Thursday, September 30, 2010

Rain, rain, go away



It is so very rainy here! All day it's been dark and dreary, and every so often the wind picks up and I can hear walnuts thunking onto the roof. It's actually pretty good spinning weather, but I'm crossing my fingers that my last few yarns dry in time for Crafty Bastards this saturday, and that the sun comes out for the craft show.



Here's a small preview of the many yarns that I'll have for sale at Crafty Bastards - the pictures are extra moody and dark thanks to the clouds:



Corespun yarn with lots of multicolored puffs



Cherry Blossom yarn, spun from naturally colored local farm fibers with a bit of hemp and hand-felted, hand-dyed, and hand-embroidered cherry blossoms



Mushroom Collector, with tiny felt mushrooms spun in



Handspun and hand-dyed recycled bamboo rayon



Leafy yarns! I have a lighter version and a darker version, four skeins of each

Now it's time for labeling and the final inventory. I know for sure that I surpassed my minimum goal for this show, and also broke my record for most yarns spun for a show. I have so much yarn right now. About three times the amount of yarn I brought to my first Crafty Bastards! Every year I manage to spin more and more.



Besides yarn, I will also have: felty baubles, 2 pairs of handspun + handknit fingerless mitts, sheepy sachets (filled with organic herbs), batts, and a few other fibers (hand dyed local wool locks & rainbow hemp).

Crafty Bastards is this saturday, October 2nd, 10am-5pm at the Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th & Wyoming in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington DC. The map of the fair is here - come look for me in booth #95!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Getting ready for Crafty Bastards



It's that time of year again! Crafty Bastards is coming up fast, and I've spent the past month getting ready. Strangely enough, the usual craft show panic hasn't hit me yet. I'm feeling pretty serene. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm fairly certain that I'm going to break my record for most yarns spun for a craft show (or ever all at once) sometime in the next few days.



I also recently finished spinning the largest single skein of yarn I've ever spun. 9+ ounces! The hardest part was fitting this thing on my bulky flyer, I ended up having to stop because I had it packed on so tight that the back of the flyer popped off and refused to go back on.



I've secretly been referring to it as 'the beast' in my head. Although probably I won't actually name it that. Probably I'll come up with something nicer sounding.



Here it is next to a normal sized skein of my patchwork yarn (heavy worsted to bulky weight) for scale.



I was planning on spinning another huge skein or two in different colors, but I haven't quite recovered yet from the first one. We'll see!



P.S. This year at CB, when people ask if I raise any fiber animals, I will be able to answer: "Yes!"



But please don't ask unless you really don't mind hearing all about how awesome my goats are.