Woolybuns

Worth The Wait

Several years ago when mobius knitting first caught my eye, I signed up for a mobius scarf knitting workshop at a LYS and bought the same yarn used for the sample scarf.  I planned it as a gift.  I tucked the yarn on the top shelf of a bookcase in my living room and promptly forgot all about the workshop until after I'd already missed it.  I know now it was the yarn's doing.  The yarn was from Steadfast Fibers, one skein of Wonderful Wool and one of Marvelous Mohair, both dyed in a luscious colorway named Columbine: pastel blue, lilac and pink.  Once I realized I'd missed the class, I decided I would use the yarn for me.  And  never did.  All these years through all the people moving in and out and back in again and out, etc, the yarn sat there on the top shelf of the bookcase.  Waiting.  Silently.  Occasionally I would look at it, maybe even pet it, and promise to knit it soon.  And never did.  And then Beth had her stroke.  I made a Bobble Hat using my mother's handspun in a show of hope and support for Beth, and fell deeply in love with her Bobble Hat pattern.  As lots of folks knti Bobble Hats, Beth rallied   And then the Steadfast Fibers yarns spoke up.  They didn't want to be a mobius scarf.  Someone else already turned that combination of yarns and colorway into a magnificent mobius.  The skeins I purchased wanted to be unique.  And because I'd purchased it as a gift, that beautiful yarn insisted on following through with the gift theme.  All  the elements came together and Saturday - yes, just 2 days ago - I cast on for another Bobble Hat using that beautiful yarn, to make a birthday present for another woman who has faced significant medical challenges in her life.  Her birthday is today.  I finished the hat this morning and like tearing off a bandaid quickly so it doesn't hurt as much, I promptly delivered the hat to its new home because if I didn't, I'd have kept it for myself.  I figured I'd just track down the yarn and make another one because some experiences are just so good you have to repeat them.  Sadly, the yarn, like the LYS, no longer exists.  But one of the great things about producing my own fibers and yarn?  I can recreate that yarn in that colorway.  And it will be so worth the effort.

Harpers Ferry

Harpers Ferry is a town and a national Park, and worth a visit, even in the rain.  History, charm, scenery, quirky cute shops,  museums, and good food. It sits at the  confluence of the  Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, and that photo on the far right is  where the rivers join.  The rivers give the  town a wild ride.  Floods have been devastating, wiping out the town more than once.  History, too, has been hard on the town, because it was home to the US arsenal and armory.  Remember your history lessons about John Brown's raid?  Yep.  Harpers Ferry is  where  that took place.  And then there was the Civil War/War Between the States/the Late Unpleasantness which wreaked as much havoc or more as the floods.    Last weekend happened to include a banjo workshop held in the train station.  At the end of the workshop on Sunday, the teachers of the workshop put on a public performance.  The banjo playing was old style, and was supported by assorted  percusion instruments, including the jawbone of possibly a horse?  Also, a couple of fiddlers.   A really fun day, enjoyed in many ways. 

Work Is Fun But Fun Is Funner

I am grateful that I can work at something I love - fibers and bunnies, of course - so it's a bit hard to call it work.  But it  does get exhausting.  Sometimes, a run away from home refreshes the spirit, renews the muse.  Last weekend was just such an adventure.  Picking up a nail in my tire Sunday evening 380 miles from home wasn't quite so much fun but did provide an excuse to stay an extra night.

I met up with a non-fiber friend (that's allowed sometimes, right?) and we took a leisurely stroll through Great Falls Park, starting on the Maryland side then meandered over to the Virginia side.  Before we set off on our stroll, we had ice cream.  A little girl - 7 or 8 maybe? - stopped short when she saw me with my ice cream and asked what's that you're eating?  Ice cream sandwich, I said.  Then she asked, did you eat lunch first? LOL  No, I didn't.  Why not?  Yes.  Taken to task by a stranger's child.  Hahaha  I wanted to jump up and go get the girl an ice cream of her own.  Fortunately, her mother promised her an ice cream after their walk.  From there, the day was all about  scenery.  I did remember my camera and the battery lasted through much of the Maryland side.  Look Look closely and you can see a blue heron flying towards another blue heron standing on the rocks.  You can't see the fish that the heron on the rocks (is that a drink?) has in his beak. 

