SmithAnn has a twin sister named Wesson

Yesterday was fair day! I did three passes: once for fleece, once for
fiber, and finally for yarn. It turns out the shepherd I talked to on
Friday is the very one who manages SmithAnn, the sheep whose fleece I so
enjoyed spinning two years ago. So that was #1. #2 was a Gotland I
regretfully passed on last year; excited to process it. If it spins up
well, it will be a vest. There was a Shetland x Cormo that was the perfect
color, but cormos are big sheep and I don’t think I could’ve processed and
spun it all before losing it to the m*ths.

It started raining on my way back for a second pass, and by the time I hit
the first barn it was crowded inside. I picked up a pound of an extremely
soft Shetland-? blend, a pound and a half of a nice medium brown mystery
wool, and some Romney-Mohair in a lovely teal. Longmeadow Farms is sadly
doing substantially fewer batts, and they had them tucked in a back corner
blocked by crowds so I passed by. A few other incidentals, including a 3D
printed Turkish spindle to go in a care package I owe an Oliner. By the
time I was done it was sunny again, so I walked the outdoor stalls, and got
smitten with a dark grey alpaca fleece that insisted on coming home with me.

[food] Met up with P, and we looked at baskets but didn’t find any, and at
dryer balls (for juggling demonstrations) and found perfect ones. Went to
lunch at Local Roots, which is back to freshly assembled food again. P had
coconut rice with red beans and cabbage, and I had chapati with roasted
vegetables. Very satisfying. In the basement we found a sugar bowl to
replace our broken one, and I also picked up some honey puffed corn
(basically popcorn without the bits that get stuck in your teeth,
excellent). Food in general was much better to me yesterday as I remembered
how to portion control when faced with normal-American serving sizes.

After lunch we did the crossword and chilled in the room for a bit, then I
went back to the fair for a look at the yarn and some of the other stuff I
missed for crowds. Picked up some nice Shetland at Ross Farm, some really
lovely Romney at Longmeadow, and found a stash of blankets at Jehova Jireh
that both P and I had missed — he’s looking for one big enough to wrap up
in as an emergency blanket. These are alpaca, warmer than wool, lightweight
and machine washable because of the acrylic in the warp, woven down in
Ecuador. Found colors he liked, and done.

Took a quick look at the rabbit barn, which was pretty empty (right before
dinner). One rabbit was out on the tables, circulating amongst several
people to make sure he was being evenly petted :) but most were in cages,
many in alarmingly small cages, particularly the English ones. They’re big
rabbits to begin with, and then they’re extremely fluffy, so it was just a
cage with fluff sticking out. Sadmaking.

Waay more walking than I’m used to; I will feel it for days I think. But a
very satisfying show even though many of my past faves didn’t interest me.
Changing interests, changing markets.

The night before, we were awoken by creature noises coming from an air
vent. On further investigation in the morning, it turned out to be a bat!
Very smol. Making a nest. Of course with the holiday weekend nobody was
available to take it, so it’s just been cardboarded over until Tuesday.
That seems to have muffled the sound well enough, because I slept
comparably great.