Sunday, 17 August 2003

Today was the day of the Fiber Festival itself.

We went to the Water Street Coffee house and read the New York Times in the morning, then went to the Fiber Festival in time to eat greasy pork BBQ for lunch. (It was surprisingly good--not too salty.)

Jackie and Katy had been there every day for classes, and had gotten some time to shop already, so they managed to get everything they needed to do done in a couple of hours. While they did that, Dad and I walked around and looked at the animals and the vendor's booths.

One booth was selling a "starter flock" of Icelandic sheep for $1,300. That bought you two ewes and one ram.

Jackie bought some shetland wool, some light-grey blue-faced leicester wool, some fawn-colored shetland roving, some hand-panted icelandic roving in purple, blue and green, some merino and mohair blend in a color called "lilly pond," some mostly red-orange blend of finn, mohair, llama, and angora, some silk mawata, and some tussah silk that she got a great bargain on because it was mispriced. And some hand-soap in squirt bottles that makes it foam when you squirt it. (We have such a squirt bottle, but doesn't work right anymore and I've had trouble finding a replacement.)

Tonight will be our last night in Kalamazoo, we head home tomorrow morning.