Going Analog

Although the blog is quiet, the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers has been a flurry of color.  I dyed lots of fiber for a felting class and even more fiber for my retail business.  I am a contributing member of a local yarn shop here in Asheville (NC), Friends & Fiberworks (aka FFW).  As one of the friends, I work at the shop several hours a month and they carry an array of my patterns and fibers.  The shop participates in a number of fiber festivals and knitting and crochet shows, so my fiber travels in the booth.  If you were at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival in March or Stitches South in Atlanta a few weeks ago, you may have seen my work.  They'll be at the Kentucky Sheep &Fiber Festival in May, so my fiber will be a large part of the shop's display.

So in the interest of all this retail business, I've been keeping the dyepots warm.  I try to dye around the spectrum, so this weekend I concentrated on the reds.  Rosy golds, rusty oranges, fiery reds.  Last week it was all about the greens - blue-greens, olives, froggy, grassy, emerald, chartreuse, every green I can make - even one that was a rather poisonous neon green seldom found in nature.

But with all this dyeing, why am I ignoring my Etsy shop (and my blog)?  I say that it's my lack of a decent camera.  I tell myself that it is the time factor.  I am right on both counts.  I don't have a decent camera, though I could buy one.  The camera built into my phone is better than any stand-alone camera that I own.  Not bad as you can see here.  Not fabulous, but not bad.  I think that researching the perfect camera (and they keep changing) is standing in the way.  My essential cheapness is an issue too.  The perfect camera is scary expensive. 

The time factor is more telling.  Even though I have a demanding day job that requires considerable travel,  I work most Saturdays and an evening every week in the yarn shop.  I design workshops and teach classes as part of my day job, but I also write patterns and knit samples for the yarn shop and it's fun! I've also taught a number of classes and hosted a knit-along or two.  I'm also doing a good bit of knitting for myself.  This winter I completed 5 sweaters, although 3 were in timeout since the previous spring.  (I couldn't help it.  Spring came in February, 2012.  Who wants to knit on a wool sweater when it's 70 degrees out? I have another one on the needles, but need to figure out what I want to do for the closures, so that will likely marinate until next fall.  Hmmm...maybe a zipper?   I've already started a cotton top.  See what I mean?). 

I think the real 'problem' is that I'm involved in a strong, lively, in-person fiber community, so the pull of digital is not so strong.  I get positive feedback from my colleagues at the yarn shop, for my customers in the shop and the felting teachers who purchase my fibers.  I'm teaching knitting and dyeing classes.  People seek out my help with knitting problems, they want my advice in choosing yarns for projects.  Cyberspace is a wonderful place to visit and indeed I go there everyday, but it is not my main sense of community. 

As I make choices about how I spend my time, I am liking the present time and space.  Yesterday I spent my time doing what I love to do:  I took a walk. I cooked.  I dyed fiber. I worked played in the garden.  I even packaged fiber for the upcoming KY show, but I didn't post a one of those luscious rovings to my Etsy shop!

This doesn't mean I'm going offline - not at all.  I'm getting ready to host an online knit-along on the FFW Ravelry group & Facebook page.  I'm back on the blog.  Watch for some new patterns!  But I'm living in the real world as well as the digital.  They're both good. 

Success: 30 Hats in 30 Days!

I set a challenge for myself to knit 30 hats in the month of November.  With my hats in 3 shops, I need to keep my production up for the winter hat shopping season and this was a way to stay on or even ahead of schedule.  I did it!  It was close at the end, but I managed to knit a-hat-a-day.  On November 29th, with all 30 hats completed and logged into my handy dandy Excel spreadsheet, I cast on for a felt hat in a style that I've never made before.

I also made an effort to knit from the stash as much as possible and tore through several hundred yards, so I knit down the stash too.  However since part of knitting down the stash required me to purchase more yarns to go with the stash yarns, I didn't get too far out front of that.  But all in all, a fine effort.

Only one tiny problem - a good problem to have.  Almost as fast as I have been making hats, I have been delivering them to stores and they are selling!  Of course that is the point - I can't sell them if I don't have them!  Nor do they sell piling up in a nice stack in the studio.  And as I backed off the spinning, I have very little hand spun yarn to knit my always popular guy hats - so I am still a wee bit behind.

