The end of last week was all about getting ready for my first spring show, New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival. Despite my best intentions to pack the van and depart on Friday, by the end of Friday afternoon, I was too exhausted to consider driving 2 hours and setting up. Which means on Saturday morning, I was up at 4  and out the door by 5  to make it to the fairground for set up by 9 a.m. I was running on fumes throughout the day, but there was something completely energizing about seeing so many friends and having the good company of my sisters Trish and Kathleen. I hardly noticed what a sleep-deprived wreck of human being was, until I finally crashed much later on Saturday evening. I think I was out before my head hit the pillow.

You'll notice this post contains zero photos from the show, though I had two cameras on me. For me, there's something about "show mode" that doesn't allow for photo taking. Mostly because my hands full in the booth and when I'm not busy in the  booth, I'm grabbing a bite to eat or scoping out the fairgrounds. So I'm showing some shots of the sheep from last week, so you can see what they've been up to while I prattle on a bit.

 

Having lambing run straight into the week of my first show posed many exciting challenges and is not something I will repeat. It's hard to efficiently dye yarn while tending to bottle babies, newborns and a barn full of bouncing lambsters. Last week just about pushed me over the edge, and then this happened:

While I was hanging skeins outside to dry on Thursday, it suddenly sounded like all hell had broken loose in the barn. I discovered that Zuni had ditched her lambs by hopping over the wooden panel to run outside with the rest of the flock. I guess she had a case of cabin fever and didn't want to be left behind. Once out in the pasture, she seemed to realize she had left something very important behind – her babies! While they were blatting away back in the barn where she had left them, she was running frantically around the pasture, sniffing the butts of 25 lambs who were not hers. It took some time to get her back inside (and into an escape-proof pen with her own lambs). Just what I needed in the middle of my afternoon. Good grief.

While I was away at the show, Holly kept me up to date throughout the weekend, assuring me that the lambs were doing just fine. Although I saw many sheep at the fair, I was pretty homesick for my own flock. When I got home last night, I couldn't wait to say hello to Blaze or to scoop up Butternut (above) and plant a kiss on his fuzzy little head.

Today is all about rest and catch-up. Congrats to Mikell who is the winner of the Lamb-A-Long contest drawing prize: 2 skeins of Wool Alpaca Twist and a copy of Lisa Lloyd's Thistle and Fox Socks Booklet.

Tonight I'll draw a name for the color contest celebrating the release of my book: Teach Yourself Visually Hand-dyeing. There's still time to enter if you haven't already.

That's about all for now, will try to post some new video of the gang tomorrow so you can see how they've grown.

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