The Kids Are Alright

Raising silkworms is a tough job, but it seems that I rather like doing it.  More than half way into their life cycle of about a month, the silkies have eating lots of mulberry leaves, shedding their outgrown skin and definitely getting bigger.  Here they were on Friday morning:

]Here they are today:

 The white ones are getting ready to shed their skins. The striped ones have already shed and they eat a LOT more.


 

Their appetites increase along with their size, so I gather more leaves each day.

Last weekend I went to the John C. Campbell Folk School for a English Country Dance weekend and took the little guys with me.  (It was really fun, but that's another story.)  Their home at that time was a recycled envelope box, which I placed inside a copier paper box.  They stayed in my room (luckily I did not have a roommate to negotiate with), but had to accompany me on Sunday as we had to get out of our housing by 9 am, but the event wasn't over until 1 pm.  I couldn't leave them in the car, but a copier paper box stashed under a bench doesn't seem to freak people out too much.  Some people did think I was a little bit crazy, but other folks were fascinated.

Stitches South; Dancing Everywhere

Stitches South is coming up soon in Atlanta.  Seems like almost everyone I know will be there.  Even though I won't be there, my knitting will be.  Friends & Fiberworks, one of the local fiber shops that I work with will be a vendor for the first time.  Now this shop has an excellent presence at SAFF, so a number of their followers are sure to find there way to the booth.  I developed 2 patterns that will debut at Stitches along with a number of other exclusive patterns by Asheville designers.

One pattern is a reworking of my Trailside pattern - in 2 versions and a smaller gauge.  Some people (mostly men) really like a ribbed brim that folds up.  Rather traditional, it keeps your ears extra warm.  But there is a 'hat head' factor, that some of us wish to avoid.  So I also wrote an alternate brim that people can push back and make the hat a bit puffy.  Both should be  good for both men and women and work well in solids, heathers and tweeds.  Both are one-skein patterns designed for Berroco Vintage Bulky, but will work just fine for any other yarns in that weight, like Lamb's Pride Bulky.

The other pattern is a garter stitch pattern meant to show off a wilder yarn.  I wrote this for Berroco's Borealis - a multicolored yarn that creates subtle stripes.  Now I will admit to my blog readers that it seems ridiculous to claim that this is a pattern, but at SAFF last year, people kept asking for it.  I told them how to make it, but over and over I heard, 'No, I'll never remember that.  I need the pattern.'  So I finally wrote it down.  in two sizes.  and tested it.  and printed it.  Now it is going to Stitches.  I'm sorry I will not be there for the acclaim or catcalls, and I imagine there will be both.  That is, if the Southerners aren't too polite for the catcalls.

I hope to make both these patterns available on Ravelry.  However since the yarn shops want to sell them, I can't make them free downloads.  They will be low priced however and I'll let my readers know when to expect them.  

Instead of hanging out with knitters at Stitches, I will be calling dances all around the area.  If it's Friday it must be an English dance in Greenville, SC.  Saturday takes me to Greensboro, NC for a contra dance with Ted Erhart and Dean Herington founding members of Footloose and Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops!  On Sunday I am back in Asheville for our regular English Country Dance.  I also called contra dances last Saturday and Monday.  If I had just that kind of ego, I'd declare myself on tour.  Instead, I'll just consider it being busy with dance calling.

Knitting and Dancing

I've been knitting, but not blogging lately.  Between the day job and dance calling gigs, I've been on the go.  I'm writing this in a Bruegger's bagel place in Durham, NC.  The wireless in my hotel last night was so poor that I was forced to watch cable TV and knit on my demin blue socks.  I've been blasting through these at nearly record time.  In fact I knit from midway down the cuff & most of the heel flap last evening, after I took the picture on the right.

I really like this yarn - Paton's Kroy Socks in a demin blue colorway that fades lighter & deeper as one ply changes at a time.  The socks don't truly match - and that's okay.

I've also been knitting on my green cardigan.  It's a yoke sweater based loosely on this pattern, but I doubts I'll start with the lace motif.  It's very pretty, but I think the character of the yarn might be better suited to a moss stitch section, then maybe a garter rib, then a seed stitch with a couple of garter ridges in between. I can hide the decrease rounds in the garter rows.  Seems like it might be a good idea to knit a swatch of this pattern combination - what a concept!

