The festival season is over for us and it is now a time to be home. It is time to shift our focus to catching up on home tasks as well as production for next year. It’s also a time to get more knitting done, I hope. :-)

Knitting

My current knitting plans are still focused on the Mystery MusiKAl shawl. I am well into clue #3 now. It is easy knitting at the moment. Here is what I have so far. I know that it looks a little wonky, but it is hard to lay it out flat with the spare needle on the bottom edge.

I think this will still take awhile to finish. I don’t have any firm plans yet about what to start when this is completed.

Production

At the moment we have a batch of cherry Yarn Swifts in production. I need to sew some muslin bags for these while Jerry is currently doing a lot of sanding.

We also have a big batch of Darning Eggs that need to be waxed and labeled. I will be getting to that soon.

In December I will be doing a full inventory and ordering more yarn to dye for next year. So, that should be plenty to keep me busy, in addition to admin tasks as the year ends.

Festivals

Our last festival for 2025, NWA Fiber Festival, was last weekend. I wrote about it in my previous post. It was a great end of the season for us. We had a good show and are looking forward to returning next year.

Our first show on the schedule for 2026 will be the Scenic Stitches in Chattanooga, TN on February 28- March 1. That sounds like awhile off but it will be here before you know it.

Reading

Recent Reads Completed:

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill – This was good, but only a *** read for me. I don’t have specific complaints, I just don’t think his writing style is for me.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai – I liked this one a lot. I gave it ****. I enjoyed her writing and will read more from her. I have her previous book in my TBR. My only thought was that the ending was less than I would have liked.

Currently Reading:

King Sorrow by Joe Hill – I am down to the last 15% and it is just as good as I was hoping from all the reviews. The story telling is exceptional and I can see it being possibly my favorite read for 2025.

The Circle of Days by Ken Follett – I have only just started this one so it’s too soon to comment yet. I hope it will be as good as Pillars of the earth, which is one of my favorites by this author.

Okay, that’s it for today, since I need to make dinner. See you soon and as always, thanks for reading!

I finally picked out my colors and started knitting my Stephen West Mystery MusiKal 2025. I have a couple of other updates too, but this will be brief.

Knitting

The first clue for the 2025 Stephen West MKAL was released on October 4th. I looked at the spoiler because I wanted to use that as a guide in my final color decision. I was at first leaning towards the teal set. After seeing the complexity of the first clue, I went with the more muted and monochromatic gradient colorway.

As you can see in my picture of the beginning of clue 1, I am using the Heather, Orchid, Quartzite and Slate in Classic Merino Superwash Sock. There will be six scallops when I complete clue 1. This clue requires some attention, but I was working on it in my booth this past weekend. Clue 2 is very different and should be even easier for working on at SAFF this weekend if I get that far.

Festivals

Since my last post, I have been to two other festivals. I was at the Fall Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor the second weekend, and the Southern Indiana Fiber Arts Festival in Corydon, IN this past weekend. I am leaving tomorrow for SAFF in Asheville, NC. I am looking forward to a weekend home after I return. There is only one more festival remaining on our 2025 calendar after that, the NWA Fiber Festival in Fayatteville, AR. Whew!

This has been the season of meeting several blog friends. I got an unexpected visit from another one at Ann Arbor. I was happy to meet Beth from A Year of Kayaking . We had a nice chat. She made special stop in Ann Arbor to come to the festival on her way to somewhere out west, California maybe? Sorry, if that isn’t quite right. Safe travels Beth! It was great meeting you.

Reading

Since my last post I have read a few books and started a few more.

Recent Reads:

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling **** I devoured this while I was in Virginia. It was very good, but that ending! AAAAHHHH! Cliffhanger endings are both good and bad, right? I hope we don’t have to wait too long for the next book.

Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney*** This was pretty good if you like psychological thrillers. I like them every now and then and this one had good reviews so I picked up a copy in Virginia. Fun read!

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller **** I added this book to my TBR after seeing a few favorable reviews on BookTube. After it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, I sought out a copy. I thought the ending was a bit unsatisfying, but still a good read.

Current Reads:

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai – This was another work that made the Booker Prize short list. It’s the only other one that I was interested in reading. I just started this a couple days ago, but I am all in. Very lovely writing.

The Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates – this is one of my October spooky season reads. I am mostly listening to this one while I am on the road. It’s not really “spooky” though. It’s more of a thriller I guess. Good so far.

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill – This is definitely “spooky”. I am about 30% of the way in on this one. This is the second novel I have read by this author. The first one was The Ritual, which was more “folk horror”. I like Apartment 16 better so far. It is more supernatural horror, at least I think so. I don’t yet know from the story what the source of the creepiness is in the apartment building. It’s pretty creepy though.

Okay, that’s it for this post. Thanks for reading!

