It's Wine-Thirty!

Fiber, Fiber all around!

Wow!  What a weekend.

I'm not sure if I'm more exhausted from not vending and running all over the place trying to make sure the vendors have everything that they need, or when I was vending all day and just checking in with them twice a day.   Either way, I had a lot of fun this weekend.

Friday night I probably walked 3 miles around the fairgrounds, doing circles from the barns to the paved/stalls area by the food booth and back.  Around and around I went, checking to see who had arrived, who needed help, and passing out vendor permits (courtesy of the town of Cummington) and parking passes.  As you know, I get a sneak peak at the fiber that will be up for sale, so that is fun.  :)

Saturday I ran back up to the show, and continued to pass out the permits, parking passes and check in vendors.  I have a wonderful replacement named Lisa who was an angel this weekend, taking over for me while I went back to take care of DH every afternoon (my head and his shoulder collided on the way home from the fairgrounds on Friday night, and he felt much worse Saturday morning; yeah, I felt terrible about that).   One would think that checking in with every vendor lets one peruse their fiber goods for sale on Saturday, but that is never the case.  It takes almost 2 hours to go around the fairgrounds, talking to vendors, and making sure they have what they need.   I didn't get home until noon, but that was early enough to get DH his meds, and get him back resting.

Saturday night I was able to get over to Cate's house for the blegger.  What fun that is and I'm so glad she hosts this every year.  I saw Claudia, Cheryl, Risa and her two beautiful children, Laurie, Judy, Dave from the Merlin Tree, Diane, Marcy, Deanna (who remains blogless), Theresa, and so many other people (forgive me if I forgot to mention you here; it wasn't intentional).  I was only able to stay for an hour & a half, but in that time, I saw many beautiful purchases from the show, and some gorgeous knitted items.

Today we were back up at the show by 9:30.  Lisa and I went around handing out the renewal forms to the vendors and introducing Lisa to everyone as the new vendor chair.  I have offered to help out Lisa in what ever she needs; I just couldn't do the whole vendor chair thing by myself anymore with my work being as busy as it has been.  Whatever anyone tells you; there is a lot of work that goes into putting on these shows, and every person who is part of this event is a volunteer.   :)

Anyway, after Lisa and I spent another 2 hours talking to all the vendors, I was able to go pick up my pre-show purchases and buy a few more things.

Take a look:

Just Our Yarn Sock Yarn

Spunky Eclectic Sock Yarn on the Left, the "Popsicle" shawl yarn on the right.

I did forget to get back to Ship Yard Glass Works, who had some beautiful earrings for sale.  I loved her buttons too, but I don't have any knitted items that need buttons.

AND I sold my great wheel that was picked up tonight, which I'm really happy about. 

Tomorrow we'll be going to our town Memorial Day parade and Honor Service.  I'll try to take my camera and take pictures of the event. 

Exciting news for MA S&W

I've been a bad blogger, but work has been extremely busy, and DH had shoulder surgery earlier this week.  DH's surgery started out as cleaning out some arthritis in his shoulder, but once they opened him up, they found a torn rotator cuff which had to be repaired.  He's in a lot of pain, and unable to do a lot of things because he can't move his left arm (which also happens to be his dominant arm).

AND, I've been getting things ready for the vendors at MAS&W.

What I will tell you is that there is a new vendor in the craft barn (Lisa Westervelt of Cranberry Moon Farm) and two new vendors in the Cattle Barn (Lisa Petricca of River Valley Farm and Twin Hearts Handworks, a yarn store from Pittsfield, MA).

The outside vendors and those in the stalls are the newest additions to the fair, including Biltmore Woolen Mill, a new fiber processor from Cape Cod, and Stillpoint Gas, a glass button maker from Maine.  There are some other new additions, but they hadn't shown up last night before I left, so I'll leave them as a surprise if you are going to the fair.

I did see some incredible socks yarns from a couple of vendors, and I have my skeins set aside.  Just a plus of being up at the show early.   ;-)

I will be up at the fair today for a little while.  But with DH having his arm in a sling and immobile (and in a lot of pain), I won't be there for long.  So, if I don't see you, I hope to get over to the Blegger later this afternoon.

It's a Girl!

