School's In!

I seldom mention my day job on this blog, but I can't help commenting on the students back for the fall.  I am happy to see our good students - fun people, hard workers - dedicated to what they love.  The class of student teachers are a fine group, ready to make their way in the classroom.  The student athletes look refreshed (except the football players who have been here a couple of weeks already) and ready to see their pals.  I have promised my students that I'd make it to at least one football game this year.  Last year it seemed that all the home games conflicted with dance or fiber.  I'll try harder this year.

The Anything Fiber Yard Sale was lots of fun on Saturday.  I sold lots of yarn (at bargain prices), a few books and a little bit of fiber and fabric.  Nobody got rich, but it was a good relocation of stash!  I bought a few dyes and a mohair fleece and I traded a couple of books. I also made contacts with local spinners and weavers, never a bad thing.  It poured rain most of the day and even though it was inside, that probably kept people away.  I will probably do it again next year and will be smarter about what I bring.

I did get a wee bit of dyeing done. This is African Sun, the full size version of my August Phat Fiber Sampler box contribution.   Since I will be a vendor at SAFF, I need to get yarn and fiber dyed up and ready to sell.  And as October looks slammed a month before it starts, I'll be dyeing almost daily until then.  Watch for the woman with the purple fingers - - Oh, that's all of us!

A Little Local News: Mars Hill Wins Southeastern Collegiate Cycling Championship

With a break from our regularly scheduled knitting program, the small college where I work won the Southeastern Collegiate Cycling Championship.  We hosted the race in the western North Carolina region where cyclist come from all around to train.  In fact we have a number of international students who come to Mars Hill and other schools in the region for an education in an area with challenging terrain.  One of my excellent students is on the team. and rode quite well.  Read all about it here.

Back on the fiber front, I did a good bit of dyeing.  Thanks to my fine customers, the Etsy shop is sorely depleted of dyed fiber.  I'm working everyday to dye, photograph and list more fiber.  The LYSs have been selling steadily too.  Not complaining, mind you!  The Happy Waffle socks are also charging along.  I turned the heel on sock #1.  Not bad in less than one very busy week!

Phat October

As the time come near for the next Phat Fiber Sample Box, I have been dyeing roving and making up little 'twists' - small skeins of merino roving that are my contribution to the sampler box for the the Month of October,  This month's theme is 'Harlequin Ball.'  The somewhat mysterious theme and fall weather has encouraged my creative side to dye a dark autumn colorway based on one of my favorites - Carnivale.  I started with orange and purple dye with plenty of white space so the colors would not merge to muddiness.  Then I overdyed the whole roving with a garnet shade to bridge the two colors.  I was very happy with the results and saved out a roving to list in my Etsy shop once the box hits the streets. Watch for 'Dark Carnival.'

The Mars Hill show yesterday was great fun. My students are always surprised to see me and I get a chance to chat with members of my various communities who seem to come together at this event.  The college faculty, staff and students (as well as a few parents), fiber people, traditional music and dance crowd and just plain friends stop by.

Getting Reading for the Show

This Saturday I will be a demonstrator & vendor at the sweet little Mars Hill Heritage Festival on the campus of Mars Hill College where I work.  I'll be carding & spinning a lovely natural brown/grey fleece and selling hats, yarn and fiber.  Now nobody ever gets rich at this little show, but we do put on a good event.  There will be live traditional music, handmade pottery (and kids can throw a pot), 4-H booths, milking goats, an apple butter kettle, a keeper of bees and a number of eceolygy/sustainablility/history displays of the campus quad.  The usual vendors will be down on Main Street.

Between now and then I need to...

• Tag yarn and hats
• Felt some knitted hats
  
• Ply and wash yarns 
  
• Weigh and tag fiber
• Make a bunch of signs
• Assemble my display stuff
• Assemble the portable 'office'
• Pack the truck
• Snag stuff I need from Locally Grown
  

Because we have an English dance event that same evening, I also need to...

• Clean the house (because you never know where the party will be!)
  
• Tidy the guest room
• Bake cookies
• Assemble table linens & serving utensils
• Pick and arrange flowers
• Better clean the bathroom too

Since I don't do many craft shows (about 3 per year!), I have to reinvent the wheel every time.  But since a good bit of the stock of SmokyMountainFibers will come to the event, it's a good way for local Ravelers and Etsians who wish to can see my work.  I put a note on Ravelry inviting spinners to bring wheels and spindles and 'set a spell' as we say up in these mountains.  Should be chilly (good for hat sales) and I hope it's sunny!

