SAFF 2015

One of my favorite trips of the year is the annual Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) held just outside Asheville, NC.  This year, because the dates of the event were moved to the last weekend in October, there was no tractor show, so we were able to use the entire grounds of the Western North Carolina Agriculture Center.

This year I took two classes.  On Thursday I took an all day spinning class with Judith MacKenzie.  I still consider myself very much a novice spinner, so I really learned a lot in this class.  Unfortunately, as is usual when I get immersed in what I'm doing, I didn't think to take a single picture of Judith or anything we did in this class.

Friday morning I took a class with my secret boyfriend Franklin Habit. This class was on doing steeks (aka cutting your knitting on purpose) and installing zippers into knitting.  I had never done either one of these techniques, and while I'm generally a "learn what you need to know to do the project" type knitter I thought it would be helpful to actually have someone physically show me how to do it.  And of course, I had to take at least one of Franklin's classes (secret boyfriend remember?)  While I wasn't particularly doubtful of my ability to do either of these things before, now I know for sure how to do them, and I'm currently scanning patterns to do both in a sweater.  Fortunately, I had a little more focus on Friday and did get a picture of Franklin with Dolores in the background.

Friday afternoon was the first chance I had to do some shopping with all the vendors.  I had a couple of specific projects I was looking to find yarn for, so I focused on those mostly Friday, although I picked up a few things not on my list as well!

Saturday I had no classes, so I decided not to get up at the wee hours with the rest of the group, and instead slept a little longer and got to SAFF about 11:00 am.  One of our group has a vacation home about 45 minutes away from SAFF and she graciously lets us stay there.  Not only is it a huge money saver (more money for yarn & fiber & classes!) but it's nice to have a comfortable place to sit around together in the evening and show what we bought or made that day & just knit and socialize.

This was the day I made it over to the barns to see the animals.  Alpacas and llamas and goats and sheep.  Just about any fiber animal you can think of.  And because they're all so cute and furry I took lots of pictures.  I won't subject you to all of them, just some of the cutest.

Baby Suri Alpaca

Baby Alpaca

More Baby Alpacas

Llama

I admired this sheep's dreads

Nosy Sheep

This one just wanted you to scratch between his horns

Saturday night we joined Ann & Janis of the Carolina Fiber Girls podcast and a few others for dinner at the Sierra Nevada Brewery just down the road.  I'm not a beer drinker, but the food was pretty good and it's undeniably a gorgeous building.  I think I need to take Rob there the next time we're in the Asheville area.

Outside of the brewery

Vats of beer

Something to do with making beer

Sunday morning we took our time getting up, packing, and loading up the cars for the drive home.  Michiele was riding with me and we decided to make one more quick stop at SAFF on the way home.  A couple more purchases were made, and we headed home.  I'm so glad I took Monday off work too because besides needing to do laundry and grocery shopping, I need to some time to admire and inventory my haul from the event.

It's quite a haul, but almost all of it was bought with a specific project in mind.  That gorgeous teal grouping towards the bottom of the picture is already being knit into a sweater in fact.

All in all, another great year at SAFF.  The classes, the yarn, the fiber make it worth the trip every year, but the weekend with such great friends that share my love of all that SAFF offers make it more than just a trip.

Spin Stitch Knit Festival 2015

I've enjoyed having a few days off, but it's back to work tomorrow.  I got most of what I wanted to accomplished this weekend, not that it was an overly ambitious list to begin with, and I feel a little more organized at home heading into the start of a busy few months at work.

Saturday I went to a small new event in Stedman, NC called Spin Stitch Knit Festival 2015.  It was indeed a small event, but there were several nice vendors there and I came home with a few pretties.

The blue & yellow yarns on the left are both Whisper Fingering from Unplanned Peacock, an alpaca, silk, cashmere base that is sooooo soft.  They will probably be used together in a two-colored shawl.  The green/yellow yarn is also Unplanned Peacock in her Lustral Shawl, which is a fingering weight yarn in a 600 yard put up.  The yarn on the right is the event colorway, called Oceans 11, and it's from That Hooker Chick.

Also there was The Clay Sheep and I picked up a diz and some adorable stitch markers from her.

Until my friends Michiele and Roxie became bad influences I never bought buttons until I needed them for a specific project.  A couple of years ago they turned me to the dark side and my button stash has been slowly growing as well.  I added 4 of these gorgeous antique dragonfly buttons to my collection Saturday.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but it's hard to capture with all the shiny going on.

My friend Colleen went with me, and even though she's not a knitter or spinner she is a quilter, so she was both tolerant of my shopping and properly inquisitive about the various offerings and their purpose.  She even bought herself an Origami Owl bracelet, which is not spinning or knitting related, but I was glad she found something there she liked.

