October is Over

October 2008 had to have been one of the busiest months of my entire life. It was a month where all the deadlines were hitting at once. Between my responsibilities at SAFF, 5 dance calling gigs, 2 work trips, a (thankfully) small craft show, and the end of the grant's fiscal year and its attendant quantitative and narrative reports, I've been busy! Add my teaching load and higher than average activity on SmokyMountainFibers, and it's clear that I've been running on every cylinder that I can find.

SAFF was terrific. Although my work is mostly behind the scenes keeping the website up to date and communicating with people who run some of the activities, I truly enjoyed myself. On Friday I worked as a studio assistant for Phylleri Ball's dyeing workshop. Phylleri uses very diffferent techniques thatn I currently do, and I learned a lot from her. On Saturday, I booth-sat for Asheville HomeCrafts and sold my fiber and sock yarns as well as their goods. A number of my Etsy customers came by - So much fun to meet them in person. So many Ravelry buttons!

Sunday took me to the Fleece Show and Sale, assisting Val - the hard-working volunteer who has run the event for several years. Because the fleece show moved out of the main venue to the 'Sales Arena,' several people were upset that is not in the center of things where it used to be. Unfortunately the workshop space is at a premium and the sales arena is an excellent venue for the fleece show. With vendors nearby, frequent PA anouncements and door prizes donated by the vendors, we did see a good bit of traffic. I'll be interested to see the financial results.

I did get to Washington DC to the semi-annual meeting of the Teaching with Primary Sources consortium members. It was great to spend time with my colleagues, exchanging ideas and learning from one another. From DC it was straight to Charlotte, NC for the National Science Teachers annual area conference, where a colleague and I presented our project that uses primary sources to connect social studies to the teaching of weather. I could tell you more, but then you'd just be bored. We were good though!

In between all this, I have been knitting hats and dyeing fiber and spinning yarn and grading papers and cleaning up the garden. My house is a wreck and I'm having out of town company next weekend when the CDSS Executive Committee is meeting in Asheville. So between calling a dance in Brasstown, delivering yarn and hats to my brick and mortar accounts, and my usual weekend activities, I'll be cleaning house!

But tonight - my regular fiber group. Katie will be pin-basting a quilt, Kathrin will be finishing bags, I'll be spinning, and Susan will be doing something interesting. I love these people - but time to get home to make my famous roasty butternut squash for our dinner.