That is what Carole was saying showing off her beautiful pale pink/cream colored batt up at New Hampshire Sheep and Wool today at the blogger gathering.  Nestled in her arms like that, it did look like a baby!  Unfortunately, my cell phone camera isn't that great (and I left my good digital in the car and was too lazy to go back for it), so that is the best picture I have.   But isn't she beaming just like a new Mom?   ;-)

It is the only picture I have from all of today at the show, but I had THE BEST TIME that I've had a fiber show in AGES!  Maybe because I wasn't vending (except to help Linda Diak of Grafton Fibers so that she could get a break from her booth).  I was able to hang out will people like Carole, Cheryl, Teresa, Marcy, Laura, Mamacate, Laurie, Juno, Cassie, Julie, Jess and so many others (please forgive me if I forgot to mention you here).  There is nothing like seeing fellow fiber people to get you even more amped up on fiber than you already are!

But, you'll be surprised, I only came home with two things from the show. 

Julia and I traded yarn skeins today.  I recieved a beautiful skein of hand dyed yarn from Grafton Fibers.   And Linda from Grafton Fibers gifted me with these beautiful 5" dpns for spelling her at the booth (which she really didn't have to; I wanted to pay her for these needles). 

They are a shade of blue, and #2's!  I can't wait to finish up the sock I've been working on so that I can use these for the toes.   Really, if you are a sock knitter you must get yourself several pairs of these!  They are wonderful needles, and feel so much nicer than the bamboo or metal ones I use on my socks.  I saw sizes from #2's to #7's.  I'm going to get a couple of the larger sizes (like 5's and 7's) for worsted weight yarns.  Tom has done it again!   :) 

Tomorrow (Sunday) I will write more about our travels after we left Contoocook.  Wait till you see what I bought after the show!

NH S&W Blogger gathering

The past couple of days has had me on a roller coaster of emotions from various things going on right now.  I'll get through it, but it has left me slightly cranky, and very tired.  Although I am catching up with my favorite shows on Bravo which start at 4 a.m. each morning.  ;-)

But, I will be at NHS&W on Saturday, which I'm really looking forward to.  I didn't make it last year, the year before I vended, and I hadn't been there for a couple of years before that.  It will be fun to hang out, shop and visit with other bloggers.

And speaking of that, there will be a blogger gathering by the Roby Building facing the goat barn at noon on Saturday.   I hope we'll see you there!

As far as Ribby goes, I'm still working on that sleeve.  I was almost ready to bind off yesterday morning, when I realized that the sleeve was WAY TOO LONG!  So I ripped back to the 17" mark, and started my decreases there.  I was almost finished an hour later when I realized that I had an extra stitch on my needles, and I couldn't find where I had missed a decrease.  So I had to rip back to the 17" mark again.  I started knitting on it again this morning, but I was working very slowly so that I wouldn't miss any more decreases.  Hopefully I can get through this sleeve without any more mishaps.

And for any of you that were watching NECN this morning and saw the School Forecasts at 6:41 am and 7:41 am, those were my boys that Matt Noyes sent the school weather forecasts out to.  My kids were thrilled to hear and see their names on tv.  :D

Introducing the newest member of our family

Meet Milo.  He is the newest member of our animal family.  Milo's job is to be our barn cat.  We adopted him from our local animal shelter as a barn cat; apparently he doesn't like using a litter box when he is inside, which was a problem for his previous owner.  Anyway, Milo has been here for almost 3 weeks.  Until Tuesday, he had been living in a cage next to some of the rabbits, whom he finds to be nice companions.  He has had the run of the barn twice in the past three days, while he gets acclimated to barn living.  Milo's name should be Loverboy, as he is one of the sweetest cats I've ever met; he LOVES to be petted, especially having his head rubbed.  See that big green stuffed thing?  That is his frog.  He loves to sleep under the frog, and on hot days, he'll push half of the frog into the water dish and lay under the other half, getting cool.  He's a silly boy!

Milo's hobbies include stalking the starlings (a nasty bird) and napping under his frog.    :-)

The last few days have been extremely busy.  DH has been home and will be for the next few weeks, and it has been wonderful having him around.  He helped me clean out the barn on Tuesday, including moving cages around so that all the rabbits are now in hanging cages against 3 walls, and I have a huge open space in the front and middle, which I love.    While barn cleaning, I discovered some really cool things that I had forgotten that I had.   I found some beautiful batts from Mary Lynn; I don't even remember when I bought them, although I suspect it was during last year's NHS&W.  I also discovered an absolutely gorgeous chocolate brown fleece from a corriedale sheep named Gracie, which is in superb condition, just waiting to be spun. 

