Counting Down

Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm being very thankful. Work is winding down for the season, but I know they want me back next year. I've managed to keep up with everything else I wanted to do, and enjoyed almost every minute. Plus, I'm as excited as a kid at Christmas, y'all. Only 4 days or so (and 3 days of work) until I leave town and start on the road to Rhinebeck for the NY Sheep and Wool Festival! So happy I get to go this year, (and have a little more room in the budget to enjoy than previously)! All the reservations have been made, and tickets bought, shopping list and packing list made, and American money taken out at the bank to cope with the said shopping list ;)

Four of us in the car, myself, my mother, Chantal, and Francine, who's new to the whole experience, and we are gonna have a blast. I  love introducing new people to the festival - it's so much fun to watch them go into sensory overload...

Friday we've got reservations to tour the Vanderbilt Mansion in nearby Hyde Park. Mom and I went the first year we did Rhinebeck, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. Italian formal garden, marble foyer, tapestry-hung bedrooms...not my idea of a comfortable summer home, but nice to look at! Depending on what time we hit town, we may also get a little antique shopping in, then dinner, and off to bed to be ready for the main event. 

On the subject of wool and counting down, here's something I found posted on Ravelry today. A Kickstarter project (which I gather is a little like crowd-funding, but they have to raise the whole target amount to get the money) to restore machinery in an old woolen mill in BC for local processing needs. I think it's a great idea, so I've pledged help. Only a few days left to raise the money though, so take a look and pass it on to people who you think might be interested.

Birkeland Brothers Wool Company, BC

Rhinebeck 2012 Rundown

OK, so because I need a break from studying, you get the Rhinebeck rundown and loot viewing today. I was a good girl and studied in the car and at the hotel in the evenings, and I think the schedule's under control...
All the leaves have been falling here, so I was thinking we might miss seeing the fall color on the way down. There was plenty left, though. This is part of the Adirondacks on the way there, before those clouds came down and started raining.

It poured for hours, and when we got to Red Hook, we had to grab umbrellas and scamper to get into the antique shops without getting soaked. I found some National Geographic magazines from the 1920's, so those came home with me.

The rain let up for the evening, and we got checked in at the Delamater. See the arrow? That's our room. Right on the main drag in Rhinebeck, super nice, plenty of space, comfy beds, walking distance to the Festival. There was a kitchenette and a sitting room for the guests, too. Only downside was that the breakfast was mediocre. And no, you can't have it - we booked on the way out for next year!

The weather for Saturday was bright and sunny - in fact, too hot for most people to show off handknit sweaters by the time we got to the fairgrounds. It was a little disappointing to find that my expected supplier for indigo and thiox wasn't there. That was the main thing on my shopping list. Not that I had any problem finding things to buy. I picked up some gorgeous merino/silk roving in red and purple jewel-tones, undyed sock yarn in an alpaca blend, a huge skein of burgundy merino/silk laceweight, some books and magazines, and some lavender hand lotion.

We found a bit of time Sunday to say hi to the sheep and goats,

checked out the sheep-to-shawl teams,

and looked at entries for the Make it with Wool competition.

But that was it - Sunday noon we had to get going, to get home at a decent hour. But there is one more pretty to show you. Johanne got her yarn and rovings back from the mill last week, and I got a couple bags of the cria roving to spin for her. Colors like chocolate and dulce de leche, with a light streak in each. Super soft, and I can't wait to see how it spins and knits up.

WoolGathering Weekend

So the Hemmingford WoolGathering was a wonderful weekend, as far as I'm concerned. Some of the veteran vendors said there were less people this year than last, but not surprising considering there was rain predicted for Saturday (it held off until literally 5 minutes before closing), and it was cooler and windy (but sunny) Sunday. From the milkhouse, where we were set up, it looked like there were plenty of people visiting and enjoying themselves, most of them seemed to be in a buying mood, and lots of people I knew (plus a large handful of interesting sorts I met there) were happy to chat for a while. I've found a new source for roving and yarn, a new fiber festival in Quebec, and plans for a dye session at Sue's (our hostess) next month. I may have to do more dyeing anyway, since sales this weekend knocked out a number of my new skeins, and I now have holes in the color selection. Also I now have a lot of knitting to do to be ready for craft sales, since a bunch of that stock went as well.