Back to School, but Take Time to Dance!

The return of the academic year is taking a bit of a toll on my fiber work. I teach in a small college & run a professional development program for teachers, so back to school is a busy time in my life. I am teaching 3 sections of my Educational Technology class & developing new workshops for area in-service teachers. My evening class has already begun & day classes start next week. One of the toughest things about classroom technology integration is that it is a changing field and I have to keep up. I am adding some new elements to my course, including a blogging requirement.

In addition, it's a busy season in the traditional music and dance world. Last weekend I went to Mentone, Alabama to party and dance with the Red Mountain White Trash & Notorious. Okay Alabama and August - how do those 2 concepts work together? Easy - afternoons are spent on the river. Delightful. I did a number on my knee - possibly patella tendonitis - so I knit at the dance hall, just gave myself a couple of waltzes after the Saturday night break.

This weekend is Splash Dance, an all volunteer dance weekend hosted by our local dance community, the Old Farmer's Ball. I am in charge of T shirts, sounds like a pretty simple job, except that people will screen their own shirts. Our budget is very tight, but I managed to scrounge a LOT of inexpensive shirts in a variety of colors. I'm hoping for a feeding frenzy of folks looking for just the right color in their size. Dances at this event are mostly contras but with a healthy smattering of squares, English and waltzes. Variety - I like that!

I'm a busy woman, but managing to squeeze in a bit of knitting, much of it while in the car. I haven't dyed much in the past week or so - life has been too darn hectic! I'll be happy to spin and dye again soon!

Grading Papers & Quizzes

Note: Actual fiber content follows.

About one-third of the way into the semester (and 3/4 of the way through the accelerated classes), I find myself covered up with assignments to grade; quizzes to make, administer and grade; portfolios to review; students to encourage (sounds better than nag!) and all those things that make teaching an administrative challenge.

I have spent the last 3 days grading when I would rather be updating handouts for an evening presentation for my professional development work. A colleague says, 'I'll teach for free, but you have to pay me to grade papers.' Now I could give fewer assignments, totally objective self-grading exams. Instead I think my students benefit from small, frequent assignments and quizzes where I expect them to construct answers. I am writing this post while my students take their quiz!

The upside is that I am hitting the endgame in the evening classes, so I have prepped and field-tested all my material for the full term courses. I have a great group of students this semester, particularly in the evening session. They are an interesting mix of career changers, teacher assistants finishing their degrees and traditional day students closed out of the on-campus classes. One man is from Guatemala, a Spanish teacher in a small private school getting certified to teach in North Carolina -he's brilliant! Another is a 40ish former graphic designer and mom who is going through a divorce and taking advantage of her life-change to go back to school to do what she always wanted to do - be a teacher. The teacher assistants add real-world experience to my group and I appreciate them immensely. One of the day students dropped by my office to tell me how much he enjoyed the evening class. He told me that he didn't expect to like it, but he too appreciates the diversity of the adult program.

Actual Fiber Content: I have knit another Gull Lace Cap as I test the pattern for improved knittability or errors. I've only made a small change since I got it back from the testers. I knit a sapmle for Asheville HomeCrafts in Baby Alpaca Grande (sweet!) and will knit another in Brown Sheep Bulky for the shop. Tonight is a teaching night (only 3 more!) so I won't get back to the pattern today. I am knitting a charming pair of Hedgerow socks (see picture above, though it's not mine - just a close up of the knit pattern) though the stitch pattern is getting lost in the stripes of my Knit Picks Felici.

I've also been spinning again. I like to spin very much and my shops are OUT! Can't let that happen! More fiber to come in the next post.

More Fun that Knitting?

Why teaching others to knit, of course! A few years ago, I was regularly teaching knitting classes in my dining room and through an 'open university' that no longer exists in the community. I've taught at SAFF and led a group at my workplace. But graduate school (and employee turnover) put a stop to those activities. I missed teaching knitting, but I was very busy with my studies and then launching my new carreer that I didn't have time to miss it.

But this semester it was time for the fiber unit in Art Ed (ED324, Art in Elementary Schools) that my friend Barbara teaches. In the last few years we have focused on felt making, making beads and snakes and flat felt. This year the students really wanted to learn to knit. So I have been pressed into service helping the fledgling knitters.

