North Carolina and My Fiber Fix

I am playing catch up again. Marc and I went to visit Kristie and Abe in North Carolina for a few days in mid August. Notice the green grass! I visited one yarn shop (the other had gone out of business), but was not inspired. I did get a few ideas on things not to do! Abe has started law school at Duke and is hitting the books pretty hard. Kristie has 10 piano students now and is hoping for a few harp ones. She does have weddings lined up, so she will be busy.

I do have some green in my backyard. A tiny bird was perched on my basil polishing off the seeds.

I finally finished off my first pin weaving as a scarf. I ran out of yarn and would have had to do something free formy to make it longer. I felt like it was done, so I have photographed it.

I knitted up one of my freeform yarns while at Kristie's. I took the yarn to show my relatives in Rocky Mount and just got weird looks.They are traditionalists and did not get it at all. The southwest appears to be more open to abstract art.

I also began this scarf while on the return flight. I have spun up the rest of the yarn, so I will finish it this week.

I really missed spinning, so I made up for it by spinning 60.6 ounces (3.78 pounds) of yarn in the 8 days immediately after my return. The picture below is a different view of the same yarns.

I had to go to Urgent Care this morning to get my thumb checked out and they have referred me to an orthopedist. Too much stress on the thumb from turning water on and off out at the animals. I barely hold the roving/batts with my thumb, so the splint is not slowing me down. If it did, I would only wear it at night!

Moss Garden Shawl and shows

I finally wove in all of the ends and pushed the novelties to the outside on the moss garden shawl.

I did not block it, since the way it is knitted causes it to drape nicely regardless of which side you put at the neckline. I used about 700 yards of novelty yarn and none of it was an unembellished single. I really loved working with the color combination.

I used quite a few bead variations in addition to the texture. I took 30 close up photos, so I can remember the details. Not that I could ever repeat it! Will spend a week thinking about a anew colorway for the next one. 4 skeins is a lot!

I head out at 3 a.m. for North Carolina to visit my daughter, Kristie. I have two friends watching my shop and someone else watching the animals. It is a good thing that cell phones are so common nowadays. It relieves a lot of the stress, since I can call if I remember something or if they need help. I got tired just worrying about the animal details.

I got word today that I am in the Patagonia Fall Arts Festival. I am also doing the San Diego Festival over Thanksgiving, Tempe, AZ, the weekend after that, and hopefully the 4th Avenue Street Fair here in Tucson the weekend after that. And - November 6 is the Tucson Wool Festival here! I will post the dates on my website next week. Any classes that are normally scheduled will be cancelled, but the shop is likely to be open for spinners and felters.

I plan to attend the Stitches West as a vendor in mid February. That is not a juried show and I have talked to the organizers, so it is just a matter of sending in the contract - and a lot of money. Several Californians have suggested that I try an actual fiber show. I have been doing large street fairs. I will have a chance to see what others fiber artists are doing, as well as show off my own work. If you live near Stitches West and want to work for fiber or can put me and a friend up in exchange for fiber, let me know. I am looking forward to trying out new things!

Another week

Herd started barking in a weird manner last week. I went out to check and discovered a garter snake in their water area. I let the dogs have the run of the pool area until it moved out.

Last week I started out on a red kick and then switched to a blue purple. I am spinning the one at the center back and just pulled off a 525 skein. I am spinning all of it at the weight of the green crochet shawl and the current red one, so I will have batches of yarn to go with the patterns. I am going to spin the roving that is currently on the carder and take those same colors and add black (and I do mean black) Rambouillet. Tor dropped off his last bags of Rambouillet two weeks ago. He has just sold all of of his sheep, so only llama will be coming my way now.

The goats opened the gate on Friday and decided to take a stroll. I let them run around till I fed and they followed the wagon right back in. Three years ago, I would have had to chase them all down. Absynthe is in the center. Her daughter is to the right and has deformed ears, but I will keep her for her gorgeous fleece and not breed her unless someone comes looking for a pet. I am going to Kristie's next week and figured it would be nice to have a few shirts that were not t-shirts. Marc and I went to the mall on Saturday and I saw some lovely shirts. If the print or design were nice, the fabric felt horrible and vice versa. I came home and pulled out my patterns and then went digging into my fabric boxes (another stash.) I came across a lot of beautiful material that my mother and I had collected over the years. I know a lot more about drape now, so some of the material that I would have used for clothing years ago, was put back. I can't remember whether I bought this material 15 years ago for Kristie a dress or me a shirt, but the wild colors and the abstraction really appealed to me. I had to run to the store and buy black thread. While there, I glanced at fabric currently for sale and figured out that my material would now cost about $9.99 versus less than $2. I plan to dig in my stash for material for another shirt with a different style. After watching several seasons of Project Runway, I am a lot less afraid of taking a pattern and modifying it! The pattern for this shirt had a very wide neckline.