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!

Etsy Treasury: Lake Marie

My watery Blue-Green dyework was recently part of an Etsy Treasury, Lake Marie.  Based on the John Prine song of the same name, all the items in this collection reflect the story that Prine tells in the song.  This roving, Neptune is one of a series of my 'Andromeda Shades.'  How can I approach the heavenly bodies through the dyeing of fiber, then the spinning of yarn.  The yarn that I spin from this roving gets 'tamed down' a bit and is less vibrant.  The colors are still there, but a bit more subtle.  I occasionally run this roving through the drum carder to make it even more blended

What else is cooking at the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers?

• SAFF board meeting
• Planning and packing for the Anything Fiber Yard Sale.  Mark your calender for Saturday, August 21st; Black Mountain, NC.  I have a table.
• Next week's trip to Colorado! What to knit?
• Meeting with a new gallery who wants to carry my hats - so I'm getting some samples together.
• Knit some hats!  I thought I was ahead on inventory.  Turns out, not so much!

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.

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!

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.