A week and a day

Here at Dragonfly headquarters, we are busily getting ready for that magical weekend every year when a bazillion knitters, spinners, and sheep lovers gather at the Howard County Fairgrounds for what may be the biggest Sheep and Wool festival in the country. The muggles look on quizzically perhaps even contemptuously, but that's okay. We know a good thing, don't we?
I have been dyeing cashmere silk laceweight, and merino lace yarn in two weights. Also merino-seacell sock yarn, and merino and bfl roving. Yum!

And locks! I am trying a new thing. I love to process raw fleece. Something about watching the dirty stinky pile of fluff become sweet clean locks and then fabulous textured (or not, depending on the sheep!) yarn just makes me happy. I'm dyeing CVM and Alpaca and maybe some Cheviot locks for the Cloverhill booth. So, come squeeze them, they may want to come home with you.

And if you are at the fest on Sunday morning, please come by and see me at the Cloverhill booth in the main barn spots D2 and D3 (that's on the right as you come in the front door). I will be working the booth from 8 am to 1 pm and I'd love to see you!

Spinning with Jacey

Part two of my fabulous fiber Sunday involved peeling myself away from the spin-in at Steph's, just as food was coming out, of course. Late as usual. very late, as usual. I called from the road to Spinster to ler Jacey know I'd be late and commenced to follow my sketchy directions from google. ("Google maps is better than Mapquest", he said. This may be fine if you have some familiarity with the area:)

I'm good at directions for some reason, and only faltered when I couldn't id the street I was supposed to turn on. I would like to blame it on the directions, but really, i was just late. I arrived at the cutest, sweetest, coziest yarn shop i've ever been inside. And there was Ms. Insubordiknit herself, waiting for me. Here I was worrying that she'd hold up the other students when i was the only one! Jacey was incredibly gracious and we got started right away, as soon as I'd run to the Safeway in the next block and back. all in all, we got started just shy of an hour late, and still managed to pack 4 hours of instruction into our three hour PRIVATE LESSON.

Again, I had my camera in the car, but did not spare the time to run and get it, although I did threaten to do so when Jacey pulled out the eyeballs. I must say, they are even cooler up close! And the batts for the Vitreous Humor yarn. Very yummy, and very "innardy". I will tell you, itis no surprise to me that the high priestess of Eyeball is even lovlier that you think she will be,AND so real and "in the moment". I had a marvelous time, spinning and hanging out, and learned so many cool things. Not just excellent arty spinning techniques, although there was plenty of that. I have already noticed my spinning has improved. This class was my first spinning class ever you know.

I learned to spin thick and thin, corespinning (the coolest!), cocoons, and beehives! I also learned how to carry along a thread or lace weight, although i must admit that I struggled the most with the technique she almost didn't want to waste time teaching, because it is SO EASY. Oh well, though I apparently was a genius at thick and thin and core spinning. Ok, maybe genius is a bit grandiose, but I like it. I also learned how to spin objects into your yarn, either threaded onto a carry along or onto roving itself. Brilliant!

Although i forgot my camera, you're in luck. Go to the Countdown blog and read the post about Insubordiknit. Oh, and her kids really are that beautiful. i got to meet her family when they came to pick her up. And the boy child, who really does look like an angel with Rock and Roll hair, skeined my crazy skein. We will not mention the fact that she made three, maybe 4 skeins of yarn in the time it took me to make this one!

Fabulous Fiber Sunday

I want to tell you about my fabulous fibery day last Sunday (before the next one rolls around-it won't be fibery but it will be fab). See, I've been working away very hard on secret knitting projects and having occasional yarn and fiber dyeing extravaganzas. Immediately after finishing the big red monster, I cast on for a very simple (thank heavens!) bar-inspired sweater for Pints and Purls, brain-child of two local knitters: Karida Collins of Neighborhood Fiber Co and Libby Bruce of Wine Lips (love that name!). I am now on a third secret project for the same book-to-be. Yay! It is nice and simple as knitting out on the town should be.

So, i've been an extra good girl, and it was time for some fiber indulgence. First stop, spin in at Steph's studio. Yes, the very place she makes those to dye for batts. I had a great afternoon, spinning, eating yummy things, watching everyone else spin. It was like an art yarn spinning demonstration. Steph and Carissa were doing coils, and well SUPERcoils, for that matter. Molly was spinning up a super bulky two ply in some merino she'd dyed a lovely muted blue. She also brought some things she'd knit for her shop so we could enjoy them. Nancy was doing coils and Amanda was spinning some lovely dark blue? singles.

