Fiber Events 4 | Through The Yarny Curtain

Greencastle, Indiana: June 2015

Last year, I attended The Fiber Event in Greencastle, Indiana. I planned to attend this year also, but then Chris and I got to go to India. The trip to India was at the same time as The Fiber Event 2015.

My primary reason for going to Greencastle is to visit my good friend Stacy, who moved there a couple of years ago. We put our heads together to come up with a new date, and discovered the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival (a separate blog post is in progress; I’ve got to take pictures of my purchases), held about an hour from Greencastle on the first Friday and Saturday of June. I changed my tickets from April to this past weekend. I arrived in Indiana on Thursday afternoon and flew home Sunday evening.

At Work

Stacy was working on Thursday and Friday. I spent most of my time, hanging out in her office, knitting. She has these adorable sheep sculptures in her office.

I especially love their happy little faces.

Weaving

Stacy did attend The Fiber Event 2015. Her mother bought her an early birthday present: a 10″ wide rigid heddle loom from Couch’s Little Workshop, an Indiana-based family business of handmade looms. Stacy had not warped the loom yet and wanted to do so before we went to the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. Couch’s Little Workshop was going to be at that Festival also, and she wanted to ask them questions or resolve any problems she might have with the loom. On Thursday night, I taught her how to warp the loom and how to weave.

Stacy took a three-hour rigid heddle weaving class two years ago, at The Fiber Event, but she hasn’t woven anything since then. Her selvages are spectacular!

First Fridays

During the spring, summer, and fall, Greencastle has a “First Fridays” program. The downtown business group, of which Stacy is President, helps to organize First Fridays. The town closes off a road next to the courthouse. Vendors sell their wares and there’s music on the steps of the Courthouse.

This month, a vintage car club came for the event.

Several local clubs and civic groups attended this month also, including the Putnam County Spinners Guild, of which Stacy is a member. I helped set up and take down the tables and chairs for the Guild. The original plan was that I would finish spinning the Cormo and bring the bobbins with me so I could ply them on one of Stacy’s wheels during the event. I didn’t get the spinning done, so I knit instead.

The fiber in the box is llama that Stacy recently got back from processing. The fiber in the white bag on the right is unprocessed llama. The yarns on the table are all handspun. The full-size hanks are Stacy’s handspun and I believe they are all Nerd Girl Yarns fibers. The smaller samples were handspun and dyed by another Guild member.

Guild members Sarah (spinning with a Turkish Spindle), Joy (spinning with an e-spinner) and Mary (spinning on an Ashford Joy wheel).

Stacy chatting with a visitor to the Guild’s space.

The girl in the middle of the picture came back to the Guild space several times during the event. She went to each spinner and asked questions about the method each was using.

The weather was perfect for this First Fridays event, though the sun was so bright that we had a hard time looking at people while we talked to them. Stacy’s boyfriend, Lance, came to our rescue with Florida Gators baseball caps! The vendors and tables part of First Fridays was from 5 to 7 pm. We were going to stay for longer, but we had to move out of the way for the Antique Cars to leave, so packed up shortly after 7 pm. The music continued until late, so after packing up we stayed and listened to music, and I got to meet several of Stacy’s friends. It was a wonderful evening!

WPHS 9th Grade Center Shakespeare Festival 2015

Winter Park High School’s 9th Grade Center holds an annual Shakespeare Festival. For several years, the Weavers of Orlando have participated in the Festival, doing spinning and weaving demos. This year, the Festival took place on May 28. It was my first year participating in the demos. We were required to wear a period costume!

Bev, Nancy, and I at the WPHS 9th Grade Center.

The English Department organizes the Festival. In past years, the entire event took place in the gymnasium. This year, they tried something new. The event took place in the English Building and the auditorium. In the English Building, different classrooms had different themes. The Weavers of Orlando, for example, was in a room with a pottery booth and a face-painting booth, for an artisan theme.

The school provided the banner for our table.

The students had their usual class schedule for the day. During their English period, they came to the Festival. They started by meeting with their English teacher, who gave them a passport. In order to receive credit for the class period, students had to get 8 stamps in their passport. The students obtained stamps by participating in the various activities.

An English teacher (on the left, in the knight costume) explaining the passports to a class.

In our room, a student could potentially get 3 stamps: one for getting their face painting, one for signing the large pot on the pottery table, and one for either listening to us explain the process of getting from raw fleece to finish fabric or for weaving on the floor loom. Other rooms had games, palm reading, and much more. During their Geography period, students went to the auditorium to see the performances. Some study skills teachers also allowed students to come to the Festival instead of their usual study skills period.