The event, though small, was worth the trip for me because I live only an hour away.  There were 9 or 10 vendors, and I figured if Unplanned Peacock was there it wouldn't be a total wasted trip.  They did have some food there, although we didn't actually eat anything there. They did offer some classes, but they didn't do a very good job of providing information ahead of time on what was and/or when those were being offered and I was only able to determine the exact classes and schedule the day before the event, at which point I had already made my plans.

Overall, if they do it again next year and it falls on a weekend I don't have other plans I might go again, but I'm not going to plan my weekend around being able to go.

A New Year's Day Walk

We had some good friends staying with us for New Year's Eve, and he's into photography, so New Year's Day we got out of the house and went to a local park that's centered around an old mill.  Our friend is a much better photographer than I am, but I snapped a few pictures with my phone.

It's hard to read, but it says Ole Gilliam Mill Park

They actually crank the mill up twice a year, and when they do they have others out at the park demonstrating other skills such as blacksmithing, making lye soap, and weaving.

There's a small lake you can walk around and see some of the other buildings they've restored and/or built. And in general, it's a nice little walk.

This building always makes me think of old western movies.

Across the street where you actually park is a restored covered bridge.  I'm not positive, but I think that this actually used to be the bridge across the river.

The sight of one of these always makes me think of my PaPaw Hayes.

All in all it was a relaxing thing to do on the first really sunny day we'd had in over a week.

In case you're wondering, I decided not to officially sign up for NaBloPoMo this month, so I won't be posting every single day, but I am going to try to post more often.  I'll talk more about my goals for 2015 (or actually my lack of them) in my next post.

Spinning With a Purpose

Today I took a class on spinning with a purpose with my three best fiber friends, Michiele, Roxie & Peggy.  Nancy Shroyer, who is the owner of Nancy's Knit Knacks and also teaches workshops across the country, lives near us and was kind enough to let us come to her home for a private class with the four of us.

Thus far in my spinning, I've been spinning with a vague idea of how many plies I wanted to do, and sort of how thin or thick I wanted the yarn to be.  Then , when the yarn is finished, I figure out what to do with it.  Today I learned more about how to plan ahead to get the yarn I want.  In other words if I know I want to knit socks, how to plan and spin so that I actually end up spinning sock yarn.

And for one of my biggest questions...how much yarn do I need to spin (or even buy for that matter) for a project...Nancy has an awesome, although mathematical, way to figure that out if you're willing to....ummm...do a swatch  (yeah, I rarely do those, but maybe I'll change my mind for some projects).

We talked about different spinning techniques and what type of yarn they produce and what types of yarn are good for different types of projects.  I even managed to spin a decent woolen yarn! (Which probably means nothing to you if you're not a spinner, but trust me, I was VERY happy)

See my pretty, fluffy, woolen spun yarn?

I feel like I learned a lot of things I needed to know in order to take the next steps in improving my spinning. And as is usual when the four of us are together, we had a great time, with lots of talking and laughing in the midst of all the learning. 

Many thanks to Nancy for a great day and also to her canine helpers Ripley and Clay for my doggie fix for the week.

Aren't they cute?

Girls With Purls Anniversary

My knitting group, Girls with Purls, had its 7th anniversary dinner tonight.  I've been in the group about 4 years and we have a pretty good time.  It's also how I met Michiele and Roxie, so for that, even if there was nothing else, it's been a worthwhile experience.

We meet at a restaurant that one of our members has an "in" with and generally have a loud and rowdy time talking, eating, and playing a version of dirty Santa, except with yarn.  All in all it's generally a lot of fun.

As usual, work was fickle this afternoon and I thought I might not make it, but since by 6:00 the people I was waiting on still didn't know what they wanted me to do for tomorrow, I left work and went to the dinner.  (Of course now that I'm home I had to take care of what they finally decided they wanted prepared, but it beats sitting around work waiting).

I did take a few pictures, but they're all pretty much of people sitting and standing around tables talking and then things got fun and I got to talking and forgot to take any more pictures.  So I decided since you really couldn't see anything interesting in the pictures, I'd just leave them out.

Here, have a cute cat picture instead.....

Spinning My Wheels

I spent the afternoon in Chapel Hill with the Chapel Hill Spinners.  On the drive up, I had a plan.  That plan was to take lots of pictures of everyone spinning and all the lovely spinning wheels and spindles so I could share that with you here and fill up most of the page with pictures.

Yeah, well...I didn't take a single picture.  I got there and was having so much fun chatting and ooohing and aaahing over what everyone was doing that I just completely, and totally forgot until I was pulling out of the parking lot to head home.

There were a lot of lovely wheels and spindles and tons of gorgeous fiber being spun.  Maryann of Three Waters Farm also had some fabulous fiber for sale.