I walked around and around the room, watching everyone's beautiful spinning, asking impertinent questions, and drooling. I stopped to watch one woman who was spinning one gorgeous art yarn after another. She offered that she spins as her full-time job. I learned that she is my favorite spinner on flickr! She is Abby of Folktale Fibers, of course you wanted to know. She and Molly and Steph all had yummy scraps to share. I did take a few, but i restrained myself from pressing all the locks and sari silk close to me and bolting from the room before anyone else could get them.

Gryphon was there with lovely Lia spinning her way through some intriguing samples from a new fiber and yarn source. Keep a look out for some amazing new yarns and fibers to show up in my shop. Of course, like a good blogger i brought my camera. And I didn't take a single picture. But here is a detail of the pretty pretty yarn I spun.

Of course, it was from Steph's batt, so how cd I go wrong?

Next post, my amazing spinning lesson with Jacey Boggs of Insubordiknit. Note the crazy green yarn. I love it!

And don't forget to come see us in the main barn at MDSW at the Cloverhill Booth. Stayed tuned here for details about all the amazing artists who will be represented there.

Spring Fibery Excitement

See I'm So Excited that I'm Using Caps! Ok, enough silliness. Well, the countdown to Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest has begin. 23 days! You may remember that, despite an absolutely beautiful job by Gryphon on the application, we did not get a booth this year. Not even wait-listed.

This is good news for fiber, attesting to the extreme popularity of yarn right now, but less than good news for us. However, thanks to Jolene, talented knitwear designer new owner of Cloverhill Yarn shop in Baltimore and her pal Erin of Mama-E's Ceyeber Fiber Warehouse, we have a golden opportunity to participate in a booth at the fest.

Jolene has invited a bunch of indie fiber artists, mostly but not all local to vend at her booth. It's a brilliant idea, as it helps us indies, but also helps her as she's only just taking over the shop. So, check out the list of happy dyers and spinners extraordinaire:

Mama-E, of course

Insubordiknit
Spun Monkey
Neighborhood Fiber Co.
Knitting Gnome
Michael Sturtevant Woodworking (you must see his spindles!)
Sanguine Gryphon
The Unique Sheep
The Sweet Sheep
Woolarina
Spritely Goods
Brooklyn Handspun
A Verb For Keeping warm
Chewy Spaghetti, and
LOOP

And, Steph of Loop and I will have the pleasure of working the booth on Sunday morning from 8-1. So, please come by and say hi!

In the meantime, do check out the Countdown to Sheep and Wool blog for cool contests and prizes!
In dragonflynews, our next shipment is over at the Loopy Ewe (am I a linking fool or what?) and selling fabulously. If you have a "jones" for dragonfly fiber, Gryphon is generously carrying it in her online shop. She will aslo begin selling some of my yarns, when she gets a chance to put them up. Someday, I'll have my own site. A classmate of my usually lovely husband, Kandis Martin, is building a website for me, but actually, she's waiting for me to get my logo updated. Hopefully, my long search for a graphic artist type person has ended. I'll let you know.

Have you noticed that my etsy shop is completely empty? I'll be slowly updating that, starting today with a few skeins of sock yarn. As I dye up a storm for MDSW, I'll be adding yarns to my shop as well.

Next time, more fibery happiness: spin-in at Steph's and my ART YARN CLASS WITH JACEY BOGGS! Yes, Jacey of Insubordiknit and yes, she's as lovely as she sounds on her podcast.

So much fibery happiness

It's true.

Last week, the Homespun Yarn Party went beyond anyone's expectations. I met so many fabulous people: other vendors, like Mama-E and Amy and Andrea and Steph, talk about star struck! And Paula and Lindsay and Jennifer, oh my! and our event planners extraordinaire Snargle, Jess ,and Anne . Thanks so much you guys! you did a lot of work in a very short amount of time and it was awefully fun to meet and hang out with you. Although I'll admit there was an aweful lot more selling than hanging out. But how can a girl complain?

And then there were the customers. What a terrific (and patient) bunch of folks. Thank you so much for coming out to support your local fiber artists. That was definitely the best show I've ever had. Yay! I got to meet some folks that I know only on-line and that is always great fun. Finally, there were the personal saviors. Mia of knitplaywithfire and our Lauren were fiber super heroes! and we'd only just met mia.

Then there was our junior vendor and crowd draw. The amazing unstoppable Lia, who amused herself during a rush that would put fear into the hearts of much bigger people drawing on her tights and the inside of our fiber bins with permanent marker. Already expressing herself creatively.

Must stop now. Go see the flickr group for everyone's pictures. Will share more fibery joy a little later. I'm leaving you with some hand processed fleecey love. Did you notice my little coily cocoon in the top picture?