Yesterday we had an all-day needle felting workshop at the shop. I had so much fun, I couldn’t stop making things!
We did “paintings” with fiber:
And 3-d objects:
And then I tried to make an ornament (mine is the one that is decidedly not ornament-sized, the other one is one the instructor gave me):
Finally, I brought home some layers of wool to try wet-felting. Carrie and I pounded at it for a bit and wound up with nice, thick wool felt:
Felting is fun!
Do you remember the autumn-colored merino I bought at the Hemlock fiber festival? Well, first I turned it into this:
This is the first yarn I’ve spun that I’ve felt was worth knitting into something, and I’m very, very happy with how it came out!
…world’s smallest knitter!
We’ve been hosting the World’s Biggest Sock Attempt at our shop for the past week, and this morning I sat Carrie on my lap and helped her knit a few stitches on it. She actually really got the hang of how the needles moved, she just had some trouble with wrapping the yarn.
So now, when she’s older and people ask her when she learned to knit, she can legitimately say she learned when she was three! (We chanted the children’s knitting rhyme while she did it: “In through the front door, once around the back, peek through the window, and off jumps Jack”.)
So we’ve all been sick, all week, and when Carrie woke up at 3:30 AM Saturday with a 102° fever we decided to call off today’s party. I can’t say I wasn’t just a tiny bit relieved, since being sick all week I’ve done nothing around the house.
However, I have done something with my knitting needles! I’ve finished Carrie’s green cabled jacket:
Here’s a bit of detail to show off the fabulous texture and the perfect green buttons:
And a couple of model shots. She likes it, she really, really likes it!
I always go to festivals with a dollar amount firmly fixed in my mind that I will not go over. And then, of course, there’s one or two things I can’t leave without and that number goes *way* out the window. (Luckily, I know this, so I set my dollar amount much lower than it should be!)
At least I didn’t come home with the Kromski Symphony I tried. It was close though, because that wheel was really, really nice. But I have my Minstrel and I’m going to research and try out other portable wheels before I commit to anything new.
So what did I come home with?
Part one:
Part two:
Um, I think that’s it. Oh, wait, I bought a pair of needles too, but they’re already buried in a project.
For more pictures of what Carrie & I did at Rhinebeck (I inexplicably didn’t end up with any pictures of my Mom, my aunt, or Van…) here’s an album. (Kodak EasyShare Gallery, requires sign-in.)
Let’s see…
We drove to Denis’ parents’ place on Thursday. First long car trip with a potty-trained toddler = the longest car trip ever. But we arrived with a dry kid and a dry car, so we did good. Of course, we also arrived with a sleeping kid who promptly woke up and wouldn’t go back to sleep until 1 AM. Sigh.
Friday we had a wedding to attend. We missed the ceremony because it was raining cats and dogs and traffic was crawling along at about 10 miles per hour. But we did make it to the reception, which was as interesting as all Long Island receptions are. (I’ll never understand the dancing during dinner thing…) This time we managed to pick up a sleeping kid from one house, put her in the car, put her in bed, and get away with it.
Saturday was spent at Denis’ sister Mary’s house. Carrie had such incredible fun with her cousins that she was begging to stay longer. It reminded me of all the times I’d hide in my cousin’s closet thinking that if my parents couldn’t find me they’d just leave without me when it was time to go. As if! And despite being in PJs and a night diaper, she didn’t fall asleep in the car, and in fact not until sometime after I finally fell asleep myself.
Sunday we got up bright and early, had breakfast and took an incredibly scenic route to Rhinebeck! Between the foliage, the wool, the llamas, and did I mention the wool?, I was in heaven. Carrie seemed to really enjoy it too, especially when we happened upon some jugglers and when I dragged myself away from the wool and took her on all the kiddie rides. More about Rhinebeck tomorrow when I take pictures of all my new goodies!
Sunday night was spent in a hotel where…guess what? The kid didn’t sleep. Well, she did, but not until 11:00. At least it was better than previous nights, right?
And we finally got home today after a nice scenic trip home, during which the kid (finally) slept. The dogs are happy to see us, and are very lucky not to be listed on Ebay today. Apparently one of them got into my half- quarter-finished Mystery Lace Stole and did quite a job on it, but my Mom and Van spent hours earlier today re-winding the yarn and picking dog fur out of it, and miraculously it’s unharmed. Lucky dogs.
Carrie and I are going to Rhinebeck this Sunday, and I really want to have her cabled jacket done. I have all but half of one sleeve knit and then just assembly and the collar. I could manage all that in the car, right?
Knitting Daily had a poll about the number of UFOs we each had. I had to try to do a physical count, and I came up with 18. That counts everything from things I know I’ll never finish to socks without mates.
Don’t ask me about sewing, quilting, spinning or anything else. That was just knitting UFOs.
Here’s what I got at the festival:
At the top of the basket, two bean soup mixes from Healthy Sisters’ Soup & Bean Works and one of two 4 oz. hanks of hand-painted merino from High Bid Farms (the other is already half spun on my wheel – which is at the shop or I would have included the bobbin in the picture.)
The big plastic bag on the right is a sampler fiber pack from Spinning Bunny, in the “Roses for You” colorway. I thought it might be a good idea to try spinning a small amount of a variety of fibers before committing to, say, a merino/tencel spin-your-own socks kit. (Was very, very, very tempted by that sock kit.)
The bottom center of the basket has a 4 oz. ball of gray Jacob wool from High Bid Farms and a hand-made sheep ornament. I wanted something less colorful to spin on my drop spindle for practice.
The left side of the basket has two 4 oz. balls of alpaca/merino/silk from Spinning Bunny. Couldn’t pass on these, the colorway (Autumn Sunset) and that particular blend of fibers was too much to resist.
The center of the basket contains a hand-hooked sheep pin, gray (how exciting) cotton/bamboo sock yarn (so that I can finally make Denis a pair of socks that fit and don’t contain wool), and my Bosworth drop spindle with some of the Jacob wool. Also, there are two wood tools: first, a diz from Millpoint Emporium. I’ve never used a diz, nor am I entirely sure why I’d want one, except that I have a weak spot for exquisitely crafted wood tools. Which leads me to the last item: a nostepinne my dad made from Cocobolo wood…and that I may have gushed over so much that he had no choice to give it to me. He made others to sell in our booth, but mine’s the nicest. ;) Here are the others he’s made so far:
All in all, a bit more than I’d usually buy at a festival, but since I’m actively spinning some of my new fiber already I’m not feeling particularly guilty. Oh, and not shown: a black & white sheepdog stuffed animal to go with Carrie’s sheep and llama from previous years.
There’s a small chance that I’ll actually make it to Rhinebeck next month, and if I’ve spun that merino/tencel sample successfully and Spinning Bunny is there…I’m so getting myself a spin-your-own socks kit!
This year for the fiber festival, I didn’t just buy stuff – although I did do plenty of that! – I also sold stuff. That was a really wild experience! On Saturday our booth was packed full of knitters. The line was never less than six people deep, even with three of us writing up receipts and making change. The weather was cold and rainy, but it didn’t seem to stop people from coming to the festival. Here are a couple of pictures of our booth before the fairgrounds opened:
Sunday was much less busy, so I actually got to walk around for a bit and enjoy the sights myself. Sunday was much worse for my wallet! But the weather was beautiful, so Denis and Carrie drove down and met me there for a couple of hours and we had a really good time.
Carrie especially loved the maple flavored cotton candy – her first cotton candy ever – and wouldn’t let go of the bag even for a picture.