On a different set of rocks, two young and foolish men flirted with a dip in the river.   Look closely and you can see the top of one's head between the lower rocks.  He was paddling his feet in the river.  The other foolish young man is on top of the sharply curved rock and he acted as if he planned to dive in.  Which is why the Park Service posts signs like this one.

There was ample evidence of flooding.   Wildlife.   And the mules who pull the barge on the canal.   

Swimming, hot tub, and a delicious dinner rounded out the day. 

And then there was Sunday's excursion.   Also lots of photos, so that will be a post for another day.  In the meantime, I'll see what mischief I can get into today.

Whew!

Wow!  It's been a busy few weeks of travel and fun.  I gathered a lot of blog fodder but no energy to post.  There was NH sheep and wool with all it's rain and cold which did not stop  you fiberistas one little bit.  We vendors love that about you, and appreciate it.  Thank you all for another successful year!  Some of the fibers are still available: cormo, silk, angora in orange, yellow and green stripe; cormo, angora, and alpaca in soft shades of lilac, blue and pink;  dyed angora; cormo and angora dyed cherry red; and I have to look to see what else.  Email me for more info.  I did come home with another fleece.  Seems the shephard I have been getting my cormo from appreciates what I do with her wool.  She traded me the fleece for some of my angora blend rovings made from her wool! 

The weekend after that, I traveled to friend Leslie of Greenberry House.  It often times feels like I've gone to a Brigadoon.  To get there, I travel part way on the Blue Ridge Parkway, often through fog, which clears as I arrive in Leslie's lovely little town.  I have no cell phone service while I'm there, and only limited internet access.  And that suits the visit.  There, I am surrounded by peace and friendship and fiber and a great little breakfast nook outside the shop.  Visiting Leslie in her marvelous mystical village is enough, but we combine our spring visit with vending at Sedalia Fiber Festival.  The festival takes place at Sedalia Arts Center in Big Island, VA.  It's a small but oh so sweet, and definitely growing, festival, with amazing raffles.  This year's big raffles included a Strauch drum carder, a spinning wheel, and a loom.  Two amazing women, Dianne and Dana, pull this together.  I thought I was the only one wacky enough to travel quite a distance to attend this festival, so imagine my surprise when, as I was buying raffle tickets, someone suddenly bellowed out "it *is* Woolybuns!"  Noolie Knits, all the way from Maine!   A bit later, Noolie dropped by the booth and introduced me to her friend who is perhaps the nuttiest of the three of us.  Marianne traveled all the way from Oklahoma for this festival!  We had only a brief time to chat but connections happened.  Another friend there was Sally, and her daughter who brings along her chair massage.  What a great thing!  Ten minute massage for 10 bucks, one early in the day, another just before the end of the festival.  I highly recommend it! I also indulged and bought a jar of her chocolate body polish.  She put a jar in the ladies room so many of us had deliciously soft hands that weekend.  I was good (or too busy, more like it) with my purchases.  I bought from the booth next to us two ounces of tussah silk dyed in shades of orange matching some of the angora I had for sale.  Matching shades of luscious fibers in the booth right next door.  I had to buy it.  You know you would too.  

Were those two back to back weekends of working fun enough?  No.  Of course not.  This past Saturday and Sunday I took a mini vacation.  But that's another post.

Getting Ready

With NHSW in just a couple days, I've been playing in the dye pots again.   The weather has been very kind   to me for drying the foof.  In damp times, angora can take forever to dry.  But yesterday's beautiful hotness (until it rained) sucked the wet right out of my freshly colored fibers.  I got lots of fun fluffing time last night.  There are 3 more lots of angora out on the deck now, along with half a pound of tussah silk, though the silk is not going to NH this weekend.  I threw it in the pot because the pot had more dye than the angora wanted, so I sopped it up with silk.  I have a blend in mind that will debut sometime later.  I haven't had my work space (again) this year, so I'd been worrying that I didn't have enough product for the booth.  Last night, in between foofing fibers and finishing up with the dye pots, I pulled out the bags of fiber blends that will be available in NH.  Well.  Turns out there are 8 lawn and leaf bags full of fibers.   Now I can worry whether I can fit it all into the car.  But first I have to make a new sign for the booth.