And then I found this:  It is a carding board that I purchased shortly after taking the class with Judith MacKenzie at True North Farm back in 2001 (or was it 2002?).  Anyway, I purchased it so that I could separate tog and thel from Icelandic fleeces.  I paid a great deal of money for this, but would like to sell it.  The carding cloth area is approximately 13" x 9".  I would like to sell this for $175.  If you are interested, please contact me at Baycolonyfarm@aol.com  .

And before I forget; the Ashford Kiwi wheel is sold.   :)

Last but not least, I'll share some pictures of the New Guinea impatiens that hang in hooks off the front of the barn.  Aren't they pretty?

Fiber Fiber Everywhere! And Looking for some test sock knitters

Cummington has come and gone.  The prep work for any show is exhausting, but being vendor chair on top of that puts a whole new spin on things.  ;-) 

Overall, the comments I have received both privately via e-mail, and at the show were very positive (and thank you to those who took the time to talk to me about it; it meant a great deal to me to hear what you had to say!).  People liked the selection of vendors and their wares.  I was able to get out a bit on Sunday and check things out.  I found a lot of new cool stuff that I hadn't seen before, and felt that many of the vendors there put a lot of thought into what they wanted to have available to sell, so that it wouldn't be the same as what everyone else had.  We had some exciting new vendors; people that traveled all the way from Virginia to get to the show, and down from Maine to show off their wares.  The days were hot, but that was preferable to rain, which is what happened up at NHS&W two weeks earlier.

I saw old friends and new; people I've known for years like Claudia, Deanna, Marcy, Laura J; and the newer friends like Cassie (who enabled me into buying a new spindle from Just Our Yarn), Cate, Carole, Laurie, Kellee, Juno, Diane, Candace Eisner Strick and so many others (please forgive me if I've failed to mention you; I'm still recovering from this past weekend and am exhausted!).  I went to Cate's blegger on Saturday night; ate pizza, drank soda (no drinking and driving for me, especially after working as a matron for one of the local police departments for 12 years!), talked about fiber and life with like minded people.  Going to the blegger was one of the highlights of Saturday because it actually energized me to be with so many people and not have to be "on".  :)

My few meager purchases are as follows:

tencel yarn from Just Our Yarn

A spindle from J.O.Y. (the Cassie enabled one).   O.k, I admit; Diane from JOY and I bartered for the items; a Whitefish Bay fleece for the yarn, the spindle and a pattern.  :)

A crochet hook case from Crippenworks.  I've been eyeing these cases since Katharyn first vended at the show last year.  She's making a circular needle case for me out of this same dragonfly/ladybug fabric.  :)

Some girly-girl sock yarn which I had to have.

And my favorite acquisition?  This didn't come from the S&W festival, but rather from a tag sale being held on the side of the Route 9 right there in Cummington.

An antique clock winder which I purchased for $100.  DH had seen it at the tag sale on Saturday, and told me about it on Sunday morning.  I was sure that it would be gone by the time I drove past at 9 a.m., but it wasn't.  It is a beautiful piece; all chestnut wood, and works perfectly.  Here is a picture of the "clock" on the side:

I absolutely adore this piece of history and am so glad it was still there.  It was fate; waiting for me to bring it home.

Test Knitting:

I am looking for two test knitters who can knit up some socks.  You get to keep the yarn and the socks; I just need pictures of the completed socks and your comments on the yarn.  The socks will need to be completed within 2 weeks of receiving the yarn.  AND you need to have a blog which you regularly update to do this so that I can check up on progress of your knitting without sending out e-mails and bugging you.  :)

If you think you can be a test knitter, e-mail me at Baycolonyfarm@aol.com with your information and I'll pick two people out of all the responses I get. 

Ciao!

Candace is coming!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Candace will be at the booth from 12 noon until 4 p.m. tomorrow.  So bring your books to be signed, and check out her beautiful kits and yarns!

MA S&W

It has been a long time since I last posted.

