The latest Mythic Fiber Club is finally mailed out, the latest big update is up, and… the world turns. Which means it’s time to talk about the future. Gnomespun’s and mine. Don’t worry, I’m not closing it down. I still have to pay bills for the foreseeable future.

However, I have something new starting. I’m going to be volunteering in a toxicology lab at UMass Amherst. This is definitely a good thing.

After all the up and down and back and forth over jobs, I’ve ended up going 2 years without active science on my resume. This is not so great a situation for trying to get a job in this economy with the government cutting funding to just about everyone who funds biologists. So now that’s ending, and I’m putting active science back on the resume, getting a new letter of recommendation, some new skills, etc. If I’m really lucky, maybe I’ll even get a new publication.

It does mean my time will be compressed. This is pretty much a full time position, plus 2 hours of commute every day. So, what does this all mean to you guys? It means there won’t be a winter Mythic Fiber Club. I’m still hoping to do another one in spring. There will be updates, but I don’t know right now how frequent or large they will be since I will be dyeing on nights and weekends.

So! Gnomespun will continue to be around, but slightly different for the next 3-4 months.

That’s all for now!
~The Gnome

Details:

Name: Mythic Fiber Club
Cost: $50 (includes everything, shipping, etc)
Duration: 3 Months (Starting June/July)
Fiber: 3 different “uncommon” fibers, no merino/bfl
Dye Theme: Myths and Legends
Goodies: A pair of coordinated handmade stitch markers each month.

Additional information:
No more than 2 of any class of fiber (finewool, downs wool, longwool, primitive/ancient wool).

Braids are my standard 4oz braids.

With each delivery will be a description of the fiber, uses, spinning, etc.

Colorways would be exclusive to the club for a minimum of 6 months.

There could possibly be additional goodies if I can manage them.

So… interest? Suggestions? Questions?

UPDATE:

Ted: Yes, $50 for three shipments, no additional charge. Canada… no, no additional cost. Since I’m not sending large amounts, it doesn’t cost me too much extra. In reference to other non-US countries… good point, the cost will be slightly increased to $60. If you don’t want stitch markers (or would like them in the form of earrings) I can certainly not send them if you don’t want them.

On bimonthly: One of the reasons I’m doing a smaller, short-term, club is to avoid conflicts if I get a job at some point (which I hope will happen). I can do bimonthly if people would prefer (it mostly affects when things would be mailed) but I can do either way without trouble.

So, Rhinebeck! Also known as the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. Like every year, I brought my camera intent on taking lots and lots of photos. Like every year, I didn’t get nearly the photos I intended. UNlike last year, I at least got a few.

So I spent the time between getting back from the aforementioned backpacking trip and Rhinebeck frantically dyeing as fast as my two pots and multi-color colorways would allow. It was… hectic. My dyed fiber and buckets I was filling with inventory filled the living room and dining room. As a result, I seemed like a poultry perambulating while lacking a cephalic nerve control center that hadn’t realized it was deceased.

But I actually got my inventory done and everything packed BEFORE needing to leave. Well ok, not quite. I was pretty damned close but ended up pulling out about 45 minutes later than intended. But with NO wet materials, and (almost) all the things I intended to bring! I failed to bring my sample yarns for people to play with but… can’t have everything.

So I drove through the lovely fall countryside (a much shorter drive from my parents’ than from Worcester!) and arrived at the Duchess County Fairgrounds to help Jennifer (owner of the booth) and Tsocktsarina set up the booth. Like always I swore I was going to take a photo before people arrived… and like always I totally didn’t.

Then I met Terri and Beth… who I also seem to have forgotten to photograph, wow I did worse than I thought. Terri kindly offered a bed in her camper, and fed me! MMm with excellent food too. This made everything much easier. Unfortunately, I was slow getting out in the morning (because I was dumb. I had lots of time, then I had my morning tea and suddenly I was late). So… no pre-crowd booth shot! As things were starting, I did get this…

Um… yeah. And that’s the best I could manage. Really. Besides being blurry, the place was MOBBED. Absolutely mobbed. I was sold out of some of my less populous fibers within the first hour.

