Believe it or not, the pictured items were bought at 9:02 am on Saturday morning. That's right, just as the Shepherd's Harvest festival opened, I was making my first purchase.

Just as I walked into the first building at 8:55, it was obvious that some of the vendors weren't quite ready for customers. However, right at the entrance, there was the Wool Gatherers booth, up and ready for customers. And to make it even more tempting, they had a large "SALE" sign up. So, in I popped and the first thing that caught my eye was the Lorna's Lace yarn display. Now, Lorna's Lace has been on my "wanna buy" list for a long time. The fact that it was on sale closed the deal for me. Of course, there was a bin of fiber on sale, too, so the bag of Louet Merino/Silk roving in the Koala colorway came home with me, too.

There were so many great vendors at Shepherd's Harvest that once I started exploring, I was a little overwhelmed. So I wandered around for a long time, looking at lots of different things. But the only other purchases were a couple of bars of Shadow Lake Soap from Wool'n Weave and 4 kumihimo braiding kits from The Weavers Guild of Minnesota as gifts for my kids.

After all, I am on a fiber diet (not a fast, like Guinifer). I am proud of my forbearance. However, I did see some fabulous undyed yarn at Wool'n Weave that I may break down and order in the future. Large hanks of white Merino wool that appeared to be between baby and sport weight. The color was lovely by itself but if I decided to dabble in more experimentation with dyes, it would be handy to have the yarn on hand . . . just in case . . . you know.

To top off the day, I met fellow blogger, Ellen at the Minnesota Knitter's Guild booth. She is working on the Flower Basket shawl while manning the booth. I must say I am impressed that she would work on a complicated lace pattern with all the distractions and interruptions that were bound to happen. It was so nice to actually meet someone I've been exchanging comments with online.

(BTW, Ellen, I would love to join the guild but my kids' crazy schedule just doesn't allow me to get away on Tuesday nights. But the sock yarn exchange sorely tested my will power. Had my DH been in town, I might have attempted a visit to the meeting tonight and left the chauffeuring duties to him. Drat!)

Oh, and the kids loved the kumihimo braiding kits and two of my girls have already used up most of the floss that was included in the kit and are ready for more. I even received a bracelet made from kumihimo braid from DD#2 for Mother's Day. Considering the fact that I gave the kits to the kids Saturday evening and I was presented with a completed bracelet on Sunday morning speaks to the fun and fast nature of this craft. I will definitely have to look into more styles of braids that can be made by kumihimo.

Well, that's about all about Shepherd's Harvest. I'll definitely be back again next year. I'm already dreaming about the classes I might take. Come March '08, I'll be haunting the website until they post the classes.

Next post, pictures of a FO (finally) and the major landscaping project that has been robbing me of extra knitting time.