Summers Over

It seems to me once our fair has gone that the summer is over in Reno. In early years it was more the idea that school is starting that ended summer. Now when the fair ends I start thinking of filling the barn with hay and stacking the wood for cold winter nights. I love the fall when my nesting instincts set in and I can wear my warm fuzzy clothes out to the barn. I am so ready for Fall!
Our state fair was a success again this year. My entries did well but I'm still looking to win the big ribbon of Best in Show. Maybe next year. I already have ideas in my head. I can't help it I'm very competitive and love a good challenge!
My bowl o' balls was a big hit with the judge. The first words out of her mouth were
"Ah, chumming for cats!" I laughed so hard. Never thought of them that way. They received a blue ribbon under felt home deco, no other entries in this category. This is the second bowl of balls I've made. I just love them and I believe they took more time to make than the purses I felt.

The felt purse entered has a blue ribbon and a Reserve Grand in the felt division. My friend beat me with her Grand Champion felt saddle pad made out of alpaca fiber no less. I have to admit the saddle pad is wonderful. I entered two skeins of yarn. This one was third place. Seems it needs more twist in the ply. I did this last year and now I will learn to ply better to compete with Becky's cabled yarn. There was one other skein, picture in post below, that did not make it home with me. Not sure what happened to it. It is a shetland and silk blend and did get a blue ribbon in it's class. I gave this skein enough twist in the ply. Guess someone liked it too much and took it home. I'd bet it will poop up at one of the next guild meeting, it does have my name on it.

I almost forgot to mention the two fleece I entered. Hue came in second to K.G. Even with all that beautiful crimp and shine. He just didn't have the consistency threw out his fleece. His entire fleece is soft and usable it just isn't all the way down the britch crimpy! If we have totally uniform fleece does that take our primative shetland sheep out of the primative class and into the modern improved class of sheep?

Bowl O' Balls

I went to the Alpaca Sale on Saturday the 8th to have a nice day and sell a few things I have felted over the last several months. The weather was perfect. During the last few weeks we have had heat, huge wind storms and rain. So to have a nice day for an outside event was rare! I stayed at the sale till 12:30 then Bob came and we went into town to a backyard wedding, what a day! The one part of the day that didn't go so well were sales. I did not sell one thing. Thank goodness this sale and wedding were both in town close to our house.
More emu eggs I felted over.

I had some scraps of roving and started rolling them into balls. They were turning out so nice I continued to make more and this picture is all the felt balls I managed to get ready for the sale. I thought kids would get a kick out of them. I love them! I found a nice glass "fish" bowl to display them in and decided they were one of my favorites of all the felt items I have right now. Altho the purses were more work I just can't help loving the colors and texture of the little felt balls. They look very nice in the livingroom or my studio. Great decoration! Nothing like a bowl of balls to brighten up a room. Maybe the bowl needs more balls to fill it to the top and some day I can find them the right home.