The dance schedule has been quite busy.  I attended the English Country Dance SpringFest in Durham last weekend - I had a wonderful time dancing to Helene Cornelious & the Sun Assembly's house band, Collard Greene (great name!).  I called the TCD contra dance on Friday night, I'll be calling the Asheville Advanced Dance this coming Friday night - that's tomorrow- and I'll be calling the ECD on Sunday afternoon.  I'm usually not this busy, but all of a sudden I have a bunch of calling gigs.  Also, there are dance events all over the place.  I'd love to go to the Nashville Playford Ball, but its kind of a haul - about 5 hours of driving each way, though the band and leader are probably worth it.

In the mean time, I've been dyeing and shipping orders from the shop, but mostly the day job has kept me quite busy.  In a few minutes I'll be on my way to a meeting at UNC-Chapel Hill to work with a collaborator.  We are developing a Summer Institute for teachers using the Library of Congress and the Paideia method. Ah, spring break!

A n Etsy Treasury: Rovings to Yearn For

My natural creamy roving made it into an Etsy Treasury yesterday, Rovings I Yearn For.   And all were quite... yearnable?  yearny? yearnarific?  OK really pretty - and I wanted to spin every one of them.    I did spin the creamy white last evening. It's my go-to white yarn that I make to sell in the local yarn shop and gallery and is a prime ingredient in my handspun handknit hats. And I am out of that very yarn!  I delivered 5 fresh skeins to Asheville Home Crafts a week or so back and have barely been back to the wheel.

The music and dance world has kept me quite busy lately.  After teaching an English Country Dance workshop at Feet Retreat  in late September and attending the SE Dance Leadership Conference the following weekend, I knit a few hats, but did not get much spun. Now, I love dancing to traditional music - almost as much as playing with fiber (or is it the other way around?).  So it's a tricky balance to keep all the balls in the air, particularly during my busy season at work, which is right now too.  This weekend is a return to fiber.  I'll be spinning and dyeing and knitting, oh my!

Do You Love Maps?

I do - and it appear my students do too.  Or at least they fake it well!  I've recently taught 2 undergraduate classes and 2 in-service teacher workshops based on historical maps.  I'm doing another one today to a self selected group of middle school teachers as one of the selections in a teacher workday.  Because maps work nicely across the curriculum, they are nicely flexible for teaching social studies, language arts, science, math, and plenty more.  I've got a couple of special ed teachers in my group today.  One teacher told me about an interesting learning disabled child who could become totally engaged with maps.

In the fiber world, I statrted processing a mohair fleece I purchased a month or so back and I'm very pleased with it.  I bought a faded red fleece (2nd clip kid) that is dyeing beautifully. The colors are deeper and more muted.  There are a number of black fibers in the fleece that are giving it a heathered look - quite lovely.

I spent last weekend at a contra dance weekend where I called a beginning English Country Dance workshop that went very well.  I also knit six hats for my local yarn shop and galleries.  I was hanging out with friends from the community where I lived several years ago - before I started spinning.  They were a bit surprised and fascinated how I had left my corporate life behind to become an academic (who, me?!) and fiber artist.  To be honest, I was quilting back then, but seldom in public - one of the reasons I switched to knitting. 

I'll be knitting in public this weekend too, at another dance-related event - this time I'll be a serious student of English Country Dance.  Perhaps I should knit something fancier?  Not likely, though I may just take the Mossy Cardi.  I finally looked closely at the pattern and where I am on the sweater.  Not too mind bending!

Not as Quiet as it Seems

The blog, Facebook and Etsy shop have been quiet this week, but I'm not asleep.  I've been knitting and spinning, and doing the behind the scenes work that keeps Smoky Mountain Fibers the fun business that it is.  It's not the kind of work that makes good blog posts.  I can't imagine that people want to here that I have been making up grab bags or tagging hats for the retail accounts.  But it all takes time and a wee bit of effort, particularly during a time that I'm on deadline for the day job.

The picture here are some of the hats that are in inventory and are going out to my newest account, Garrou Pottery in Black Mountain, NC.  In addition to selling their own beautiful pottery, their gallery has work by a number of local artists, including functional wood items, jewelry, and now my hand spun and hand knit hats.  These hats were knit while I was on my trip to Colorado.  I am also taking hats and fiber to my other shops this weekend.

My weekend plans include knitting a few hats (it's time to knit a hat a day!), going to the NC Mountain State Fair for the wool breeds sheep show and fleece show and leading an English Country Dance on Sunday. 

