Smashed

What did I shot photos of at the fiber festival? Not fiber obviously! There were tons of acorns on the ground and that is what fascinated me.

So here is acorn art courtesy of Mother Nature.

Bad Blogger

Okay, I didn’t mean to go missing for almost a month. There are several things to blame including Twitter and the ultimate time suck Facebook! Okay, Farmville on Facebook specifically. But you can also include spinning and trying to finish up UFOs.

So for a fast round up, I vended at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival with a group of friends as part of a boutique booth. And there was a special skein of yarn named Sprite just for a certain DC based Sprite. I think she is still petting it! And the show was a great success for my first show. I sold tons of handspun but not as many batts.

After a quick recovery from this show, I headed towards Boston. I went up there to visit my aunt and my cousins who live up there. My youngest cousin is all signed up for knitting lessons now. She was fascinated by my knitting so thanks to Ravelry we found a yarn shop less than 3 miles from her house that offered lessons that fit her busy schedule. Mel is the youngest of the cousins by more then a few years. (The rest of us are no more than 2 years apart in age.) Mel is a full time college student in a program where she will graduate with not only her BS in social work but her MS. And on top of this, she works part time and still stays an honors student. So the fact that she wants to learn to knit on top of everything is fantastic. And being the good enabling knitter, I just sent her a box with enough needles to get started and plenty of worsted and bulky yarns to help her make her first dozen or so scarves. The holidays are coming up and when you live in Boston, scarves are always a practical gift.

I am getting ready to head back out on the road this time to the Memphis area. I have an uncle who lives nearby and am doing a really fast visit to him. Funny how I have two uncles who are both truly crazy and I am visiting both of them in the same month! The difference between the two crazy uncles is that one only speaks English & the other refuses to speak English even when threatened.

The English only crazy uncle is my mom’s brother. His crazy is just that he is a hillbilly who has been away from Appalachia for too long. The other crazy uncle is my father’s middle brother. He is the one who is truly crazy. Yes, he does speak English, it is just hat he refuses too uncles he is absolutely forced too. He has also learned that size 0 circular needles are weapons. He was driving not only me crazy in the car when we were trying to find a parking space downtown Boston, but my father and my aunt (their baby sister.) I reached a point where I finally threatened him and told him to be quiet or I would stab him with my needles. Now keep in mind, he was jabbering away in Spanish and I am threatening in English. Did it work? Yes. He got really quiet and was super polite to me the rest of the visit. (I am the only one of the cousins who will ever tell him to be quiet and tell him to speak English. And yes, I do speak and understand Spanish.)

I did manage to visit two yarn shops while in Massachusetts though. I went to a Mind’s Eye which is in Cambridge. It is tiny but a nice lovely shop. And best of all, they had wheels and fiber in the shop.

I also had the chance to visit Webs. Yes, the yarn mecca. It is about a two hour drive from Boston and was only an hour of the way on the way home. Is is really a yarn mecca? Maybe. I am very lucky to have a really good LYS and quite a few indie dyers who are fairly local. Maybe knowing so many indie dyers means that I am spoiled. I have seen so many wonderful small indie dyed yarns and fibers that the ones who break it into the big time no longer interest me? And I am finding that I prefer to buy indie dyed items straight from the dyers as much as possible.

Did I buy anything at Webs? Of course. But surprisingly it was very little. I bought enough Valley Yarns Berkshire to make three pairs of mittens and 4 skeins of the bulky for my niece. The colors were the same of course since we both love purples.

And just for reading through all of this, I am going to announce a special sale in the Etsy shop. I am gong to leave the shop open while I am gone and have a sale plus free shipping for the first 5 customers. I am going to offer a discount of 10% off on batts and 15% off on handspun yarns for this sale. I will be posting the sale in the shop header tomorrow and on Twitter so blog readers will get the first chance at the sale items. And while spinning aprons are not currently listed, if you are looking for one, convo me and one can be sewn up for you at the sale price of $15. I will be posting the sale info tomorrow around 4 pm EST so there is about a 24 hour advance warning here.

Crafty Bastards

I just realized that I never posted about Crafty Bastards and that made me realize that I haven’t posted this month! Pia aka sparklypia everywhere went home with a skein of handspun alpaca. The only way to describe Crafty Bastards is crowds. Just think hordes and hordes of people. Working with Karida meant that each of us was able to take turns and try to wander the show. But the crowds made it hard. But I did manage top get some shopping done. I bought two Christmas presents for the nephews and plenty of soap for me. I adore handmade soap and never use commercially made soaps anymore. So I took the chance to stock up for a few months.