It's the atmosphere at Sue's which is great. Everyone is relaxed and enjoying themselves, even the animals. Sue's chickens wandered about between the people, her dog trotted here and there supervising, and the cats went about their own business. A mother duck and 6 ducklings (including one with an adorable little tuft like a crown at the back of its head) came and swam in the trough by our building while we set up, but she took her children away when the traffic started getting busy, like a responsible mother. So many people visited with their dogs - often more than one dog per person - but I never saw or heard any of them fighting or causing trouble.

Kids were everywhere too. There's a grand tree fort (in the tree center of second picture) which there were kids in all weekend. A puppet show twice a day and some craft sessions were given. And the tent for an animal adoption agency near us, with several kittens and a pair of dogs, was rarely without a few kids (and adults) playing with the critters.

In point of fact, there were only a few small things wrong with the weekend as a whole. We had no chance to see Havelock Fair, except for dropping off and picking up entries, and little time at home to do other chores. I managed to pick up a bushel or so of walnuts (but not crack them for drying), cut greenweed to be dried, and pick part of the ripe pokeberries. One or two loads of laundry got done while the water was temporarily on again Saturday, but for most of the time, the toilet was behind a tree (fun in the middle of the night, eh?), and the water was coming from the old well in buckets. Hopefully this week my parents will get that fixed - for two days it's OK, but a week of it starts to be inconvenient.

UnTwisting

Wonderful weekend at Twist. May take a few days to recover, though. It's very different going to a show as a participant than just attending to shop!

We took the ferry across to Quebec, just for the fun of it, on the way there. Deb and Julie are at the railing during the very short ride.

St-Andre-Avellin is a cute little town, with quite a bit in it for its size. And it looked like the town was getting in the spirit of the festival. On the walk between the arena which was the show venue and the auberge we were staying at, we found several houses and businesses with yarn-bombing in some form. There was a house with a bush trimmed in stockings and scarves, the Caisse-Populaire had a swagged railing and a row of knitted flags, and the railing at the auberge had color-block decorations in fabric swatches.

Staying at the auberge was a great idea. It was cheap (28$/night for a dorm room) and had a full kitchen we could use. Pretty much everyone else staying there were fiber types also, friendly and outgoing. It made for lively conversation at meals, and rendered it completely normal to have handspun yarn drying on the table outside, and a couple project bags mixed with the glasses and plates on the table after dinner. The only minor drawback was that dorm meant 4 bunk beds in a room, metal-framed and vinyl-mattressed - exceedingly noisy every time someone turned over in bed. Fortunately there was enough excitement in the air to compensate for the lack of sleep, and keep me awake during the day.

Friday night was booth set-up - drive into the arena, haul stuff out into our space and start setting up.

Deb took the camera while Julie and I were arranging things and wandered around to document other booths in various stages of completion.

And Saturday and Sunday we were either too busy talking to people (customers or friends - seems like half of Ottawa was down visiting, not to mention my mother and some friends, who came bearing veggies and eggs and dried coreopsis heads for me) or enjoying sitting to take many more pictures. Except I had to get one of what had to be the most unusual outfit I saw there. Pink. Ruffled. Leggings. No-one would believe me, I expect, without proof.

And we collected a few new words. Deb's title has been altered from 'support staff' to 'booth babe'. The terminology is apparently derived from gaming conventions, and the male equivalent is a 'booth bison'. And one of the teachers noted that since she is creative enough that she can sit down and knit just about anything but can't write a pattern to correspond, her daughter has dubbed the condition 'artism'.

All in all, lovely show, but happy to be home again. The cat is happy to have me back also, (and expressed her opinion in many vocal requests for treats and attention). And the last package of blank yarn I had ordered arrived today, so I can start planning dyepots for this week, preparing for the next show...