My motto came right back to me - 'Just keep knitting.' 'Ms. Walter, This stitch is weird.' Ms Walter, my knitting looks awful.' The answer is almost always the same, 'Just keep knitting.' With only one previous knitter and a crocheter with some transition issues, they are having a hard time being inexperienced knitters. 'It will get better', I tell them. 'See, your third row is already better than the first! Just keep knitting.'

Since I taught most of these students in CS200 (Computer Applications for Education), I know then and like them and they kept telling me how much better art was than computer class. Uh, yeah! On Tuesday, I raced over to the ArtEd room as soon as I could possibly justify it. Yes, Knitting is much better than computing!

After their practice piece, they will make hand warmers as per Tangle's free pattern, what I call Embarrassingly Easy Fingerless Mitts. A simple square, knit in Garter stitch, folded over and seamed from both ends. I think they will get there!

Over a Hurdle

Sometimes I wish that I could play with fiber all the time; that I could be a full-time artist craftsperson. Other times I am very happy to have a day job that is creative and satisfying MOST of the time, a but frustrating at other times.

Without going into gory details, the non-profit agency who had funded my work (facilitating professional development for k-12 teachers) has ceased to exist. So as the old program died a slow death over the course of two years (during which time the college gave me PLENTY to do), we were picked up by a similar program an d we are now funded through a federal grant. So as of October I have new responsibilities ramping up the new program, while still expected to continue my part time teaching load.

The first quarter with its qualitative and quantitative program reports and somewhat complicated (oe at least different) financial reports is finally behind me. I have to revise the series of linked spreadsheets, change line items and budget codes, create quarterly rather than monthly reports, etc. Ever see Office Space? Where our protagonist has some difficulty with his TPS reports? That has been me!

But it is behind me - The spreadsheets are clean and happy and the formulas match from one set of budget codes to the next. The papers are filed. The reports have been mailed both physically anad electronically.My desk is tidier than it has been for a month, as there are no more unfinished reports in file folders. Still more than enough to do, but I can happily say the TPS reports are completed.

Now back to our usual fiber content. I love this picture. Later this term I will be assisting my colleague as she teaches her fiber unit in Art Education. I demo spinning, talk about color and we will teach the students to knit. Only one knitter in the class and it's a young man I had last semester in my Ed Tech class. Sounds like fun!

Not my Next Career

Cake Decorating, that is. Although my colleague and I had great fun decorating a cake for our administrative person's 50th birthday, perhaps frosting is not my most creative medium. It was lots of fun and the other 2 talked about taking a cake decorating class, but I think I'll pass. For all its tack glory, the cake was delicious. The cake itself was a dense pound cake and the icing was genuine butter cream - heavy on the butter! My official contribution was the ice cream (Moose Tracks and Pralines & Cream) and both cake and ice cream will live in the office refrigerator for all and sundry to snack on.

Note the background of these pics: Paper cutters, hole punches, program brochures and all matter of office supplies are within easy reach of squirty bags and tips.

Although my evening class started in the Adult ACCESS program started last week, the semester began this week. I have 2 day sections as well as the evening session - both very full. I have revamped my class slightly to make it more education, less technology. So far so good. In the self-assessments I found that virtually all my traditional age students have Facebook or MySpace pages, but only one admits to having a blog. I don't tell them about mine.

Official fiber content: At tonight's SAFF board meeting, I'll be knitting on the BronzeBerry socks. The first sock is ready for the toe, the 2nd is ready for the heel flap! These are fast little sockies - Lunch hour knitting rocks!

Back to Work!

After a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks off filled with knitting, travel, family, music and dance, I was actually ready to return to my day job -developing professional development in a grant-funded program that serves teachers in western North Carolina. In real life, I am the assistant director of the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS), an educational outreach program of the Library of Congress. I got the semester off to a fine start by starting to plan the summer workshop, the TPS integration activities that we use here at Mars Hill College throughout the teacher education program, as well as the administrative parts of the job - reporting numbers. Happily I keep up with that through the semester, so it is never too difficult a process.

