County fair recovery

I feel like a truck has hit me after spinning at the county fair for the past five days. We all had such a good time visiting with the public and with each other at the fair but I'm sure glad not to be sitting on one of those metal folding chairs anymore! Today is recovery day getting weekend fiber orders ready to ship and possibly taking pictures of new handwoven scarves to list in the etsy shop. I desperately need to work in the flower beds but the back won't allow it after the week at the fair........there's always tomorrow.

The forest fire keeps growing but it's really very controlled....well, the occasional blow-up occurs but it's been happening within the lines being formed. All the fire fighters are doing a great job with containment lines and controlled back burning. Of course with that back burning comes more smoke and yesterday morning my windshield was covered with ash.....although hard to tell from all the dirt and dust from the fair parking lot. So far this morning it's clear over our house, maybe the wind is blowing the other direction.

No pictures today but two announcements to make that may be of interest to those here in Southern Oregon/Northern California.

First I will be teaching another beginning drop spindle class at Llamas & Llambs Boutique in Jacksonville, OR on October 28th from 1pm-4pm. Cost is $35 per person, cd spindle, fiber and handout included. Please contact the shop to sign up at 899-9141.

Second, there is a Fiber Farm Festival coming up next Saturday. Unfortunately I already had plans when it was organized so I can't be there selling my wares, but I have it on my calendar for next year. It sounds like a very fun event, my friend Karen from Liongate Farm is pulling it together.

First Annual Fiber Farm Festival

Craft & Fiber Artisans

August 28th 9am-6pm

14314 East Evans Creek Rd., Rogue River, OR (there will be sheep signs showing the way)

Meet your talented local fiber artists and producers

Wander through the fiber farm merchandise. Includes raw and processed fibers, yarn, fiber arts and crafts, pelts, felted art, folk art, sewn items, farm produce and more.

Experience the demonstrations. Spinning, felting, carding, knitting, rope making and more

Be inspired!

Enjoy the farm atmosphere

Relax and work on your projects with us (or enjoy your new stuff)

Enjoy a snack from the starving college students refreshments

Fibery weekend

This is what's left from my drop spindle class earlier today, dumped in the studio hallway until tomorrow. Still a big pile to sort and put away but at least I'm minus some student bags with fibers, cd drop spindles and a handout (brown bags on the right). This class was at Middleford Yarn, wonderful yarn shop and nice place to teach. What a great group I had in my class, very fun gals. They were all spinning and plying yarn by the end of the 3 hours, I'm hoping everyone had fun. I realize spindle spinning is not for everyone but I hope some of them continue on. I love enabling others into the fibery goodness lifestyle.......and these gals being knitters and one beginning weaver are pretty much there anyhow, we just went down another avenue.

Yesterday I gave a presentation to a PEO group my friend Paula is a part of. Another nice group of gals - boy, I really met some wonderful people this weekend. None of them are weavers but I think they enjoyed learning about weaving so when they see it in the future they'll understand the process - a few even sat at the loom and threw the shuttle. From what I understand the PEO organization is about celebrating the advancement of women, I think they raise money for scholarships/education for women.

Tomorrow was to be a dye day but I'm not feeling it right now.........besides I haven't weighed out any fiber. So tomorrow I'll spend some time at the scale weighing out roving for dyeing, perhaps Tuesday & Wednesday will be dye days...........

Finally finished plying

I finally finished plying the blue faced leicester I had been spinning - took the better part of two evenings to do it - plying is so very boring. This was roving I bought on sale last fall at OFFF from Dicentra Designs........I know, I know, I have no business buying any roving - I have a walk-in closet full of fiber to spin plus I dye my own, but I couldn't resist this at 50% off. It turned out more grass green than I was expecting but I like it.....no clue as to what it will be knit/woven in to yet.......it will sit on the shelf and marinate for a bit. There are 860 yards in a size similar to fingerweight commercial yarn.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time shooting and editing pix of 20 scarves that will be up for sale, some locally, some on etsy. I was also doing research on surface design for a guild presentation in May. Need to start working on a presentation for the local chapter of the American Sewing Guild - they will be coming here to my studio in late April to learn about weaving/spinning - from what I understand these two arts/crafts are new to them. Hmm, I'm an expert at enabling I wonder who I can lure over to the fiber side.

Tomorrow I'll be teaching another drop spindle class at Llamas & Llambs in Jackonsville. These classes are always fun - it's so gratifying to see someone learn how to spin and really enjoy it. I'd say the majority of my students have kept with it - many buying wheels and for those that decided it's not the craft for them they didn't have to invest a lot of money to find that out....and they had fun in the class.

Drop spindle class

I'll be teaching another drop spindle class on Monday, September 22nd, from 1-4pm at Llamas & Llambs Boutique in Jacksonville. If you're local and interested in attending contact the shop at 541-899-9141. No materials necessary - inexpensive CD drop spindles included in the cost of the class ($35 per person), enough wool for the class and more practice at home and a handout. If you own a niddy noddy bring it, but it's not necessary, I'll have some there for people to use.