fiber festival

I wait all year for the day that I can go to the Michigan Fiber Festival.  It's so fun -- there are tons of vendors both local and non-local, lots of amazing fiber animals, and tons of like-minded craft folk. Whether you're a spinner, weaver, knitter, crocheter, or just a fiber arts enthusiast, there is definitely something for you at MFF!

Since my craft closet is still overflowing with last years' fiber festival purchases, I went a little lighter this year, since I've begun to realize that there is just no way that I can spin and knit through all of the fiber I get in one years' time. It's sort of like going to a restaurant when you're hungry -- your eyes are bigger than your stomach.

With that in mind, I snagged some awesome wool! Last year I was really into very soft fiber like alpaca, merino, cormo, etc.  This year, however, I thought I'd try some coarser wools.

From L to R:  Jacobs sheep, Coopworth, Mohair skein, Cormo (from my friend Anne's sheep), CVM/Alpaca, unmarked wool, unmarked wool, raw Romney fleece

Between all of this fleece, plus last years' fleece, plus the wool that our angora bunnies give, I will be very busy! 

Happy spinning and knitting, craftfolk! 

It's been awhile...

Hey there, folks! It's been a little while since my last post, and I am blaming it all on extreme busy-ness. There has been so much to do around here. I finished canning all of my tomatoes for salsa, picked and thrashed the lettuce seed heads, finished one Christmas-related knitting project, washed and scoured blue-faced leicester fleece as well as half of a fleece of polypay, and started a new knitting project for myself. Among all of that fun stuff that I did, I also wiped myself out with a week-long bout of gastroenteritis from (I am guessing to be) a stomach virus. So yes, I've been very busy.

I am now only working three days a week, which leaves lots of time for doing soul-preserving tasks like baking more, spinning, and knitting.  Boy, have I ever needed it! After a summer of extremely stressful waitress work, the cool weather has brought along the "slow" season and I am finally able to work less. Spinning has brought about a new excitement for me as well:  dyeing! On one of the days that I was feeling moderately well during my sickness, I went out in the rain and collected a huge bucketful of poke berries.  Good thing it was raining too, because my hands were quite the shade of purple when I finished! Tonight I plan on mordanting my washed/scoured polypay fleece and then tomorrow I'll get to dye it.  Michael is currently outside in the dark mashing the poke berries into juice for the dyeing adventure.

I am wishing I had some pictures right about now, because I did a TON of baking and cooking today.  The list consists of:  cinnamon swirl bread, peanut butter pie, shortbread (I swear this list isn't entirely sweets...), cauliflower soup, and a tomato tart. The tomato tart holds the last bit of this year's tomato crop, and I am feeling a little bit down about that. I was also less than thrilled to see how ridiculously puny my leeks were for my cauli soup.  They were probably a centimeter in circumference. Oh well. It was my first year growing leeks (ha, yes, an excuse!).

Well, I am off to start the mordanting process.