Greencastle

Okay. Back from the first fiber festival of my year - The Fiber Event in Greencastle, Indiana.

It went well, in spite of a bad start and a bad finish. The spirit of the alternator on the Mercedes departed my car about 5 miles from home Friday morning. Long story short, there was ONE alternator for my car in the greater Louisville Metro area. Sweetie collected said part and repaired said car. (It is never dumb to marry a mechanical kind of guy who has air tools.) My departure was several hours late and the only big deal was that I missed the opportunity to hang with Ms. Handbasket. (I want to thank her for the brilliant rabbit earrings, which I adore and wore.) Friends helped me set up and I was in business by four p.m. The weather was cool but sunny.

Not so much on Saturday. We awoke to rain and wind and upper thirty degree temperatures. It got worse. Starting about, oh, 2:30, we were alternately treated to either rain, snow, sleet and hail. Guaranteed to make shoppers want to venture forth. It wasn't so bad for the those in the Community Building or us in the Fiber Arts Building. It was crappy for those in the more exposed Sheep Barn.

But this IS Greencastle, after all, the first fiber festival for a lot of people in our part of the midwest. People will come. The roads were too warm to freeze so travel wasn't treacherous, not that that would stop some. Sales were good.

I took six of the older babies to sell. Down the river. Four went to live good lives with good people. The fiber sold well as did the knitting needles and dyes. I'll probably write more about that after I have time to digest the past two days.

I CAN TESTIFY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80512876@N00/447590253/

Please Google Rabbitch. Her Blog is more interesting than mine.

You give me fever...

I have been remarkably free of rhino-viral disease for a long while, and so I was distressed to wake to the stuffed up nose and fever Saturday. I tried the guy remedy which is "ignore it and it does not exist" but that failed - as it always does.

So, I have this cold and a big honking fever blister on my lip and it'll be hard to be the talkative and vivacious me (don't laugh, that is the me at public events) this weekend is I don't shake this bug. Actually, I should be fine except I will still have a nice and crusty thing on my upper lip. Ewww.

Today, I go into town for provisions. The buns are totally out of pellets and there are last minute festival items to collect. And we humans need food, too.

I'm trying not to push myself and I am so frabjously glad that H. Handbasket said she'd lift and tote for me on Friday.

We're losing another tree. This one is the last of several big bass woods (lindens) that once lined the drive. The only thing holding it together is the ivy. The tree cutters we've spoken to won't have a thing to do with it as the power line to our house runs through the middle of it, so our electric cooperative is having it taken down.



This is Stubby, the little Lionhead. He doesn't get his picture online much.

Cranking away at the drumcarder. I like so much this part of the fiber preparation. The part where you have bags of colored fiber and it is up to you to create the next blend. Instead of my plans to have two pounds of each colorway, it looks like there will be five ounce offerings instead. That amount is just enough that I don't feel like a factory.



Acquired a nasty cold from somewhere (where?) and yesterday was the worst. So much mucous. Slept many hours. Today, I feel better.

I am still able to process some fiber. It is so cool how five different shades of purple and pink can coalesce into fibery goodness. This shows the merino, silk, and angora blend.

In an attempt to use what I have on hand, these are socks being made from five or six different leftover sock yarns. They will be fraternal twins.




And here is Ginger - just because she is so cute.

I'm a knit dweeb

Aw Shucks. Your flattery will get you nowhere - nowhere, I say! The latest shawl was merely a baby step on my way to knitted shawl stardom. Really. After Greencastle and after painting the front living room - I have paint and supplies at the ready. Since mid-February even.

Also, Franklin has been knitting lace, too (copycat) and he shows a yarn-over (eyelet) alphabet. It might be interesting to knit some message... or a labyrinth. Then there's crop circles. Lightening bolts. The sun. Flowers. Elvis.

I'm seeing lots of lace knitting lately and that's great. However, what I am seeing is designers looking to the past for inspiration. I want to see some designs from a forward looking designer person. Is there anything like that floating around the internet?

Oh, and we had hail this past week! What a racket, especially in a metal-roofed house.
Interesting weather, I say.

Keep on Truckin'

I really want to thank everyone for their comments and emails about Murgatroyd. Y'all are so sweet. Now. (deep breath) Let's move on.

Blocked the shawl yesterday, not taking too much time or care at first. Then that sucker began growing and getting prettier as I kept hand patting it from the center out. Then I took some time and care to block it sort of "correctly," which means no pins because I'd left them downstairs, so fuck that. If I do say so myself, WOW! It's all from Fuzzarelly Fibers. Spun fine, 2 ply. One of the merino/silk/angora blend and one ply of silk.



It weighs less than ten ounces. Amazing. I used the fifteen ounce shawl as my winter coat, and it kept me plenty warm. Guess this new one will be my spring and fall one.

The little babies are doing pretty good. Anna's two babies are huge things compared to Precious'. I trimmed P's belly wool this weekend and I can't believe she raised eight babies last time. She only has six nipples. That explains the two runts! I am fostering one of her kits to Anna, who has a ton of tits and milk, (note the irony) and the other four are small, but they are growing.

Heizen and Ginger are getting along nicely.



Ginger is just nine weeks old, eight more than the new guy here. I am still gob smacked at how fast these critters grow.

Murgie

It's a sad day in Bunnyville. Our delightful baby, Murgatroyd, has gone over the Rainbow Bridge into Bunny Heaven. I'm glad to have had him for almost a year and I will never forget his happy-fo-lucky attitude and sweet nature. Sweetie and I, along with Blue Acorn, miss him a lot.