wooster weekend

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events, projects, spinning and fiber, Uncategorized

what a beautiful weekend we had here—the weather was great, even with the thunderstorms, and there were lots of fun things to do. and no pressing duties for a few days, which made it all the more enjoyable.

our local fiber show at wooster, OH, was held this weekend and i went out saturday afternoon to see all the vendors. i didn’t take any pictures—shame on me. we had a thunderstorm shortly after i got there, so maybe it was all the water that kept me from taking my camera out.

once again the show was big and wonderful, with lots of regional producers there, including my buddy, chris (AKA briar rose), from michigan. her booth was hopping all day saturday. go briar rose!

i bought a very few things, so as not to burden my already-too-full yarn closet.

one bump of fiber and one kind of yarn—not too bad for me!

the fiber is very similar to the one i spun up and knit hypoteneuse from. it is soft jacob, some flax, and some silk noil. i know i will be sorry that i only bought the one bump, but i’ll get over it. it makes a beautiful tweed yarn, and i’m looking forward to spinning up something nice for david with it.

the yarn is from knitting notions. it is incredibly soft merino laceweight that is a little heavier—almost a fingering weight. this one is the ironstone color (you know i can’t resist a beautiful gray . . .). catherine is a wonderful dyer from tennessee; her husband makes gorgeous wood yarn swifts that also function as skein reels.

i got a new flyer hook and an oil bottle for the merlin wheel, since it didn’t come with any tools.

oh yeah, and a couple more of those spindle beads i fell in love with last year. i’ve enjoyed having one on my desk so much that i chose a couple of companions for it. i find these poieces incredibly soothing to look at and hold . . . worth their cost just for that alone. they are ceramic and finished with some sort of raku-type firing.

one disappointment was that my chair from walter turpening was not done—i had SO hoped to pick it up this weekend. we had a nice visit anyway, and he said it should be ready in late june. now that i have more than one spinning wheel, i’ll be needing it.

i did have one moment of semi-insanity as i walked out of the show. the judges had just awarded the prizes in the fleece competition and as i walked past the burgeoning tables, the “best of show” fleece and the “blue ribbbon” dark, fine-wool fleece were sitting right there, unsold. the price? $20 and $15 respectively. the producer was someone i bought from last year, too. i even had a credit with wooly knob mill for processing, and they were right there, managing the competition. sigh.

“matt, i think i want to buy these fleeces . . .”
“well, lemme check with mike and make sure he still wants to sell them; since they won such high prizes, he might want to keep them”
(phew!)
but the next day, they were indeed mine, and the producer was SO happy that i had come back to buy from them again. fortunately they are quite small; one is only 2.5 pounds, and the other is about 3.5 pounds. i SO don’t need these, but they are gorgeous (oh man; why don’t i have pictures??).

toward the end of the afternoon i went into town and found a good cup of coffe to sip while i waited to meet chris and her family for dinner. i sat in the window of the hungarian cafe/bakery, knit on my sock, and watched the rain fall

i always enjoy sitting alone in an unkown place and absorbing the atmosphere this way.

we ended the day with a great dinner at a local french bistro, specializing in fresh foods grown or raised locally . . . yummm! we talked and talked, and laughed and had a great time . . . it’s always SO good to spend time with friends that you don’t get to see often.
that chris can never send me home without a gift, and after dinner, handed me a bag with these goodies

a beautiful skein of wistful and one of grace.

on sunday i had a class with pat maley on tips and tricks for spinners. pat is a wonderful teacher from the cinncinati area who is a master spinner who has been at it since the 70s.

since i am largely self-taught as a spinner, i wanted to take a good class where i could learn more about all the techniques i use. i learned that most of the time i use long draw, and that i do know how to do worsted spinning, but i don’t use it very much. i learned to spin from the fold picked up lots of great advice.

the 6 hours just flew by and now i feel a lot more confident about my teaching. i had been feeling a little uncomfortable about taking students for handspinning and not really knowing if i was teaching good technique. turns out i was fine, but just didn’t understand some of the fine points between this or that.

after class i found debbieKnitter and her family, my friend karen, and we went fiber hunting for them. do we not look SO cute??

what the heck are we doing here? i’m sure some of you might recognize this pose from a certain spam email that has been going around. and if not, you can assume that this is how long we like our, um, fiber. or, at least that’s what we told kids.

we headed back to canton at the end of the day, with the mandatory stop at the dalton dariette for ice cream. karen’s son, jamie, is a real trip and i enjoy spending time with him.
(i can’t believe i don’t have pictures of any of this!)

i worked on the bee shawl last night while catching up with my mom and my aunt on the phone, and listened to more rain come down.

i’ve gotten through the first pattern section and have started working on the bee swarm. i even have a chart that seems correct.

today i had class to teach in the morning and rode my bike back and forth, since we’ve had beautiful weather all day. i wanted to get more done this afternoon, but succumbed to a big nap instead. sometimes, you gotta do it.

