Crazy wonderful day



What a glorious Saturday. First of all, the weather around here has been spectacular. Cool and sunny in the middle of June. It's crazy! Saturday's weather was perfection.

I dragged myself out of bed Saturday morning (sooo tired after tech week.) and met up with Amie and Eunny at Panera. We piled into my car and headed for the wilds of Pennsylvania to The Mannings.


Much hilarity ensued in the car. (And despite all the rumors going on out there, I did not stuff Erin and Cheryl in my trunk. Really, I didn't!) Who knew you could sing Amazing Grace to the tune of the Gilligans Island theme? Try it - it's scary! Who knew you could knit a sweater that would remind people of parts of the anatomy you would probably rather not be reminded of?

At the Mannings, we met up with Erin and Cheryl (who were not in my trunk.)

The Mannings was having their 38th annual Spinning Seminar. None of us had ever been there before. It is freaking amazing. It is this beautiful farm on the banks of a river. A gigantic building houses tons of YARN!

Room after room after room - filled with yarn. It was intoxicating. I felt dizzy. My pictures above do not do it justice. I didn't even get a picture of the wall of Koigu!

There was all kinds of fiber


A room full of weaving looms and the highlight - a room full of spinning wheels. Now, I am not a spinner (despite concerted efforts to convert me!) But I was with a bunch of people who thought they had all died and gone to heaven when they saw all the spinning wheels.


They had a BLAST trying out all the wheels. Definitely worth the trip! I got a kick out of watching my friends fall deep under the spell of all the wheels.

While the spinners spun, I explored the building. There was so much to look at and fondle. And of course there was purchasing. The very first thing that caught my eye when I walked in the building, was this:

How cute are these puppets??? I must make one!!
So of course, I then had to wander the store looking for yarn to make them. I also found this:
I have seen this pattern before, but I finally broke down and bought it. So cute. (I'm on a toy kick, can you tell?)

The two patterns necessitated the purchase of this:


After the wallet was depleted, I decided to wander outside to check out all the festivities. There were many demonstrations going on. I participated in a "Wool Walking." (I'm not in the picture, though my empty chair is...)



It is basically hand felting done by a group. That huge bolt of fabric is sopping wet woven wool in a big circle. You pick up a section, pound it on the table, and then pass it to the person next to you. All of this is done in rhythm to a song. The woman in the green skirt was singing folk songs as we did this. She said that the most felting occurs during the first song, after that, it's a little more subtle. It was pretty amazing to see how much it had shrunk after one song.

After the wool walking, I sat on the grass and cast-on for my sheep puppet. It was so nice to sit in the sun, watch all the people and knit. Does it count for Knit in Public Day that I knitted in a place where the public was a bunch of other fiber junkies?

Here are some other sites from my day at the Mannings.





I can't wait to go back.