So even though my brilliant plan was a fail, you still get this post, just without all the pretty pictures.  But I did manage to get 2 oz. of my polwarth/silk spun and finished filling another bobbin, so you'll have to make do with a picture of that.

A little boring I know, but it will be fabulous when plied and dyed and knit into a sweater!

Anyway, if you're a spinner and live within a reasonable distance of Chapel Hill, come join us.  It's a friendly group of people of all kinds and very informal. If you're not a spinner, but would like to learn, Maryann does a free drop spindle lesson an hour before the meeting time every time we meet.  Meetings are once a month either on a Sunday afternoon or a Wednesday night and they're posted on the Facebook page linked above.  We're skipping August, so next meeting is September and the tentative date is September 17.

On Putting Yourself Out There

This picture is of my friend and coworker Wendy crossing the finish line of the Boston Marathon this year. Not only did she finish, but she beat her own personal marathon time record as well.

Wendy is an athlete.  She doesn't just run marathons, she has completed Ironman Triathlons as well. In other words, she swims 2.4 miles, bikes 112 miles, and THEN runs a marathon (26.2 miles).

I've always been in awe of Wendy and wondered how she managed to find the time for it all. I mean the training time alone must be hours every day, but she works the same crazy hours I work in the same stressful job, and on top of that she has two children still in elementary school.

I admire Wendy's dedication and commitment to her training. At times I think she's got to be a little bit of a freak for doing all that exercise, but maybe that's only because I can't seem to motivate myself to exercise at all. And except for an elevated Diet Coke consumption (but who can blame her), she's probably the healthiest eater I know.

Part of me has always looked at Wendy and thought "man, if I could only have everything so together".

But what I didn't know until recently is that Wendy's an alcoholic. We've worked together for 14 years, she's been in recovery for 4, but I only found out when Wendy started her blog, Active Recovery, in May and posted a link on Facebook for everyone on her friend list to see.

My initial reaction was shock. I mean how could I not have known or at least suspected right? Wrong, but that's not what I really want to talk about. What I realized after that was this was just another reason to admire her.

Not because she's an alcoholic, or even because she's an alcoholic in recovery, but because she's decided to put herself out there. Not only has she realized it's not shameful to admit you don't have or can't do it all, and it's o.k. to talk about it, but she's found the courage to admit it and talk about it with as many people as possible.

I struggle sometimes with what to say or post on this blog because I worry I might reveal too much or piss someone off. It's tempting to make your life sound idyllic when you have total control over what's being posted. It's also easy to tell someone else that their problems, issues, or weaknesses aren't shameful to talk about. But it's a lot harder to actually talk about when it's your own problems, issues, or weaknesses because in the back of your mind you're always wondering what others really think.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that although I've always wished I was a little more like Wendy in my eating and exercise habits (although you can probably forget the triathlon, and the marathon too), her bravery is what I really wish I could duplicate. Maybe someday.

Go read her blog, even if you've never had to deal with an addiction, it's an interesting and eye opening read.


*For those who might wonder, I did ask Wendy's permission to talk about her, but I didn't really tell her what I was going to say. And I totally stole the picture at the top of the page from her blog as well, hopefully she won't sue me.

84 Days & Counting

My daughter is getting married October 4th and today she had her first bridal shower hosted by my mother, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law.

Carey with the hostesses

Carey and the Jr. Hostesses, my two oldest nieces

Carey & me

There was food and fun, and of course lots of gifts.

My sister-in-law came up with lots of creative ideas, like this party favor of a mini bottle of shower gel with a tag that says "From my shower to yours".

The "traditional" ribbon hat was rather stunning don't you think?

Can you tell that her primary wedding color is purple? 

Many thanks to the hostesses, and to those friends and family that came to share in the festivities.  The count down has begun!

Friends & Fiber - Part 2

Although the fiber retreat was in Candor, just south of Asheville, we actually stayed in Burnsville, just north of Asheville because Roxie has a very kind friend Maryann that has a house there she lets us use on occasion.  Not having to pay for a hotel room really helps out and we REALLY appreciate her letting us stay (I don't think she even knows about this blog, so I'm not saying that just to suck up either).

Silk scarf dyed by Roxie

Roxie had a class Saturday morning to learn how to do another kind of dyeing, so we headed back down to the retreat for the morning.   The plan was to spend the morning at the retreat, have some lunch somewhere and then head back to the house to spend the afternoon crafting.  But the great thing about traveling with Michiele and Roxie is that plans can change and we all go with the flow.