43 thoughts on “wooster weekend

  1. Ooo, sounds like a fabulous weekend. I’ve decided the pretty fiber & yarn pictures will excuse you for the lack of festival pictures… 😉

    PS I love your grays!

  2. Looks like you had a really great time at Wooster! You and Debbieknitter and your friend Karen look like you’re having a blast!

    Your sock is looking so great btw. I love the neat pattern, and the color is so soothing and warm. Speaking of socks, I’ll be starting to test knit the toe-up ones soon now, because my family had a nice picnic for memorial day and I was able to measure my Mom’s foot(that’s who I decided to make the socks for btw.)She loves socks, so she’s happy to get some made just for her.

    And as for the bee shawl, I can’t wait to see the next part taking shape!

  3. I have to ask – what is a spindle bead? My imagination thinks that it might be a weight to make a drop spindle spin more slowly, but I don’t know why that would be desirable, so I’m really curious.

  4. Sounds like you had a wonderful time! So often we’re so busy having the good time we forget to document it. But you did in your blog. Words can paint such a rich, full picture.

    Ahhh, rain, I remember it well! Down here in Georgia, we would love to have a good soaking.

  5. All that fiber and no pictures?? The shame of it!! I’m trying not to drool over what you brought home – especially the Briar Rose stuff!

  6. there isn’t much better than a wonderful thunderstorm, is there!
    Love all your new purchases- and that photo of you guys is hysterically funny!

  7. Lucky you, it sounds like you had a dream come true weekend. We all need one of those every so often. It’s like fuel to the fire, isn’t it?

    I guess we’ll be seeing some pictures this week?

  8. Sounds like a great time. Fiber, family and friends, what more could one want. 😉

    The bee shawl is so pretty. It is going to be so lovely.

  9. Sounds like an utterly fabulous weekend!

    I’ve never been to a fiber festival or show myself. I think I’m frightened that some sort of mania will grab hold of me and I’ll put myself in the poorhouse. Sounds as though you showed great restraint and kept yourself to a few careful, worthy selections. Good job, kiddo!

  10. Thanks for the yarn link! I’ve been thinking about lace a lot and looking for new yarns. I just spent a fortune though….

  11. Sounds like you had a good time! I wish we had more fiber events close by.
    The bee shawl is looking fabulous! I can tell I’ll be making one myself when it’s ready.

  12. So glad you like your fiber, um, long…. The bee looks awesome. Can’t wait to see it finished!!

  13. Sounds like the perfect weekend 🙂
    I love the lace yarn and all the fibery new goodies .
    I know where you are comong from re fleece as I have rather too many but so many of our guild members are farmers or wives of and bring them in so what can I do but give them a new home 🙂
    I too wanted to know what a spindle beads is, is it the same as a diz, for drawing carded fibre through?
    The spinning class sounded good ; its amazing how many options you have in spinning a yarn and I mainly spin from the fold unless I have a great long staple like on a Wensleydale or Teeswater which I am told can be used as a single for lacemaking.

  14. Lucky you to have such wool festivals, I bet they must be great fun, and indeed the fiber you got sounds great. I am also a self teaching (still in the process) spinner, and your class sounds very interesting. Sounds like a great week end you had, and v. nice knitting too!

  15. Excellent weekend adventure! Spindle beads? What are they?

    I love the grey yarn…..very nice!

  16. sounds like you had a great time. was that you walking around the fesitval on saturday in the knit skirt?
    I was going to stop you and thank you for the new addictions, via your blog links, that have increased my yarn stash and for the knitting inspiration.

  17. Ha! That picture kills me every time I look at it. At least we know how to have a good time at a fiber festival!

  18. What a wonderful weekend! You showed an incredible amount of restraint with the abundant temptations. Do you card your own fleece too? I like my chocolate bars to be about that size too. You are talking about candy bars…

  19. Sounds like a really fun weekend! I wish I could take spinning classes from you – I think you’d be a great teacher! Always wanted to learn to spin, but, alas, with two kids under 4 year old, perhaps I should wait until they invent a spinning wheel that doesn’t have to – well – “spin”! LoL.

