Two Weekends! Two Fiber Festivals!

My backside and the car seat have "become one" over the past 7 days! Susie and I traveled on the 17th up to Corydon Indiana to attend the Southern Indiana Fiber Arts Festival at the Harrison County fairgrounds. We weren't sure what to expect when we arrived 15 min. after the "opening bell" and we were the 4th vehicle in the parking lot! It was a cold and windy day but weather really hasn't any effect on TRUE fiber addicts. Our main reasons for going were to pick up an alpaca fleece that was being held for me by Willie and Kristen Ems from Flatwoods Farm in New Salisbury Indiana and for a class Susie was taking on working with Icelandic fleece. Last year I had looked at the same alpaca fleece at the same festival but by the time I got back to Willie and Kristin's booth, they had already sold it! I gave them our name and number and asked to be contacted when they sheared again this spring and was pleasantly surprised when they actually DID contact me. This fleece is from one of their "boys" named Francisco and is a much nicer gray fleece than my picture does it justice. (Apparently gray is a lot harder to photograph than I thought since they keep looking lavender rather than gray!)

The Icelandic class was rather interesting since Susie ended up being the only one to sign up. I think that normally they cancel a class with only 1 student but the instructor decided to go ahead and have it anyway so Susie was able to have a 1-on-1 session! While we didn't get all of our questions answered, Susie did make some great strides in understanding the wonderful nuances of this dual coated fleece. Now....with some more practice and "playing around" we should be able to REALLY understand what we are looking at when we clean out the vendor next April in Greencastle Indiana who sells us our Icelandic wool. (Oh yeah! We also WON a door prize!!! Believe me......we don't win anything so this was a rather big deal for me!)


Then....after a very hectic....or maybe I should say ridiculous to be more truthful...week at work, we decided at the last moment to drive yesterday over to North Carolina to attend the second day of SAFF. We had missed this festival for the past couple of years so even though my knee is all but nonfunctional at this point from being injured and all the driving, we left at 3:30 AM and made the trip. While there, we met a wonderful breeder named Lynn Michael and purchased another Shetland fleece from Clarabelle to add to our pile of grays we are amassing. In case your wondering what the "pile" of wool is in the above picture, that is our gray pile that we plan on transforming into a pair of matching sweaters for Susie and myself. What is shown there in the lower picture is the gray alpaca from the Ems, 2 Shetland fleeces from Princess Di that I purchased from Pam Kinnaman in Bloomfield Indiana, another gray alpaca fleece from Baby purchased from Annette Browning at Blue Note Alpacas in Crestwood Kentucky, the other Shetland fleece from Clarabelle, and 2 crossbred fleeces we just purchased from Carolyn Kiminski at Memory Lane Farm Woolery up in Dryden Michigan. (The Michigan fleeces look more brown than they really are mainly because they haven't been washed yet.) The top picture is Francisco's fleece. One bag is the prime fleece that we still have to wash, the other bags contain the hand picked fiber that we had already washed and the seconds, that they gave me in case I could use them. All told, I think I have put together about 32# of fleece that I will process and blend before Susie starts spinning and knitting. The only thing left that I may try to find is some nice gray mohair to add to the blend to give the yarn a little more drape and halo. Gee....that would make it in the neighborhood of 35# plus! I wonder if that's enough fiber to make two sweaters? (Just kidding!)

Why so long between posts?

I see that time has most assuredly gotten away from me again and another post is in order to "prove" that we are still alive and well.....well....ALIVE anyway! The summer has come to an end and fall is finally starting to arrive. We have had some MUCH needed rain and I am glad to report that all of the bad storms and flooding that Tennessee experienced went either to the West or East of us here in the hollar and we got nothing more than some badly needed rain to water what was left of the garden and refill the spring. While I love not having a water bill, I must say that the spring water setup we have leaves me stressed out about 11 months of the year. When I'm not dealing with the lines getting plugged with silt or leaves, I'm praying that the lines won't freeze while the rest of the time I pray that the lines won't go dry. (In case you wonder, we do a LOT of praying around here!)

Susie and I will be traveling to Corydon Indiana in 2 weeks to attend our 1st fiber festival of the year! We have already purchased an alpaca fleece that we will pick up while there. Susie is also taking a class on working with Icelandic fleece. We purchased a number of very nice fleeces at Greencastle in 2008 and want to make sure we process them to their fullest potential. I for one am looking forward to the trip since work has....how shall I say this.....been a "challenge"! While we have chosen not to participate in the current recession, I unfortunately work for two companies that are doing their best to fail on a daily basis. This kind of working environment has caused me to age about 20 years the past year or so. To me, a day at the festival is going to be a Godsend!


I had posted earlier about making our own English wool combs using Peter Teals book. I am happy to report that I HAVE in fact started work on them, albeit they are going to be Viking combs instead since Susie needs them for her class. I had wanted to post pictures of the progress but let's just say that it wouldn't have been pretty! While my God given gifting is in printing, I seem to loose a fair amount of blood while working in the wood shop! I can say that so far they are looking really nice and I HOPE to have them done in a week and will then post pictures of them. I have used some old growth black walnut that we had salvaged from a barn and also some from a tree that we cut up last fall for firewood. All I can say is they had better work very, very well and Susie had better be up to date on her tetanus shots! These babies look like something off of Lord Of The Rings! They would make great weapons! Stay tuned to see my attempt at combs!