Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Oh, I have a blog?

It is such a wonderful fall day on the mountain. I'm writing this from the backyard patio, feet propped up, breeze cooling off the mid-day heat, and golden light filtering through tree leaves in a dozen colors.

So many things have happened! I have more yarn and fiber and tons of new pictures, and it's almost time for SAFF! This post will mostly be pictures. I'll try to go in chronological order.

June was a busy month. On June 6th, the Local Cloth initiative in the Western North Carolina area put on an event held at the Asheville Farmer's Market called "Fiber Feel Day". The purpose was to bring local fiber farmers in touch with local fiber artists. My goal was to get as many different breeds of fleece to spin as I could.

I made a killing at the Twist Fiber Studio booth, Ashley Eskew's company.

Brown Jacob, Cheviot, Grey Gotland, and Targhee, all combed top.


Unfortunately, I didn't keep records so well for these (except the first, obviously from Echoview Fiber Mill), but I do know the fiber content.

A Merino blend.

Llama cloud.
Teeswater mix combed top and Icelandic with the both the tog & thel fibers included. 
There were these precious pygmy angora goats, or pygoras, from Mountain Meadow Farm in Franklin, NC.

Also in June, The National NeedleArts Association held the annual Stitch-N-Pitch night in partnership with the Major League Baseball association and we attended the event at McCormick Field in Asheville, NC, home of the Asheville Tourists team (farm team for the Colorado Rockies team). Unfortunately it was a very damp evening, but there was this beautiful sight while we waited for the first pitch (made with a ball of yarn, by the way!):


After the Stitch-N-Pitch game, was the Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration in downtown Waynesville, NC. The Smoky Mountain Knitting Guild has a booth at this annual street festival and this year the guild yarn bombed one of my favorite metal sculptures for the event!

"Old Time Music" set to yarn!
Julie Wilson, of Jehovah Raah Farm (and also my friend and spinning teacher), brought samples of her fiber wares, her spinning wheel, and some furry friends to the festival. 
Julie spinning mohair locks on one of her Lendrums.
Llama and alpaca.
Shetland ewes and new lambs!!
A handsome Angora goat.
I was on hand when Julie conducted a sheep shearing demonstration and asked me to hold one of the lambs close to the mother ewe's face to help keep her calm on the shearing table...I was sooooo flipping excited! You'd a thunk I was a townie for being so giddy at holding the lamb. It was actually the first shearing I'd seen in person, but I was so distracted by getting to lamb cuddle that I was barely able to watch the goings-on. 


I'm so excited that I held that lamb, that I don't even care about that terrible double-chin.
And then, as ironic as it may seem, I got to pet a real wolf (well, she's about 93% or so):

Isn't she lovely? 
I had to leave midway through the day because of ankle and foot pain due to swelling, a problem that I've never had to deal with prior to this year. As I write this, my right foot is swollen and propped up on a chair. (I snuck in some plying this morning on Mom's double-treadle Lendrum, but I couldn't do it for very long. Boo.) It wasn't long after this street festival that I saw my doctor and, via a blood test, she discovered that my thyroid had decided to call it quits. New meds seem to help, but when the dosage was recently adjusted lower, the swelling returned...just in time to throw off my Spinzilla game. Ugh. Too much spinning fiber and no healthy feet to treadle!

In July, Mum and I spent time with friends spinning at Julie Wilson's farm. The knitting guild's annual picnic was also held there in September. You can see how Julie decorates everything beautifully. Her house is a 200-year-old cabin! 















In September, Mum and I headed south, to historic downtown Columbus, GA, right on the Chattahoochee River, for the Georgia Fiber Fest.  This fiber festival began in 2012 as an Alpaca-focused event. Although it is still, thankfully, full of alpaca fiber vendors, the festival offers classes in all sorts of fiber crafts and hosts vendors with products from many fiber animals. We stayed in the Marriott hotel directly across the street from the convention center and had a great experience. We shopped till we dropped!


Much of that is indeed from alpacas, but there is much wonderful wool and tons of wonderful hand-painted yarn and fleece. I'll eventually photograph each with its proper source.

Mum and I also went with Ann, a good friend we've met through spinning classes, to a regional "Anything Fiber Sale" at Warren Wilson College. It was a giant stash-busting sale for anyone participating, housed in a gymnasium. Here's what came home with us: 


Again, more details on what's in that heap later.

I've been knitting! With a gimpy foot, I had to lay off spinning, so reading and knitting caught up. Here are some of the finished objects. 

The Edison shawl in three shades of Knit Picks Palette (my Rav project page). 
The Brush Creek Shawl in three shades of Knit Picks Palette (my Rav prject page).
A Sockhead hat in Miss Babs "Zombie Prom" colorway on the Hot Shot base.
I've also begun the Danshui cardigan in Knit Picks Andean Treasure (100% baby alpaca!!) in "Verdant Heather" green. It is soooo soft! This one is for me. Yum. It is top-down and I've already begun the body below the arm pit. 
The lace edging.
I've begun the BooKnits Voodoo MKAL (Mystery Knit-A-Long) with this Miss Babs lace in "Black Magic" with amethyst purple, silver-lined beads:


I also began a cowl with some homespun, but it is currently languishing because I messed up on a row while trying to knit with a sinus infection...not good.


There are other projects in the works, but they're Christmas gifts, so they're secret for the time-being. 

There is still more to update!! But this is probably plenty for one post. Time to knit!

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