During my little break I am doing some contemplating about colors for the Stephen West MKAL. I am also doing a bit of knitting and reading in my downtime.

Colors for MKAL and Knitting

On Sunday while in my booth at Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival, more on that in a bit, I picked out a few color palettes to consider for this year’s MKAL. I am not gonna lie; I am having a hard time choosing. The last two years I used green combos, so I am determined to use a different palette for this one. What do you think?

I suppose I am leaning a bit more towards the teal palette(#4), but I love them all. Help me narrow it down if you have an opinion.

I have made a small amount of progress on the Summershine Top. I haven’t been in as much of a knitting mood. I have been reading a lot more than knitting.

Festivals and Friends

So, the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival was awesome as always! What made it even more special this year was having a blog friend pop in for a visit. She was also bearing a lovely gift! I so enjoyed meeting her and her daughter ( who made the wonderful candle). I am glad to have a face to put with the comments now. We, unfortunately, didn’t take pictures, but I can show you the wonderful smelling gift that I am enjoying in my room this week.

Here’s a few booth shots too. I have been experimenting with a new set up and I like it.

Reading

I finished two books over the first weekend. William Faulkner’s Light in August**** and Michael McDowell’s Blackwater Saga***.

Since then, I restarted The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith/J.K.Rowling. This is very good and engrossing. It is a big book; just over 900 pages, and I am about 45% through it in just a few days.

I also have a done a bit of book shopping in an area used book shop. Now, I brought some of these with me, but I did find some real gems. I am especially excited about the mint condition copy of The Chronicles of Narnia. I have needed a new set and this was a steal for the whole 7-in-1 hard cover.

Okay, that’s it for today. Talk again soon!

I’m home from Pittsburgh and I’m off again to Wisconsin in the morning. What’s been going on in between? There’s some knitting and reading to report, plus festival news.

Travel and Festivals

I arrived back in Nashville last Monday. This was to be my first weekend home since festivals began in early August. I had a nice break of just doing normal routine housekeeping, school and resting a bit.

We had a good turnout at the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival. I enjoyed my time there and met with lots of my regular customers. It’s one of the great parts about doing this for so many years. There’s old and new friends to chat about knitting and catching up on what’s new in our lives.

I am off in the morning, while it’s still dark outside, for my annual trek to Wisconsin for the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. This has become our biggest show of the year. It’s a wonderful event! The fairgrounds are very nice and there’s always a great vibe and excitement. The forecast for Jefferson is looking very much like fall!

I have restocked the trailer, but I suspect I may be doing some re-dyeing when I get home. The weekend following the festival is my only weekend home until the end of October, so it’s now or never until next year.

Knitting

I have had some time to focus on my current knitting project, Summershine Top by Anne Hanson. I have completed most of the back. I have reached the armhole bind offs and decreases. I have to knit about 5-6 more inches and that piece will be done. I still have the front piece to knit and then the seaming and collar after that.

I am not sure what is next up when I complete this. Oh wait! I just remembered that the West Knits MKAL is coming up soon. I am not sure I’ll be knitting it this year, but there is a pretty good chance I will. That may be next project.

Reading

I finished listening/reading Beach Music by Pat Conroy and it’s an easy ***** read for me. I am planning to re-read Prince of Tides for sure and also try South of Broad at some point.

I am about 40% into Light in August by William Faulkner. I am enjoying this a lot more on this read. I don’t know why I thought I didn’t like it the first time. As a matter of fact, I am finding this book the most accessible of the four Faulkner books that I have read. I previously read, Absalom, Absalom, The Sound and the Fury, and As I Lay Dying. I would recommend Light in August as an entry to Faulkner if he is new to you.

I am planning to listen to Kim by Rudyard Kipling while I am driving tomorrow. It’s one I have been meaning to get around to, and I’ll see how that goes. I have a couple back up plans if I am not digging it.

I am also very excited to begin the new Robert Galbraith(J.K.Rowling) book in the Cormoran Strike series, The Hallmarked Man. I just adore this series. I have the Kindle and The Audible versions plus I received my hardback copy today as well. I must remark that I am disappointed in the quality of the hardback. The paper looks and smells cheap compared to all the other volumes. I own the whole series in hardback. I am looking forward to the story though, so I’ll try to overlook my annoyance at the cheap production.

One other book that I read over the travel week was Horse**** by Geraldine Brooks. I liked this quite a bit. It’s historical fiction based on the life of a thoroughbred race horse of the antebellum era in the US. It was quite fascinating really. I know, you’re thinking why do I want to read out a horse? It’s partly about the horse but of course there are many people involved in his life and that is where the most interesting stuff is fleshed out. I highly recommend it.

Okay, that’s all I have for today. Thanks, as always, for reading! Talk again soon.