While the fiber and the toys are fun, it really is the people. The Cummington festival was no different than Maryland in that respect and in some ways was better. It 
certainly was far smaller than MD, but there was no shortage of stuff to be bought and I did my part to support the fiber related economy. (Thanks go to Katy for this picture. Bad blogger that I am, I barely remembered that I had a camera buried in this stroller of fun and she so nicely posted this on her recap. Go read it.) As it really was the people that made it a fabulous weekend, I’m going to concentrate there and maybe tomorrow provide detailed pictures of what you see weighing down the back of my stroller.
Because of the long holiday weekend, my beloved employer shut down early to allow us to get started a bit earlier. While we closed at 1PM, I bargained away my lunch hour on Thursday to get in an additional hour and left at noon. This gave me a chance to pack, pick up some last minute things and get the monkeys from the daycare center and hit the road to Cate’s and still get there at a decent hour. Kat fell asleep somewhere after the Tappen Zee Bridge ( I noticed her asleep as we got onto 684) and Alex made it 15 minutes passed his sister. They both blissfully slept until just north of Hartford, missing the icky traffic we encountered on 84. (Note to the State of Connecticut – LEFT EXITS SUCK. )
After a 3+ hour drive we arrived at Cate’s house, where Kristen had just arrived as well. Cate and I had met for an altogether too short amount of time at Maryland, so this was a most welcome opportunity. Kristen was definitely a very sweet and perfect addition to the fiberholics party weekend though she left far too early. I had the pleasure of meeting Cate and Rhys’ wondertwins who gave me a preview of what is to come in my future. A dinner together was both entertaining and delicious. I was quite relieved that my kids behaved themselves. Velcro girl warmed up enough after dinner to play with the other kids, though she did more after Sara arrived with her pair. While my memory is pretty fuzzy, short term cruddiness and all, I vaguely recall meeting Sara at Maryland, but couldn’t swear to it, I do very much remember this meeting. It was structured chaos and my kids were exceedingly excited by the freedom offered by such a kid-centric house. Where they are normally confined to a room or two, they wandered all over the downstairs, playing here and there AND had other kids to trail after. After the kids went to bed, out came the beer, the wheels and the fiber. All goodness in my book! I tried out Cate’s new righty Hitchhiker and truly enjoyed it. It was then that I decided the reserved lefty version was more than likely coming home with me. (As you can see in the above picture, it did.) We stayed up far too late but it sure was worth it.
Saturday brought a wonderful bagels and lox breakfast at Cate’s house and a few new faces to meet. Check Cate’s writeup as she caught names far better then I did, plus I was tot wrangling trying to get my pair dressed and ready to go to the festival. The twins got up far too early, especially considering how late I stayed up, and when we were ready to leave for the festival, they promptly fell asleep in the car. Kristen came along and I much appreciated her company.
The festival was much like I expect the old county fair to be like. I met up with and finally met face to face with a great number of people. I finally had the pleasure of meeting, after years of chatting on various yahoo group lists, Helen of Bay Colony Farm fame. While I was test driving my lefty Hitchhiker (thanks to Kristen for this picture – she captured the finished F&F socks making their debut as well), there was a blogger get together just outside the Merlin Tree stall (picture courtesy of Laurie). I met Claudia (who was wearing her very cool knitted metal top), Rosemary (who had the greatest shirt – "I’m blogging this"). Claudia gave Laurie her first spindle lesson right then and there. Laurie is a natural and by the time we were having lunch on the "grassy knoll", she was spinning a consistent lace weight, not really learning a new skill but "remembering" one. Her husband is a serious keeper too! I spent a very enjoyable day wandering around, touching, buying and talking. I especially enjoyed Kristen’s company and most seriously appreciated her help with the twins. Having received an email plea from Cassie on Laurie’s behalf, I happily lent what assistance I could in fiber selection, preparation and fleece types. I also helped Kristen pick a spindle, a midi from the Bosworths and some good beginner fiber. I just hope I didn’t overwhelm either of them with more info then they needed/wanted.
After exhausting ourselves and filling the stroller, not to mention the short people were starting to get a bit cranky, we returned to Cate’s house where her little people were asleep in the car too. Mine sacked out within a mile of the fairgrounds and slept for the next hour or so. We compared our hauls and Kristen nicely captured Sara and I looking at my stash additions. As you can see, I’m pretty good at filling the back of my car. She even documented the beautiful grey romney fleece that I bought from Mary Pratt. I had fingered the fleece, took a lock at her insistence and started away from her booth, aiming to think about it and more than likely return later. I never made it 4′ from the tent door. I had this 4" lock in my fingers and turned to show it to Kristen. The warmth of the day, which was gorgeous btw, had the lanolin nicely melted and the lock just flicked apart easily in my fingers. I pulled out the Hatchtown spindle (MDSW purchase) that I had tucked in the stroller and spun it from the lock right there. With how beautifully it spun up, and how easily as well, I turned back and bought it then and there. Cate and I tried very hard to convince Kristen to stay for another evening, and I think we almost had her. It was the burst of energy that she got from a badly timed ice coffee that had her doing the responsible, if less fun, thing of driving home to get a good day of studying in for her boards. All thoughts on Kristen and her boards on June 7th! We returned to the grounds for the potluck dinner, which was very enjoyable until Alex took a spill and scared the crud out of himself.
Saturday evening was spent much like Friday evening after all the kids went to bed. More beer, more talk and more fiber. Cate dug out a lamb fleece that had been languishing in her basement and gave her new drum carder a try. Two passes later and she had a beautiful white fluffy batt to play with (almost motivates me to pull out mine. almost). I gave my new Hitchhiker some break in time with some gorgeous butterscotch colored fluffy batts of LincolnX wool from Barneswallow Farms. Fabulous. Truly fabulous. The cranky twins that didn’t want to sleep in the Pack’nPlays put an end to my fun and I called it a night a bit earlier than I wanted to.
While there was more to our holiday weekend adventure, I will leave it here and continue the rest of it tomorrow, with pictures of the SEX. I want to thank Cate for being a great hostess. She’s fabulous and made this a great experience. It was so nice to spend time with someone who really understands the whole twin-wrangling thing, not to mention shares the same fiber affliction. She’s good people as my folks would say. Rhys. What can I say? Darn wonderful. Sara, I very much enjoyed getting to know you better. Kristen? You’re just great.
It was a great time and I’m so very glad I went.