Not as Quiet as it Might Seem

Sometimes I don't blog because there is nothing happening.  Other times it is because the chaos is not blogworthy.  Then there are times that the busy-ness might be interesting, but I'm just so busy to take the time to blog.  You decide.

Day Job:  I am currently facilitating a Summer Institute for classroom teachers.  We are looking at using Primary Sources as we study the movements of people:  Immigration, Westward Expansion, Lewis & Clark, etc.  Lots more - you can fill in the blanks.  I've been prepping for this for the last couple of weeks & now I'm in the middle of it.  We'll repeat the Institute in July for another group. 

Fiber:  Although the Etsy shop is slowed down (and I have not been posting new items because of everything else going on), I've been dyeing sock yarn for the local yarn shops.  I'm also spinning some very pretty yarn, either for myself or the shops.  And if I'm spinning again, that means,...

Home:  It's getting put back together.  Walls & ceilings are repaired and newly painted.  Furniture is now in the correct rooms.  Soon there will be art on the walls and books in the book cases.  This is a very, very, very good thing.

Garden:  Cranking out  peas (still), beans, cukes, chard (very soon), summer squash (galore) and lots more.  Weeds a-plenty!

Knitting: Swatching for a new sweater.  It will be a moss green cardigan.  That's all I know so far.

Dance:  Just completed the Summer Soiree, a contra dance weekend here in Asheville.  My sweetie was on the committee.  I led an English Country Dance workshop.  I was rather nervous, but got very good feedback from the serious EC dancers as well as folks trying it for the very first time.  George Marshall was the main caller for the weekend and he danced every dance, so I think I did okay.  If not, he would have been gone pretty quick!

On the evening's menu, summer squash fritters (see above)! Yum!!!

Happy Easter!

This is my favorite (ok, only) Easter joke:

Have a great day with family and friends, walk in the park, or the neighborhood, admire the flowers, knit in springy colors.  Have fun. In my town we will have an English Country Dance.  I may have to sit the gate at least part of the time, so I'll do a bit of knitting.  Probably the hedgerow socks.  I'm on the heel flap and that is a good time to do some boring knitting.

I'm also doing normal things:  Dyeing my Mars colorway,  Washing a beautiful Aran sweater that I wear as a coat , and sad to say, doing my taxes :-(  But I don' t really mind doing them.  I had an awful 2007 - very confusing - so last year I went to H&R Block.   I left there $500 poorer, so this year I am seeing what they did and using that experience as a pattern for doing it myself.  It's almost time to fill in the main form.  I think I have all the auxiliary form and schedules taken care of.   This will be a good one to finish up!  Apparently I had a good year!

How to Spend a Snowy Weekend

Here in Western North Carolina, we had a several inches of snow with a warmish Saturday that melted the top layer into a crust of ice.  I planned ahead so that I would not need to go anywhere.  Plenty of food, a choice of beverages, good reading material and no shortage of fiber!

I baked a delicious Pumpkin Sour Cream Bundt Cake.  The center is a cinnamon-sugar struesel.  The cake is substantial without being heavy.  I plan to add a dollop of Cream cheese based hard sauce this evening.  It's yummy!  But I have 3/4 of a can of pumpkin leftover, so I'll be looking for some more pumpkin recipes to use it up. We also made a delicious beef stew and chicken soup.  Yum!!!

I carded wool.  Last December I was in the neighborhood of the Mid States Wool Growers Coop and purchased a few pounds of natural colored wool. I've been separating it into different colors.  This is the 'Oxford Grey.'  Should be enough for a very nice skein, though I did not weigh it.  Fills a copier paper box; could be this evening's spinning.

I cleared the walk.  With the help of my fine neighbor, we shoveled the snow.  Light and fluffy on the bottom, crusty on top, so not a difficult task.  The street is still icy, but today it should get up to the mid-30s with sun.  Let the thawing begin!  I hope to finish digging my truck out and free it from its snowy bondage.

I started my taxes.  Not thrilling but necessary.  Besides I wanted to see how Smoky Mountain Fibers did.  The short answer:  Don't quit your day job! But with a good sized ending inventory of fiber, yarn and dyes, not bad at all.  2011 will be a year of cost-containment.  Hear that? Watch your spending!  Maybe time for another destash!

I knit!  My raglan cardigan was at the stage where I attached the sleeves to the body.  A dozen or so rows later, it is coming along nicely.  The best thing about raglan sweaters (other than the minimal sewing up at the end), is how each row gets successively shorter as you go from the armpit to the neckline.  Now with 300+ stitches, it's still a slog. 