Thanksgiving weekend was busy here at the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers.  In addition to manic hat knitting, I did a bit of dyeing and carding and spinning.  I also visited a couple of my favorite local yarn shops (one on Black Friday - Hey, 30% off and I bought some lovely silk-merino spinning fiber for a sweater for me!), spun at the Locally Grown Gallery and shipped a healthy number of orders for the Etsy shop (Thank you very much!).

I also painted my bedroom, including 2 coats on the dreaded popcorn ceiling.  I'll spare you pictures.  Although I am very happy with the results, photos of dingy off white with drywall mud over the cracks  and photos of fresh off white aren't really that exciting to anyone other than me.

Tonight is spinning night at Friends & Fiberworks.  I'll be spinning some over-dyed blue-green that looks like a really iridescent peacock. A colorway that will never be duplicated, I can assure you.  Hope the yarn is half as pretty as the roving!

Really - It's not about me this time...

This Etsy treasury celebrates Appalachia and the items in it are wonderful representations of the mountains here in Western North Carolina and the whole mountain region.  The killer, handmade banjo is a great reminder of the old time music that I love - and love to dance to.  The apple butter shows one of the foodways that live on.  The pottery, quilts and baskets represent the handmade life that existed long before the craft mafia took over this here town.  Not that I am complaining, being a card carrying member of that gaggle of renegades.  Thanks fiftyleven,  for making me and my sheep's grey roving part of your thoughtful treasury.

The 30 hats in 30 days quest continues.  I'm a little tiny bit ahead.  Could be I'll take time for carding and spinning this weekend.  Of course, that's what got me into this hat deficit.  But if I'm going to use the yarn for hats, it's okay.  Right?

ATreasury of Blues - and a Sale!

As Labor Day is upon us, I am winding down my workweek with a lunch at my desk that looks like I am cleaning out the refrigerator.  Oh, I am.  The last of the baby carrots, a wee dollop of cottage cheese, a piece of leftover chicken and a clementine that may not as juicy as it once was.  But I always feel rather noble when I finish up bits and pieces and not let things go bad. 

As my regular readers know, I love ending up in Etsy Treasuries - this time, it's all about the color blue, including my Paintbox for Feltmakers, The Blues.  In yesterday's post I mentioned that my dyed fiber stock was nearly gone, so the dyeing frenzy came at about the right time.  I'll be making up these multi-packs over the weekend, so I'll soon know what else I need to dye.

In honor of Labor Day, I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop.  Take 20% off everything (excluding shipping) just by mentioning 'Labor Day' in your notes to the seller.  I'll refund your discount (as well as any shipping overage) to your PayPal account. 

Hope to get in a hike, but my plan is to spend the weekend pretty devoted to Smoky Mountain Fibers.  Dyeing, spinning, knitting, visiting my customers - getting the fall fiber season off to a good start!

Another Treasury!

 My Saturn Roving was featured in another Etsy Treasury.  All about the yellows and golds of fall, this red-gold roving fits nicely with the other handmade and vintage items in this treasury.  I've been on a gold binge lately.  Take yesterday's African Sun Phat fiber roving - I dyed a couple more batches yesterday and this morning to ensure that I'll have full size rovings in my shop when the Phat Fiber box gets into the hands of the purchasers.

I've also been playing with my 'Rose Gold' colorway.  One batch was very pretty, it's 'twin' - not so much.  It went into the drum carder with more pink and some sparkly firestar to become a much prettier yarn that anyone would have thought based on the roving.  This it one of the reasons I like to dye and to spin - the transformative process sometimes tales my breath away!

I picked up a new hat customer yesterday in Black Mountain, NC.  Time to get knitting!

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!

Happy Etsy - Versary!

This week marks my 4th year using the handmade marketplace, www.etsy.com.  Back in 2006, Etsy was a still a fairly new site, but I guessed that if it took off, it would be a great place to sell, yarns and fiber and hats.  At first it was slow.  I watched my views night and day, posting hats, hand-dyed and handspun yarns, hand dyed sock yarns, and roving.  With in a few weeks I was getting sales, though not always what I expected.

