We went to Michigan and saw many Sheeps.

One upon a time, 5 intrepid knitters (Monica, Lynette, Michelle, Suzanne and Gail) decided to leave safe and comfy Chicago, where there are many street signs directing you places, for the wilds of Michigan. For, lo, it was time for the Michigan Fiber Festival.

Our knitters, with a minimum of getting lost (damn you Yahoo maps!), arrived in Oak Lawn, ready to start our grand adventure. After fortifying ourselves with Coffee and deciding that Michelle would drive (she had the biggest backseat - something I haven’t found useful since high school), we discovered that no one had brought directions. Everyone thought that everyone else was bringing them, and besides, the Michigan Fiber Festival website was down, so getting the address was a little hard.

But, our resourceful knitters had a US atlas, and a general idea where they were heading and so off they drove. Besides, they were quite sure that there would be many signs directing folks to important areas like County Fairgrounds.

All was well, and the knitters were in Michigan. And yet, there were no signs! Luckily, they spied a rest area and traveler information center. “Information!”, they thought “That’s exactly what we need! Perhaps there will be a nice person there with maps and directions!”

And yet, it was not to be. For, the information center consisted of a map on the wall. A map that did not include the fairgrounds or other useful notation. It didn’t even mention where one might buy a cookie.

Monica, Suzanne and Michelle attempt to find their way using a completely un-useful map.

Now, weaker knitters might be daunted. They might decide that a day of yarn and sheeps was not for them, given up, and gone home. But, not our knitters, oh no! They were not scared by the wilds of Michigan.

We did not get lost in these woods.

Once again, using the Atlas and Suzanne’s amazing sense of direction, the knitters wandered around on back roads, and finally, at last, spied a sign. Allegan was found!

I used to really like Toby Keith before he started singing stupid ass racist songs.

However, that sign just taunted the fearless knitters, for it did not actually say where to go. But, Monica noticed a real information center, with a real live person, who told them where to go. And thus, the knitters at last found the Fairgrounds.

Okay, enough of that third person crap. I keep switching back to first person anyways.

What was the Fiber Festival like? It was great! The vendors were spread out through four barns, and a number of outdoor tents. Luckily, it was a reasonably nice day, because the barns were hot and humid. Not that it stopped our evil yarn shopping ways. I was good - I bought a present for my Secret Pal (I better send that off!), a skein of Mohair Mist from Blackberry Ridge Farms, and best of all, 7 skeins of this great wool yarn from Autumn House Farms in a Navy Blue. It was 50% off, so I got enough yarn to make me a cabled sweater for 25 dollars. It’s not quite merino soft, but its very lovely.

One thing about the Michigan Fiber Festival is that it caters to a number of fiber crafts. For example, Monica and I almost picked up a new hobby after checking out the wool rug hooking booth. Here’s an example:

If I could have bought one, I so would have, but they were only selling kits.

There were also booths that had needle felted items - these birds were my favorite:

I think everyone’s favorite booth was Briar Rose. They had lovely handpainted yarns, but they don’t have a web site. They so need one! Here is Monica shopping in the booth.

And here is some yarn from that same booth I was very tempted by. Luckily, they didn’t take credit cards.

In particular, I wanted the 100% bulky alpaca dyed in fall colors.

We also saw many animals. I’m going to put that into a second post, because I have a ton of pictures. The animals really were my favorite part of the trip.

After a day of shopping and animal seeing, we headed home. And, I was being silly, so we made our very own video. I believe it to be amusing. Click here to download and view it.