I also washed hand spun yarns and planned an English Country dance that I'll lead next Sunday. J and I laid out some garden plans for the coming spring and summer.  Won't be long until it's time to put peas in the ground!

Progress Check

In my last post, I made a list of what is/will/should be happening. All in all, it has been a very good week! Here is the update...

• The Roofing dude is about to fix the creaking rafters. Check.  We have raised high the roofbeams, carpenter.
  
• The Plumber has my leak on his schedule (as soon as he gets back from Europe!).  Still broken, minimizing the use of plumbing, which means that laundry is piling up and I skipped my shower this morning.  I did spin out some dyed fiber, but captured some the grey water to use in soaking mohair locks
  
• The Solar guys are about mid-way through their installation. And should finish up tomorrow!
• New entry.  The furnace dude comes tomorrow to give the old geezer of a furnace it's yearly tune up.
  

In the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers...

• I'll be working at the Locally Grown Gallery this weekend at the WNC Farmers Market. An excellent day, selling lots of yarn, patterns and hats.  I spun a good bit too! 
• New entry. I weighed, bagged, photographed and listed a few bags of hand dyed locks I have had hanging out in the studio for too darn long.  Send them to a new home!
  
• New entry. Keep on spinning - I'm dangerously low on dyed yarns in Locally Grown.

• The day job has been requiring excessive reporting to finish the federal fiscal year, but they are nearly complete.  Done!

• I will lead my first full program on English Country dancing on Sunday. Although not a groundbreaking success, everybody lived through it and my fans were quite pleased.  Lots of new dancers!
  

Great Things are About to Happen

If I saw this message in a fortune cookie, I would be feeling about like I am right now.

My house is in flux right now. Let's think about pretty dyed wool.

• The Roofing dude is about to fix the creaking rafters.
• The Plumber has my leak on his schedule (as soon as he gets back from Europe!).
• The Solar guys are about mid-way through their installation.

Then I get to finish up the remaining stuff - like those giant cracks and then painting everything!

In the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers...

• SAFF is over and was delightfully successful and fun in so many ways.
  
• My booth-sitting was financially positive
• I'll be working at the Locally Grown Gallery this weekend at the WNC Farmers Market.
  
• My Etsy shop has been quite busy, thank you!
• I hit the blogoshere, thanks to Ms. Ashlee of My Cellar Door!

The day job has been requiring excessive reporting to finish the federal fiscal year, but they are nearly complete.  This makes me happy as I don't enjoy the reporting part of the job.
I will lead my first full program on English Country dancing on Sunday.  Last night I sent the tune list to the musicians.  Wish me luck.

So with this fortune, I am felling happy, lucky and expecting Great Things!

In Which I Finally Broke Down and Joined...

Facebook.

It's true. I really, really, REALLY didn't want to, but the reasons to join simply topped the reasons not to join.

I am keeping all notations of my small college employer out of the picture. We dare not write the name, initials or any reference to the college out of the picture. Don't want my students finding me.

I will put in connections to fiber, dance, gardening and area gatherings. I just felt like I was out of it and missing out on conversations in which I wanted to take part. Now I'm being 'friended' all around. Will it be just another distraction?

My Oceana roving found it's way into an Etsy Treasury today. A lovely one at that. Thanks! I've continued spinning a healthy amount. Not everyday; but multiple times per week. I've also been knitting a good bit, both on my Classic Lines Cardi and cranking out hats for fall's inventory.

Sunday was the last English Country Dance of the season. With great music and calling, yummy snacks and a good crowd of new and experienced dancers, a good time was had by all. Sad to see it end for the summer, but we will be back in the fall. In the meantime, I hope to learn to lead a number of dances and I'll be building a website for the group. Two obstacles: a serious lack of decent pictures and a name. AshevilleECD.com? Since we never decided on any other name for our group, I guess that will be it.

Still on the South Beach plan, level 1. Weight 130.

Nasheville Playford Ball: Dancing & Knitting

Last weekend marked the 28th annual PlayfordBall in Nashville, TN. Bare Necessities played and Joseph Pimentel led the dances. I am a relatively new English Country Dancer (just 2 years or regular dancing and 20 years of very occasional ECD) and this was my 2nd trip to Nashville. One year later, I am a much better dancer, paying close attention to the dances themselves instead of just getting lost in the flow. Here are just a few pictures of the people I spent a bit of time with. Since I danced EVERY SINGLE DANCE, I wasn't taking too many pictures. I danced with both men and women and after my recent experience in the gender-neutral environment at the Sun Assembly dance,I found myself easily taking on either role, even swapping roles alternate times through the dance.

