So lets see…

First was NH Sheep and Wool, where I was very glad for my woven scarf. It was cold! And then the second day it was RAINY. Like torrential downpours, people not in buildings were making moats around their tents!

Didn’t do well at photos though.

As usual I was with the fabulous Jennifer in her Holiday Yarns booth.

Gnomestuff…

Then I joined her again at the ever-sunny MA Sheep and Wool festival, at Cummington. A very fun, smaller festival. Holiday Yarns had a double sized booth in the barns this time, which was different, and neat! Lots of cool people came by.

And here’s more Gnomestuff!

Theeeen came the biggie. Due to circumstances and stuff, Jennifer wasn’t going to be able to make it to the Maine Fiber Frolic to use her booth space. So, she loaned me some gridwall and some pegs, packed me some of her lovely yarn and fiber, and off I went…

To Maine.

Alone.

To vend.

EEP!

So I packed up all my stuff to go.

And theeeeen the tornado hit a mile away tore the every loving heck out of everything and killed our power for a while. I’ll make a post about that later (though by now most of you have probably seen all the photos).

Anyway, I ended up pulling everything back OUT of the car so I could drive down to CT and fill up gas cans to run the generator on.

Weekend came, I packed everything BACK in:

Huh, fits real well.

And started driving. Theeeen I realized why it fit with so much space. I hadn’t packed the wall pegs, the stuff from Holiday Yarns, or the stuff from Jesh and Jellyfishknits. Oh crappity. Turn around, drive home, throw it in the car, set out again.

So I drove the umpteen hours to Maine. Yay! No disaster. Find the space

Unpack the stuff… wow it looks bare.

After a couple false starts…

…and moving things around as I picked how I wanted to organize… (read several hours later), I had a Gnomespun booth!

Still looks emptier than I’d like but a lot of that’s because I was cramming everything very deep on the gridwall. If I do this more I need more gridwall/shelves/etc.

Very tired by this point, I went to the (somewhat) nearby State Forest campground and set up camp.

Slept like a rock, got up early, and hiked up Battie Mountain, which is right at the edge of the campground. Good lord it’s a beautiful view!

And here’s a beautiful panoramic, made a link so it doesn’t explode the page.

Beautiful View

Then it was off to the Fiber Frolic. Where I put up my makeshift signs, and was off! You can’t see them, but they’re my gnomes, my slogan, and my business name. I was pleased how well received they all were.

Met a TON of people and spun a bunch of samples and even sold some stuff.

But then it was time to go home, sad but the necessary part of amazing events. So I packed up again, plus the 3lbs of alpaca I bought, and the tunis fleece I was given. This time I got everything into the car on the first try!

So time to go home! Except… partway home, but still in Maine, my check engine light started to flash. Oh boy. I drove home, very carefully, as things got worse…

Turns out I had completely torched one of my engine’s pistons, and busted two other valves. So by the time I got it in for fixing, it was basically a one piston engine! Whee!

She’s ok again now, which is very good.

And now, your gratuitous puppies. Aren’t we so good? Don’t you want to give us your cookie?

~The Gnome

Birthday stuff:

My parents bought me some more lovely fiber for Strider. And a wrap gauge for me! Been wanting one for a while, yay! All from Spunky Eclectic. I narrowly avoided a bird’s eye maple Loki as well.

Merino/Tencel on the left, Corriedale batt by Grafton Fibers on the right, and wrap gauge below.

See? Shiny!

Let’s see… what else… oh right!

Heeeeee. For my birthday, I got Tsuper Tserious Tsock Tstuff.

Hand carded and blended Tsock Batts by the Tsarina herself… made with some of the fleece I gave her from the Great Fleece Adventure.

Mood Indigo: Romney, Mohair, Silk

And this one, “just for fun” which, in grand black tradition is hard to do photographic justice to

Assyrian Cohort: Merino, Seacell, Silk, Mohair, Sparkly

And, finally, recieved in the mail presents from England!

The shirt made me laugh. Which is good, laughter is the best medicine.

The socks… wow. Dude.

Here’s a better photo of them, truer to the gorgeous claret-ey color. DAMN they’re soft. If I recall correctly, they have silk in them. Fit great too. Look at those cables!

They’re even cabled on the back!

Aren’t they awesome? ::squee::

Presents from me, to me:

Now, of course, I can’t go to a sheep and wool festival without buying a few things myself. And so…

I got me some Abby Batts from Spunky Eclectic. Mmmm. Shiiiny.

And a closeup of the green one

I also got some Icelandic Lamb, because I haven’t spun any Icelandic yet, and it’s about time. Marcy helped with this purchase.

And finally, I had to valiantly throw myself on these to save my dear friend Lynn from them. Ahem. 30/2 and 40/2 cotton thread, which will be used for weaving.

Stuff I made:

And that’s all the new stuff… except…

Remember this photo?

Notice something? Here, let me zoom in…

See that? That was my not so super secret project after making the spindle bags.

Here it is with better light

Or on the table so maybe you can see it better…

Still can’t tell what’s going on?

Try this…

Get it now?

If not, wander over here and look at the 4th photo down, I’ll wait…

See it? Yeah, that’s me, at NH Sheep and Wool, wandering around spindle spinning. That’s what I do. I do it here at work too.

And it’s for that that I invented this little “device.”

