Ode to the Festival Folk

Kathy Goldner: freezing but still cheery!

Having just gotten back from the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival in Hopkinton, NH, I'd like to devote this morning to the hardy men & women who devote their lives to freezing their asses off at these events.  These sturdy people risk their sanity month after month to bring you & me fleece & other beautiful, handmade things.  For two days, as part of the Knitting Out Loud team, I watched & listened as our neighbors patiently and winningly recited their mantras.  Generous Sue Carey of Marble Meadows, the unflaggingly cheerful Nancy Brome of Hair of the Dog, spinner & knitter deluxe Eileen McCormick of Prairie Wind and Sarah Pollock &  husband at Spinner's Warren all helped us not to slit our throats in despair and fend off the vicious wind gusts & rain in the open-ended barn to which we'd all been assigned.  (There was some brisk :) business in fingerless mitts and alpaca socks, I assure you!) Check over at the Knitting out Loud blog where I'm sure Kathy Goldner, so much more organized than I, has pictures of beautiful wool & blue noses & fingers.

Now back in Maine, where it remains in the upper 30's, I am happy to be typing in front of the woodstove.  But these heroes of the handmade nation must not go unsung!

More later... ( I yarn bombed a CHILD!)

Karen