Wild and wooly weekend

A. Raise your hand if you knew this was how 

Brussels sprouts grew. 

Well, not that wild and wooly ...

Friday: While most of the family went to the Red Wings game, I came home from work, ate leftovers and watched a movie on Netflix before picking up Sharon's friend's daughter at the airport. She and I then went to Walmart at 1 a.m. because the airline lost her luggage and she needed a few items in case her bag that was in Atlanta or Argentina or Azerbaijan didn't show up. Got the People of Walmart song stuck in my head. It's oh, so very wrong but oh, so very funny.

Saturday: Went to the farmers market and purchased Brussels sprouts. See photo A. I'm planning to roast them. Then I went to watch Sammy and Ashton play hockey. And then I saw the Footloose remake (read a review here - written by the son of a friend in my yoga class) with Kay and went to Starbucks afterward for mochas and chitchat. When I got home, I started carving pumpkins for work (we have a huge display in front of the office) and then went to dinner with Sharon and her childhood friend and three daughters (including the one whose luggage had still not been delivered).

Sunday: After church I took an impromptu and informative trip to the Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor with Barb, preceded by a detour to the cupcake shop and followed by an early dinner at Frita Batidas (my new favorite Ann Arbor eatery).

Calabaza salad and chorizo frito - oh, yummmm - served on 

eco-friendly plantain leaves with compostable cutlery!

Rows of white picnic tables festooned with a selection of salsas,
seasoned salt and bag-o-limes adds to the understated ambience. 

But back to this Fiber Expo thing ... three whole barns full of wooly, furry, funny critters and wooly, furry, funny people creating beautiful creations out of formless fluff. I will never look at sweaters the same way again. I really didn't expect the critters, and they were a terrific bonus since I don't know a drop spindle from a niddy-noddy and really only went on this jaunt for the ride. (And the promise of good food. And friend time.)

Oh - did you know that our English expression "spinning a yarn" is "raconter des salades" in French?

I call it "Fiber Flower Salad." 

Indeed. It was a very educational afternoon. After I'd finished pestering all of the animals and while Barb was off purchasing balls of fluff, some nice ladies introduced me to needlefelting and I made this bookmark-whatchamacallit-cat-toy-dust collector.

Now I want to needlefelt all sorts of things. And I'm rather inspired to learn how to knit socks.

All in all, I had a lovely time. And when I arrived home with a full head and a happy tummy, I finished carving pumpkins and did laundry. I'll try to post pumpkin pics tomorrow.

These two were humming a little song (it's a thing alpacas do).

Alpaca babies!

Feel my sheeps ears ... they're made of boiled wool. Baaaa!

Lady, leave my butt alone. I'm feeling a draft in here.

But I would like just a little trim around the eyes, puhleez.

Can you tell I'm a little bit horngry?

This is what silk looks like when it's gathered from the 

silkworms. (I did not see or pet any silkworms.)

Cheeeeese!

We learned that camels shed their hair (part of the molting process) - it is generally not shorn like other animals valued for their coats. As you can imagine, the hairy fibers are kind of dirty when they're gathered up but then are sorted and washed and "de-haired" before being spun into yarn. 

Pretty pretty colors everywhere! (But sadly, I did
not see any technicolor sheepses.)