Tag: fiberfestivals

We are Wrapping Up the Summer Break Time

Yarn Dyeing

It’s the end of July and that means we are wrapping up the summer break time. The yarn is all dyed, labeled and in it’s storage bins. About 2/3 of the yarn is in the trailer and the remainder is stowed in the work room as back up to restock the trailer during the late summer and fall show season.

Yarn Bowls

In addition to yarn dyeing, we have some new Yarn Bowls in the works. We will be bringing a selection of these to the festivals and adding them to the website. There are a large variety of woods and sizes, so the best way to see them is in person. The woods used include oak, cherry, walnut, and mahogany. We ended up with so many different sizes that we will have a range of prices to fit most budgets and uses. They will vary from $40 to $70.

Fiber Festivals

I will be heading off to Charlotte, NC on August 9th for the Southern Comforts Fiber Market. The festival will be at the Oasis Shriner’s Auditorium on August 11-12, 2023. We have a full schedule after that, so hopefully you can make it out to one. I would love to see you!

Knitting

I have been working on my new shawl design when I can. I would love to have this finished and ready for displaying in the booth soon. You may recall that I am using my Classic Merino Bamboo yarn for this shawl. The pattern will be forth coming as soon as I decide on a stopping point.

At this point I could work one more repeat of the lace pattern and still have enough yarn left for the edging. I am currently on the the third skein. The shawl measures around 65″ long unblocked. If I add another section and the edging, it will add around 7″. That’s 72″ before blocking. I think I may want it about a foot longer. That’s my indecision at this point. Do I stop at a 3 skein project? Or continue on and use some of a 4th skein?

Is bigger better in this case? ;-)

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And Finally a Little Break

My goodness! I have barely had time to breathe and finally a little break. Since my last post I have been to three fiber festivals. On Memorial Day weekend I was in Wooster for the Great Lakes Fiber Show. The weather was so nice and there was good turnout. I wasn’t going to bore you with more booth shots but I changed my mind since it’s what I have. Posts with pictures are more fun, right?

Great Lakes Fiber Show

The first weekend in June was Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival in Franklin, IN. The weather was pretty warm this year but that’s not unusual. This show has really grown and improved so much over the 16 years I have been vending there. I am very impressed with it’s progress and look forward to it every year. The organizers do a great job with every thing, from vendor communication, to classes, to promotion.

Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival

This past Friday and Saturday, I was back in Ohio. For the third year, I went to the Mid-Ohio Fiber Fair in Newark. This festival is currently one day only. I have given it a few years, and it’s a nice one for what it is, but it may be the last year for me. It’s mainly because it’s all in the one day. I drive up on Friday and then on Saturday I arrive at 5:30 am to set up the booth for the market which opens at 9 am and runs to 5 pm. Then it’s tear down time. I put in a long 13 hour day and it’s just a bit too much. Attendance has dropped off too, which makes it hard to make enough to be worth the effort and expense. If it wasn’t 400 miles each way requiring two nights away I would keep it, but as it is, for me, it’s probably not one I will keep going forward. It makes me sad to do it though. One bonus is that I have my trailer and truck right there behind the booth. Saves some time and energy during set up and break down.

Mid-Ohio Fiber Fair

So, not a whole lot of knitting happening lately. I did finish that first sock and the cuff if the second one. I am ready to start the heel flap when I get back to it. If you recall, I am making these with some remnants of discontinued colorways of my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn.

shorty socks for summer

I have also been working on my shawl design. I am ready to join on the third skein at this point. It is measuring about 45″ unblocked. I am probably around the half way mark now since I want it to be generous for wrapping.

We have put in a huge yarn order to get started dyeing when I return from my next show. I am home this coming weekend but am back on the road for one more festival, Houston Fiber Fest, before the summer break. More on that in my next post. See you later!

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A New Acquisition and Other Updates

Last week I went to get my oil changed at the dealership and something caught my eye. We ended up making a new acquisition which wasn’t as spontaneous as it sounds. We have loosely been planning to sell or trade our 2014 F-150 while it still has a good market value. When we spied this little number we decided maybe the time was right.

It was the color that claimed our attention. It looks a bit more orange than this picture depicts. The color is called Red Chili Pepper. This one is Jerry’s since I have my new one from last year. I love the wheels on it! They just go with the color perfectly.

Aren’t they a cute pair? We should be set on vehicles for awhile now.

You may notice my trailer is hitched to my truck. I took this photo the night before I left for Lexington, KY. Last weekend was the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival. We had another awesome turn out despite the rainy start on Saturday. The skies cleared out by midday and then Sunday was gorgeous. It was cooler then it usually is too.

I set up our tents and booths under the Pavilion on Friday. When the weather is good, this is a nice spot to be. The natural light accentuates the products. A bonus is having my trailer and truck right next to my location, which is a aid in restocking the booth, as well as making set up and break down more convenient.

I am back home today but I am on the road to Wooster, OH on Thursday. I am setting up on Friday at the Great Lakes Fiber Show. This show is one of the ones I have been attending since our first year of full time festival vending in 2007. It’s one of my favorites. The trailer has been restocked already, including the dye order I did in February for Bare Naked Wools. I will be delivering that to them at the festival.

While I am running around doing the festival end of the business at the moment, Jerry is hard at work at the lathe. He’s been working on new Yarn Bowls for quite a few weeks now.

Here’s a sneak preview of a couple new Yarn Bowls that I will be bringing to the festival.

I am going to close and finishing my packing. Thanks for reading!

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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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