It's fall in Maine, which means Fair Season and for the even slightly crunchy granola of us, it means the Common Ground Fair hosted by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. When I went last year, I was unemployed and recently arrived from Chicago. I went because I was told there'd be yarn.

This year I went up as part of a group of seven from my Tuesday night knitting group. We left Portland at 7:30 and even getting slightly lost, managed to avoid the long line of traffic that you get after about 10 am. It was cool when we left, but the weather couldn't have been more perfect. We wandered around the fair for about 6 hours seeing all the sights.

And yes, we bought yarn and fiber. I bought lots of fiber because this is my first fair trip as a spinner. The haul, as displayed below is as follows: Llama fiber from Botanical Shades (Orange on spindle and purple), "fudge sundae" wool-bamboo-silk blend from Pleasant Valley Farm (dark multicolor ball), and wool and sparkle blend from Enchanted Knoll. The sheep sculpture is from Maple Lane Pottery.

I spin now, did I mention that yet?

Mr. Cleaver got me a drop spindle for my birthday and I've be happily leaving tufts of wool all over the sofa since July. But really, we all knew it was just a matter of time, right? I look forward to sharing more bits of fibery/handspun goodness here in the coming months.

My first (grey) and second (white) spinning samples, apx 1.1oz each, wool fiber from the Portland Fiber Gallery and Studio.

I have to admit that growing up I hated fair season.

To me it meant nothing more than dancing on hot concrete stages that were every form of uncomfortable and I never got to do any of the fun stuff, like rides or games - except for once. Of course the piece de resistance of bad fair experiences was in high school when I volunteered to do a "Say No to Drugs" Puppet show, only to arrive at the booth to discover that I'd have to spend all afternoon sitting under a table next to the Vote No on 9 people. Not cool.

Nevertheless, when Maine fair season kicked off last week, I was thrilled and have now gone to not one, but two fairs. Since I took hundreds of photos, I'ma gonna break this up into two posts.

First, Marjorie, the woman who essentially taught me to knit, called and asked if I'd like to go with her to the Common Ground Fair. Run by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardens, this is meant one thing to us knitters: fiber, yarn, and the creatures that wrought it.

We had beautiful warm weather and a fantastic time.

There were pie cones: