St. Paul was a lovely place. I hope to visit it again some day.
Our first full day was spent at the state fair. Shortly after the first bit of food and drink were consumed, I insisted on finding the livestock. Thus, I lead four poor bystanders on my quest for raw fibers.
The first thing we found was a booth, outside of a livestock building, proudly displaying the rewards of raising alpacas. They had quite a bit of yarn and many finished items for sale, but what got my attention was the raw fibers.
I picked up a hank of Hand Painted Alpaca Suri Roving (the silky blue fiber on the left), and an ounce of Alpaca batting (the bright pink on the right) for future spinning.
The blue roving feels even better than it looks, and this stuff is gorgeous. I will have to make my way through my first set of fibers I got with my drop spindle before I even think about touching the new fibers, but I think having it will provide much encouragement.
My guilt at having left my two cats at home, almost 1300 miles away, did lead to me buying a cute toy for them from the booth. It was a semi-felted ball of alpaca fibers. I figured Magik, my curious and playful kitten, would love it. When I presented them with it I was not disappointed. Instead, I was surprised at how strongly Hunter, the large and lazy, had decided to claim the new toy as his own. Now I can exercise him by throwing the toy and letting Magik chase it. He will get up and take it away from her then play with it a bit. It seems to have worked as a bribe.
The other four people with me quickly grew impatient as I sorted through all the different items available at the alpaca booth.
Two of the group, Bill and Piller, were my companions for the trip. Both are rather good at making the correct noises when presented with knitting and fiber related words or objects. I know they don't understand much unless it is a finished item they can wear or use, but they do well at knowing when to make positive sounds and when to express sympathy. This may be because of how often I quote lovely knitting phrases like, "Two eyes, two needles" and "Sharp pointy sticks can hurt you more than me". But, alas, even they were ready to move away from the alpaca fiber before I was.
So off we went, resuming our search for livestock. They were at least partially interested in seeing living creatures, but I think mostly they wanted it done with so they could move on to the rest of the fair.
The buildings holding livestock are kindly marked in big letters on the outside declaring what creatures you can expect to find inside.
So, imagine my surprise when we went into the sheep building and found goats. I did a lot of walking around before discovering that there were no sheep in the sheep building. I was informed that sheep had been moved to the swine building so that 4-H could have a goat day.
I at least would have been mollified had there been a single cashmere goat in the building, but there were none to be found. As we left the building I started naming tasty Indian recipes that can be made with goat, starting with a list of curries.
It was a bit more searching to find the swine building, but find it we did. Half of it had the correct swine, but the rest was sheep. Loud, lovely sheep with warm, mostly-white wool.
Some sheep were a bit on the naked side and one being stripped as we watched.
I did get to pick up a few bits abandoned, but most of the sheep there were not raised for their wool. The bright white one pictured just a bit above had the softest wool I had the honor of touching during our tour of the place.
I was informed that most of the sheep there were not raised for wool and, in fact, did not have the proper wool for weaving or spinning. With that bit of knowledge I was ready to leave the swine building and go back to the usual riding of rides, eating of food on a stick and drinking of Minnesota beer that was the original plan held by the majority of our party.
I had a blast at the fair. We wandered around the large grounds, saw many cool things and I picked up a cool gun that does an impressive job of filling the air with round light bubbles. I admit, I have a secret love for all things bubbles. Piller wasted no time explaining the rules, once I had acquired my new toy. No bubbles in the house, no bubbles in the car, no bubbles inside the elevator to and from our temporary residence while in St. Paul.
I nodded and smiled innocently while he recited these rules to me. As soon as I spotted a couple of kids nearby I immediately started firing bubbles into the air. It was not long before I had a happy group of giggling children chasing bubbles like fireflies.
Really, it was a great time.
But wait, there is more! The state fair visit was only Sunday, the first full day in Minnesota. I got two more great yarn related events in during our trip. I will share these stories, and the pics of my new stash additions, in a later post.
So stay tuned!
