Ketchup,err......Catsup,err........Catch-up!

No email is able to be sent out so far this morning- so will work on my blog a bit.
I need a distraction. The pets are driving me over the edge (both are having 'relieving themselves' issues- the cat is OLD and peeing in her bed- Jade (dog) is going on day two of poopie-dom....one more day of this and she will have to go to the vet....it's not as bad today as yesterday, so am thinking it was something she's found to eat- as she is known for having perfectly good pet food in the bowl and she will sniff it and head straight for the cat box to eat poo there! At the beach she eats any and everything from rocks and sand to seaweed to cuttlefish bones!) RJB is being very good this morning- perhaps he can feel my stress from the pets and other household duties weighing in on me today. So this is a nice distraction..this blog thingy I mean. :)



It's about time I shared details about Saturday's SACSOS (SA couloured sheep folks) fibre fair.

I have lots of photos to share of what we got- but none of the show itself as they were in darkness for most of the time we were there and I wasn't blinding anyone ( or annoying them!) with my flash in effort to take some photos. If I were doing it for a magazine or something it might've been different. Something had happened ( they were blaming the Toyota Car Rally that was going on at the other end of town! lol) and they had NO electricity for the first few hours of the fair. It was small and all contained inside the Soldier's Memorial Building. There were about 14 vendors if memory serves me correctly. Friendly and chatty- we had a nice time learning more about wool and meeting folks. Kathy Baschiera was there as hoped! We did our most damage there- but to get 4 coloured/dyed wool batts for $5 ( 100g) is just too good to pass up- I just went crazy! I got majority- Richard (DH) got a few. :)

But he made up for it by getting a 500g roll of wool roving......$15- it is soft and nice quality. A lovely heathered chocolatey brown- the last one they had. This company is world known for its' wool......got a pamphlet and have read it since. They had really nice items-all in the natural colours sheep come in. I'd just left Kathy's stand- I was ready for rainbows and dazzle! lol

We also got to meet Suzie Horne! She is well known also for her yarns and rovings. She was a delight to talk with and we wanted to get some roving from her- but was just too dark to see the colours so we thought we'd go back before we left- which we did- but ended up with a bag of wool from my favourite raw wool folks from Mt Bryan- years ago when we first thought we wanted to spin- there was a wool gathering at Port Noarlunga ( about 7 mins. drive north) - and we met the Lucinvale folks there! So friendly! We didn't get the chance to chat- but knew when I saw their bags of fleece that I wanted one....came home with a 1K+ bag of COATED wool that is sooooooo soft and nice...... with that lovely sheepy farm smell. and ohh the lanolin in it is to die for at this time- it is so nice. I am eager to spin it- but Richard is using the spindle I use for raw wool spinning. ( I find it preferable to stick with one spindle that will get all that lanolin in- rather than 'mess' up several of my spindles. Although my Ashford Turkish could use a finishing coat of something on it! LOL!!!)

The B.O.M. ( weather people) had called for showers and cloudy weather but we found ourselves graced with nice temps and a gusty wind. So we took our Subway subs we had taken along and found a picnic table at the little park just behind the building and sat and watched the trees blow in the wind and children playing and just loved being OUT in it. I really really miss trees and green land and open spaces. ( cue music- "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks)

After we ate we went across the street and looked around at a little eatery that had train stuff ( RJB was insistent there had to be train somewhere nearby- all excursions should be to TRAIN destinations for him. ;) ) and some lovely pastry items. The shop next door had some flowering hyacinth bulbs in pots for sale so I smelled them and reminisced alot about home at Little Bear Creek- Mom adored hyacinths as well. We always had some- never much luck with the outside ones it seemed- but Dad would always bring home some potted ones or mom would get them when we went to the store. Ahhh- nothing says spring like Hyacinths and Lilacs.

