Moth Heaven

It's Time For Fiber Revival Again!

I peeked at the calendar and WOW! It's almost August 13th. Which means for me, and hopefully for you if you live (or are vacationing two weeks from now) in the Greater Boston slash North Shore slash Coastal New Hampshire slash Southern Maine area, it's time for Fiber Revival! Shucks Connecticut spinners, you all come up here too!

There's going to be a Vintage Baseball Triple Header in the back field to keep your partners and kiddos entertained while you shop and hang out with us, and all the usual suspects of a great fiber-filled day with your kind.

Directions, details, and classes are listed on the website, but here's a list with contact links for registration with the individual teachers:

• Crazy Colors, Wild Yarn
• Cables for Every Knitter
• Spinning Super-Fine Yarns
• Needle Felting for All Ages

• Knit a One of a Kind Shawl
• Spinning Bulky Yarn
• Knitted Wrap Necklace
• Introduction to Drop Spindling
• Intro to Spinning Cotton on a Support Spindle

Vendors this year are:

• A Loom With a View
• Enchanted Knoll Farm
• Hair of the Dog
• Parker River Alpaca Farm/Wildest Dreams Alpaca Farm
• Pinestar Studio
• Spunky Eclectic
• The Merlin Tree
• The Woolen Rabbit
• The Yarn and Fiber Company
• Yarns in the Farms

We'll have the North of Boston (NOBO) Handweavers Demonstration Tent:

the return of the Ipswich Ale Tapmobile:

And alpacas:

And don't forget the giant shady maples overhead.

You just never know what you might see or learn. Don't forget to bring a chair.

Some Enchanted (Knoll) Saturday

I am WAY behind in keeping the blog up to date.

How behind? Let's just say there are whole weeks in April that need to be accounted for. In the meantime, let's just talk about a certain Saturday before I have to turn the calendar page again.

Up to three weeks ago, I had spent probably all of 10 dedicated minutes of my whole life in the company of Josette McWilliams of Enchanted Knoll (here's her Ravelry fan club), and I tell you dear reader, it was enough to convince me that she is one of life's great souls. But alak, she lives in environs of Maine into which my personal orbit does not regularly reach, and so I have to content myself with my paltry annual allotment at SPA to bask in her company.

As my own personal fiber Rasputin, Kelly suggested that all it would take to get Josette out of Maine and into our company, and perhaps (while she's here) to teach us some of her secrets would be the mere mention of her name in the same sentence as "workshop" and "my house" to our local spinning friends. In other words: we could pay her to hang out with us, and get our friends to help us foot the bill.

So it goes.

Josette took the bait, mostly I think because she knows my husband is generous with the wine, and she wouldn't have to cook dinner.  I have loved her sparkly fiber as long as I have known about it (and sparkly batts we made), but the general blending exercises she had us do solved so many of the carder mysteries I have suffered from since I started spinning. All of a sudden, I'm using the carder that my husband bought for me my first spinning Christmas (the boys get the tool aspect of the spinning, don't they?) that has sat in the studio with the neppy remnants of my first washed fleece still clinging to the uptake drum.

We took scoured fleece from clumpy locks to top-like consistency, we added sari silk and firestar to plain white top to make what she calls Birthday Cake, and we played a fun game I'll call Fiber Craps, which involved a pile of mystery fibers and mix-ins that Josette calls "spices", a pair of dice, and some bartering skillz. The idea is that you can take a fiber you may not like very much, and transform it with a little creative carding. And you might get this if you're lucky (or simply Kellee Middlebrooks):

or this (if you turf most of your original fiber and just use the mix-ins):

or something you can wear as a hat:

And then you can sit around for the rest of the day and spin up what you carded.

And eat a load of pizza.

 

Prank Knit-in for Julia Roberts

Like you, I am waiting for Julia Roberts to make The Friday Night Knitting Club.

Her status as a celebrity who knits is widely known, so it's already viral in the knitosphere that Tom Hanks recently staged a prank knit-in on the set of the movie she's been making instead (with Tom, and who could blame her?) Larry Crowne. Have you seen this yet?

 

 

My favorite line? "All you need for knitting is a girlfriend to get you started."

Tour de Fleece

I've been watching the Tour de France this week, and taking great inspiration from the guys on their bikes. I've been following a pretty dedicated workout regimen, and also getting some spinning done. First, I tackled the remainder of some Spunky Eclectic BFL/Silk that was languishing on the Watson (colorway Toronto):

All that became about 450 yards of worsted weight. This is destined to be part of a sweater project I have in my head.This is what it looks like pre-wet finishing (I'm a little impatient with the photos)

And also languishing was an Enchanted Knoll batt in the colorway Hath:

I'm not sure what I'll do with the sparkly Hath when it's plied and done, but there will likely be enough sport weight for a shawl of some sort, or maybe as a three ply it would make a fun hat. I'm still exploring the capabilities of the Hitchhiker I bought last fall at Fiber Revival. I originally thought it would be a travel wheel and limited in what it could do, but I underestimated the pleasure I get from this quirky little wheel. I've been spinning on it all over the house (but not in the bathroom, which I state only because I bet you were about to wonder about that. But you know, it would be possible . . . )

Meanwhile, forgive me for the closed comments. I've been getting spammed lately, and will be keeping the gates shut for a bit. You can contact me if you need to through Ravelry where I am juliafc, or use the email link in the sidebar.