The retreat was actually held at a middle school just up the road from the Friends & Fiberworks store, so after we left there we stopped by the actual store to browse around (and maybe make a couple of purchases).  While there we found out about yet another yarn shop just north of Asheville on our way back to Burnsville, so we had to stop there as well.  That store, The Knitting Diva, is relatively new, but it is an awesome store.  They dealt oh so well with our particular brand of crazy while we were there & we will definitely visit it again when we're back in the area.  I may have spent a little money in that one. (Have you been keeping count?  That's five yarns stores in the general Asheville area.)

Cute sheep outside Yummi Yarns

There's also a yarn shop in Burnsville called Yummi Yarns.  We had been there before, but they've moved to a new location since our last visit, so we had to check it out as well.  I did buy a skein of sock yarn there to make Rob another pair of socks.

By the time we got back to the house around dinner time, our massive crafting plans had dwindled a bit, but that doesn't mean we did nothing.  Michiele had brought her drum carder so I spent a little time turning some fiber I had dyed at Carolina Fiber Frolic, but wasn't really thrilled with into something that I may actually want to spin.

This, which was muddy and kind of compacted

Turned into these, which are light and airy and hopefully will be nice to spin

I also used the drum carder to blend two different colored fibers together into batts.

This became....

This

We took our time heading out Sunday.  We stopped by to see a former coworker of Roxie's who has recently moved to the area and then had a wonderful brunch at Kirkwood's Cafe before finally getting on the road.

Overall, a great time, and I can't wait to do it again!

Friends & Fiber - Part 1

I love the "epic" part

A couple of weekends ago I went to the mountains for the Friends & Fiberworks Summer Retreat with my friends Roxie and Michiele.  As usual when the 3 of us go somewhere, we had a great time, did a little shopping, and had a lot of laughs.

Friday afternoon Michiele & I took a class on Photographing Your Fiber with Franklin Habit.   This is the 2nd class I've taken with Franklin, and I just love him.  If we didn't both already have husbands I'd ask him to marry me.  But back to the class, although it doesn't show in any of the pictures in this post, I did learn a lot about how my little point and shoot camera works and tips for lighting, etc. that I can use even with my iphone.  Hopefully one of these days I'll sit down and go through my camera manual and really learn how to do something with all he taught us.

Miss Babs was also attending the retreat as a student and was in Franklin's class too.  She's a fiber celebrity in her own right because she dyes the most gorgeous yarn and fiber, so I had a double fan girl moment.

That's the only class I took, but there was a small market there, so I did a little shopping as well.  I bought my Cricket loom (the subject of yesterday's post) there as well as a little yarn and fiber.  But of course the shopping didn't end there.

We went into downtown Asheville where there are three shops that sell yarn, count them, three in one downtown!  Only one of them is exclusively a yarn shop, but the other two have more than just a small amount of yarn.  I managed to curb my spending and not buy anything at any of them except for a couple of pairs of needle tips I needed.

Check out the cute sock monkey ninjas!

And sock monkey pirates too!

The perfect accessory for UNC football games dontcha' think?  If I could find a pattern for this my entire family would get them for Christmas!

Also while we were downtown, Michiele proved that I am not the only person who has become obsessed with crafts.  When we were at the Carolina Fiber Frolic in March she learned how to eco-dye using plants and flowers.  As we were walking around she noticed some marigolds at the end of their life and couldn't resist deadheading them all so she could use them to dye.

I'm sure the Battery Park Apartments thanks her.

And all that was just Friday!  I'll tell you about the rest of the weekend tomorrow.

December Recap

I had good intentions of posting several  more times in December, but that obviously didn't happen, so here's a quick recap in pictures.

I finished the Christmas decorating Thanksgiving weekend, and although it took several hours and pretty much every single ornament I own, the 9+ foot tree was done.

 I spent most of the first week of December in Washington, DC for a conference.  Of course I found a local yarn shop and made some new knitting friends.  I highly recommend Looped Yarn Works as a great place to shop and also very welcoming to strangers for knit night.

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Most of the rest of the month was spent getting ready for the holidays.  Our daughter & her fiance and my in-laws came for a couple of days at Christmas. My parents and some friends here in town joined us for Christmas dinner as well.  

Somehow in all the hustle & bustle of present opening and socializing, I forgot to take pictures of the actual gift opening, but here's some evidence of the aftermath.

My daughter liked the sweater I knit for her.  She had picked out the pattern & yarn a couple of months ago, but had totally forgotten about it, so it was a surprise.

And my friend Nicole was happy with the shrug I knit for her.  She had picked out the pattern & yarn when I drug her to the yarn shop on our visit to PA in September.

A fitting gift for me this Christmas!  I got several other items I wanted, but this was the funny one.

So Christmas is over, all the decorations are put away, 2013 is gone and 2014 is here.  I've been thinking about goals for the year, and that's another post that I plan to write soon.

But for now, we're all wiped out around here.