Renaissance Faire

So yesterday, my mom and I went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. You can see the pics here. It's mostly just entertaining to watch the shows and see all the interesting costumes, but I also got to pet a zebra, which was very exciting.
There was also a woman who did a demonstration about how to fold a kilt, and did various spinning related things. Here's a picture of me pretending like I can spin at her spinning wheel. I learned all about how to process and spin flax. It looks pretty much like straw when it's unprocessed, and then you kind of beat the heck out of it to turn it into to linen. You have to keep it wet when you're spinning too.
I also learned all about how to dye things with natural plant dyes. Queen Anne's Lace gives a lovely light green. There was a skein dyed with real indigo. There's a root that gives a reddish color. You can use black walnut to get a dark brown. Aparently there's a fungus that gives you purple, but I didn't see that. And if you want different shades of black, brown, or grey, you just get it from that color of sheep. Although I've dabbled in spinning, I really don't ever see myself going farther up the production chain than that. Still, it might be interesting to try the organic dye sometime.
Sadly, her yarns were not for sale since she used them as samples. I really wanted some nice handspun. You'd think at a Renaissance faire there'd be at least something knitting related, but that was it. Aparently last year there was something, but they cancelled this year. I was a little cranky about that. I even heard some other woman in one of the little bookstores asking her friend, "Did you find knitting?" Clearly, they're missing their market here.
Well, I still had fun. And I got to pet a zebra.