In order to participate in the event, students were required to wear a costume. This requirement was loosely interpreted. Some students rented or purchased costumes. Some made the costumes as part of a class prior to the event. Others used their ingenuity and their existing wardrobe to create a character. I overheard more than one student ask another about their character. I extrapolated from this that the students had studied Renaissance social roles and were to pick a particular role for their costume.

I was rather amused by the backpacks with the period costumes!

Since I was demonstrating, I didn’t get a chance to walk around and see the other rooms. When I first arrived (at 6:30 am!), someone was setting up games outside, including archery. I was amused to see the fake sheep used as rests for the bows and “arrows.”

One room was the King’s Court. Students could fence with Nerf swords, for the King’s amusement and approval.

At lunch, I ran into the royal family. The King and Queen are a real-life husband and wife. The girl in the Beefeater costume is their daughter. She was a 9th grader in this school last year, and the parents volunteered as King and Queen. The family reprised their roles for this year’s festival.

I loved this Blackbird Pie sculpture on the lunch table.

I’m not sure how many students we had come through our booth. We weren’t doing the Kumihimo disks or any other takeaway at this demo, and that’s usually how we know the number of students. We had a steady stream of students throughout the day, without ever being inundated. We were at the event from 6:30 am to 2:30ish pm, including the set up and take down time. I spun about an ounce of Cormo during the event!

I expected to be exhausted after this event. I was up far earlier than usual and it’s a lot of talking. I was tired, but not as tired as I expected, and I had a lot of fun. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do it again next year!

KCBW6, Day 7: Your Time, Your Place

Today’s prompt is to write about my crafting time and space. I realized that every time I attend a special fiber-related event, I write an entire post on this blog. Sometimes I mention going to my regular spinning or knitting group, but I’ve never written posts about the various groups I attend or my day-to-day crafting experience!

Crafting at Home

When I craft at home, it is almost always in my living room, while watching tv. If I’m knitting or crocheting, I sit on the couch, and there’s almost always a cat in my lap.

If I am spinning or weaving, I can’t sit on the couch because it is too low and I can’t sit all the way back. Instead, I grab a “kitchen” chair and sit in that while I spin or weave. “Kitchen” is in quotes because these chairs are part of a table & chairs set that I bought for maybe $60 many years ago (at least 20), but they are no longer used in the kitchen. The table is an extension of my desk and the chairs are totally beat up because of the cats. The chairs float around the house, pressed into service as cat beds, cat stair steps (so poor arthritic Pepper can get to her favorite sleep spots), step stools for me, etc.

Travel Knitting

Since I’ve traveled so much the last few years, travel knitting is a regular part of my crafting time. If I’m on a plane, I am almost always knitting. If I’m a passenger in a car, and we are traveling a distance, I’m knitting.

I took this picture on my recent flight to Hartford, CT. I often put my ball of yarn in the cup holder on the tray to keep it from getting away from me.

Crafting Groups

I regularly attend 3 groups that meet monthly as well as one weekly group. I’m thinking of adding a fourth monthly group; they used to meet on Wednesdays, conflicting with my regular weekly group, but they moved their meetings to the second Saturday of the month. I haven’t been home on the second Saturday since they changed the meeting. I’m planning to attend that group in June and see if I can make it a regular part of my schedule.

Wednesday Knit Nights

The weekly group meets from whenever people arrive until 8 pm at my local yarn store (LYS), Knit!, located 3 miles from my house. I’ve lived close to Knit! for 12 years, and ever since I picked up my knitting in 2006 after a hiatus of several years, it’s been my LYS. Marney’s had knitting nights before, usually during the fall and winter, but I’ve never attended because of my schedule. Last fall, she started up knit nights again and I plan to go every week, though of course I don’t always make it. Most Wednesdays, there’s at least 6 or 8 people there. On busy evenings, there’s been as many as 20 and no room to walk in the shop. On the occasional slow night, there’s 3 people there. I am excited that Marney decided to continue the knit nights through the summer this year!

l to r: Susan, me, Dawn, and Lisa. We're all regulars on Wednesday night. — l to r: Susan, me, Dawn, and Lisa. We’re all regulars on Wednesday night.

