Tag: fiberfestivals

Two Trips to Saint Louis

Since my last post in April I have taken two trips to Saint Louis. I went the first time for the Midwest Fiber Festival and it was fantastic! I already signed up for next year and can’t wait to go back.

One of my customers from the show contacted me about some wood they had if we were interested. She sent some pictures and it looked promising, so we emptied out the trailer and drove it back up to their place just west of Saint Louis. We got there in the early afternoon and spent the next several hours loading up the trailer. We stayed the night in Saint Louis and then headed home. Here is some of the wood after it was unloaded and sorted in the work shop.

It’s hard to tell yet what this will all end up as, but there is for sure quite a bit of usable stuff. It does take a bit of time to process because it’s mostly cut offs, but that works for some of our products. A lot of it was mahogany, with some walnut, oak and a little cherry.

So, once the trailer was emptied again we had the job of reloading and restocking the trailer for our next festival. That is where I am right now, actually. I am near Saint Paul, MN for the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo, MN. I will be setting up the booth today. The festival is Saturday and Sunday.

It’s a long haul to come up here every year but it is worth it. A bonus is that I get lots of audio book time while I’m driving. I finished Kristin Hannah’s Firefly Lane and am starting the sequel Fly Away I am also reading Justin Cronin’s newest release The Ferryman. I got hooked on his writing when I read The Passage trilogy. So good!

I also have done a tiny bit of knitting. I haven’t had much down time inwhich I also have the desire to pick up my needles. So, when I do reach for my knitting it has been my sock that gets the action.

It’s almost ready for the toe shaping. I will be switching back to the green for that. With any luck I may get this done over the weekend. I have a couple hours this morning before heading over to set up. Speaking of which, I better get busy. See you soon!

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A Little Bit of Interim Knitting

As I mentioned in my last post, I needed a little bit of interim knitting. The shawl is still coming along but some variety was called for. Here’s where my shawl in progress is at the moment. I am down to the last 30g or so of the second skein of Classic Merino Bamboo. I measured the main section, aside from the edging, and it is about 38-40″ unblocked. The edging adds about 3″ which means it is going to require at least 3 skeins of yarn to be long enough. I should have known that 2 weren’t going to be enough.

I apologize for the photo quality. I am currently in another hotel room, this one is in St. Louis, MO. I am going to be setting up the booth this afternoon at the second annual Midwest Fiber Festival. I am excited to be here. It was a great show last year. The staff are wonderful and the enthusiasm of everyone is contagious. I’ll share some pictures from the festival later. For now, let me get back to the bit of interim knitting I teased in my title.

We all have tons of fingering weight/sock yarn in our stashes right? I got an idea recently to pull out some of mine and make myself some summer shorty socks. The first pair on the needles are made with some of my hand dyed Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn in some discontinued colorways. I have all sorts of remnants from booth samples and such, so I will be combining them in fun ways to keep it interesting. I am just following a basic cuff down sock formula with a 1×1 cuff (2 1/2″) and a slip stitch flap heel. I am using 68 stitches and my US1 (2.25mm) Signature Needle Arts DPNS. I have no affiliation for the link, but I am a fan of their needles. I only have two sets of DPNS and one circular US5, but they are great. I love the stiletto points. They are pricey but the quality is there.

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A Bit of Spring Cleaning and More

I have been doing a bit of spring cleaning in between fiber festivals. I think that we are firmly into spring weather. I hope most of the volatile storms are past and we can enjoy the warmth and sunshine.

Last week when we had a few days that were warm and sunny, I washed all the bedding, cleaned the windows, and then washed both trucks.

Of course by the next day they both had tree pollen and bird poop on them, but at least the inside is still clean.

Jerry is totally responsible for putting in the garden. The smaller bed (up close) has kitchen herbs, peppers and a few tomatoes. The larger bed farther away) has some more tomatoes and veggies that we plant from seeds. I think he put out some peas, green beans, summer squash, corn, and possibly some cucumbers.