Roving took off  and looking back at my colorways, I can see why.  My colorways were subtle and lovely - I was trying a lot of variations and was on a creative streak.  I remember someone buying my whole shop (about 10 hanks of roving!) at once and how excited I was. This photo is Rose Gold.  Although the photo is a bit blurry, I like this colorway and may just bring it back.   At this time I was still in grad school, my soft-money job was always in danger of disappearing, so it looked like Smoky Mountain Fibers was going to be my real job.

Etsy has gotten bigger and better.  My dyework is more predictable if a bit less experimental.   In addition to dyed fiber, I am selling undyed fiber, patterns, dyed mohair locks (when I can get them), knitting and felting needles and have used Etsy as a way to destash when the fiber and yarn get a bit out of hand.  I have not been successful selling hats (maybe you should try on a hat!) and I no longer sell much hand dyed sock yarn.  There is a lot of sock yarn out there and I find it hard to photograph.

Etsy has become a more crowded market place for handmade goods and supplies for artisans. I don't have to maintain my own website - Etsy bring more customers to me than I could have imagined.  But I have built up an excellent customer base and they come back  I am very grateful for the feedback that I get from my customers.

Now, how do we celebrate milestones in Etsy?  With a sale of course!  In this case, 20% off everything in my shop.  Go to www.smokymountainfibers.etsy.com.  Leave a note in the 'note to seller' area with the code, Happy Anniversary.  I'll refund 20% of the sale price (excluding shipping and handling) via PayPal.  Offer expires on July 31, 2010.

By the way, my job has not ceased to exist but has expanded.  I am happy that I went back to school  to pursue my professional goals.  I'm also very happy that I continue to pursue my creative side as well.  Thanks, Etsy!

Independence Day Sale!

In honor of the 4th of July, I decided to celebrate by having a sale in my Etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/shop/smokymountainfibers.  All Natural roving is 20% off.  It doesn't matter if you want sweet & creamy merino, rustic browns, or easy to spin Falklands. Any Amount - it's all 20% off.  This sale does not include shipping, and I will refund the discount to your Paypal account.  Just enter the code 'Independence' in your message to seller.  Pretty easy, eh?

I've been spinning Falklands roving lately.  It's creamy white and spins up soft and fluffy.  It takes dye well too but for now I just want the peace that pretty white yarn gives me.  I have 2 bobbins spun up so I think it's time for a bit of plying.  Look at me - I'm plying!

I'll likely spend the holiday in the garden, in the studio and playing with friends.  Might get to downtown Asheville for the fireworks - in the new Pack Square park - Yeah!!

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!!!

Sunrise, Sunset

I got a lovely Etsy message yesterday afternoon from SplitRockRanch who included me in a lovely treasury full of mostly fibery goodies, with a bit of photography, beadwork and soap thrown in for good measure.  It's all in the colors of the sunset -  red, pink, orange, purple black - really remarkable work by all the artists.  I am thrilled to be in such fine company!  My roving that is shown here is my PhatFiber contribution, Fire.  I love this colorway to make and to spin.  Like much hand dyed fiber, as close as your recipes and processes can be, the work is always a surprise.  With this color combination, it it a pleasant surprise as well.

Here is the link to the treasury - see what trips your fancy.  But don't wait too long.  Treasuries are rather fleeting.  Thanks, SplitRock.  Love your batts!

I finally spun a batt or 4 myself last evening.  With my house under renovation, I kind of lost my spinning space to - well, everything. Boxes of books, an extra sofa in the studio, furniture mashed together and covered in old sheets, plus tools and plaster dust over everything.  But last evening I went to my Wednesday spinning group and spun the second half of a teal batt I carded a long while back.  It felt great!  The house is getting put back together too.  And that is a very nice thing.

Naturally Clean

Today is another look at creative things that people make with Smoky Mountains Fibers.  Over in St. Louis, Missouri A Breath of French Air is a terrific soap maker who makes scented and unscented soaps for a variety of uses, including the Gardener's Scrub Soap.  Those of us who like to dig in the dirt, know that we need a little help after.  Scraping my nails on a bar of soap is a good start, though I have to remember to do it before I get dirty.  But one solution is this lovely felted soap.  It's a soap and a scrubby all in one, this time in natural, organic shapes and colors.

