Lambtown USA 2008

Lambtown Weekend

Walter and I made our yearly trek from So. California to Lambtown USA in Dixon, CA near Sacramento. Lambtown is a Country Fair festival that celebrates everything having to do with sheep. I really wanted this to be a great trip but we had a few set-backs. The car rental I had reserved two weeks prior online was not in the lot. Neither was any other car and we had to wait ½ hour to get a car we weren’t crazy about. The GPS navigation system we requested was not available, but they did give us the autoclub discount which helped a little. That GPS system would have been handy when we were coming home from the movies in the dark and somehow got turned around trying to find the freeway on a dark rural highway. After about 30 minutes of wrong turns, we retraced our steps and found the onramp, which was quite hidden. Our trip was very bumpy. By this I mean we felt every little road bump in our compact Hyundai Accent. I couldn’t even drink my canned soda without spilling some on me when we came to the next bump in the road.

We did get to our hotel without any other incident. It was a nice drive and we listened to an audiobook on the way. I started on the 2nd sock of the pink stripes Knit Picks Felici yarn on Size 1 needles. It was nice to be able to knit non-stop, except for rest and stretch. Unfortunately, on the way home I lost the 1st sock somewhere at a rest stop or restaurant. Having my knitting in my handbag, it must have fallen out when I got out of the car. I am heartbroken, because it took me about two weeks to finish that sock and now I don’t think I have enough yarn to make another. I’ve been thinking perhaps I should just make some footlets or short socks. Or should I just rip it out and give up?

On the positive side, Lambtown was marvelous. Even though there were less food booths, there were more of a Variety of Fiber vendors. New this year were Angora Rabbits. These lovely puffs of fur with eyes and noses peeking out were so adorable. I had a hard time not bringing one home. I did, however, buy some 4 oz of Angora fiber to play with. I had to force myself to stay away from the Fiber Fair building, because everytime I went in, I came out with less money. I purchased some nifty dpn tubes that hold your project and needles together in a tube. Yea! No more dropped stitches from dpns pulling out in my purse. I could not resist a small Bosworth spindle and 8 oz of some lovely handpainted roving in blue colors: Ocean colors and 4oz of baby blue superwash merino in honor of my grandson, soon to be born. I had intended to buy some sock yarn and there was Opal yarn in abundance, but I changed my mind and decided to use up my stash first, which is still plentiful. Actually, when I think about it, I don’t think I spent that much. My focus was taking it easy and enjoying the day without rushing to see everything. We even had some time to sit and listen to the Bluegrass and Dixeland Band at the stage.

I was able to take a Needlefelting class and made a very cute needle felted sheep in 2 hrs. This class taught by Allen Messick, who was also judging the Angora bunnies and selling mohair fiber from his mohair farm was a wonderful teacher. He was friendly and helpful and gave, all two of us, his undivided attention. I would love to take another class from him in the future.

Although we missed the Sheep Shearing and Sheep dog herding competitions, we did catch the Sheep to Shawl and National Spinning Competition which was fun to watch. At the end there was a small fashion show and announcements of the winners of the Fiber competitions. I am so glad the events are back at the Mayfair grounds. The weather was so perfect this year, about the high 80’s, which made the day very busy and enjoyable for us.

To see more pictures of Lambtown, go to here