I also spent part of a day washing, drying and labeling some more Organic Cotton Worsted to restock our inventory.

This past weekend I was in Greencastle, IN for the Greencastle Wool Show. We are long time vendors there and we thought last year was the end. It was thankfully saved from extinction. The weather was great and there was a nice turn out, especially on Saturday.

I have a weekend at home again this week. The next festival on our schedule is the Midwest Fiber Festival in St. Louis. This will be the second year for this one. It was well attended last year and we are looking forward to going back.

In knitting news, I have made some progress on the shawl but not enough to bother with a new picture. It is a nice stitch pattern that is easily memorized. I also love knitting with the Classic Merino Bamboo. That said though, I am getting to the point where I am ready for a change in my knitting, IYKWIM. I may need to cast on a little something for variety soon. I am trying to push through so I can get it ready for the booth and write up the pattern. We’ll see.

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Good Morning From Ann Arbor, Michigan

I am writing to you this morning from Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am going to be setting up the booth today for the Spring Fiber Expo. This will be the third festival for us this year. The first two, Carolina Fiber Festival and Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival, were fantastic! They met and exceeded our expectations. So, the year is off to a good start.

I wanted to write a post so many times in the last few weeks but you know how it is I am sure. So, here I am with a couple of hours before set up time and finally the energy to get it done. The weeks have been filled with the usual tasks. I have done a bit more dyeing to restock a few popular yarns that were already getting low. We have some more Shawl and Hair Sticks on the website. Thanks to my husband’s diligence and hard work, we have eight different woods available.

I made the drive up to Ann Arbor yesterday. I had a bit of time last night to knit on my shawl. I am into the second skein of yarn now. Here’s a picture I took this morning in the hotel room. It’s gray and rainy at the moment so it’s not a great one.

I need to get my lunch packed and head over to the fairgrounds in about an hour. See you soon!

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It Has Been Quite an Interesting Week

Spring time in middle Tennessee can be volatile and it has been quite an interesting week. It is typical this time of year to be in 70’s or even 80’s but then that can change on a dime and it’s chilly again the next day. We experienced some strong storms with straight line winds over 70 mph on Friday. We lost a few shingles from our work shop and a tree in the back yard. Thankfully that was not near the house. There is a pine tree in the front that was dangerously close to going down which would have taken out the power lines to the house. You could see the ground lifting at the base with the strong gusts. It was very scary, but the winds finally abated and it is still there. For now. It will probably need to come down before the next threat rolls through, just in case.

We did lose power, along with over 115,000 other Nashvillians. There were downed trees, power lines, and poles everywhere. Our electricity was out for about 13 hours. We were fortunate that it wasn’t worse. A little cleaning up is all we had to worry about. There is still the tree to deal with because it is hung in some other trees making it a possible hazard but it is at the back of the property where it’s less of a priority.

So, after all the excitement from the weather was over, it was back to the tasks associated with getting ready for the first festival coming up. Last week I was getting all the new yarn labelled. Then it all needed stored, some went in the trailer and the rest in our work room storage bins. There are also new Darning Eggs, Nostepinnes, and Shawl/Hair Sticks to be tagged/packaged and stored. Like the yarn, some go straight in the trailer with restock in the work room storage.

Yesterday I got the oil changed in my truck. I took along my computer and got some inventory updating done while I was waiting. We did some grocery shopping in the afternoon. Today has mainly been packing for my trip. I will drive to Raleigh, NC in the morning and set up the booth on Thursday at the Carolina Fiber Festival. I have a full schedule on my website, if you’d be interested to see what we have booked this year. If all goes as planned, we will be vending at 21 events this year.

I have made progress on my knitting project but will post a picture of that next time since it’s too dark at the moment to get a good one. I didn’t get started on this post until near dark. So, I’ll sign off for now. It’s almost time to start rummaging in the kitchen for some supper.