If you are an Etsy member, you can even vote for this item in the "What's in Your Ideal Garden?" poll.  There are lots of lovely things.  Check it out.  Wish I could vote early AND often!

I spent a bit of time in the garden this week.  The peas, beets, radishes and onions are up and looking very cute.  We have been eating wintered over collards and Kale, but they look ready to go to seed, so it's in the 'get it while you can' mode.  I also planted lettuce plants, but this warm weather is not their friend.

Getting Noticed

I love having an Etsy shop.  because of the growing traffic on this handmade marketplace, I am able to get my work out to the universe in a way I never even considered until I found Etsy back in ought-six.  In addition to buying and selling and creating an online community, individuals can create a 'Treasury' - a group of products that fit into the theme.  I occasionally luck into creating a treasury, but the timing is tricky and I find creating them very time consuming. 

Luckily, other people love to make them - and seem to be luckier than I am catching an opening.  Yesterday I got a lovely 'convo' - Etsyspeak for a personal message - notifying me that I was in a Treasury with a number of knitted object, yarn and another (killer beautiful) roving.  Fair warning - the links don't last long!  Such is the transient nature of the Treasury. Thanks, Svetlana for including my Blue Atlantic roving!

P.S. I knit about another inch on my sweater!

New Natural Medley

I'm working on some new rovings and combos in my Etsy shop. Because natural colors do not have a specific 'dye lot,' the shades of natural rovings change.  I purchase my natural colors wholesale from an excellent supplier, but colors do change.  My recent 'Fawn' roving came in decidedly grey.  Very nice,spins up nicely - much better than I expected, but quite grey - not fawn at all.

At SAFF this year, I bought a little more than a pound of Oxford grey roving.  It is a Alpaca wool blend, but not the sweetest baby alpaca I have ever spun.  A lovely grey, but I am not reaching in to spin it.  Other fiber is calling me.

So it's now in a grab bag in the Etsy shop and at Locally Grown at the WNC Farmer's Market.

On the calling front, this is a 3 dance week!  I called the Old Farmer's Ball on Sunday afternoon for the Annual Meeting Members dance, I'll call the regular Thursday contra dance with the Avant Gardeners and Saturday night in Jonesborough, TN with a band that includes Cary Fridley.  Lucky, lucky me!

To Infinty and Beyond!

The December Phat Fiber sampler box was actually themed Aurora Borealis and Beyond, but why stop there?  Yes, I know it's already January, but with holiday travel and the back-to-school season, I'm just getting around to blogging about it.  What can I say, I'm a busy woman!

I always get excited when the box comes, but I don't open it until I have a few minutes to actually enjoy it, take pictures as I open it.  Later I go back to see what is really there.  Although every month is good, some of them totally blow me away.  December made me very happy - you'll see why...

  Sparkly black tissue paper greeted me with a striped coupon pack right on top.  Part of the fun of opening the box is seeing Jessie's packaging - It's always fun!  Just below the tissue, the goodies kicked it.  I'll do the fiber first, then the yarn.  Starting with the gold fiber you see in the 12:00 position, I'll promenade the circle. 

Kalpaca Farm sent a generous baggie of carded alpaca that was Kool Aid dyed in similar colors of salmon and yellow with a bit of lavender showing through.  From Ewe to Ewe’s sample was Merino roving in a colorway called ‘Fir’ – a saturated dark green.  Spincerely Yours gives us a sunny roving of blue, turquoise and yellow in superwash merino.

It was hand dyed locks from Farm Girl Chic – the blues and greens of 'Neptune' interpreted in color on Border Leicester locks – curly and shiny.  Moose in Socks interpreted the theme as ‘Northern Lights with a superwash merino/bamboo blend.  The lavender, green, grey, bronze, pink roving has that bamboo sheen and merino softness that makes me want to spin it NOW.  Both of these seller have more of their sampled colorways available in their shops.