Drunken Monkey Spinners

Drunken Monkey is a coffee shop in Orlando. The spinning group meets on the first Saturday of the month from 8 am to 11ish am. Most months, we have at least 8 people in attendance. The most we’ve had is about 12, counting the 5-year old son of the group’s finder and the non-fiber-crafting husband of one member. I joined this group in June last year, a few weeks after I got my spinning wheel. I always bring my wheel because I can’t spindle spin! Other members bring wheels or spindles or knitting or crocheting and we spend a lovely morning chatting over fiber. Other coffee-house guests often stop and ask what we are doing, and we explain to them a little about how spinning works. If you are ever in Orlando on the first Saturday of the month, you are welcome to join us!

Weavers of Orlando

The Weavers of Orlando guild meets on the 3rd Saturday of the month in Winter Park, Florida from 10 am until noonish. Sometimes there’s also presentations in the early afternoon. The Weavers of Orlando has about 100 members and most meetings have 40 to 50 people in attendance. Visitors are always welcome at these meetings, if you find yourself in the Orlando area on the 3rd Saturday of the month.

We have a number of members who live in Florida for the winter and elsewhere for the summer. This is the lowest attendance I've seen since I started attending the Guild last fall, probably because some of the snow birds have flown off to their winter homes. — We have a number of members who live in Florida for the winter and elsewhere for the summer. This is the lowest attendance I’ve seen since I started attending the Guild last fall, probably because some of the snow birds have flown off to their winter homes.

Wekiva Knitters

The area I live in is called Wekiva, after the nearby river. One of the librarians at the local branch organizes Wekiva Knitters; the group meets at that branch on the 3rd Saturday of the month, 1 pm to 3 pm. Since the library is a polling station, including for early voting, during elections the group is cancelled or rescheduled. The attendance varies dramatically from one month to the next. Sometimes there’s only one or two people there. The largest group I’ve ever personally seen is about 10. My own attendance at this group is erratic. I first went in August of 2012, then didn’t make it there again until June 2013 due to travel and other obligations. I really enjoy this group, though, and try to get there as often as I can. It’s only a mile from my house (shorter, as the crow flies), so if I’m home there’s no excuse for missing it!

KCBW6, Day 6: Polls Apart

On this blog, I write about knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, and dyeing. It’s obvious just from the count of posts in each category that I spend more time on knitting than I do on the others, even though I know how to do them all. I want to learn to sew, tat, and make bobbin lace. But what about you? Which fiber crafts do you already know and what do you want to learn? I’d love to know — it’ll help me write blog posts that meet your interests!

NOTE: The poll is an embedded Survey Monkey poll. I discovered when I was previewing the post that the poll did not show up when the page loaded, but it did when I refreshed the page. Also, if you are reading on a mobile device, the poll may not display. The poll consists of 3 questions. You may need to scroll down in the embedded box to see the third question and the submit button! If you prefer, you can follow this link to Survey Monkey and take the poll there.

KCBW6, Day 5: Something Different

Today’s prompt is to publish something different than you usually publish. The ways in which this particular post is different for me has more to do with process than content. I always write posts from my desktop at home. If I’m not home, I don’t write. I no longer carry a laptop with me and my iPad can be a bit annoying to use for blogging.

Despite this usual practice, I am writing this post on my iPad, while sitting in the West Hartford, CT library, 1500+ miles from my home in Florida. I wanted to share my past week with you! Last Friday, May 8, I left Florida and flew to Hartford, then drove up to Burlington, Vermont. I’ve wandered around New England, visiting family, friends, and yarn stores. I’ve limited myself to one picture for each day of the trip — also a departure from my usual wordy posts. Don’t worry, there will be more posts on the yarny portions of the trip!

After I arrived in Vermont, I had to cut the ends off the Dr. Who Scarf.

On Saturday, I attended my cousin's college graduation. — On Saturday, I attended my cousin’s college graduation.

On Sunday, I visited a dairy farm and a cow tried to eat me. Seriously! She wasn’t just licking — she wrapped her tongue around my wrist and tried to drag my hand into her mouth.

On Monday, I check out the Burlington, Vermont area. This included a tour of the Ben & Jerry's factory. — On Monday, I checked out the Burlington, Vermont area. This included a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s factory.

On Tuesday, I yarn crawled my way from Burlington, Vermont to Northampton, Massachusetts.

On Wednesday, I visited WEBS!! (For the uninitiated, that’s the largest yarn store in the U.S.) I had them ship my yarn because cones don’t compress well in luggage.

On Thursday, I visited The Book Barn. This is my favorite used bookstore and it is located in Niantic and East Lyme, Connecticut.

Today, I’m flying home. I have so much yarny wonderfulness to share with you from this week. I can’t wait to get home and start writing!