guessed correctly Briar Rose. We spent a lot of time there at the end of the trip and the Briar Rose women wondered whether our bus was leaving after all.

I was exhausted by the end of the day and thought I might take a nap, but I played "that's your house" with some of the other women on the bus. I ended up with a couple of burnt down walls and no roof for a house. And I named my alpaca bear Cletus to commemorate the day.