I did a good bit of knitting while on the road, knitting one Windy City hat and 2 1/2 color change hats. They are coming out very well, though I need to find the appropriate amount of fiber/yarn to make a single hat from a single skein. I knit a beret of Hacho, a sample for Asheville homecrafts, then pulled it out as it was a rather poor imitation of a beret. Back to square one!

Not much of a shopper and without my own wheels, I did not shop for yarn, but I did hit a rather large thrift store where I scored an extra large crockpot to more than double my crockpot dyeing capacity. Already put to use (twice), I got over my essential cheapiosity and paid all of $8.99, having refised to pay more than 5 bucks for crockpots in the past. Since I got my earlier one at least 3 years ago for about $1.50 at a yard sale, I figure I can amortize the investment without too much difficulty.

Spinning for Knitting

While on spring break last week, I dyed lots of fiber for my Etsy shop and for my own spinning. I spin for the Brick and Mortar shops as well as for my own knitting. I'll be spending a bit of time in the car and in hotel rooms and just hanging around, so this weekend I'll be doing a bit of knitting.

I love to spin color change yarns, kind of Noro-like, but 2 ply, slightly bulky and of my own color choices (or a friend's choices if such friend is nearby and willing). Then I have fun knitting hats that may or may not knit happily into striped patterns. I'm playing with yarns to build stock for next winter as I work out my line for the coming season, creating hats, patterns and yarns.

I carded black fibers into some of the fiber that I dyed, so a couple of the yarns are heathered, which I like very much. A couple are clearer colors, but all are green to blue to purple and some go on to red. I can't wait to knit these up.

This weekend I'll be traveling to the Nashville, TN for a different kind of country music that Nashville is known for. I'll be dancing at the 28th annual Playford Ball to the music of Bare Necessities, a premier English Country dance band. I'll try to take pictures.

Spring Break

Spring break has been great and I accomplished quite a bit; though not all that I intended. We'll start with the positives.

1. Dyed fiber - lots and lots of fiber! Roving for my Etsy shop, Bronze Green roving for the PhatFiber April box, fiber for my own spinning, sock yarn in blue and rose.

2. Delivered work to the B&M accounts, particularly Asheville Home Crafts, who have been selling handspun natural yarn, sock yarn and roving.

3. Knitted 7 hats - off season, I know, but it's time to build stock for next year. Two are new designs with my color change yarns.

4. Updated the SAFF website - or at least tried to. Since most of my work requires input from others, at least I think I know what I need to do.

5. Worked in the garden, cutting back perrennials, pruning and weeding the roses (mostly pulled the evil Bermuda grass), cutting the grass. I also monitored the progress of the sugar snap peas, onions, and kale as wellas the rhubarb, coming back strong.

6. Went to the Sun Assembly's English Dance Weekend, with was lovely. Robin Hayden was the leader while Atossa Kramer played piano and clarinet with the house band, Gollard Greene (is that a great name or what?!).

7. Called the Advanced Dance at River Falls with Curious George - excellent music, workable program, fine dancing. I called some tricky dances and lots of no-walk-thru contras with a very nice medley.

8. Graded projects & tests; posted grades for the ACCESS class.

9. Exercised - Walking daily including a lovely walk in the Botanical Gardens.

What I didn't get done...
1. My Taxes - not due yet, though I did sort the paperwork, so I'm ready.
2. Blog every day - oh well, too busy doing that writing about it.
3. Post hat pattern to Ravelry.
3. Clean the studio - though it's hard to clean when you are using it.

Coming up - Back to work - ready to finish out the semester; gotta get started on my summer vacation.

Next weekend - Playford Ball in Nasheville, TN!

Spinning away!

I've been spinning a lot lately - natural colors, hand dyed roving, and some fun blends that I've been carding up. In the last year or so, I've been spinning and knitting hats with a color change yarn on the brim and a solid crown. Lately I've been thinking about a finer, color change yarn that I can knit into a hat with the same lines as the 'boyfriend hat'. So that is the yarn I've been spinning - at least I hope co.

