Knit by Nora

Compulsive ~ a strong, irresistible impulse to act (i.e., to knit) and Obsessive ~ to occupy the mind excessively (thus this blog)

Monday, August 02, 2004

Today’s Knitting News

I have so much knitting news but plan to spread it out over the week. Where to start? Here is the list:
• My trip to Sheep Fest!
• My first drop spindle experience!
• New tattoos
• Making stitch holders
• And what I have been knitting and spinning!

Today I will start with the Sheep Fest held at Weatherbury Farm in Avella, PA. This unique board and breakfast provides farm vacations for city slickers. I think this event was great for two reasons: there were only a dozen or so exhibitors that were there to share their fiber arts. They were NOT charging exorbitant prices. I feel they were actually selling their wears for less than market value – they were there to teach and share their love the fiber arts. I learned much more about the process of working with fiber producing livestock, dyeing, weaving and spinning. Second, it was not crowded. Many times only Mark and I talked to a vendor for up to a half hours and at the most a half dozen people would congregate. And everyone was super friendly. The setting was rural and rustically beautiful.

First Mark & I watched Jeanette Roberts remove the hair from her angora rabbits. I wanted to buy the two bunnies but Mark was there to see that live stock did not come home with me! We had a great talk about caring for bunnies and that is on my “some-day” wish list.

At this point, I purchased two shawls, some brushed mohair (in turquoise blue) and two bars of goat soap. The roaming goat eyeballed her yarn as a snack.

Next we looked through beautifully dyed mohair yarns from Kris Savage at Sheepstone Natural Fibers. This were very professional looking yarns and I purchased a skein (but not for myself).

Next was a pen of lambs: Lencester, Romney and another species. Mary Lou of the Rosefield had beautifully spun naturally colored yarns. I eyeballed the skeins I wanted and went back later to pick up five rich chocolate brown and one true natural beige chunky wool skeins. They are slated for a simple fair isle cardie (hopefully my own design) this winter.

We looked at two dying exhibits, one over a live fire. I learned a great deal about tea dying – the color on the wool was great. There are some white embroidered pillow cases I plan to tea dye soon.

Mark had a chance to talk to an older gentleman about carving and a man was working a large, old loom making rag rugs. Several men were in attendance so my husband did not feel out of place. Plus many of the ladies fussed over him while teaching me drop spindle and helping me make fiber selections.

I went back to Jeanette after getting my $3 starter spindle (with starter wool) made of an old CD and a couple of other parts from Barbara Moff. Barbara encouraged me to attend the Maryland Festival next year (all in ear shot of Mark). She is a four-time attendee. My two bags of Jeannette’s angora look like cotton candy and cost about the same! The third bag of wool did not cost much more.

Noteworthy: Breakfast was homemade apple dumplings (the best I have EVER had) and chili dogs with nachos for lunch. The farm cats begged sweetly for scraps while a bottle-feed goat posed prettily.