Most of you probably know that I'm the chair of the vendor committee for MA Sheep and Woolcraft Fair.  This is my first year of being chair, and it has had it's ups and downs.  But I've enjoyed it (mostly).   ;-)

Last night was fairground clean up for all of us on the fair committee.  If you think that we walk into a completely clean fairground, and just start setting up, let me dispel that myth.  Clean up involves (for me), cleaning out the craft and cattle barn (a dusty and and very dirty job), cleaning out the stalls and marking lines on the pavement and flooring of the barns for the vendors to know exactly where they are to set up.  Last night's clean up was no exception to the "dusty" part.  Thankfully, my very smart husband suggested that I take our leaf blower up, and blow out the dirty barns.  It worked like a charm!  We were done in half the time it normally takes, and let me say, that sweeping out entire barns isn't the easiest task.  And I had two people helping me, and I am eternally grateful for Lisa and Marian's help in this!  I really thought I would be on my own for the job.

We were able to get all the vendor spaces marked, and still be home by 9 p.m.  The downside to this is that I've completely lost my voice (I've already had a cold since Saturday evening).  Of course, that may not be so bad, as I won't have to answer the phone until I can talk.  ;-)

I have a large fiber order expected today, and I'll be dyeing up a storm from now until Friday evening.  This is where the fun starts!  Color mixing and matching, choosing a name for a colorway, etc.  I expect things to be very busy here for the next 4 days. 

And, I have a very special surprise for all of you that are attending the show, which I will announce in the next day or two.  Stay tuned for more info!

Lets start from the beginning

My apologies for not posting sooner.  You know how you start out with the best of intentions and then those go to hell?  (I can hear some of you shaking your heads yes!)  That is what happened to me this past week.

Last week was vacation week for my kids.  So early Friday afternoon I took them over to Claytopia for some paint your own pottery time.  Both boys insisted that they wanted to paint ceramic cats.  I chose a small canister, to store my Earl Grey tea in, but the boys had their hearts set on cats.  Now choosing paints was interesting.  They went with their favorite colors; bright green, olive green, blue, black and some other color which I can't remember.  Watching them paint makes one remember that kids don't have any rules with art (something that most adults need to remember).  I'm a methodical person most of the time; when I do any kind of art or fiber work, I pick colors that will look good on me, or best work out in my home, or something conventional.  Thank goodness my kids don't do that yet.  Their cats are the most interesting cats I have ever seen.   It was fun watching them break the "rules" and make their cats exactly what they wanted them to look like.  I need to remember to be more like my kids in that respect.

But we had so much fun that I booked Nathaniel's birthday party for Claytopia on Sunday afternoon and we'll invite all the kids in his class.

Next, the kids went with my mom, and I went with DH on a short road trip.  One of our stops was at a really nice yarn shop where I found Lorna's Laces yarn!  It is almost impossible to find it here in Western MA.  Yes, Webs says that they carry it, but in all honesty, they carry less than half a small bookshelf full, and they have been out of stock for a *long* time.  Here is my loot:

The shop owner was quite happy that she didn't close early.  I have enough sock yarn for three pairs of socks in the sock weight, and I can make two pairs of socks in the sport weight.  Aren't those colors gorgeous?

Then on Saturday, it was the shearing party up at Diane's llama farm.  I had the only rabbit up for registration, so it was just me shearing Twist down.  Unfortunately, he didn't make the wool production minimum.  His body type is there, but he didn't meet wool weight necessary.  So we will be doing this all over again in July.  I think I'll be making some changes to what I feed the rabbits.  Charlene and I were talking about the food brand we use, and it isn't doing what it should be doing.  Twist has the ability to meet registration; I've seen it.  But I need to add a few other things to his diet to get that wool production up.

Even though Twist didn't hit the goal, we still had fun.  And Diane (Indigo Di) joined us for a bit of fun before she had to leave to see the Harlot.

Speaking of the Harlot, the shearing party ran late enough so that Marcy and I missed hearing her speak.  Marcy had heard her the night before, but I missed her again.  I'm not complaining; I know I'll hear her sometime, and I did have a very good time at the shearing party.  But I was able to get to Webs to have my latest copy of her book signed.  I'm going to sound like a blogging geek, but when Stephanie Pearl-McPhee says "I know you." when you ask her to sign your book, well, it is exciting.  And of course I started babbling and have *no* clue what I said to her.  But it was nice chatting with her even for a minute.