We had a slightly different organization thanks to Jennifer’s brilliant mind, which made the booth much more navigable and open. I don’t know what we would have done without the shift, because WOH. I spent fulltime explaining fibers, pointing people to yarns and kits, explaining prices, restocking yarns and fibers, and trying not to be trampled. It was awesome.

Here’s a back view (from behind, while I was restocking)

Patrick manned the payment table for most of the festival.

That’s… pretty much all the photos I got the first day… wait not quite!

Tsocks made socks! From my fiber! A lovely purple cheviot braid in “Balloonflower” became these fabulous socks…

Mmm socks. Pretty! I love seeing my fiber/yarn as finished yarn/objects. This is only the second Gnomespun I’ve seen as a project in person! Also, as always Rhinebeck is a time to see people!

By the end of the first day… this was what all that was left of my inventory.

I tried a new method for put-up, to make it less… snakey and awkward and intimidating for display. Worked great. I’ll probably modify it a bit, but the basic concept? Perfect. I managed to find a way to let people touch and feel the fiber while still keeping it in a disk! Also found a folded method that worked pretty well. My yarn sold remarkably well too. Especially the darker muted colors and browns. ::thinks::

The second day, there was a chance for breathing, though things were still pretty busy. Before everyone arrived (I actually got there on time, though… without my hat, DOH)…

After the hecticness of the first day, I wandered off to actually see the fair. Unfortunately, I’m… well… um… chatty. And I’m moderately well known so I kept getting caught up and distracted, so my wandering the fair took like… 4 hours and involved things like conversations with breeders, other vendors, and demonstrating support spindling and bottom whorls. But… it was worth it, and fun.

I saw sheep!

Here’s the breed of the year at Rhinebeck, the Oxford, which has a nice fleece but almost impossible to get hold of because it grows slowly so if you shear at the normal times you get about an inch to inch and a half tops staple length. Doh.

Cheviot, a good chewy sock fiber (though I still prefer a high quality Dorset). They are adorable little dog-sized sheep.

And of course, pygora goats. Which are adorable, but don’t feel like goats to me ’cause they’re SO SMALL. My goats were big. Even the ones that were supposed to be little (Toggenburgs).

And I ran into a lot of people, most of whom I forgot to get photos of, booo! But I also ran into the fabulously awesome Arak42, Jellycrys, and Arak’s Mom. We talked for like an hour, and they were appropriately appreciative of the geekiness of my scarf (more about that in a moment). And then we took photos appropriate to our ridiculousness.

Then it was time to go back to the booth for more explaining and photos of cool people.

Like Yrallee, who brought some wensleydale I dyed that she’d spun up into an amazingly soft squishy yarn that was becoming a shawl.

TheGeorg

Westfaire

Jennifer, Westfaire, DivineBird, Sandi Wiseheart, and Georg

And before I left, I actually managed to remember to get a photo taken of me with this stuff…

Ok, so you’re probably familiar with the kilt by now. The socks I’m wearing there are also handknit by a good friend, as is the scarf and socks I’m holding.

We’ll start with the scarf. You’ll notice it’s long (it’s also awesomely warm and cozy). That’s because it’s oxygen… that is, an oxygen emission spectrum. If you burn oxygen and refract the light you get through a prism, that’s what you see. It’s how scientists tell what stars are made of. It’s utterly geeky and utterly me. I love it.

The socks I’m holding are very very special. You might recall that ages ago I went to an estate sale and got a ton of fleeces. Well I gave one of those fleeces to Tsocks, then for my birthday she gave me beautiful batts from that fiber (Romney) blended with some silk and mohair. Well I spun it up into my first handspun sock yarn (plus some extra she made me in grey ’cause my yarn was a little thicker than I intended). I then mailed the resulting yarn across the sea to my friend in the UK who is way too generous for her own good. She knit me these fabulous socks and sent them back. So now I have socks that were prepped by one friend, handspun by me, and handknit by another friend. And they feel great. What could be better?

So… it was a very successful and enjoyable Rhinebeck for Gnomespun. I’ve got a bunch of Exmoor Mule dyed up and other stuff on the way shortly.

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome