For the last week, I’ve spent my crafting time working on the two test knits that I cast on last Wednesday. Both projects traveled to Indiana and back. On the way there, I knit on the shawl. On the way home, I knit on the scarf. I worked on them while I sat in Stacy’s office on Friday. I worked on them as we drove to and from the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. I’ve made great progress on both projects, and hope to finish both this weekend.
Sand Tracks Scarf
I love this project. I love the yarn. I love the pattern. All the love! I’m about 1/3 of the way into the second ball.
Raindrops on Roses Shawl
I’ve finished the first of three lace repeats. I’m probably halfway through the shawl at this point.
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!
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!
Last Friday, I spent several hours spinning the Cormo while at a demo. I started a new bobbin at the beginning of the event. Here’s how it looked at the end of the event:
Heart Illusion Dishcloths
I’ve knit four more dishcloths this week.
Raindrops on Roses Shawl
I joined the Testing Pool group on Ravelry and signed up to do two test knits. This is one of them. It’s a top down shawl, stockinette with a lace border. I’ve finished perhaps 1/4 of the stockinette section.
Sand Tracks Scarf
This is the second test knit. It is a cabled scarf on a seed stitch background. I’ve finished the garter stitch border and the first pattern repeat. I think I’m really going to love this project.
I didn’t write a post about finishing this scarf, though it’s appeared in several WIP Wednesday posts (January 22, February 4, March 25). I had to finish it so that I could weave the Dr. Who scarf on my rigid heddle loom! Since this is the fourth Houndstooth Scarf I finished (see the posts on Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw Houndstooth scarves), I felt like I didn’t necessarily learn anything new on this project. I did apply the lessons learned on the prior Houndstooth scarves, so the Slytherin is the most consistent of the four.
This is another project that I’ve been working on for a while and which has appeared in a couple of WIP Wednesday posts (February 4, February 18). As of February 18, I’d finished plying and had wound most of the yarn onto a niddy noddy. It then sat around, still on the niddy noddy, awaiting washing.
I whipped out a new cat bed to line the bookshelf where Pepper likes to sleep. Although she wasn’t very co-operative re: posing for the picture, she loves the bed. It’s now her favorite sleeping spot.
Semi-finished Projects
These projects are “semi-finished” because I’m making multiple dishcloths from the same patterns, as part of my ongoing Dishcloth Advent Calendar (details in my 2015 Plans post) project. I’ve finished at least one individual item, but am still working on making more. I need to make 18 dishcloths in each pattern, and will write blog posts with all the project details when I finish all 18.
Heart Illusion Dishcloths
I finished 9 of these in May.
Bias Knit, Crochet Cotton Dishcloth
I only finished one of these. Even with two strands held together, it took about 3 hours to knit one of these, and I didn’t even make it as big as the pattern suggests. It’ll take me a while to make all 18 of these, but I do like them.
Activities
I participated in three demos with the Weavers of Orlando. I’ve written blog posts about two of those: St. Johns River Festival of the Arts and Arts at Audubon Elementary. The third demo was just this past Friday, and I’m working on writing a post about it!
I also traveled to New England to attend my cousin’s college graduation. While there, I visited 12 yarn shops, including WEBS! I bought yarn in all the shops, and will be writing multiple blog posts about the experience. I needed to take pix of all the new stash for the posts and to update my Rav stash. I’ve been working on it and I’m just about finished. I will be posting about these shops throughout the month of June; I plan to get all the posts up no later than June 25 since several of the shops I visited are part of the 2015 I-91 Shop Hop which starts that day.