After we had a look around a bit we went back inside and got the Lucinvale wool, put it in the trunk/boot of the car and went to play some more in the play area. Oh, forgot to mention that as we were leaving the fair the first time- Barbara from Yarn Mag. had just come in- but RJB was so hungry and we'd made him wait already- and she was talking with Suzie- so timing was all wrong- Richard had wanted to introduce himself as they are both on the same knitting board on Yahoo! groups- but when we got back inside- we didn't see her. :( We are hoping for the next gathering of woolies we will get the chance. :)



So-we got back in after a nice play and got ourselves figured out how to get out of there and head some place interesting next- and off we went........ en route to Melba's Chocolate Factory!

It was just off the road we needed to take to go home so it was a nice hours' diversion with a yummy bag of assorted sweets coming home with us. RJB got a construction vehicle made of plastic that had a little chocolate bulldozer attached to it- so he was happy! I got some dark chocolate frogs ( shape only of course-it's a thing here- chocolate frogs...(shoulders shrug)- and two pink( strawberry) white chocolate piggy shapes for Richard- as well as some hard tac black licorice like he remembers from England. Some fudge ( caramel and coffee- neither are terribly great but they are sweet!), something else caramel-ly- but not that nice....... and the best of all-

choc. covered ( milk and dark came home with us) coffee beans! YUMMMMMMM!

They are very nice. Melba's is good about having samples out of some things to try- and the coffee beans were so yummy! We saw several areas with folks working- packaging, and enrobing, and in the back big room I think the man was making a chocolate caramel or something.....it was quite a dark brown coloured hot mixture we was rolling out repeatedly- then cut it and moved it onto another table...... it's so neat to watch. When we all had made our choices we got into the car and headed home- via Hahndorf - where we stopped at the fruit and veg place we like there and got some broccoli, apples, a HUGE orange and some other good for us stuff ( to balance out Melba's - LOL! ) and then came home the familiar way. We had taken the more 'city' route to get there- thinking it should be faster- but don't know if it was or not- as we forgot to make note of the times left and with stops made along the way home..... well.......

let's just say the non-city way is much more enjoyable and relaxing. I love it over that way.

:)

Without further ado- I will now post pictures of said goodies...

In the bag- back and front view- did I say how much I appreciate people who put coats on their sheep? There is so little VM in this wool- it's fantastic!

A pouf of wool out of the bag- oh so fluffy!

This photo of a lock of wool- it isn't really as long as it might appear here-
it is actually a nice long 4" ( 10cm)- lovely length- not too long not too short.

Am thinking of trying to teach myself to spin from the lock...not quite sure I 'get' the concept- but won't know 'til I try! :)

This is Richard's roving- it really is soft as.

The above picture is pretty true to the colours- the green is a kiwi fruit colour....has the depth like that- some darker some lighter- all we needed was black seeds! LOL The pink is not quite what it is showing on my monitor- it's true colour is about where the too bright meets with the darker part.. the blue is pretty right on- and the yellowy is the colour of mango flesh. Kensington mango to be exact- YUM! : d

It is really difficult to get the true colours of the mango-ey multi batts-

we tried lots of different lighting- the following are what I deem best photos.

Kathy carded in sparkle in this colour- I got every one she had at that time! I would've gotten more if she'd had them! The colours are awesome- bits of blue, white,yellowy mango, kiwi, the sparkle in a 'majority' base of the darker orange-y mango colour. I can hardly wait to spin this- but am going to wait until I know what I want to do with it... each batt is approx. 25 g- so that is 225g of this colour and the plain kiwi and mango I got will compliment this perfectly- so might actually have enough of this for a sweater- even for a large person like me! I am not sure and am afraid i might need to learn to knit to find a pattern I can use homespun yarn with. *sigh* I will have to hide them from me so I don't get impatient and spin before I have the project.

This one ^ is a bit dark.......but loved how the picture came out. :)

These two are showing off the sparkle... above ^ is a bit dark for the true colours- the pic below is the closest to real colours we could get.

OK- I have been at this for a long time- I better get going and pay some more attention to my son- he is not used to me 'ignoring' him for this long! Bad Momma! BAD fibre! lol

Will post the other pictures later or tomorrow- will try again with getting the colour right- pinks are the hardest with oranges right up there....purple is a challenge too- but I don't have any of that to photograph! ( maybe next time?? November......scarf exchange...... we'll be there!)

Will try my email again now- before getting offline.

Hope you are well.