The rest of the BSG story

Friday ended with the AGM dinner and meeting (the food was deelish!). On Saturday morning, after taking care of my sheep, I walked down the street to attend church where a friend of mine is the pastor. After spending most of the day there in fellowship and rest, I walked back to the fairgrounds to eat leftovers from dinner the night before (just as good the second night) and then play dress-up with my sheep. Don't look at me like that; we were encouraged to bring costumes and lead our silly sheep in a Shetland parade Saturday night before the Spinner's Lead! Thanks to having bulldogs, who are born to model (if you doubt me, talk to Zelda), I had three costumes to use - and recruited NASSA's president Maureen Koch and another gal to help me lead sheep!
That's Maureen in the middle with Bodhran in a cute baseball jacket, the spur-of-the-moment recruit on the left with Barry dressed in a uniform of some sort, and me with Bronwen as - what, a ballerina? I'm not sure, but she looked absolutely fabulous, dahling, in blond curls and pink velvet!(Thanks for the photos, Franna!)

When I undressed my long-suffering Shetlands and returned them to their pens, apparently Blake called Bodhran a "boy toy" or something and a battle ensued. They must have sparred for more than 30 minutes while I stood nearby visiting. The testosterone poisoning starts early...
With all that going on, I didn't get back to see much of the Spinners Lead, the event that inspired me so last year. In fact, the only entry I got to see, appropriately enough, was Jean Franklin modeling the wonderful Shetland sheep cardigan she designed herself and knit from homespun, naturally colored wool from her own flock:Jean happens to be the breeder of Inky's sire, Spin Web Holly Boy.

Sunday was full of people and sheep and marketing and window-shopping and loading up and heading home. I had to say good-bye to Garrett early, as he headed out Sunday morning for the long drive back to Minnesota. Here he is with his new katmoget yearling ewe:He bought her from Wally Rutledge, the man from whom I got my first two ewes, Dinah and Rechel.

This ram lamb of Wally's has a most unusual marking on his face. He looks so much like the protagonist in a famous musical that several of us told Wally he just HAD to name the ramling Phantom!

I did very little shopping at BSG, just a little new-to-me fiber thanks to Franna tipping me off on a "bargain bin." The white is pygora/cormo roving and the chocolate/white is Jacob/cormo. The sparkly purple batt was an unexpected gift from a young lady who bought two of my fleeces - how sweet was that?!? In all I sold three fleeces, and took the remaining four to Aunt Janet who will have my roving ready for me to pick up at OFFF in September. I test-drove a Hanson e-spinner, but would need to sell a LOT of sheep to be able to afford one of those. But man alive was it sweet!

What better way to end my posts about Black Sheep Gathering than to once again say that getting together with friends was the very best part?From left to right, that's Sharon, Becky, Laura, me (the tall one) and Mim - all blogpals, all friends in "real time" now, too. Here's to more get-togethers, and more hugs!

That's it for BSG '10 from . . .