stuff i'm doing

thought i'd show you some of the things i've been up to besides knitting hats. these are the pics of some sweaters (mostly lambswool and cashmere) that i have felted and am re-constructing into armwarmers, ear bands, hats and bags.

these are in different stages of deconstruction/ re-creation. i love recycling stuff. the possibilities are endless!

fiber goody giveaway and a chance to help

saw this on facebook (thanks DeAnna!) and wanted to share it with everyone.

Pete's Greens, an organic CSA in vermont, suffered a devastating fire recently. Juniper Moon Farm is having a giveaway in an attempt to help. you can enter the giveaway whether you donate or not, but every dollar will help this guy get back on his feet before the growing season! they have raised over $5,000 already. check it out here:

Juniper Moon Farm Giveaway

they are giving away an enormous amount of cool stuff, from books, yarns, fibers.....and again, you do NOT have to donate to enter.

kudos to Juniper Moon Farm for their huge hearts!

i've been busy

i have been in a sort of fiber seclusion. Turkey Day market is tuesday, and i have a few ufo's (unfinished objects) i need to..... finish.....and a dozen i want to start! two more events in december, but things will relax after tuesday. you'll hear from me then! promise!

i didn't have time to be a hooker......

i caught the last few minutes of Laryssa's demonstration on using fiber combs. it was Laryssa who sold me the CVM (california variegated mutant) roving.

then i found Laryssa and Catherine's booth. i did not have time to learn to be a hooker. today, anyway :-) rug hooking was one of the many fiber pursuits that Catherine and i gleefully took up as the Side-Track Sisters. while my attention span waned, Catherine went on to master every aspect of fiber artistry she laid her hands on.......

one of Catherine's works of art. she is a cat lover :-)

more. sigh....

i am not sure who felted these bears, but my guess would be Laryssa? they were sweet.

"may the forest be with you"

http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com/

Endless Mountain Fiber Festival part I

i was out of fiber, and needing to make hats, so last week i headed to the Endless Mountain Fiber Festival to see what i could find. EMFF has only been going on for a few years, but has really grown, and is getting better every year. above you see a sweater knit from dog hair. scrumptious! i hereby vow to never shave Mutt again, and go back to harvesting his fluff. this was found in the booth of Kristina Conroy of Spunwoven Designs. she does custom pet hair spinning and can be contacted at http://www.spunwovendesigns.com/.

there were lots of critters there. bunnies and llamas and alpacas. and sheep, of course. i picked up a bag of alpaca from Dunn Spun Yarn. i haven't had a chance to spin it yet, but the test strand promises to be lovely :- ) Luann and Mike dunn do hand-turned knitting needles, shearing, and hand-spun yarn.

talk about spinning skills. i stopped by cyndy donohue's booth, where she was spinning flax. it's hard to tell from the pic (i was using a camera phone) but she is spinning two-handed, as in two threads simultaneously. i was pretty impressed.

here you can see the two bobbins, each with their own orifice. i wish i had had more time to talk to her, and find out more about her. i did look up her etsy shop, and she has cool stuff there......riverrim.etsy.com

my big score of the day was a fiber i have been lusting after for a long time....California Variegated Mutant, an endangered breed. i am spinning it on my small hatchtown high whorl spindle, and will get photos as soon as i get more spun. probably this week-end at the rendezvous....you can read more about CVM at http://www.nationalcvmconservancy.com/

"may the forest be with you"

new friends in the funniest places

i sold my spinning wheel yesterday. i have toyed with the idea off and on for maybe 2 years now. i decided to finally do it, to get myself that much closer to my goal of being on the road again.

i haven't spun anything on the wheel since last year. what spinning i have been doing has all been on spindles, and even on my thigh. i am pulled inexorably to the more primitive and simple flow of draft, twirl, wind on, and repeat. i love that i can spin anywhere, at most anytime, with the simplest tools.

but i LOVED my wheel. it came to me during a desperately lonely and hopeless time in my life. it was more than a beautiful tool, it was a symbol of hope, and continuation.

i struggled with that, in my quest to downsize; to let go of things and thoughts and beliefs that held me back. so onto craig's list it went. things started off with a little drama, with my first inquiry from someone who wanted to buy my wheel that involved, among other things, nigeria and a very large cashiers check (if i would be so kind as to make change) which left me ready to pull the ad and forget about it altogether......

two minutes after deleting the last email from the scammer, i recieved another email asking if the wheel was still available. certain that it was my spammer coming back under a different email addy, i almost deletted it. but i saw a local area code in the message, and called it.......

..... which led me to the parking lot of Gander Mountain in the rain yakking it up with 3 super women who love dogs and fiber and life and adventure as much as i do. my wheel has a good home, and the look in denise's eyes as she looked at her first spinning wheel was worth more to me than the actual money transaction. i knew then that it was right and fitting that the wheel....an Ashford Joy....would now bring just that to denise, instead of languishing alone in a farmhouse while i was on the road. thank-you, denise! and judy and mary, also. it was wonderful to meet all of you! i look forward to seeing you again, and sharing some time spinning together.

new friends, in the unlikeliest places :-)

san antonio

i made it to san antonio on the 24th of january, and spent a week visiting my friend ron. it was during this week that mutt had his petsmart adventure, which would make for a lousy association with the city. fortunately, mutt adores ron, so it will not bother him to go back at all. ron has the trailer you see above in a really nice trailer park outside of san antonio. lots of driveway space for the rondyvan, as you can see from the picture above. i was plugged into electric, and had use of his wifi. the shower house/ laundry was right across the street, so it was a really nice break from the road and the truckstops. not to mention all the time ron and i spent yakking and staring at our respective computer screens.....
we did get out on some adventures. i got to see the alamo.......if not the movie, this time :-)
ron took me to see the yarn shops of san antonio, and i was dizzy to see all the yarn and fiber....
and issue #1 of the first ever knitting comic book, Handknit heroes! what a hoot! sweet mike will love it! he can now have his comics, and knit it, too!

