Plenty of Fiber and a Little Dessert: Return to Yellow Springs (Pt. 1)

Yellow Springs is one of the intriguing places in Ohio for me, in that there's a little slice of what I regularly encountered in places like Berkeley and San Francisco in this village of around 3,500 people. In fact, this hamlet holds the distinction (in southwest Ohio, anyway) of being at the forefront of various social causes such as the anti-war and anti-discrimination movements, as well as sporting large arts-oriented and LGBT communities.

Street performers from the 2015 summer edition of the Yellow Springs'
bi-annually held Street Fair, a rite of passage for many area residents

As I discovered, these leanings don't stop folks from all walks of life from coming in and enjoying the charms of this small Southwest Ohio hamlet, especially during their bi-annual Street Fairs, if one were simply to judge from the myriad of T-shirts I saw worn the day of my visit. Of course, there is much more to Yellow Springs than these fairs, as we uncovered on a recent return visit to get our share of fiber, whole grains, and a little dessert to boot.

Alpaca me once, alpaca me twice...

I admit, the visit to the 22nd Annual Wool Gathering at Young's Dairy was not for me so much as my spouse, who has taken up crochet and, more recently, knitting with a good bit of fervor. While this would not be her first fiber fest, this would be both our first visits to what has become one of the largest gatherings in the state.  I am not a knitter myself, but I had a lot of fun playing the role of observer this afternoon, as it turned out.

This short video captures just a few of the sights this day, from the collection of farm animals associated with the fiber arts, to the wide variety of yarns from both around the world and truly local, to the demonstrations of weaving arts on various machines, and the numerous children who were enthused to see what they were seeing and not merely tagging-along, I could feel the enthusiasm of the gathered for their chosen pursuit.

My spouse did pretty well for herself as well, resisting the ample temptation to go hog wild and restraining herself to yarn wholly produced from alpaca to skein from Checkered Flag Fibers from the Clark County area.

Of course, we couldn't NOT visit the home of Young's Jersey Dairy without having some of the ice cream here. If nothing else, this visit reinforced my previous feelings about this ice cream purveyor (blogged about back in July 2015 at this Ice Cream Chronicles post) - there is much more to Young's than the ice cream. Perhaps more than any other place I've visited during my ice cream travels so far, Young's has the complete package to provide entertainment for pretty much anyone, combining homegrown styled eats with a working farm, kid- (and adult-) friendly activities, and ample space to handle special events like the Wool Gathering.

As a side note, I realized as I re-read my blog post that I still have yet to grab that milkshake. Ahh, well, there's always next year's Wool Gathering, right?

For more information about the Wool Gathering, please consult their Facebook event page

Young’s Jersey Dairy
6880 Springfield-Xenia Rd (Google Maps)
Yellow Springs, OH  45387
(937) 325-0629
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