Caution. Photo intensive! Photos taken from 2006 (which I never posted before and 2007) and combined into one story.

On September 23rd, Julie and I headed out to OFFF, one of our favorite yearly activities. It is fiber junkie’s heaven. Sensory overload. Nirvana.

We stopped at Oregon City Falls and took in some Oregon history.

Not many people outside of the Portland metro area even know that there are falls in Oregon City.

Oregon history:

We’re here!! Clackamas County Fairgrounds.

These lovely roses greeted us at the entrance table:

In the main building, fiber and color abounded!

“Bumps” of roving tempted us at Dicentra’s booth.

These fabulous colors were at Dicentra Designs’ booth. I bought some of that rainbow-colored yarn for socks. I just couldn’t resist!

Everywhere we went, people were spinning.

And carding.

And using drum carders. This was at the Duncan booth. Joane Duncan was my spinning teacher, and her husband, Dick, builds the carders. I was fortunate to be able to buy a used 16″ electric drum carder several years ago.

Before carding. Jacob fleece.

after carding:

Yes, men knit too!

And they spin, too.

More yarn! More roving!

Yarn and fiber were begging to be touched!

There were vendors outside, too.

People gathered on the lawn to spin and talk stories.

And live music which told stories of shepherds, weavers, spinners, and sheep.

Beautiful flowers everywhere!

And more fiber!

And fancy spinning wheels.

And more fiber.

And did I mention fiber?

We went up the creaking ramp, bounded on either side by these fabulous paintings.

This is one of my favorite parts of the fairgrounds, seeing these creative paintings.

Entrance to the art atrium:

Upstairs was all the raw fiber that had been judged.

I love the crimp on this one!

Jacob fleece, my favorite!

By the time we’d touched everything, our hands were soft from all the lanolin.

Grand champion fleece!

Back outside again. This is a Bosworth Journey Wheel that folds up into its own box!

A wonderful Raven’s Tail woven blanket.

And um… more fiber!

Next we headed out to the barn. This rambunctious sheep wanted a treat that his owner held in her hand.

Look at the fabulous horns!

Isn’t he just beautiful?

Jacob Sheep.

More Jacob Sheep.

Still more. I do love them!

This sheep was taking a nap.

Adorable alpaca!

I love their faces!

There was an adorable cria (baby llama).

And two more llamas, one with interesting eyes.

There were even two camels!

And yaks!

And a large yak. Yakkity yak. Heh heh.

In case you didn’t know, yak fiber is very soft and smooth when it’s been dehaired. The resulting fiber is very downy, similar to camel down, and much desired for spinning and knitting.

In one of the pens, we saw a breed of animal that hadn’t been penned up before.

Can you guess what this is?

Yep, a bunny! His eyes are in there, somewhere.

Outside at the show ring (for sheep, goats, etc) I saw this sign and couldn’t help wondering who were the pigs!

Back inside the main building. People who love sheep have amazing clothes and accessories.

But this, by far, was the most unreal imaginative use of fiber I think I’ve ever seen!

I have no words.

I asked the wahine to model for me. Which she gladly did.

I still have no words.

We finally began to make our way home, stopping first at Swan Island dahlias, whose flowers rivaled all the yarn and fiber we’d seen in color and variety.

Mt Hood in the distance.

Acre upon acre of dahlias!

Next, we headed across the Willamette River on the Canby Ferry.

Though just a brief ride, it’s a lot of fun.

In the middle of the Willamette River:

After we get off and head up the hill, the ferry goes back, surrounded by shining, shimmering water.

We see a fancy house on Pete’s Mountain Road.

With this cool horse out front.

Let’s see. Only another 373 days till next year’s OFFF!!