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Greetings From the Great State of Texas

This morning I am sending you greetings from the great state of Texas. It’s been three years since I was last here and I am excited to get my booth set up today for the East Texas Fiber Festival. I am writing from my hotel room which is about a half an hour from Canton, where the venue is located. It was a long haul to get here but for a change I took my time and stretched it out over two days. It was an uneventful drive this time. We made sure to check and grease all the bearings and air up all the tires.

Due to the leisurely pace of my travels, I had a bit of knitting time at the end of my driving days to get some knitting done. As you can see I have almost finished my second Shapely Mitts. I only have to knit the ribbing at the finger end of the hand and then work the thumb section to have a completed pair.

Progress on the Cables and Lace Blanket is coming along as well. I found that I use about 23g/84 yards per each pattern repeat. What this means, which is the good news, is that I did estimated well for the yardage required to make the Medium size. The bad news is that I don’t have quite enough yarn to make that size. I started with under 1400 yards. I knew that but hoped I had over estimated enough in the pattern that it would work. Oh well, I’ll just have to leave off a repeat saving enough for the border.

I am going to cut this short and head over to the venue for booth set up. See you soon!

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One More to Go and Other News

In my last post, I was in Asheville for SAFF. We had a local show the next weekend, Fiber in the Boro. Both shows went very well and we now have only one more to go, the East Texas Fiber Festival. I am looking forward to returning to this one since I haven’t been there since 2019. The festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021. It was on the way to the festival in 2019 that my trailer broke down. One of the wheel bearings blew and I was never more glad that I have a tandem axle. It could have been much worse if it had happened with a single axle. I was very fortunate that I was less than a mile from a trailer parts supply store who was able to give me a number of a mobile mechanic who was able to get me back on my way in a few hours. After returning home safely, we replaced all the hubs and brakes on the trailer.

Anyway, on to other news. I have been enjoying the two week break from travels. We have been getting some work done, such as restocking some yarns and making more Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs.

There was also finally enough time in my schedule to get some house cleaning done that I have had on my To Do list. Jerry does a great job of keeping the place clean when I am gone, but there were a few jobs that no one had gotten around to for awhile. One of those was the cleaning the windows and curtains. I washed them all on Monday since the weather was still warm and dry. We are getting some rain today and the temperatures are supposed to drop starting tonight. No more open window days for us for awhile. I am glad I could get that task off my list before the cool spell hit. I like when the windows are all clean, especially going into the darker days of winter. It helps brighten up the indoors a bit.

There has been time in the evenings for some knitting too. I have made progress on my Cables and Lace Blanket. The second ball of yarn has been added and I have completed four pattern repeats. That means I am around 25% complete since I plan to do sixteen repeats. I weighed the current ball before beginning the 5th repeat to gauge how much yarn is used per repeat. It weighed 57g.

You may remember that in my last post I was planning to make a new pair of Shapely Mitts with a partial skein of a hand paint from my business stash? The yarn is my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn, but the colorway is discontinued.

I have knit one and have started the second. I normally refer tonal solids, but the occasional variegated skein is fun too.

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We Are Getting Down to the End

The 2022 festival season is wrapping up. We are getting down to the end of our show schedule with only three more festivals to go. I am currently in Asheville, NC setting up the booth at SAFF (Southeast Animal Fiber Fair) which begins tomorrow. I didn’t get any booth pictures today before I covered up everything.

What I do have pictures of is my work station in my hotel room where I am doing a bit of website updating, order shipping and blog posting.

I also have some new knitting on the needles. I know that in my last post I mentioned that I was going to start another size test knit for the gansey pattern I am working on, but that didn’t happen yet. It will, but I wasn’t ready with enough numbers and info to cast that on. So instead I am test knitting the medium size in another of my patterns, Cables and Lace Blanket. I made the original sample in the small size using Organic Cotton Sport. I am using a discontinued base which I had a few skeins of un-dyed in my stash. I was in the mood to use it that way instead of dyeing it. This yarn is a sport weight merino wool that is similar to my current Classic Merino Superwash Sport, except that this one is not machine washable. I love this base. I hated to discontinue it but most people seem to prefer superwash wool. The yardage is similar so it should help me to verify if my yardage estimate in the pattern is correct. It’s a fun and relaxing pattern with enough going on to keep me interested.

