Wooly Headed

This is just a quick post to explain what I've been up to. Busy, busy, busy is all. Too busy to blog. I was at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend. It was my first time as a vendor at this event. It's definitely the sheep-iest of all the fiber shows I do. I loved the sheep and the sheep dog trials. In fact, I fell in love with a border collie puppy named Winston who was looking for a home. He looked at me with his big brown eyes and snuggled in my arms and fell asleep. I knew it was never going to happen, but I did actually call the DH to see if I could bring him home. Of course, we would never get a dog. We are cat people and our cat is not dog friendly (or other cat friendly for that matter). I must have been under the influence of all those sheep at WI Sheep and wool because I was certainly being wooly headed.

No pictures from Sheep and Wool, sad to say, I still haven't found my camera charger. I may need to buy a new one. My sis was at the fair to help me (Yes,the same one who helped me in Madison--proof that she still loves me after that little sisterly adventure). She took a few pictures. If she sends me photos, I'll post them here.

I do have other things I should be posting pictures of. I have a rather large finished object, The Many Buttoned Vest from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests was started and finished since my State Fair post. Well, it's 99% finished because I don't have any buttons for my Many Buttoned vest. I'm envisioning some celtic looking brass buttons, but I have yet to find them.

I have been crazy busy with school (i.e. my job) and school (i.e. grad school). The only reason I'm writing now is because I'm taking a 5 minute a break from writing lesson plans. (Uhm, okay, 20 minute break, and yes, it's because I'm procrastinating on writing those lesson plans.) Sigh . . .better get back to it.

State Fair

I went to the State Fair yesterday with sisters Liz and Donna and Liz's grandkids Alex and Marcus. What a great time! The State Fair has something for everyone, and each of us had an agenda. I, of course, had to see the knitting. Donna, who once owned a horse and has been in equine withdrawl ever since she gave it up, had to visit the horse barn. Liz wanted to spoil her grandchildren, and Alex and Marcus were determined to be spoiled. We all had our wishes granted.

I was glad to see Knitting has moved out of the cavernous Wisconsin Exhibition Hall to the cozier Horticulture, Culinary and Craft building, but I do wish the Fair would do something about the display cases and how they display the craft exhibits. I make this same complaint every year. Knitting, quilting, sewing, and woodworking are all jumbled together in the display cases with no apparent rhyme or reason to the arrangements. I wish they would group the winners by class and category so you could easily see what separates the Blue Ribbons from the rest of the crowd, but alas, I don't think the State Fair people read my blog! As usual, the vast number of knitting entries reflected older knitting traditions and simple but well executed patterns. The top winners were definitely worthy of their awards though. I was especially impressed by the colorful and intricate first place socks.

We all enjoyed the horse barn and were lucky to visit at a time when the horses were being taken out of their stalls to be readied for show. The Percherons, Belgians and Clydesdales were breathtaking. We even had a chance to see the Budweiser Clydesdales pull their wagon, complete with Dalmation dog riding shotgun.

Our visit was centered on the interests of Alex and Marcus, ages 4 and 7. We rode the Skyglider and visited the tractor exhibit, which included 100's, if not 1000's of matchbox size tractors on display, tractor tricyles for the kids to ride, and a kiddy "tractor pull" competition. It was little boy heaven! We watched as Alex rode a camel and Marcus rode a pony, and both children bungee jumped on a trampoline.

We did our best to support the economy. We ate corn and corn dogs, funnel cake, ice cream sundaes and creme brulee. All of us bought some sort of souvenir--Donna bought colorful leashes for her grandkids, Liz got a purse, the boys got toy cars and light up guns, and I got craisins, goat cheese, cranberry mustard, and a badger t-shirt. What can I say? When you say WI-SCON-SIN, you've said it all!

Fiber and Folk 09 - The Report

It's hard to believe I've been back from the Fiber and Folk Festival for a week. I'm always a bit wiped out when I come back from an all weekend show. So after a few days to recover, take inventory, do paperwork, I'm ready to blog about it.