Since the other hat that I wear is adjunct instructor of a technology integration course that all education majors and minors must take, and my first class is tomorrow, I am also putting the final touches on my class. At the end of last semester, my evaluations came in that the students loved the course - it was fun and easy! Not the best reviews - methinks I must pump up the rigor a wee bit. But because the students are mere sophomores and have almost no education theory, I have to get them started thinking like teachers. So I have been on the prowl for articles that are current, engaging and somewhat challenging. I was dissatisfied with my earlier choice, but today I found what I hope will be on the mark between the student experience level and intriguing new ways that teachers and schools are integrating technology.

On the fiber front, I FINALLY finished a pair of cotton socks I started last spring and made serious headway on another pair that I started at about the same time. I just didn't like the cotton yarn, but I do like the first socks I knit with it so I slogged through the 2nd skein and now I have two pair! Although this shows a VERY early version, trust me, they're done!

The other pair - soft and lovely in ColorJoy's Cushy ColorSport Creamy Seaside (with lavender heels) are now marching toward completion. I purposely knitted them in a different size needles for the cuff and the foot. When I started the 2nd sock, I picked up a size 1 instead of size 2 - ending up with a fat sock and narrow sock. After a bit of time in the marination chamber, sock #2 took a dip in the frog pond. But with the gusset newly completed, I will soon have nearly matching socks for my (or someone's) nearly matching feet. Hey - I am merely human!

Next fiber activity: plying dyed singles for a series of headbands.
Next dance to call: Bristol, VA - January 9th - Mostly contras, beginner crowd.

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!

December already!

Another busy month has passed full of fiber work and fun with an added dash of dance - both contra and English. The semester is flying by as well. Finals are just a week away, and it's good for both faculty and students.

The College hosted a craft fair this week, with pottery, fiber and woodworking well represented. I set up my table next to a friend who mostly knits scarves (though I want to get her addicted to socks), so our work was largely complementary. I sold a bit of everything: hats, patterns, fiber and yarn + bartered for some lovely pottery .

I'm also back at Locally Grown, the craft gallery at the WNC Farmer's Market. Last weekend sales were strong and my investment is low. I help out friends while selling my own work. Not a bad thing! Plus I always spin and that draws in customers, while I get a healthy amount of yarn made. I love working with Sally too. She has great energy and we connect in a really positive way.

I've been making felt pins again. They got a good bit of attention at the College show and I have regular sales in both the craft shops, so I spent a bit of the Thanksgiving weekend in production mode. They are a bit labor intensive, but because I make the components in bulk, I make several at a time, so I have fun playing with the variations as I make up the individual pins. I love the way the new batch of Merino felts - fast and thick - and the colors are blending nicely. I particularly like the peachy orange color.

Tonight is my regular fiber group. We will get together for our monthly potluck and evening of conversation and fiber work. But mostly conversation! I really love those women. I feel so connected to that community in a way I didn't before.

Madison County, North Carolina Heritage Day

Last Saturday I made my annual entry into the craft fair world. Thanks to my Etsy shop, I don't have to stand around in the hot sun to peddle my woolly wares when the October temperatures are known to hover in the high 80's. Luckily the nights have been chilly enough to make people remember that winter will come again and hats will be handy.

Heritage Day is an annual event held on the Mars Hill College campus. I have had a booth for years in the educational area nestled among the student pottery sale, the Biology professor-beekeeper, 4-H clubs, a genealogy organization, and other equally high-tone groups. There are standard craft booths too: jewelry, photography, lots of food, etc. It is quite social with students and faculty, regular townspeople and tourists - plenty of live old time music. Nobody gets rich, but the investment is low and fun quotient is high.

I always bring my drum carder and let the kids card wool, I had my wheel and felting needles as well as plenty of yarn, roving and hats. As luck would have it, I sat down at the spinning wheel and the footman connector immediately broke. So, no production spinning for me-I just turned the wheel by hand to demo how twisting the fibers creates yarn. The days production - about 20 yards of very fine yarn. Instead I carded everything I had with me (about a pound of beautiful charcoal grey Romney) and made a sweet needle felted pumpkin.

As far as sales go, it was a sock yarn day, but I sold a bit of everything. I also had lots of fun, visiting with people I see only once or twice a year. It was also great fun watching my students come by and check out my 'other life' - one that has nothing to do with my education technology classes. If they only knew!

Sunday was another fine day. I ran the Locally Grown shop in the morning - spinning all my newly spun wool on the lovingly repaired wheel, then went to the English dance in the afternoon. Note to self: got to work in the website - but not til after SAFF - just 2 weeks away!

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.

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.