WC Mercantile sent a lovely ‘snowball’ of superfine merino artisan dyed in shades of lavender and grey.  Very pretty fiber and clever packaging.  Misty at Desired Haven Farm used a photo of a nebula as her inspiration and included the photo with the roving.  In colors of blue, purple, salmon and black with a good bit of white showing through, this roving is bright and colorful.

Look right in the center of the picture.  The Sassy Sheep sent her merino/cashmere/nylon roving in a pretty little gift box.  But the real gift was the supersoft (as you can imagine!) roving dyed in a colorway called Galaxy – black, purple and teal.

And now the yarns...a particularly nice selection of yarns for December.  This time I'll go from left to right in an orderly manner.  Melissa’s Kre8tions sent a lovely sample yarn in deeply saturated blues that she calls, A December Evening. Blue Mountain Handcrafts sent a similar singles of handspun merino in a colorway aptly named ‘Alien Sun’ – red, orange, gold and burgundy.  Very rich!  Similar in weight, these yarns will stay together in my mind and in a future creation of my own.

The Cool Climates sample is an intriguing art yarn of wool, mohair, bamboo, tencel and what  looks like firestar plied with beaded thread.  She calls it Aurora Borealis1 and it rocks!  What an amazing spinner - watch for this in a stripe of a hat near you!

Two lovely sock yarns.  #1 is ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ from Twiggi Knits is a merino/silk blend in dark grey nd purple highlighted with yellow and orange.  #2 is a  superwash merino/ nylon blend from WabiSabi Yarns in a deep purple medley.  With the number of sock yarn samples that I have been accumulating, I think a pair of ‘fraternal twin’ striped socks is in the future.  I’ll just have to decide on a base color that will show off these and other sock yarns that the talented Phat dyers are sampling.

SteeleSpun Yarns sent 5 yards of a bulky single in Superwash merino and alpaca dyed a color called Meteorite – a deep rich grey.  Jag’s Funky Fibers continues recycling yarns for creative re-use, this time a polyester ‘terry cloth’ yarn in beachy colors of sand and sea.

The non-fiber samples in this month’s box includes 2 very lovely, snagless stitch markers from MyFairBagLady and Lampyridae   Skein Snake sent a repurposed cord lock to be used to hold your knitting on your needles.  Since I am currently knitting a sweater on a circular needle, it was immediately pressed into service.

There were two patterns in my box this month:  DaniDo Crafty’s lovely Verge cabled neck warmer design and a ‘Mood Lifter’ Slouch hat pattern from Kelsey and Northern Lights Fiber Company.  Both are knits that will be satisfying to knit without being overly complicated.  The slouch is in a slip stitch pattern that should be excellent for hand dyed yarns.



There were also a number of coupons and business cards, but this post has about done me in!  Thanks again to Jessie and Marcus for making this Phat Fiber thing happen!

Fifteen More Minutes of Fame

Over in the fiber subculture we have the Phat Fiber Sampler Box - a monthly box of samples that go out to several dozen lucky buyers.  They do up on the Phat Fiber Etsy shop and are sold out in minutes.  To drum up excitement, Jessie, the queen of Phat Fiber blogs about different contributors throughout the month and people go check out your shop and talk about what they like. It's a fun community and since I am a contributor I get a box each month.  It's a great way to keep up with what other fiber artists are doing.  At our SAFF meetup back in October, I got to meet a number of the Phat Fiberistas - a fine group we are too!

I'm on the blog today, giving away a full size version of my December sample, Saturn.  I love to make this colorway - a vermillion red with gold - and all the colors in between.  In fact I blogged about it just the other day, but this is a different picture. And I admit it - I like reading the comments to hear what people like about my work.  Besides everybody says nice things!  They want to win!  No place here for that dreaded 'feedback.' No constructive criticism for my own good.  I'll just bask in my own personal glory for a little while longer!  I'll come down to earth soon enough.

Back to knitting:  Calorimetry 1 & 2 completed.  Scarf 1 begun, all of 5 inches knitted.  Still choosing yarn for the fingerless mitts.  Solid or multicolored?  Life is full of difficult decisions!

Counting Down the Days

Though I don't have children counting down the days until the guy in the red suit makes an appearance, I do have a number of students who are ready to usher the semester out the door. I make sure that their most difficult projects in my class are over earlier in the semester.  This way when they are covered up at finals time, I am not in competition for their scarce time, limited resources and failing sense of humor.

