Posted on May 15, 2005 at 11:47 pm

When trawling for fiber at a big sheep festival, you see something you want, but there is someone else with their hands on it.  They may even be paying for it.  Here are some of my tried and true strategies for acquiring rightful possession — without bloodshed.

1. Jedi Mind Trick:
"This fiber is not your fiber.
This is not the fiber you are looking for.
Move along."

2.  Reverse Psychology:
"Those are absolutely gorgeous
handpainted romney locks.  I’ve never seen anything quite like that.
You must buy that bag.  Those colours would be perfect on you.  You
simply must buy them because if you don’t I will have to and they won’t
be here when you come back to look for them later in the day and you’ll
hate yourself."

3.Abject Honesty:
"Look at the crimp in that Cormo/Border
Leicester!  And the sheen!  Magnificent.  And such a fine wool, what a
beautiful sweater it will make once you wash it twice–because there is
a tremendous amount of lanolin in it and the fine wools really need a
lot of extra cleaning–and even if it does survive all the extra work
without felting, the combing process will be really easy and only about
half the time it usually takes for raw fleece, unless you think you
might want to dye it which is only a minor step if you know what you’re
doing, and then you can make it into top and spin 5 pounds of it up for
a sweater.  SO. . . What are you going to make?"

I will have pictures and a play by play of my glorious Sunday at New Hampshire Sheep and Wool for you soon.