Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival - day 1

Last Saturday was a most perfect beautiful September day. What could be better than be at a Fiber Festival? It was the first time this one was ever held. The location: the Washington County (NY) Fairgrounds.


All in all there were 90 vendors. We were all indoors in solid buildings, which was perfect because the next day turned out to be rainy.

Can you see all this space? Vendors and customers alike were very happy to have this much space to walk around in. Strollers, wheelchairs, walkers, whole entire families? No problem.


Here's Laurie (l) and Kay (r), setting up before show time.

Our sock yarns side by side....thanks guys for giving me an entire rack to display my yarn on!

We also had with us a tremendously talented basket maker, felter, and weaver. And llama yarn from a local farm.

Yeah, it got kinda busy there for a while. Who can resist all the fiber-y goodness?

Catie (ctr) comes to see us every year at Rhinebeck. Here she is with her mom and daughter. Her mom is wearing Catie's first lace project ever, an Icarus Shawl.

We were admiring Catie's self-designed purple shawl - she had gotten the yarn from us last year. It was exquisite. I believe it is based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi shawl. She added beads to the edging.

Later in the day I got to wander around our barn for a while.

I'll leave you today with this amazing needle felted work of art, which was about five feet tall:

uncategorized

What a week!
On Thursday I was still sort of hung over from what happened on Wednesday. Which I got to spend with my friend Abi and her family and a whole crew of professionals from Berroco who were there to do a photoshoot for an upcoming pattern book. As soon as I walked in they made me (in a nice way) swear and cross my heart that I would not publish any photos with any of the model garments in them before the official release of the pattern book in January, so unfortunately you will not get to see very many of the 175 pictures I took that day. Some may have been of chickens and changing leaves, which was my way of pinching myself. I could not believe what I was witnessing - it was so cool.

Here's Abi getting her hair done by Cheyenne, the stylist.


Here's our beloved Norah Gaughan, who supervised the whole shoot. Thank you Norah for letting me take your picture.




Cirilia Rose designed the line of sweaters. Watch out for her - a major talent at Berroco! Also one of THE nicest people on this planet. I just love her. Here she is discussing ....I'm so sorry I was busy with the pictures I didn't get what she and Norah were saying....

Don't you love the setting??



I am sure I will be able to show you more pictures once I've sifted through them all.

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To switch gears on you, here's a fingerless mitt I made last night, a pattern from the Fall 2009 issue of Knitscene magazine, Lace Twist Mitt. I used Periwinkle Sheep watercolors superwash merino worsted. My favorite worsted weight yarn, if I may say so myself.

Poor mitt, I wonder if it will ever get a mate. I followed the pattern exactly, but for future pairs would make a couple of changes, such as decrease more stitches than indicated at the top. I think it flares a bit too much. Also I needed more stitches for the thumb. However I really like the stitch pattern and will definitely make more of these!

And here comes the point of shameless self-promotion: I just listed these four colors on etsy. Just in case you would like to try a skein yourself. If you need several for a bigger project, please just contact me.

Periwinkle Sheep watercolors superwash merino worsted

in Juniper, Sweet Plum, Suede, and Caramel.

And if you're not tired of reading yet, please remember I will be in the

• Sliver Moon booth this Saturday and Sunday, at the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival (Washington County Fairgrounds)
• Dyenamics Yarn booth at the Vermont Sheep and Woolfest on October 3 and 4, in Tunbridge, VT
• Sliver Moon booth at Rhinebeck, the New York State Sheep and Woolfest, October 17 and 18.

There will be lots and lots of hand dyed goodness.

Have a great weekend!

some minor news

Just popping in real quick to tell you that I just saw Air Force One fly over my house -- the president paid the Capital Region a quick visit here today. Aannnd to tell you that I put more yarn in my etsy shop . Thanks for taking a peek!! You can see some of the yarn in action here ... I am sorry but I never get tired of looking at that baby.

Who with his mom and dad and brother and sister will be modeling Berroco garments pretty soon, as you can figure out by reading Abi's blog some more. This of course means I'll be making the trek up to Bennington again this week. Yes I went to the quilt show and had a fabulous time. More about that tomorrow, on the Other Blog.

Gotta run. Happy Browsing! wink

a pain in the elbow

I have finally had to admit to myself that the pain in my right elbow was beyond being a nuisance and was begging to be dealt with. Yesterday I took myself to the doctor and assented to a cortisone shot - tendonitis.
Funny enough, knitting has not bothered me at all, up to this point, but the shot completely incapacitated me for the last day and a half. Nobody told me it could be this bad. I can't eat or brush my teeth with my right arm, and I feel like someone else has been doing these things for me. I am so incredibly right handed...my left hand is learning to take over, but it feels awkward.

Anyhow, I am told that resting the arm will help speed the recovery, which means no knitting (!) and no dyeing yarn (!). Thank goodness I still have some yarn in stock for now and was able to put a few colors up on etsy. The response has been a good one so far - thank you!! Now I need to figure out how to further spread the word.

I hope you will have yourself a nice fall weekend - I'm debating whether I should drive to Vermont and go to the Bennington Quilt Festival, since knitting, gardening, and housework are off limits...what do you think? Drive left handed?

don't ask, but do tell!

This is just a very short post telling you that I have an etsy shop. Finally.

I am still getting the hang of it all - photographing the skeins in the most favorable light, writing appropriate descriptions, tagging, etc.

The shop is called The Periwinkle Sheep, of course.

My user name is franknit. I am from a part in Germany called Franken, which is a beautiful region in Northern Bavaria. I like to remember and honor my roots as I look to the future with my new endeavor.

My first posted skein already sold last night - thank you to the angel that bought it!

new colorways

Over the weekend, I dyed 3 new colorways in Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn, which is the 80%superwash merino/20% nylon blend, at 420 yds/skein.

First up, a mellow color, reminiscent of ... sandy dunes? Bleached out shells you found on the beach this summer?

"Memories of Summer"

An overdye in the kettle produced this yummy color:

"Pumpkin Bread"

And thirdly, but not less yummy-ly,

"Plum Crumble"

These are available upon request at the shops in my sidebar, and also at the fall fiber festivals listed there.

Thanks for looking!