Mt Holly Farmer's Market

The Piedmont Fiber Guild did a demonstration at the Mt. Holly farmer's market today.  It was a beautiful day to be outside spinning and talking fiber.

Good Morning!  Unfortunately this involved getting up and out early on a Saturday but it was worth it!

 

 

Our creative space for the morning.

 

We had weaving, spinning, knitting and wool prep demonstrations.  Sallie got some youngsters spinning on her wheel and Maurice had quite a lot of interest in his loom.



Spinning on my Jacob fleece.

Working on a tartan.

This evening I warped my Mirrix tapestry loom for my online class with Rebecca Metzoff.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation - Day Four

Today I slept in, after all I am on vacation.  Then I took a trip to Weaverville to go back to Echoview Fiber Mill.  I needed some more Greener Shades dye and am too impatient to wait for them to be shipped.  I love Asheville so it was a fun day.

 

 

I was pretty disciplined, buying only the dyes, a button and a needle felting kit.  I will be trying the needle felting later this week.

 

 

This is 100 grams of clean Jacob locks.

 

 

This is Greener Shades dyes in the River and Amethyst colors.  After a little research, I learned that to get a deep blue I needed to mix these two colors.  For a 100 grams of wool, I needed only 1 gram of dye.  My scale isn't calibrated fine enough for that minute amount so I used 1/4 teaspoon of the River and 1/8 of a teaspoon of the Amethyst.  After soaking the wool in warm water, I mixed the dye powder in some hot water and added it to my pot.  I stirred the pot to evenly distribute the dye and then placed the wet wool in the dye pot.

 

 

I brought the temperature up to 180 degrees and let it "cook" for 5 minutes.  I then added 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of citric acid to set the dye.  I turned the heat down to low for about an hour and then turned the burner off.  When I checked it a couple of hours later the water was clear.  Throughout the process I gently used a spatula (for dyeing only) to move the wool to ensure even coverage.  The plan is to let it cool tonight and remove it from the pot tomorrow and place it outside to dry.

 

My plan is to spin the colors of the Jacob wool separately and spin this blue and knit The Rectangle Vest.

Carolina Fiber Fest 2014

At the last minute, I decided to visit the Carolina Fiber Festival in Sanford on Saturday.  It was fun to meet up with Susan, Roxie and Peggy.  There were some great vendors with very pretty fibers and yarn.  I was disappointed that there weren't the animals you normally expect to see at a fiber festival.  It is a shame this festival is poorly attended and poorly marketed.  It has such wonderful potential but seems to get smaller rather than larger each year.

There were sheep dog demonstrations and even a border collie herding Canadian Geese.  You can see below the dog is enjoying it much more than the geese.

 

 The highlight of the Festival for me was meeting the artist chosen to do the art work for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  K. McNeill and his wife Trish.

 

 We like this print so much we all bought the same one for our craft rooms.

My purchases were pretty modest. Some Synthrapol for some natural dye experiments, a book on natural dyeing, some llama fleece and some beautiful fiber to blend on the drum carder.

 

 

The new to me drum carder.

 



 

The primary reason for purchasing the drum carder is to make my own fiber blends for socks.  I found some dyed nylon and plan to blend it with some of my Corriedale fleece to spin and knit Reed a pair of socks.

 



Vacation

We traveled over to the Outer Banks on Monday.  It is exactly 360 miles and six hours from our house in Statesville to the house we rented in Kitty Hawk.  Here are the highlights in pictures.  It is now Thursday night.   My lace project has kicked my arse and I had to walk away!



Purl and Penny are introduced to the beach.
 

My Almost Murphy (Sapphire) to Manteo socks finally finished!




What do you do when it rains at the beach; knit, do jigsaw puzzles and nap.


 

 

 

 

 

The lace in progress.

Reed's new Mega Turban.  it is 16.5 Feet long and 3 Feet wide.