Mudfest No Longer

Two years ago I went to the Fall Fiber Festival of Virginia at Montpelier and was overwhelmed by the mud. It was everywhere and it really affected our enjoyment of the show.
This year when DQ and I went back it was bright and sunny and we had a totally different experience. It was wonderful.
Some of the vendors were familiar to me like Dancing Leaf Farm. Dalis dyes yarn so beautifully. The colors just look like a party. DQ was so moved by them that she asked for a gorgeous skein of ribbon yarn to make a slim scarf for herself. It's just a simple garter scarf about 9 stitches wide on size 10 needles but it's a start. I'll be sure to show it to you when she finishes it.

I also got a little something at Dalis' booth. It was so hard to resist all of the beautiful yarn there but I managed to keep myself to just one purchase for me. Check out this roving in all it's rainbow glory. I'm thinking Baby Surprise Jacket. Won't that be spectacular?

I was kind of surprised to find so much there that was new to me. I've been to quite a few fibery events and you'd think I'd seen most of the local yarns. Solitude was one of the new to me yarn sellers. The wool is from local farms and the colors were so deep and rich. Just my speed. It was hard but I limited myself to just one skein of wool/silk yarn in a deep turquoise.

Another seller that was new to me was Creatively Dyed. That booth was the story of the day in more ways than one. I stopped because of the colors which were beautiful. I wassn't the only one who was impressed either. That booth was super busy all day long and I didn't see too many people leave with single skeins. It was more a matter of what your arms could carry.

Stephanie of Loop (seen here with Dianne) would certainly agree. I was surprised to see her there since she makes gorgeous batts herself. She confessed to having a bit of a fiber crush on Dianne's fiber. It's that good. There were beautiful braids with wool, bamboo and seawool. I brought home a few and Stephanie... well, the last time I saw her she had a huge pile of braids that she claimed she was going to share with a friend but I don't know. I saw the way she was petting those braids and I'd be surprised if she could part with much.

Another person who had a hard time parting with that booth was DQ. She just loved it there so much that she stayed to "help" all afternoon. If you stopped by there on Saturday afternoon then it's possible that she wrote you up. She even wants to go to Stitches now so that she can "help" in the Creatively Dyed booth. Who knows - if she spends enough time around the fiber fumes then perhaps I'll make a knitter out of her yet.

This is just one skein that I picked up at Creatively Dyed. Believe me there's plenty more at home but I forgot to upload the pictures and it's not all for me anyway.

Overall it was a great day. The weather was glorious, the company was good and the fiber was delicious! How was your weekend?

Randomness

Thank you for all of the nice things that you said about the mittens. I also appreciate the advice about where to send them. Dulaan it is! I’ll send them, along with the hat and the pair of mittens I started last night, to Dulaan. I’ve wanted to participate in that effort for quite a while. There is something really appealing about being part of the effort to send massive amounts of warm hand knit stuff to Mongolia.

Yesterday was a huge relief for me because Bloglines apparently fixed my feed after 3 requests to do so and suddenly I had comments again. I switched to the new version of Blogger on the 16th and Bloglines lost the feed. It’s funny because my little corner of the Blogisphere isn’t particularly loud and rowdy but the silence was still really noticeable. I missed you all!

I’m so happy that you enjoyed the saga of the book. Hubbo wants it noted that his first trip to O.N. was not only to retrieve the book – he was doing a return and an exchange too. I’m amazed at how many of you commented on that. Clearly you are not skimmers.

The other thing that a few people commented on was the votives. I have to say that the first pair was a little rough on my hands but, once you get he hang of it they go really quickly and my hands didn’t suffer too horribly. My fingernails were another story. Not good at all. I do think that they were worth it though. I used Grumperina’s suggestions and got the votives and the round white candles from Crate and Barrel which look lovely but I also added these:

Actually, the candles that were wrapped up with the first set of votives aren’t in this picture. They were in shades of blue. Trust me, they were fab and I think that this is one handmade gift that will be sincerely welcomed. I hope!

Pay it Forward

I’m not sure where to start. This weekend was productive and wonderful but there was one thing that happened that just left me speechless. Lets start there.

I wound up going to Sugarloaf with my girls on Sunday. It was a gorgeous day and, more importantly, the Brenda's Yellow Bag was finished in time so we went. There was so much to see. Many times the girls saw stuff that tickled them but Stinkerbelle fell hardest for one thing. There was a very colorful booth where a man had made wind chimes that look like hot air balloons. He makes a wood frame and stretches the fabric over it. Beneath it hangs either a traditional basket or some other figure, with the chimes below. Stink was drawn to the one you see here with the dolphins. She wanted it very much but I resisted and told her I’d think about it.

Later in the day we were passing by the booth and she asked if I had made up my mind. We looked at it for a while and I told her, as I reached for a business card, that I just couldn’t do it that day. It wasn’t unreasonably expensive but we had bought a bunch of stuff already and I felt like I needed to put the brakes on.

This is when the vendor did something that left me speechless. He reached up, unhooked it, and gave it to Stink. I sputtered something like “you don’t have to” but he insisted. I reached for my wallet and he refused. I was shocked. Stink was amazed too. He told her that he wanted to give it to her. Suddenly I was struck with the idea of paying it forward and explained it to Stink. We thanked him and, as we walked away, we discussed how we’ll pay it forward. The timing is perfect because for the next 2 weeks I’ll be knitting unto others.

I worked on the yellow bag to distraction most of last week and by Saturday night I was close enough to being finished that I just planted myself on the couch and stayed there until it was done. I knit until my fingers started to go numb and then I knit some more. Somewhere after SNL the bag finally went into the washer for the first of 3 felting cycles and at 3 am my head finally hit the pillow. Tired doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I blocked the bag a bit and delivered it, still damp, to Brenda, who makes the funky beaded earrings I wear. (You may remember that I showed you some of them as part of my answer to the funky scarf swap questionnaire. I’ve been buying them from her for years and my daughters and I both wear them.) She liked it! I am so relieved. I love making stuff for people and I’m incredibly flattered when they ask for something but I always worry that it may not be what they hoped for.

I didn’t use a pattern for the bag so, instead I’ll give you a few stats and observations on it. The bag isn’t deep, only an inch or so, but it’s roughly one foot tall and one foot wide which is just what I was aiming for. I used a bit more than 4 balls of Cascade 220 (in 5 colors) to make it and I doubled it throughout.

I’m happy with the circles which I added randomly throughout the bag. I know that I complained about the intarsia. I really do stay away from it normally but there are some projects that just need it and this was one of them. The thing that made it bearable this time was that I didn’t bother to weave in any of the ends of the yarn and, instead, I tied them off inside the bag and clipped them after it was felted. Weaving them in would have driven me round the bend.

The strap for this bag is only 6 stitches wide so I knit it in garter stitch to add thickness and, hopefully, strength. It’ll hold but I think that a more substantial strap may have been better. It just doesn’t feel like enough to me.

In the end, the most problematic aspect of this bag was fixing a value to it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be compensated in some way for my work and I know that it has value but I’m not comfortable thinking in those terms. That’s why I’ll never have a booth at a craft fair or sell my stuff in any formal way. I can’t imagine putting myself out there like that. I was one of those kids who couldn’t handle asking for a raise when she babysat and I haven’t changed all that much. Brenda did give me some mighty cool stuff though.