I felt so sorry for her; there must have been at least 150 people in Webs (possibly over 200?), all waiting in line to get their books signed.  Her poor hand must have been numb at the end of the afternoon!

I was shopping with Marcy and ran into Diane again.  Diane and I have similar tastes in yarn, and while comparing which yarn would go well with this sweater pattern (and I did buy that gorgeous purple Cascade yarn for the sweater) , Kelly came over and introduced her self to me.  Of course I had to get a picture of Diane and Kelly together:

This is exactly why I love the world of blogging so much; it has brought so many people together; far more than the various internet lists have, because conflict isn't usually a part of blogging, nor is it in the spirit of blogging.  :)

This was my other purchase at Webs on Saturday.  I guess you could say that I was in a purple mood.

And this is a picture of a beautiful little water fall found on Falls Road in Sunderland, MA.  I drove past it on my way to a job site. 

Isn't that pretty?  The water empties down in to the CT river just on the other side of the road.

And lastly; I want to wish my son Nathaniel a very happy 5th birthday!  It is hard to believe that he came into this world 5 years ago tonight.  He is such a joy to be around, and can make us laugh so easily. 

Happy Birthday Boo! 

(picture taken 2 summers ago up in CA at Niagara Falls).

Fiber Artists Unite!

In my class yesterday, I met some amazing fiber artists.  I believe that most of the people in the class were crocheters, because when we all started working on our swirls and twirls, I was the only one knitting.  I kind of felt like a fish out of water, but then I suspect that most crocheters feel that way in the midst of knitters, which, lets face it, most stores cater to knitters.

I'll be the first to admit I'm crochet impaired.  I've taken some classes, even one with Edie Eckman on crochet for knitters at a Stitches East show back in the late 1990's.  But for some reason, I can't seem to grasp it.  It isn't that I don't want to, because I think that crochet can add a lot to a knitted garment (like cuffs and buttonbands), but also because there are lots of NICE patterns out there.  I think that crochet gets a bad rap because we all remember the crocheted afghans that were in our homes back in the 1970's or the granny squares that were then made into ponchos or vests in horrendous colors.  Personally, some of my great kid memories include snuggling under some crocheted afghans (one that was at my grandmother's house done in cream, lavender and grey fuzzy yarn; it is beautiful and my mom has promised that I can have it when she dies).  My mom still has the zig-zag afghan that a family friend made on the back of her couch.  She's had it since the early 70's, and yes, the colors are awful (various greens and browns), but it is still warm and in very good condition.

But crochet is more than that, much more.  Melissa Leapman has done several books that I think are worth while, including Cool Crochet which offers some really nice sweaters and garments to make.  Linda Diak sells beautiful hand turned crochet hooks that her and her husband Tom make.  Linda also crochets with roving and has beautiful free patterns on her website. 

I met another crocheter yesterday, named Dee, who is a crochet instructor and fiber artist.  I was mesmerized by watching her crochet beautiful flowers in just minutes at the table before the class started.  But what caught my attention even more was the to die for crocheted poncho Dee had made using various types of yarns (all in jewel tone blues), including wool, eyelash and glitter.  I know, many knitters are snobs about those types of yarn, but I'm not.  I like those things, even though I rarely wear them.  But it appeals to my girly-girl side.  (This is probably why I enjoy shopping for my youngest niece Megan so much as she too likes girly-girl stuff and I'm *never* wrong in what I buy for her, no matter what her parents think about the gifts. ;-)  She loves the stuff I buy for her!)

Here is a picture of Dee wearing her crocheted flower:

Anyway, I can't seem to figure out why there is this knitters vs. crochet thing going on the fiber world.  We were discussing it yesterday and it still makes me wonder.  Even on some of the fiber lists, people still write "cr*chet" or something like that.  Why can't people embrace the craft and realize that it can add dimension to knitting too?

I also met Judy (sorry, no picture) who makes felted dog and cat beds (both knitted and crocheted).  Her website is Classy Cats Dapper Dogs.  And yes, a lot of readers are going to say "but I can make those!", but just think about all the people who can't.  She has a good business going, and she too was a really nice person to talk to.  Judy was knitting a cashmere scarf in a lace pattern and she's only been knitting a year! 

Off my soapbox.  I'm going to give crocheting another try and see how I do.  Maybe my readers can make me understand why the prejudice is out there on crocheting?