What I spoiled myself with at the 2010 Upper Valley Fiber Fest in Troy, Ohio

Jane Evans of Valhalla Acres had gone through her stash of books, pricing them 1/2 off, so I added these to my collection. I'd been wanting them both for a long time.





Jane (Valhalla Acres) has some of the most amazing colors/combinations of fiber to spin; I often go away wanting to have gotten it all! These are the ones I treated myself with, 4 ounces each. The yellow/green is 98% wool and 2% sari silk -- also has a bit of glitz. The one above it is Dorset X.
The pink and one below it to the right are BFL X. And the one bottom middle is 80% wool and 20% angora rabbit.






From Sistermaide I got a new drop spindle.
Plus a small single and a small double lucet.
Girl has to have new toys, you know! :-)





..... and a new project bag from Katie Fleck Designs. It's
reversible to a complementary stripe fabric, and has other
pieces (which I didn't get, darnit) to match. Already
have a sock WIP in it -- that's why it looks "puffy".






From Arlene Graham's Fiberworks I bought a bottle of unscented Eucalan
wool wash(not in picture), and could not resist this beautiful hank of Araucania Ranco solids sock yarn. It's several shades of purple, and I'm thinking of knitting a lacy scarf to really show off all the colors.




From Karen Poulakos Fiber Arts Studio I found a deal no one should pass up:

2 sets 5" size 0 bamboo dpns $3.19/set
1 set 8" size 4 bamboo dpns $3.29/set
1 set 8" size 5 bamboo dpns $3.29/set
1 15.75" size 5 bamboo circular needle $1.79
1 15.75" size 7 bamboo circular needle $1.79

I know I need some other sizes. She'll be at Wool Gathering in
September, so maybe by then I'll get my list together.





From Wooly Bear Yarn:
5 skeins of blue hand-dyed wool/silk dk
weight yarn(that's going to be a
lacy scarf for me; pattern yet to be decided upon)







From Yarns and Fabrications I fed my love of
Cascade 220 with these beautiful skeins.
Also a tape measure --
NEVER have enough of them --
with their store logo on it.




At Nan Talley and Patti Hodge's Fiberantics booth
I fell in love with
the multi alpaca on the left.
And at Cheryl Ross' Mount Ampato Alpacas
booth I could not leave without the 4 oz.
autumn-shades alpaca roving on the right
(should have gotten the other 2 balls of it!).





At Nan and Patti's Fiberantics my friend
Beth Clayton spoiled me rotten with 4 oz.
of alpaca, merino, and soy silk roving.
It's soooooo soft....... No plans for
it yet except to pet it a LOT :-)

On the right is a Romney/mohair batt
I bought from Family Matters Farm in
the Tippecanoe Weaver and Fibers Too
booth. The shop is in Tipp City, Ohio
and I'd previously purchased a similar
batt there; plan to knit them into
scarves after spinning and plying.





I shopped down to my last $8 -- found it in my pocket on the way home.
It's now safely tucked away to be added to, for shopping
for even more goodies at Wool Gathering
in September. :-)

A very lovely gift

I belong to Random Acts of Kindness group at Ravelry.
Every month, the members of the group can post a Wish List of
items they'd like to receive, then other members scan the
lists to see to whom they'd like to gift an item (or more).

This month among other items, I requested
"any Knit Picks sock yarn", plus "Harmony 6 inch
size 0 dpns" (double-pointed knitting
needles, for those not-in-the-know).

A member messaged me, and said she'd like to send me
some of the sock yarn in her voluminous (not her word)
stash.

I consider myself truly blessed to have received even
a small amount of her stash.

What a lovely lady.

Now all I have to do, is decide which color goes
on the needles first. :-)

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms everywhere! :-)

Upper Valley Fiber Fest

The fourth annual Upper Valley Fiber Fest will be held on
Saturday May 15, 2010 from 9 am to 5 pm,
and Sunday May 16, 2010 from 11 am to 4 pm
at the Merchant's Building (formerly the
Junior Fair Building) of the Miami County Fairgrounds in Troy, Ohio .
ADMISSION IS FREE.
This festival will be a celebration of spinning, weaving, knitting, crochet, felting and all things fiber related.
Easy access to the festival from Interstate 75.
Visit our web site http://www.uppervalleyfiberfest.org for driving directions and maps.

We have several entrances to the house, but prefer that visitors only use the front door. So we put up signs "use front door please" on the others.

I know everyone's getting tired of pictures from our first snowstorm on February 6, 2010. But I had to share this one -- it speaks volumes. :-)

Our Christmas

For Christmas this year we had an extra EXTRA NICE addition: DD's boyfriend.
He and his parents don't really do much in the way of celebrating on that day, so he spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with us. One of our tradtions is to open our stocking on Christmas Eve, so we went out, got him a stocking, and stuffed it to the gills with goodies and yummies. Didn't want him feeling left out, and he's truly become a good friend to us. DD was surprised, too: we didn't tell her we were going to do that.
Christmas morning we all opened our presents, then DS and I made enough bacon, eggs, and buttered toast with jelly to feed an army. Had coffee, juice, chocolate milk, too.
In the afternoon we went to spend the rest of the day with DH's very large family. He comes from a clan of 6 boys (one passed) and two sisters; his parents then had 12 grandchildren,and 5 great-grandchildren. Sooooo there was a lot of noise but even more fun.
After a large dinner we opened presents. The off-white scarves I'd knitted (pic and info in previous post) were very well received.
One of the MANY gifts that was passed out to DH came last. Two of his brothers are retired and have taken up golf, and have been trying to get DH to play, too. I wasn't surprised to see a very large, tall box for him and knew exactly what it was: one of the BILs had bought a set of clubs and the bag at a garage sale for him!
Last night DH put a cup down on the floor in our living room, took out the putter and some of the balls that came with, and started practicing. It looked like fun so I had at it. No brag just fact: I hit more in than he did :-)

Gifts I received:
$30 gift card to Jo-Ann from DD
$30 gift card to Kohls from DS
Flat-screen LCD computer monitor from DH
Weight-lifting gloves from DH (I need them so the weights don't slip in my hands)
Top Chef game for my computer from DH
plus LOTS of goodies from the BILs and SILs
and $100 from MIL

My birthday is coming up soon, so I'm wating to use the gift cards and the money from MIL after. Don't want to spoil anyone's surprises!

Something for me

Now that the Christmas gift knitting is finished, wrapped up, and put under the tree I thought it was time to make something for myself.
These socks were in progress in one of my many totes, so I resumed working on them while watching a movie with DH the other night.
Big mistake.
Never knit while watching an intense action movie.
Instead of doing the toe decreases, I was making the ones for the gusset.
So, last night I finished un-knitting six rows stitch by stiche then finished kniting the toe -- correctly this time. Kitchenered it closed this morning, and the pair is now drying on a rack.
I love the colors, they fit great, and I'd definitely knit with Opal again.