I absolutely love this show! I love the vendor mix and the folk music. I couldn't believe my good fortune to catch the music of Peter and Lou Barryman. I used to go see them at the Club de Wash (are they still in business?) when I was a student in Madison many moons ago. It brought back old memories and made me feel young, although most of the songs they sang were about growing old. I'm right there with them! Sigh!

My friend Rosa accompanied me on this trip. A shout out to Rosa for her energy, enthusiasm and easy going personality! What can I say about someone who doesn't complain when I insist that I have to drive back to Milwaukee upon arrival in Crystal Lake when I discover that I forgot to pack my display baskets? She is up for sainthood. AND, I must say, that woman is a knitting machine! She knit 5 kits while manning the booth without batting an eye!

Thanks to Rosa helping me, I was able to teach a class on Friday. I had 8 students, and they were all very enthusiastic about the class. They loved the fact that they walked away with a finished bracelet. Here are pictures of their finished work.
I'm very proud of all of them.

These pictures come courtesy of one of my students. They are the only pictures I have from this year's Fiber and Folk because I packed my camera, but the battery was dead and the charger was at home. Memo to self: make check list before packing for shows, include display baskets and charger for the camera.

Fiber and Folk Kick Off

I'm just about set to leave for the Midwest Fiber and Folk Festival in Crystal Lake, IL. The Fair lasts Friday through Sunday, but there is a preview evening for students on Thursday night. I enjoyed this fair last year, but I worked it alone and didn't get to see anything besides my booth and the bathroom. This year I will be taking my friend Rosa with me to help in my booth. I couldn't do it without her because I will be teaching a class on Friday afternoon. I packed lots of additional kits, probably too many, but I can't help myself. I keep buying beads and yarn, and I have to sell it so I can buy more beads and yarn. I'm excited that I have a spot in the gym this year. Last year I was in the tent outside and hot sticky weather with thunderstorms in the afternoon kept the crowds down. Air conditioning is one of those niceties that we tend not to appreciate until its not there. Well, better run. I have 100 or so kits to label before I pack the car.

Welcome Uncle Sam

I finally wrote up the Patriotic Baby Hat pattern that I blogged about in November. It is available through my Etsy shop, here. What, you say it's too late to knit a hat for the 4th? Hah! Get ye to a yarn shop and start knitting! Seriously, it makes a great gift for any American baby when you don't know the gender of the unborn child. Or, especially, for military moms and dads. I really do like this hat. I may need to go back to the computer to work up big kid and adult sizes.

P.S. Thanks to my colleague at work for allowing her daughter to be my model. Desperate for a model, I went to the school Daycare and looked for any awake babies, and she was the only one. Fortunately, her mom agreed that I could use her likeness. Even more fortunately, she is cute as a button!

Dust Bunny

 

Here it is--Stardust in black angora . . . I've decided to rename it Dust Bunny, since it was collecting dust as a UFO for a while there. I began this little cutie in January of '08 but lost my enthusiasm quickly and set it aside a number of times. I finally finished it last week. What made me set it aside was that I was worried that it would be too small, not that I wasn't getting gauge, but you know how you have a pattern with set dimensions and you have to decide to make it either too big or too small? Well, I decided this style would be better too small rather than too big so I made the smaller size, but then the really worrying part was that I gained more than a few pounds between the time I started and the time I finished. I need not have worried. It fits beautifully and it is so soft, I feel like I'm being hugged by a bunny when I wear it. This was an intermediate difficulty pattern but the sewing was difficult, mostly because I knit it in a very fluffy black angora. That, combined with old eyes and not so great lighting makes the finishing tough. The seams are respectable though.

Bridal Jewelry

I joined Etsy recently, (you would think I would have done this ages ago!) and the Etsy Knitters Group is organizing a "knitted wedding" album. Both my "Chain, Chain, Chain" necklace and "Chips and Stones" bracelet in quartz crystal and pearls would be perfect. I just donated the finished items shown in these pictures to the fundraising auction at the school where I work, and they sold for an overbid price. I have kits available to make more, but I'll have to get busy making another set. Now that June is upon us, I think the finished items may sell better than the kits.

I have to admit, I prefer to sell my kits over the finished jewelry because I always want to create something new and different and don't want to make the same thing twice. However, this bracelet is so pretty, I don't mind doing it again and again.