What Happened With The Basket?

This might be my favorite thing I've ever put together.  I enjoyed the whole thing - the sheep herself, shearing, washing, dyeing, spinning, picking a pattern, finding the perfect basket, winding the weird circular skein that perfectly (by accident) showed off all the colors, writing up a little history of the sheep and the project, arranging everything just so, taking a picture and seeing how the yellow and green match the background... 

I kind of hated to send it off to the Finger Lakes festival, but since I that was the plan, that's what I did.  And I'm glad I did!

I'm obviously thrilled with the ribbon, but I'm equally impressed with the really neat tag with a festival button attached.  I love little details like that.  Very classy.

The class requirements were to spin at least a pound of yarn for a project, include the pattern the yarn is to be used for, knit a swatch to verify your yarn will work for your project and put it in an appropriate basket.  We were also to include information on what kind of fiber, if it was wool, what kind of sheep, the grist of the yarn, how it was prepared...  That was all to fit on an index card.  

I managed to do that, but felt that there was also more to the story that should be shared because it was going to play such a big part throughout the entire project.  Why I would pick that sheep, those colors, the journey so far...

"Renny is very special to me. Not only for who she is, but for what she has taught me. You can live through way more than you think. You can have the courage to do the things that need to be done, even if they are hard or scary. People will help and support you. If you are going to tackle dyeing wool and steeking (cutting) a sweater for the first time, Renny’s your girl!"

I can't wait to start knitting.  Well, after the Kentucky Wool Festival.  And Spinzilla.  Yeah, I signed up for Spinzilla (!).  Baaxter and I joined the Meridian Jacobs Team :-).  If you're going to participate in "A Monster of a Spinning Week", Baaxter's your boy ;-).  

More about that later.