And there is more knitting going on but it is secret knitting gain. You will just have to wait for the big reveal. And I am still trying to make sure that the photo blog is updated daily.

Craft Shows

I am scheduled to work for Karida Saturday morning in her booth at Crafty Bastards. I will be bringing down around a dozen skeins of handspun yarn from her rovings. I am not spinning them up as fast I thought I would. But I would rather spin less yarns and have nicer yarns than tons of yarns that I would not want to knit with myself. But to encourage DC area readers, I am going to bring a skein of my own yarn that I will give away to one of the readers of this blog.

Here is the deal, I have a skein of handspun naturally dyed alpaca that is a lovely blend of natural chocolate brown, pale green, and a raspberry pink. It is about a worsted weight and the skein has 160 yards in it. (Really a few more yards but I would rather error on the low side.) To win this fabulous skein of yarn all you have to do is find me and tell me what you would make out of it. If I like the idea, you will walk away with the skein. All I will ask is that you send me a photo of what ever you make out if it. I looked over on Ravelry and there are quite a few patterns that could be made using this yardage and weight of yarn. Keep in mind though that handspun alpaca is heavy and very very warm. Here are some Ravelry links to various patterns that caught my eye – Celtic Cable Neckwarmer, Turn A Square, Quant, and a personal favorite is Woodland Trails. Now for Woodland Trails the yardage in this skein isn’t quit enough to do the full repeats but I did mine and used only 177 yards so you might be able to get it out of this skein.

And I have been knitting in between spinning. I have knit three Ripley hats. I will knit a few more but I need to find yarn in the stash for them first. But I have also knit something out of handpsun too. Kristi of Designs by Kristi was looking for some people to test knit the pattern and I volunteered. I had just finished a handspun yarn that was the perfect weight and enough yardage. This cowl knit up super fast. I am planning to knit up another one here shortly. I need to see what yarns I have that will fill the bill for it.

And I should really introduce the new photo only blog Playing with Fire. Strictly photos. Click on over and check it out. Hope to see DC area readers this coming weekend.

Still Here

I just looked at the calender and realized that I haven’t posted a real post in quite awhile. I am still here. Just staying busy with spinning and sewing and creating new batts. I am trying to get ahead of the game. I was invited to be part of a boutique style booth next month at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival. So in addition to trying to create wonderful fiber items for my Etsy store so I can have enough stock there to have an official grand opening, I am also trying to create stock for the show. So I am either at the wheel every evening or standing in front of the drum carder. And I can also be found at the sewing machine as well since I have been making aprons for spinners. I have several of the arpons almost ready to go. The ones up over on Etsy need a better model than the fence post.

And I am busy spinning up yarns for some one who is selling at Crafty Bastards. And I am trying to fit in knitting as much as possible. I am currently knitting my second Ripley (Rav link) hat out of stash yarn. I have more yarn in the stash that will become this hat. It is quick and easy and super cute. A least a few will end up as holiday gifts. And no modeled shots of the hats yet.

Actually I think I may be able to get some modeled shots this weekend. A friend’s daughter is a willing model and I will be seeing her Saturday.

The other thing I am busy doing is out wandering and shooting photos. I just took the big step and entered a major competition in the DC area this past week. I had to decide between entering the county fair or the big DC one. And the big one won. The county fair is a joke in that it costs you more to enter then they pay out. Plus people enter just to get the free pass into the fair. And you end up with lots of junk photos entered. Okay, not junk photos but things that are out of focus and such. The photo I entered was the one called Waiting which was the last photo I posted. It will be a bit before I know anything about this competition though.

Waiting

An old farm truck waits patiently.

Big Pool

The little ones quickly slid into the water

This is the beaver pond at Big Pool on the C&O Towpath

Found near a pond

Taken near the beaver pond at Big Pool on the C&O Towpath

Taking Advantage

Found on the steps to the ladies loo at Fort Frederick

The public bathrooms at Fort Frederick are underneath the CCC building. The stone steps are narrow and cracked.

Unwelcome Guests?

The bees have taken up residence in an old house

Taken near Four Locks on the C&O Towpath

Tenacity

Found at Four Locks on the C&O Towpath