Knitting only one thing at a time is my usual practice but every now and then I like variety, especially if I am not in a hurry for the current project to be finished. So I went stash diving before I left for Asheville for a second project to put in my knitting bag.

Many years ago I dyed hand painted colorways in addition to my tonal solids. I switched over to all solids several years ago, but I hung on to a few souvenir skeins from that time for myself. Here’s one of them in my Classic Merino Superwash Sock base in a colorway that I called Malignant Narcissism. It’s a Rush song title, for anyone who cares.

I will probably make a pair of Shapely Mitts from this. I can always use more of these. It’s hard to have too many pairs of finger-less mitts on hand.

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A Silver Lining and a New Pair of Socks

As I reported in my last post, Hurricane Ian led to a festival cancellation, but there is always a silver lining if you are willing to look for one. If the festival had gone on as planned that would have been great, but only if it wasn’t a wash out. If that had happened though I would have been extremely challenged to get this amount of work done in the two days home I would have had. As it turned out I had four extra days, which was not totally a bad thing after all. What would make it even better is if I managed to make up those lost earnings from the one show in the five remaining, right? One can hope and I am ever hopeful.

So, I have been making good use of those extra days! We got some yarn dyed in some bases and colors that were getting a bit low on stock. In addition to that I also restocked the trailer with more yarn, swifts, darning eggs, and nostepinnes.

I got the dyeing done for New Era Fiber, which would have been put on the back burner for sure if I had only had two days home.

I also hate to get behind in book keeping chores. I am very fortunate that I was able to get all that caught up, including all my quarterly sales tax filings. I almost forgot that I needed to get the oil changed in the truck. I got that done on Monday while I was restocking the trailer. Then on Tuesday I got the groceries and even had time to wash the truck again.

The one thing I haven’t been back to work on yet is my Gansey sweater pattern. I got about 2/3’s of the directions written in the hotel last week for the size I knit. I still have a long way to go so I can see it being maybe next year before it is all written, charted, and tested. I do think I am going to start working on a test knit for one of the smaller sizes I am planning to include, but more on that next time I think.

For now, I do have a finished pair of socks to report. I have already worn them once and I love them! I did run out of yarn but I found a scrap ball from another project in a comparable color. Believe it or not it took all but about two yards even of that yarn, but I made it! The color is a little off here but as you can see the toe on the left sock is close enough don’t you think? I mean when they are in your shoes who sees the toes, right?

I am heading off to Ann Arbor tomorrow for the Fall Fiber Expo. It is supposed to be pretty chilly so all the better to wear all the hand knits!

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An Unfortunate Turn of Events

I spent a few days getting some work done at the hotel plus a bit of knitting and reading. Wednesday afternoon everything changed though. I had been planning to work some more on pattern writing through Thursday and on Friday drive to Orange, VA to set up the booth. Hurricane Ian caused an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events. The festival decided that it would be best to cancel since it is an all outdoors event. It was disappointing but probably the right call. It is a right mess there when it rains a lot. It’s no fun having all your inventory in a tent under those conditions and driving in trucks and trailers on muddy fields is not for the faint of heart. LOL!

So I am home and have a weekend off that I didn’t expect. It’s just as well since I need to get in some yarn dyeing and now I have 5 days instead of 2 to get it done. We also got a call from the mill and they brought me 18# of fiber to dye as well. There are some more Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs that Jerry made while I was gone to get finished and labeled.

He’s still got more blanks roughed to make more of both.

I am mixing up dyes today with the plan to get the dyeing done over the next day or two.

In knitting news, I have almost finished the Gridiron Sock but I am almost sure I am going to run out of yarn. I will dig up something to finish out the toe. They are for myself and I don’t mind.

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