I did a purple-blue-green yarn that I like but it came out a bit short - 60 yards or so. Last evening I plied the orange-pink-purple singles into a yarn that I hope is long enough, but I won't really know until I take it off the bobbin and give it a wee bath. Keep your fingers crossed!

The 'subtle shades' sock yarns are looking good and starting to sell nicely at the Grove Arcade yarn shop, so I delivered another 1/2 dozen along with natural handspun yarns, which have been blowing out the doors!

After last week's snow, this past weekend was in the 70's - our fairly typical North Carolina spring. Today is another beautiful day, but we are on a cooling trend. Better for the trees and flowers to wake up slowly, The garden is getting started with peas, kale, onions, chard and radishes in already. J tucked in the blueberries bushes, but it looks as though some of the plants did not survive the winter in pots. I also planted a border of pansies, their sweet purple faces smiled at me this morning.

Spring break is just around the corner! Love the academic calendar, even if it will be filled with grading papers, taxes, housework, and basement cleaning (again!). There will also be time for gardening, hiking, dyeing, carding, maybe even a trip to the beach! First a trip to Durham for the Sun Assembly ECD spring weekend event of workshops and dances.

In Like a Lion

Like much of the Eastern part of the country, Western North Carolina has socked by a delightful snow yesterday. We had a rainy weekend, then about noon on Sunday it began to snow big, fat flakes. My almost downtown neighborhood got about 2 inches; the higher elevations got 6 inches or so. Up here in Mars Hill, where I took this picture, there is almost nothing left in the sunshine. Chilly temperatures are keeping the shady spots icy.

The English Dance happened as planned, but with only a few dancers, we took it as an opportunity to dance 3 couple dances in a workshop-like setting. We still had live music (recorder, fiddle and occasional guitar) and Bob brought CDs and every dance he had on a card, in addition to the couple hundred that live in his head. The stalwarts danced some simple dances and some tricky ones. One couple, fairly new to ECD, had a chance to ask all the questions that they had been wanting to ask. I called Gary Roodman's 'Our Cheers' while I was dancing. Big fun!

I also spent a good bit of my weekend carding wool and spinning. The Grove Arcade shop needs natural color yarn and Locally Grown needs dyed yarn. Funny how they sell different things!

I also dyed more of my Andromeda Shades rovings, adding Neptune and Uranus. I really like Uranus. I dyed fawn colored roving in rust and gold. I can't wait to spin it. I think I should spin up each color and photograph the skeins for my Etsy store. Even with slow sales, I am continuing to build stock as I experiment with colors both in roving and yarn. New sock yarns this week too as I dyed a very pretty blue green and rose-gold.

Dancing Complications

For many years I have been a contra dancer, dance caller and occasional English Country Dancer. I've also done a bit of Morris dance, Scottish Country dancing and I truly love to waltz. But age does take it's toll on the body, and for the last few years I have been experiencing pain in my right toes (particularly 'roast beef' and 'none'). It's painful not only after a few hours of dance, but also after hiking or strenuous walking.

Over the last 2 years, I have increasingly enjoyed English country dancing (ECD). It's easier on the body, less crowded and my fellow dancers are older. Contrary to many communities, contradance is quite a youth scene in the Asheville area. We have 3-4 dances per week and they are all packed in like sardines without oil. I love to contradance - don't get me wrong. I still volunteer with both the Old Farmer's Ball and the Monday night dance. I go, dance a few, then visit with friends (while knitting, of course) or go home. But I prefer a bit of room to dance with partners of my generation.

So since I finished grad school, I have gotten involved with the local English dance. I attended 2 ECD weekends last spring where I was the worst dancer at the events. Not to brag, but that means the dance quality was really, really good! Here I am dancing Handel With Care at the Sun Assembly's spring dance weekend in 2008. I'm in the black top with long skirt.



I have even started leading English dances, but still only have a repertoire of about 8 dances.

But back to the foot. I was just sick of hurting. After my hike in Georgia a few weeks ago, I noticed a definite swelling on my 2 affected toes as well as a burning on the ball of the foot, so I finally broke down and went to the podiatrist. I thought that going to the foot doctor was a sure sign of OLD AGE, but I prefer to think of it as staying younger. I don't intend to stop dancing, hiking, walking to town, living my life. Turns out I have an incredibly common Morton's Neuroma - a 'callous' on the nerve bundle that has an 'outlet' right at the base of the 2 toes. So after a week with a metatarsal pad to adjust my arch, and 2 shots of cortisone, and a week of babying my footie, I feel a bit better. Most importantly, I know what I have. I also have over-the-counter, somewhat customized orthotics. I have every intention of dancing at both the Sun Assembly and Nashville weekends, even if I have to pace myself between now and then.