Zero Hour

Well, this is it, practically. In an hour or so I will be off to Twist. There is a heap of bags in my entry, containing tagged yarns and rovings, all the little essentials like clothes and a toothbrush, and my contribution to our food supply - bread and cranberry muffins I baked last night, and some essentials like tea and sugar - catch me spending 2 days anywhere without a decent supply of tea! And I remembered my camera and fresh batteries, so this may actually be a show I have pictures of.

I've decided not to take the laptop, despite the fact the Auberge does have free Wifi. E-mail has been checked, and there shouldn't be anything urgent (knock wood!) coming up in the next couple days. However, I have packed up a book to read (Dickens' 'Our Mutual Friend') and no less than 4 knitting projects. I know it sounds like a lot but a) they're mostly small things and b) two are already half done. One of which is a pair of my Natalie fingerless mitts, which I started yesterday, on realizing I had kits and patterns to bring, but my knit sample had been sold last month. Normally it's a 2-color pattern, but this is what happens when I've been perusing my Latvian Mitten book.

Mom called to let me know she and her friends would be up Saturday morning, and did I want her to bring anything up? So some garden veg and fresh eggs will be arriving with them... And my cat-sitter will be there Sunday morning, so I can reassure myself as to how the cat is taking my defection.
So all right, here goes. Check mail. Walk cat. And off to the races.

Considering Details and DIP Day

I can't believe how fast the weekend is coming up. I haven't started packing yet for Twist, but I'm getting details taken care of. I've got my float money - the stock of change you start with. Today I pick up the sign I had printed with my booth name. Since there are several other shows I will want a sign at this year, I figured it was worth the 15$ to get it done nicely.

I hadn't really thought about knitting to bring until yesterday. I know the spinning wheel won't fit. So I need a project or two, easy enough that I can pay attention to both it and the booth - no complicated graphs. The mittens I started might be an option - they're coming along nicely.

And I could also bring the yarn for the cushion cover I had in mind.

Then someone pointed out the other day that it's about time to start thinking of Christmas knitting (sad, but true). Plus three babies to knit gifts for coming up. So I could bring something of that sort, if I get organized and do a little stash-diving.

Plan for today is to tackle and hopefully finish the two patterns-in-progress, get the one submitted and the other posted this week. Tomorrow I start packing and labelling, Thursday is baking for the trip, and Friday afternoon we're on our way...

One of my friends found a post on someone's blog, announcing that Sept 2 is DIP day - dye-in-public day. Well, and why not? We already have WWKIP for knitting, and a SIP day for spinning (which I think is in September sometime). The only thing is, it's a bit harder to set up for dyeing in public than spinning or knitting. Whether we actually end up organizing something here or not, if my yarn arrives, I plan to be playing along.

Fall Planning

Now that fair number 1 is over, the next big thing is Twist Fiber Festival. Just over a week until D-Day, and the girls I'm going with are coming over today for lunch and a dry run - we're going to see how much stuff we can fit in the back of the car, since two of the three of us are vendors. The hope, of course, is that there will be much more space on the return trip!

In the same hope, I ordered another lot of blank yarn yesterday. Because two weeks after Twist (and just after I start back to school) is the Wool Gathering at Roxham Corners, near Lacolle, Quebec. I can't give you a link for the Wool Gathering, since I can't find a website for it, but if you google "Roxham Wool Gathering", there are links to artisan sites and contact info. For anyone inclined to a road trip, it's 332 Roxham Road, open 10-4 Sat and Sun (Sept 8-9 this year). Parking wherever you can find space along the road. Local artisans ranging from baskets to jams to photography - and this year, our group also. Chantal and Jo with alpaca stuff from Jo's farm, my dyed yarns and things, and my mother's rugs.

I haven't showed off her rugs yet, have I? She's got an incredible sense of color and balance, which explains why her flower gardens look like a magazine, her arrangements win firsts at the fair, and the house is a feast for the eye.

And, yes, that's part of her upstairs landing/hallway in the last picture, and it really looks like that.