one significant little adventure we had on this sightseeing roadtrip was that as we were tootling down the interstate at about 65 mph, the doors to ron's wheelchair lift in his sportsmobile flew open! ron was able to get to the side of the road safely, where we determined that mutt had jumped up on the sofa bed in the back of the van, smack dab on the remote that activates the lift! poor mutt, we had just gotten him to the point of not being afraid of the lift, and actually riding on it. how do you explain remotes to a dog? he remains suspicious to this day....
finally, on friday, my first texas barbeque. we caravanned to lanno, texas where ron spoiled me with the best barbeque in texas. i could believe it.
all sorts of brisket and ribs and super chops and sausage. they were out of goat when we were there. oh, darn, we'll have to go back :-)
the pits are amazing, and the smell is heavenly.
i got to watch the guys carrying hot coals with the shovels. i had a pile of ribs, and ron shared his hunk of beef with me. we didn't bother with sides or salads. that is a waste of gastronomic space. we took the leftovers with us. mutt was pleased. i don't think i ate again until 24 hrs. later.....

from lanno, ron returned to san antonio, while i continued on to dallas, in search of stevie ray.....

meet deanna

i am so psyched to be going to this next weekend. this is one of those very cool things that keep serendipitously popping up on this trip. (yesterday, mike's granny asked me "what is your itinerary?" and i answered honestly " i haven't got a clue" !)

anyhow, mike found this on tara's blog, and asked if i wanted to go to it. i think i was in oregon at the time, headed for 10k ways. i had had vague thoughts of going to eugene and portland after the campout, but hadn't planned on going to washington. but this "knitting thingy" , as mike calls it, was too interesting to pass up. mike then offered his driveway as a layover until the 30th, and that sealed the deal. i was on my way north.

and i am so glad i did. original plans had mike and i meeting "face to face" for the first time at the 10k ways gathering in southern oregon (although we knew each other already from the yahoo group "vandwellers"). heavy smoke from the california fires that were concentrated over jacksonville, oregon put an end to that.

heidi from vandwellers had been teasing mike about learning to knit. now, real men are up to any challenge, and since the only thing mike doesn't know how to do, apparently, is knit....well, there you have a recipe for a new direction for my roadtrip. i am blessed to by here at mike's surrounded by his warm and wonderful family, and getting to know him so much better.

so back to deanna, and her "knitting thingy". turns out deanna knew me through my blog, and was excited to have mike and mutt and i there. i am so excited and honored! she gets it that knitting needles are just one more sharp thing in my arsenal, and i wanna learn how to fight off cougars! i have been wondering, though, if i should switch some of my bamboo circulars in for some sturdier heavy metal ones :-) i will let you know what she says after next weekend.....

here is the link to her very cool blog:
http://www.whoaphotos.com/blog/2008/07/26/knit-n-nature/

or click on the blog title "meet deanna" above....

tribalfyber

turkey day 2007: a portion of our stand in the barn at a local farmers market where you can buy pasture raised meats, organic veggies, handmade soaps, and other sustainably grown or locally produced items. alot of the hats we sell are made from locally produced fiber and spun, dyed, and knitted by local artists. we had an amazing day here...excellent sales made even better by the chance to hang out with cool people who, like us, are trying to live more lightly on the earth.

catherine, one of tribalfyber's talented fiber artists, sent me this pic. she is back to doing her sorcery with the dyepot, and i am getting inspired to fool around with fiber again. we were on hiatus after several months of frantic knitting and spinning to stock up on warm woolen things for the fall and winter shows.

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i am going to spend some of my upcoming "down time" beginning to stock up for the next round of shows this fall and winter. i got a call recently from a library that holds a huge auction every summer and would like us to do spinning demos as one of the vendors. the crowd at this place would be the type that wouldn't pause at the notion of spending $30-$40 bucks for a hand-knitted hat, but i'm not certain how many people are gonna want to buy something woolen on a steamy july day. in october at the pumpkin festival, the crisp october air seemed to drive people to wildly shove money at us in order to get one of our hats, although i like to think that it was because they were smitten with our funky, one of a kind creations too.

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which brings me to another crossroads. i have to start booking the fall shows now, and reserving our spots. but my future is rather uncertain, and open to many new possibilities. i am itching to get on the road, and am reluctant to commit my time so far in the future. i need to explore the possibilty of taking this show on the road, or going exclusively internet with it. and i have to consider the fact that some aspects of my future are completely out of my control.

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and as always, the forests and the quiet places are out there, just waiting. i can choose to get as far away from civilization as possible, and enjoy the solitude, or maybe find a tribe of like-minded folks to hang out with.

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we'll see.

so i get questions

so i get questions. i love them. someone wanted to know if i owned any other shoes besides mukluks. so here are my favorite summer boots. actually, they are woodland indian 18th century era high topped center-seam moccasins. i love footwear that molds to your foot. they are light, they breathe, and you can move nimbly and quickly. these are great for bushwhacking, they protect your legs. when the soles wear out, it's easy to sew new ones on. the downside? they are as slippery as shit. i don't know how the indians stayed upright on wet grass.....

another recent question....."do you have a foot fetish?" haha! no. if i have a fetish, it's kindness. kindness is the sexiest thing going. try it.

in the upper left corner of the pic is some roving. i was thinking of spinning the yarn for tara's socks, but changed my mind. i'm gonna use the canadian polworth/ kid mohair so i can get them going quicker. can't have my girl with cold feet.