I love field trips!

Last year on MLK Day, I went on a field trip to Brown Sheep Yarn in Mitchell Nebraska.  This year Lori at Cowgirl Yarns put together another annual trip (Thanks Lori!)  I took my neighbor Karissa, and off we went to Mitchell.  We went on the tour and then on to my favorite part:  the factory store!  Karissa was a great help as I went box-diving for roving to spin.  Here's what I came up with:

The blue/lavender fiber in the back row is superwash; all the rest are the wool/mohair blend of Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride.  I love all these colors, so spinning with them will be a joy.  Over 5 pounds of fiber for under $31.  WooHoo!

Karissa also helped me bag some roving to use to thrum slippers for all the daughters and their significant others for Christmas next year.  Then we went to the factory store to select Lamb's Pride bulky weight yarn for those slippers. Yellow, green, orange, blue, brown and grey tweed are the six colors for the six kids.  I also picked up some cream-colored wool to have some more fun with dyeing.  Dye pot, here I come!

The yarns in the front two piles (blue handpainted and grey/mulberry/heathered yarns) are Brown Sheep's new product, Lana Boucle.  I usually don't care for boucle yarns, mostly because the yarn catches on itself and doesn't have any life.  There's nothing that Brown Sheep can do about the stitches catching, that's the nature of the beast, but they have solved the problem of lifelessness by spinning a 100% wool boucle that is springy and fun to knit with.  I think the handpainted is calling out for a cowl for me (something around my neck, since these are my colors and enhance my eye color).  I am not sure who is destined to receive the ruffled scarf and wristers in the kit. The wristers are already knit in an afternoon, and the scarf is underway.  And thank you Linda for the kit!

I always feel like such a successful shopper when I go to the factory store.  $6.20/pound for roving, $12.50/pound for the yarn, except the handpainted yarns, which are $25/pound.  But this entire haul, plus a little I didn't show, came out to just over $100.  I promised John I would try to spend less than I did last year .... and DID! (by $2! But hey, a miss is as good as a mile!)

After the factory, Karissa and I went to lunch at a cute little bistro in Scottsbluff.  Then we fought the wind driving home.  But, all in all, a very satisfactory day!