    Good luck with your classes!

  20. sounds like you had a wonderful weekend. All the fiber is just yummy looking! You shawl is going to be gorgeous! I just finished my first lace scarf/wrap. I just purchased a drop spindle and I am going to try and teach myself how to spin with it. Got a book coming in the mail. I cant wait.

    Have a wonderful week!

  21. Wow, you’re lucky to walk out the door with a bag of yarn. My mother sends me home with coleslaw and potato salad.

    I love your knitting. It’s been a great inspiration to me. 😀

  22. It is hard to sit and knit from my stash after reading a post like yours–my fiber fairs aren’t being held until the fall. But thanks for the description of the Knitting Notions yarn. I checked their web site and see that they’ll be at Stitches East (so I have yet another obligatory stop). For some misguided reason, I keep thinking that it will be easier to choose between colors if I see them in the flesh instead of on line.

    The sock looks great. I think I’m a “brown fanatic” the way you are a “gray fanatic”, so these are particularly appealing.

  23. Ah, spindle beads. . .they’re to throw around your spinning wheel while you spin and chant. They keep evil yarn spirits away. Spindle beads.

  24. Beautiful donations from Chris. Sounds as if you had a lovely weekend, with lovely fiber to remember it by. Did Chris remember me?

    Blessings,
    Susan

  25. *snort,snicker,grunt* ummmmm, my husband noticed my hands seem to be showing a longer ….ummmm…fiber length…..men GEESH, they can never keep their minds out of the gutter.
    I must say, it was ALOT of fun and my kids LOVED it and so did Steve. Chris from Briar Rose is an absolute DOLL and I have a fantabulous photo of her, maybe if you guys beg her, she’ll let me post it. *sheepish grin* I had to beg and plead for a picture with me and then she held me at knitter’s knife point and made me PROMISE not to post it. *giggle* ok, maybe SOMETIMES I can be a bit dramatic!

  26. Now this is interesting–there’s flax in that bump of fiber? What’s it like to spin a flax blend? Is it easy to draft?

    I’m glad you had such a good weekend. How awesome that you got to hang out with Briar Rose Chris! 🙂 And I get so excited to see progress on the Shawl of Bees… once I finish my Hyrna (soon!) I’m keeping the lace needles clear for this pattern. 🙂

  27. Hi, What a fantastic sounding show and a great load of goodies you’ve had!
    I’m after buying some of your patterns after Mum pointed me in your direction but I’m not sure how to go about buying more than one at a time – can you help?! Thanks for such inspiring posts!

  28. Sounds like a VERY fun (relaxing!) weekend!! And you even had some rain, which sounds even better.

  29. WOW…but I have to know, how much is the spinning chair? I love the look of it, jut don’t know what hubby would say about needing another chair!

  30. I’m so happy that you had a great time.

    I can’t wait to see the Bee Shawl complete. I’ve been reading about the disappearing honey bees. No one knows what happened to them – they’re just gone. No dead bees, no sick bees, they just left and never came back. Maybe your shawl will call them home.

  31. Where are the spindle beads from? They look so pretty!
    Is the name from the shape or can they be used as such? I really like your bee shawl too!

  32. Hi! This is Lou Ann (or Mary Lou). Pat, Nancy and I went to the Wooster show on Sun. It was our first show and we were really impressed. I never knew there were so many kinds of sheep. Being a redhead I particularly liked the red headed ones. We bought a little, but just really drank in information and listened. Thanks for telling us about the show in class.

  33. Hi! This is Lou Ann (or Mary Lou). Pat, Nancy and I went to the Wooster show on Sun. It was our first show and we were really impressed. I never knew there were so many kinds of sheep. Being a redhead I particularly liked the red headed ones. We bought a little, but just really drank in information and listened. Thanks for telling us about the show in class.

  34. That picture of the three of you is simply TOO FUNNY!

    Glad you had a great time… and my my that Briar Rose yarn sure does look yummy.

  35. Fiber festivals make for a really great weekend!! I agree that you showed great restraint. Something always comes over me at festivals and at the end of the day, I am always leaving with more than I planned :)! But it’s fun!!

    I have like 3-4 skeins of sock yarn to donate for a prize – I’ll send you a picture tonight or tomorrow if that’s ok.

  36. I must have left just before you got there! We literally were running to the car as the storm was starting. I was not as restrained as you were, though!

    By the way I can’t wait to see the final bee shawl.. seeing it progress has been fascinating.

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