I'd rather spend my time on fiber!  I'd rather spin and knit and dye that read research papers.  I'd rather grade projects that demonstrate that they are learning.  Because of my work in teaching with primary Sources, I am working with a group of students who are creating a documentary about the struggle for civil rights, that is my real work.  These students are doing creative work whereby they have to understand the content as they build their group video.

Life in the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers has been hoppin'!  I have been spinning and knitting a LOT, shipping daily, working at Locally Grown, the crafts gallery at the Western North Carolina Farmer's Market.   I'll be there this Saturday and next, knitting and spinning as I booth sit next door for my friend Mac, who is doing a show.

I've been included in 2 recent Etsy Treasuries - in both cases my hand dyed Romney locks.  Here are the pictures.  The Reds are a real treat, the Purple locks  got a great spot in the upper corner.  Keep in mind, the links don't stay active long.  They get recycled pretty quickly.  Meanwhile, time to take a little walk to the Post Office, then get grading, work on budgets and generally put nose to grindstone!

Phat Fiber Meetup at SAFF

It was a fun day a SAFF, particularly as six of the Phat Fiber contributors got together on Saturday morning.  We met at Moonwood Farm & Covy Cove Farm's Shared booth, just across the aisle from Knitty and Color. CptSnoopy [Rav Link] was there with her hubby as well as KTLV with her family.  We chatted and laughed and talked like we have known each other for a long time.  I brought a bit of  'Show and Tell' - a lovely pink yarn that I made by carding everything in the August box that was pink and sparkly with some pink roving  and spun up a sweet and sparkly yarn! I also brought the genuine original PhatStripes Hat and SMF samples for eveyone. 

While all the fiberistas and their support people were terrific, Roo has great energy! All of the vendors were doing well, even after a rainy Friday.  But Saturday was bright and clear and busy, without being frantic.  Here we are, photo courtesy of CptSnoopy's husband, nice guy Major Snoopy(?)
Back Row:  Capt Snoopy, Roo (Moonwood Farm), Kathering (KTLV),  Cozette of Cozy Cove Farm
Front Row:  AnneMarie (SmokyMountainFibers), Sarah (Knitty and Color)

I've had a great time at SAFF, with my volunteer duties going well, my short booth-sitting vending acceptable.  I met a number of folks I have only known online in addition to seeing old and new friends from many of my different lives.  I bought a lovely mohair fleece, but did not pick it up yet - it was still being judged.  Back tomorrow for more fun and games!  

A Nice Treat

The day job has been something of a slam lately, with the multiple witching hours all coming due (strangely) at the end of October.  So as I was completing some qualitative reporting this evening, I got a lovely email from an Etsy jewelry maker and seller, TheLowerEastSide who put my Fawn roving in a treasury that she created.  After kind of an icky day,  getting featured in a treasury is a nice thing to happen.

So now it's time to go home, spin a bit, knit a bit, relax, see my sweetie, eat some dinner.

The Deadlines Are Upon Me!

I hate waking up at 4:00 a.m. in a bit of a panic about all the things I need to do.  But that's what I did on Sunday morning.  I began realizing just how many things were due at the end of October.  Some are on the good side of the work/fun continuum.  SAFF for example.  Even though I have to keep up with a web page or 2.  Dyeing yarn and fiber for my Etsy shop and delivering yarn, fiber and hats to my LYS accounts. Knitting and spinning.  Again, a good kind of work.

But my actual day job is definitely slanted in the other direction.  And even though I love what I do, occassionally all the deadlines kick in at the same time.  So instead of lying in bed worrying, I did what sensible people all over the universe do.  I made a List.

So on this very Monday morning, I have taken said List and begun completing items on it.  This blog post, however is not on the List, so it will be quite short and only mention that...

I have been featured on another blog,

http://jennytheartist.blogspot.com/2009/10/farmville.html.  Thank you Jenny!

My house is newly re-roofed, but now has several giant cracks in the ceilings and walls.  Kind of scary, huh?
This was not in the contract.

In the interest of getting back to the List, I'll be signing off! 

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.