What do I want to do? Walk wherever I want to go! Hike many miles! Dance forever!

Out with the Old Year!

As we get ready to say farewell to 2009, I can honestly say it's been a heck of a year! My fiber work has taken on a new complexity in both the business and creative aspects. I have worked on my dyeing process, my spinning quality, and gotten my patterns in brick and mortar stores as well as on the Etsy shop. Although I have not knit as many hats as in past years, the sales on dyed fiber have more than made up for it. Becoming involved with Sally's gallery, Locally Grown has given me another venue for my work. Though not quit-your-day-job fabulous, it has allowed me to sell more yarn, particularly the hand-dyed sock yarn and handdyed, handspun yarns. Asheville HomeCrafts continues to be a steady source of fiber income. In addition to expanding my hand-dyed fiber presence, they sell my hats, patterns and yarns. They have done well selling the sock yarns and would like more 'semi-solids.'

The dance scene has been strong - lots of calling gigs (and a heck of a spring coming up) and I'll close out 2008 by calling the New Year's Eve dance at the Old Farmer's Ball in Asheville. The English country dance continues to grow and I have begun leading English dances. Because it takes a different piece of brain that calling contras, my repertoire is still limited. J and I attended the Contradancers Delight last week and I spoke with Warren about adding an English workshop next year. Sounds like a wee bit of a resolution, eh? While on holiday in Columbus Ohio, I called a dance at the Big Scioty Barn Dance - great fun to show off to a new group. I must admit I used the cheapest trick in the book - I called Trip to Lambertville, an easy fun dance, that is not in the repertoire of the local callers. Did a fine job too, if I say so myself!

Work has been a year of changes as well. I began teaching CS200, the technology integration class for Teacher Education majors. With 6 sections (2 semesters and a summer session) behind me, I can now begin to design the class I really want it to be. The adult evening course starts January 6th and I'm ready to take off! The call from the Library of Congress inviting us into the TPS program has totally changed my outlook as well. With 3 more years of grant-funded professional development, I can continue to do the work that I love on all 4 fronts! I love my life!

Dancing and Dyeing - and the day job!

Well, I've neglected this blog for entirely too long. Between Smoky Mountain Fibers, my day job, and my dance schedule, I'm afraid I have been neglectful and not only to this blog. I am a bit behind on a number of other things as well.

Work is busy and good, but developing and teaching a new undergraduate course is like being in grad school again, but you never get done with your papers. Maybe once the grades are in, I'll feel better. The it will be time to revamp the course for the summer session, but that won't be bad. My plan is to make a topical outline rather that chronological one, so that the syllabus doesn't change as much as the schedule does. A bit of work for tomorrow and some test questions to write for the final - that's about it for today.

Dancing has been lots of fun. I've been contradancing for about 25 years; calling for almost that long. But since I finished grad school, I have been English Country Dancing both in Asheville (in our fledgling group) and farther afield. I find the dancing much more challenging and I flat out love the music. So in addition to our alternate Sunday afternoons, I have been seeking out and attending English dances with well known leaders and musicians. In early March, I attended the Durham (NC) Sun Assembly's Spring DanceFest. Gene Murrow (New York) Taught afternoon workshops and led the evening dances with Mara Shea (of the Elftones) leading the band. It was quite wonderful, particularly because I was probably the least experienced dancer there.

On the weekend of March 28th, I attended the Nashville (TN) Playford Ball weekend with A Joyful Noise (Philly area) and Phillippe Callens over from Belgium. Again, I was inexperienced (though not the worst dancer in the hall!) but the music and dancing was wonderful and if I wasn't hooked before, I am now. And yes, I have started collecting dances to begin leading (calling in contra and square parlance). Pretty magical!

Smoky Mountain Fibers is sailing along. On top of the activity of the Etsy store, my LYS has given my dyed roving about double the shelf space and sales have really increased. They want sock yarn too, but I'm a wee tad behind on that (plus it keeps selling on Etsy before I get it to town - gotta love that!). The Coop at the WNC Farmer's Market wants more yarn and roving, so I think that the summer season will stay busy. I'll be tending both shops soon so I can encourage sales of my work while I earn a bit of extra cash! Not bad for off season.