New Patterns, New Yarn, Shenandoah Valley Fiber fest

 I finally finished writing my patterns for the Cossack Hat (last post) and a redesigned Felted cloche. Both are available free at the Shenandoah Show this weekend with the purchase of enough yarn to make them.

 New season means new colors and new yarns.

 With my intern, Angela's help, I redesigned my booth so it will be more open. I will not be able to use it at the Waterford show next weekend, because this design does not leave me any room to spin.

There are a lot more fiber mills on the east coast within easy driving distance. My favorite is now Gurdy Run Mill in PA. She does a lovely job of blending both colors and fibers. She will also be at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber festival, so I have another truckload to deliver. I cannot wait to see what she does with it.

Hope some of you will have time to come visit.

Collars, Chantilly and a Frozen Pond

 With the wind howling, a desire to keep my neck warm was the inspiration for a group of felted and knitted collars. The felted ones are fairly quick, but I enjoyed knitting up some of my own yarns. Usually I am so busy spinning to keep the pegs filled that I miss getting to design.
This scarf used 100 yards of fingering weight yarn and 2 yards of a thick and thin crocheted in a random manner as an embellishment.

 I was at the Dulles Expo Center for the Chantilly Sugarloaf show. Gives you an idea of my current colors.

The weather here is definitely winter. I walked the farm this morning to check on the beaver activity. The pond is frozen and animals have been walking across is. Another tree is down, but the grate was clear. It is dreary, so a good day to spend indoors. I decided to have Marc help me unload the truck when he gets home tonight. Don't want to slip and fall on the ice while hauling heavy racks!

Still waiting

When waiting for the doe to deliver, I get antsy and find it hard to stay sitting at the spinning wheel. The needle felting tool I ordered last week arrived, so I experimented on the small scene that I had in an earlier post. I am going to consider it done, so I can finish up a larger one. I am always reading and getting ideas from other sources that I can apply to mine. The last inspiration came from an art magazine that talked about artists taking several different photographs and making their composition based on several of them. I was trying to use just one photo and it was looking dull. The scene is real, but it would not have reminded anyone of the southwest. I needed a pinch of color, so I added ocotillos - although I do not have a single one on my property.