It’s a spindle holster. Yes, a spindle holster. When they’re not all full, you can put them through button holes. But when the cop gets large, they won’t fit in button holes anymore. And spindle bags are great, but they really go IN bigger bags. And when I’m walking around spindle spinning, I want a place to put the spindle that’s right there at hand, that I can get the spindle back from. You know, you walk up, spinning away, to a booth and then OOOH cormo-silk, you have to pick it up to touch and look at the price, but where do you put your spindle? Oh noes! Put it in your pocket and it may get squeezed back out and dropped and… ::gasp:: lost.

So, I made this. Admittedly, it’s probably not for many people. I mean, it’s got a belt loop, and two draw strings. But as the link pointed out, I’m hardcore ::snickers:: really ::twitch:: hardcore… ::falls out of chair laughing:: Ahem… totally. Anyway, for me, it’s awesome. As the cop gets bigger, I can adjust the lower drawstring so that the spindle is snug and secure and won’t drop out the bottom or bounce out the top.

It’s awesome! I’m happy.

And finally:

A new bit of fiber for the shop.

Deep sea blue-green currents swirl and twist in the depths of the water, where strange creatures swim…

Deep Sea – 1oz – 50/50 Cashmere/Tussah Combed Top

SO SOFT. SO SHINY. Love.

That’s all for now.

Later!

~The Gnome

So… this weekend was my birthday!

Well, actually Thursday was my birthday, I’m perfect!

…no, really, I’m perfect! I was a cube, now I’m perfect. (For those not following, I’m 28, which is a perfect number, I was 27, which is a cube – 3x3x3)

I didn’t get to celebrate on my birthday, because I had a thesis committee meeting on Friday morning. Speaking of which, I have permission to write my dissertation but the paper is not signed. I suppose that this takes a second of explanation. Before we can start to write our thesis (after most/all of our research is done) we have to get permission. At the point the paper is signed to give us permission, the four month doomsday countdown starts. When that point hits, you’d better be defending ’cause your stipend’s getting cut. So I have a few experiments to finish up, and I’ll be writing.

The long and short of this is… YAAAAAAAAAAAY! The light at the end of the tunnel is the sun, not an oncoming train. Sometime in September, maybe October, I should be graduating.

That was a good birthday present from my committee.

Saturday and Sunday I went to the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival, in Cummington. This was my celebration.

Yay sheep!

You see, I have, as I mentioned before I have the best friends and family ever.

Cummington was when Strider was originally supposed to be revealed (he was revealed earlier for many reasons). So it seemed only natural to bring him along with me and let him show off.

And so, I did.

And a photo from another camera…

Strider behaved himself on Saturday, and mostly on Sunday. I think he was enjoying showing off his prowess.

And because that wasn’t apparently enough, I also got some more gifts, and had a chance to show off my recent spinning and weaving.

I love MA S&W. It’s a great time in general, small and comfortable, friendly. And this one was extra good.

I mean really, what could possibly be better? Sun (enough to sunburn me in some, “Look I was spinning!” ways), friends, stuff in the booth, and even family!

Here’s the booth, you can see Mom on the left, Jesh in the back, the Tsocktsarina to the right, and CathyCate and KnittingFiddler in the booth.

And a lineup (minus Lynn, Marcy, Tsocks, parents, and a few others, still a more complete photo than I can usually manage).

Me, KnittingFiddler (Kathe), Jennifer, Melcentrica, CathyCate, and Jesh

That evening, a bunch of us got together for dinner before heading home. Due to several complicating factors we had to divide into two groups (sadness!). But things were still good.

Here’s the group I ended up with. Good times were had. Photo courtesy of (read: ganked) KnittingFiddler

Jennifer, Tsocks, CathyCate, Me, Patrick, and Jesh

Now, MA Sheep and Wool is also extra special to me for another reason. You see, this is where, one year ago, I met these crazy people…

Lisa, the Tsock Tsarina

and Jennifer, of Holiday Yarn

Yeah. One year. One year since they said, “that’s a GREAT idea!” when I laughingly told these people I didn’t know yet about a friend’s suggestion of a business. One year since they said, “You’re coming to Rhinebeck.” and I laughed and said I doubted it (guess we know who won that bet). One year since Jennifer offered to have Gnomespun yarns (as of then unnamed) in her booth.

One year, in many ways, since the inception of Gnomespun Yarns and Fiber Arts, even though it didn’t launch until Rhinebeck in October. And one year since I fell headfirst into some of the most wonderful friends anyone could ever ask for, ever.

Thanks guys, you rock. It was a great Enablement Anniversary

I went both days, arriving later the second day, but staying to help break down and get people where they needed to be.

Monday was the Memorial Day plant sale for my hometown Garden Club, a group I’ve now been a part of for, I believe 17 years (yeah, since I was 11). Always a fun time to reconnect with some great people and my ::ahem:: roots.

We also had cake for my birthday, and my Dad’s (his b-day is this Friday), and give him his extra special birthday present… a Rigid brand 12″ compound miter saw with laser sight. ::grins:: He seemed to be happy with it.

I got a lot of things, some gifts, and a few not. And I want to show a few other things, but this post is already long as heck, and I need to get back to working on the paper for publication.

Oh, I also finished a yarn that’s been hanging over my head that’s now setting in the bathroom (that I can’t show until the final project is done), got two steps through a massive 3-step dyeing for a trade that’s been hanging over my head, and got some cashmere/tussah silk dyed and drying.

So, there will be more later.

~The Gnome