Holly Jolly

Last evening I joined friends in Black Mountain, NC for the holiday kickoff known as Holly Jolly Christmas. Downtown shops stay open late and the streets are lined with luminaries and packed with people visiting, drinking hot chocolate and at least theoretically shopping. With a stop at the Seven Sisters Gallery for eggnog and to admire the work that they have in the Gallery. I met Andrea the owner and was glad that I was wearing one of my own hats, though I did not point that out to her.

The buy of the evening was 3 Spinnerin pattern books from the early 60's. One of them has patterns that are extremely knittable right now (although the necklines are a bit off) and the other 2 are...umm...vintage! Very 1960s -but in the Patty Duke Show era - still innocent, barely a glimpse of the Summer of Love.

This adds to my small collection of vintage needlework books, many from my friend Rena's estate, but others that I have purchased or that people have passed on to me. If I am serious about the New Stuff In The House Means Something Else Has Got To Go rule, I need to either divest myself of some of these, or I will have to do some more serious purging.

Later this morning I am taking Christmas decorations (does that count as a purge?) to the Farmers Market shop and work a while with Sally. Should be a tad busy, though I'll bring the spinning wheel as well as knitting.

I got the nicest note from a retuning Etsy customer:
I have to say, out of the other roving wool I have purchased through other merchants, your wool is THE best I have ever tried. Others have great colours and texture too, but when push comes to shove, they just don't felt or smell as nicely as yours do. And your colours don't fade with hot water! I am very happy with my other purchase, and am looking foward to my next shipment. Thanks
Chrissy

Ah, sucks! I must say, I don't do anything to make it smell good. It's just the natural smells that come from the wool itself and the dyeing process. This time of year, I can seldom dry it outside in the sunshine. Anyhow, nice to hear!

Campus Creations - Mars Hill College Craft Fair

Today was the first (annual?) craft fair featuring the work of the faculty, staff, students and friends of Mars Hill College, the small private liberal arts College where I am a technology integration specialist. The college has an excellent pottery program as well as a fine photography program, so those genres were well represented. We also had several jewelry booths, and I was one of 4 knitters in attendance. There were plenty of other arts and crafts represented, including a wonderful painter.

Since the only investment was my time - and this was happening on a workday, I was not disappointed by the low sales. However, several people were interested in larger quantities of hand dyed fiber, so I handed out some business cards for the Etsy store.

Here is the best part. Next semester I will be teaching a computer class for education majors - a class I have not taught before, although I have taught all the elements. I took the books that I will be using, thinking that I could page through them during slow times. It worked! Surrounded by creativity, I thought about teaching databases in a way I had not thought of before. I jotted down a few notes.

Resolution of the day: When I plan this course I will listen to music, knit while I read (rather tedious texts), make all my sketches (though not my assignments) arts related. Want to make a database? You are at a craft show. Here are your fields: genre, age of artist, gender of artist, length of time in the field, etc.

Back at home - dyeing bronze green (much like the picture) and the Blues.

Back to Work

After a delightful holiday weekend, it's time to return to paying work. I got plenty done: Lots of dyeing, some spinning and finishing yarn, a bit of knitting, delivered a dozen hats to Asheville Home crafts at the Grove Arcade. I also took on the chairmanship of the Old Farmers Ball Holiday Craft Fair (pretty low key). Oh yeah and I tidied up the house a bit.

This Wednesday is the Campus Creations Fair where I'll have a table. I did not pack everything up - not that much to do - I'll take care of that on Tuesday night. Again, this will be fairly low key and I intend to take work with me while I hang out that day.

Today is Cyber Monday - I'm not sure how that will translate to the Etsy shop, but I am prepared with several posts over the weekend and I'll post again this morning.

Cold Friday

A chilly day in Western North Carolina and the furnace man is here. The furnace man has been here a lot lately and I think it might be time to declare the 40 some year old oil furnace dead. I am seriously considering going geo-thermal. I like the possibilities of using minimal fossil fuels to heat and cool my house. Once the furnace is declared null and void and the home warranty company believes me, I'll be on a new adventure.

In fiber world, dyeing continues unabated. Yesterday I dyed the aforementioned 'fire' followed by a blue/yellow/green colorway that is lighter than my usual heavy-handed depth of shade. Very pretty, just different. Today's plans include a purple/blue/pink colorway that I always like. as well as some cheeky tones for the 'skin colors pack.

Last evening I called at the Old Farmers Ball, the longstanding Asheville area contradance. It was open mike night for callers and musicians, so my job was to open the dance, schedule would-be callers and fill in any spots when they need me. Although these situations can be a bit tricky, and random newbies have been known to call 'this really cool complicated dance that I know you'll love' and have a major breakdown, things went well. Maybe the most exciting part of the evening was fiddler extrordinaire and general wildman, Cailen Campbell offered to call a dance for the very first time. I handed him Gene Hubert's Jubilation - easy to teach, fun to dance, very straightforward. He was great! Funny, mildly profane (Did I %$&* that up already?), energetic. He had a fine time and so did the dancers.

The band was excellent was well. Anchored by mother and daughter team Julia Weatherford and Pearl Mueller of Mock Turtle Soup, , we eventually had 7 fiddles, a couple of guitars, 2 flutes, a stand up bass and a saxophone. The sax added a nice touch. A fine time was had by all.

Welcome to Smoky Mountain Fibers

Happy Thanksgiving!

A long weekend away from my office means a chance to do what I really like to do: playing with fiber, calling a contradance, spending time with friends. With my sweetie with his family, I am having dinner with friends.

I started the day by making a couple loaves of banana bread - one as a hostess gift, another for the freezer. Safely in the oven, I returned to the dyepot.

Today I dyed two shades of 'skin tones,' a peachy pink and a beige color, followed by the blue/green/yelllow colorway. Last night was the red/orange/yellow colorway I call 'fire.'

I took some photos for the etsy store and added a couple items to the store in anticipation of what may be a busy weekend. I am also involved in a couple of small craft shows between now and Christmas and need to have hats and yarn on hand for the shows as well as my gallery business.

As for now, time get out of my jammies and take the appetizer up the road.