A Wool Gathering

Yesterday, Bill and I traveled to Yellow Springs OH for A Wool Gathering - a sheep and wool show at a dairy farm.


It was a very nice day. Our first stop was for lunch in town. Yellow Springs doesn't seem like it belongs in Ohio...it seems to be a little bit of California transplanted to the Midwest.


The town was full of diverse people out enjoying the day. There was a farmers market, which drew a lot of folks, and the sheep and wool festival brought people in from out of town, but it seems like a place that is always buzzing (and I mean that in more ways than one). Though it's a small town (population around 3,700) it seemed like an engaged, active community.

It was a fun town to visit. We admired well-maintained old buildings, ate some pizza and yielded the right-of-way at a stop light to one of Yellow Springs notable residents - Dave Chappelle.


Then it was on to the fiber! There were lots of fiber farmers there with their animals. We pet all sorts of sheep and stared at a very intense llama.


The gathering took place at a fabulously agro-tourismy dairy farm. There was mini-golf, tons of playground space for kiddos and lots of fun animals to feed. We saw the fattest Barred Rock chicken ever and had goats chewing on our shirts


Naturally, there was ice cream.


And yarn.



It was a pretty nice day!

Write a post...help a dog.

You all know Sugar, right? Sugar Pie, Sugarino, Puppy Pie, the Fuzzy Bear.

We like her. She keeps us warm in the winter, and licks our plates clean so we don't have to scrub so hard when we're doing the dishes. And she's super cute.

We found her at the fabulous Indianapolis Humane Society and knew right away she was our dog.

I have a confession. I don't like puppies. They're a lot of work and kind of a pain in the butt, and you don't know what kind of a dog they're going to be. How big? Will she like people? Want to snuggle? Will she eat my cats?

That is why I, personally, am really glad we adopted A Dog (though, if you want the trouble of a puppy, the Humane Society has them too).

Sugar was only at the Humane Society for a few days when we snagged her. They treated her, and us, awesomely. She was spayed, given some shots, and played with by great volunteers. We were sent home with tons of great info and the best dog on the planet.

If you are so included, check out the the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive on Facebook. Pedigree is raising awareness for homeless dogs by donating a bowl of food to shelter dogs for everyone who becomes a “Fan” or “Likes” The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive on Facebook. So far more than 1 million bowls have been donated.

Sugar Pie thanks you.

Uck. Brown.

I have discovered an odd mystery of life and knitting. It's so complex, most of you won't really understand. You'll just think I'm nutters. I'm not, though. This is a real thing. But don't feel bad if you don't get it - it is pretty complex.

I think Brown is going to kill me.

Whatever - you know I love brown clothes. Like, everything I own is brown. I've been knitting my first ever sweater (for the past two years) and...guess what? It's brown. When bought the yarn, my mom pointed out that everything I own is already brown and...really, it's BROWN - didn't I like the coral or the antique rose or even the dusty green?

Nope. I went brown.

I'm excited that this sweater might even be done for fall to join the rest of my brownish wardrobe. I bound off the bottom edge and am halfway through one arm. The pattern told me to do this fancy bind off (apparently they didn't know it was my first sweater). It looked crappy. Like this:

So, I did my plan ole bind off (BO, for those in the know). It's way better. Go sweater! I can't wait to wear your lovely brown-ness.

I've also been working on a scarf for Bill for the last two years. It too is brown. Dyed with our very own Estate Walnuts.

But these socks are killing me!! They're so....brown. It's really wrong. See what I mean:

Uck. It's a gosh darn travesty. You see it, right?

Socks are supposed to be orange and yellow and occasionally blue.

I'm knitting them to try something new - brown is the September color for a knitting group on Ravelry. So, I decided to play along. A few months ago, that same group was knitting in white (white!) and, while I was quite skeptical, I joined in and these socks were the result:


Awesome right? They're one of my favs, but I never would have done it on my own. I mean, who knew white could have so much zing??


So, I was hoping for a similar earth-shattering color epiphany this time around. Brown, though? I dunno. Just looking at them puts me into a coma.


Maybe I'll go work on that sweater instead...