Green Mountain Fiber Fest 2010!

The Green Mountain Fiber Festival I attended in White River Junction, Vermont the weekend before last was WONDERFUL. Just look at the stunning shawl above! And this area of Vermont is gorgeous. The Billings Farm and Museum is nearby, as is the King Arthur Flour store and Grand View Farm (where you can have a 'farm vacation").
There were wonderful vendors!
The baskets above (Abenaki style) were hand made by Michael and Gisele McHarg in South Royalton, Vermont. They also run a bagpipe school, The Wee Piper. This warmed my heart.
They made the Van Gogh hooked rug above, too.
And the dolls above.
These gorgeous designs, above and below, are by Donna Kay.

Wonderful yarns by local farms...including Gilead Goats, and Snowshoe Farm.




Spinning wheels were set up beside the fireplace.
The Merlin Tree was there.


And cute angora rabbits.
My friend and neighbor Debbie Bergman of Purple Fleece with her glorious new hand-dyed roving.

Merit Scotford was making, and teaching about, Dorset Buttons. They were marvelous!

One of Purple Fleece's very first fans of her hand-painted roving spun and knit a pair of fingerless mits for Debbie!
Below are the ladies spinning around the fire.

There is Debbie teaching drop spindle.
And of course men spin too.
My poor camera took this photo of the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction which hosted this event. It is a lovely hotel with grand rooms fireplaces galore.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! My husband made dinner for twenty people, including our daughter who was home from college for the first time, and a good time was had by all.

One of the wonderful things about knitting is how slow it is. And as we speed head-long into the magic of Christmas and Hanukkah, knitting is especially, well, relevant. It reminds us that we are lucky to live in a time when we don't have to make all the clothes for our families. And it reminds us to slow down and enjoy our friends and families who, after all, make this life worth living.
-Kathy

Fiber Festival of New England 2010!

Last weekend my travel buddy Karen (of Village Books, Washington, Maine) and I went to West Springfield, Massachusetts for the VERY FIRST Fiber Festival of New England.

I'd never seen a real life Kafe Fassett before.
To celebrate this event I bought a video camera from the son of a friend, and will post a video of the festival just as soon as I can figure out how to download, post, etc. Meanwhile here are some still photos, which since I neglected to bring the real camera, are not so hot. But better than nothing. And that Fassett coat was totally amazing.
Barlett Yarns from Harmony, Maine was there.
A weaving guild.
Designer knitwear.

And here is knit wear designer and author Candace Eisner Strick and her husband. Candace wrote Sweaters From a New England Village and Sweaters From New England Sheep Farms.
A gorgeous vest!
Beautiful gansey.
Stunning! These photos don't do the knitting justice.
I also met sheep shearer Andy Rice, who has a delightful video of sheep shearing on YouTube called The Sheep Shearer. And he told me about the amazing Temple Grandin, a woman born with autism who is now a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University.

"The things I wonder about most are not on the internet," said Sam Shepard, according to the Writer's Almanac which I listened to the day I drove down to Massachusetts to set up our booth. Is this not true for all of us?

But the internet is fun. I have been traveling so much this fall, and madly catching up when home, that I have not had time to follow some favorite knitting blogs: The Knitting Blog By Mr. Puffy the Dog, t does wool, raining sheep, The Fairy Godknitter, The Foothill Home Companion, among others. Funny, moving, gorgeous, these wonderful ladies write amazing blogs.

My husband tells a Knock Knock joke which goes:
Knock knock: Who's there?
Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass
But I heard The Secret Agent by Philip Glass on the radio and it is magnificent. See what you think.

Next week we are off to The Green Mountain Fiber Festival, November 20th and 21st, in White River Junction, Vermont! If you sign up for my class "Stories of Knitting" you receive a free audiobook. Kind of a bribe. On our way home we get to pick up our daughter (who is in her first year of college and much missed) and bring her back for Thanksgiving.
-Kathy

YouTube review

Here's a review of the audiobooks Art of Fair Isle Knitting
and A History of Hand Knitting on YouTube!

Here's an interesting post from knittingbrow's blog on buying yarn at Colonial Williamsburg.

I'm madly getting ready for the The Fiber Festival of New England this coming weekend November 6th and 7th at The Big E in Springfield, Massachusetts. See you there!