He's not dead, he's just resting...

I've neglected this poor blog for a very long time so I thought I'd revive it. Hello, Polly!

OK.

It's getting to be fiber festival time, and tomorrow I head down to Powhatan, VA, for a newish festival; The Powhatan Festival of Fiber.  It's not big, not yet, and very manageable for those folks who don't like crowds. Plus the best doughnuts in the world will be sold there by that evil Carpe Donut!

I'm on a fiscal freeze for now, so I'll be windowshopping, but that won't stop me from lusting after all the goodies.

I encourage anyone in reasonable driving distance to check out this little gem of a festival. It is only  years old, but the organization rivals that of much older and larger events.

I've been everywhere, man!

Just for fun, I thought I'd list the yarn stores I've visited the past few years. Nothing like supporting the local economy, is there? I don't even want to think about the money I've "shared" in these stores.

Tucson, Ariz: Back Door Beads (not very friendly when I was there; yarn was squeezed into bins.
Tucson, Ariz: Purls (on Speedway) Great store, VERY friendly!
Albuquerque, NM: Village Wools, Inc. (wonderful store, great for spinners and weavers, too. Note: Dog on premises)
Salt Lake City, UT: Zim’s Crafts (a warehouse full of everything craftsy)
Annapolis, MD: Yarn Garden. Stuff everywhere, customers are as helpful as staff, great fun!
Ashton, MD: Fiberworks. Don't be deterred by the lack of organization; the owner knows where everything is.
Bethesda, MD: Knit and Stitch = Bliss
Ellicott City, MD: The Celtic Knot Yarn Shop (cute shop full of insane fun people) , gone now and reopened under new management as "Large Marge".
Glyndon, MD: Woolstock Knit Shop (OMG. Literally stocked to the ceiling with yarn, sorted by color)
Baltimore, MD: Spinsters Yarn (new, funky, I see good things for this shop)
Columbia, MD: All About Yarn (nice shop, get good directions before you go; they are in an office park)
Kensington, MD: Inez’s Stitchery (some of everything in there; I’d hate to have to do inventory!)
Rockville, MD: WoolWinders: A Knitting Salon (very nice place, upper quality yarns; helpful but not fussy staff)
Funkstown MD: Y2K Knits. Cute shop with a nice garden; very inviting.
Hyattsville, MD: A Tangled Skein. I would live here if they would let me.
East Berlin, PA: The Mannings. Don't miss the annual sit n knit. Amazing selection of weaving stuff.
Alexandria, VA: Knit Happens. Yes it does.
Richmond, VA: Yarn Lounge (Great shop in a funky neighborhood. Welcoming, with places to sit and knit in peace. They gave me a calendar when they found out I had driven 85 miles just for them!)
Richmond, VA: Knitting Basket: Love this place! Best use of a basement I’ve ever seen.
Richmond, VA: Lettuce Knit (not my kind of place, but a decent shop)
Burke, VA: Yarn Barn.
Haymarket, VA: Needles in the Haymarket
The Plains, VA: Hunt Country Yarns. Pricy but unique stuff, talk to Bob.
Winchester, VA: Never Enough Yarn. Defunct after a too-short life.
Warrenton, VA: My Favorite Yarn Store. Second best use of a basement I've ever seen -- that's where the sales stuff is.
Williamsburg, VA: Knitting Sisters (well-stocked, bright, friendly)
Yorktown, VA: Coodinated Colors: Good selection of discontinued yarns, amiable owner.
Durham, NC: Cozy (nice but not a yarn store per se, yarn is in back, beyond the clothes, jewelry and shoes)
Greensboro, NC: Stitch Point (a yarn store that’s a gift shop, or is it the other way round?)
Winston-Salem, NC: Knit One, Smock Two (great yarn store if you like quilting)
Winston-Salem, NC: Knit Picky (The store I would open if I could.)

My Poor Blog has been Ravelled!

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth or been crushed by my stash. I got a Ravelery account. That little link has kicked off a new obsession and I've been posting like a fiend over there. I'll try to come back here on occasion. I still owe you store reviews, and I've been to some great ones!

I visit the Fair Isle...but just for 2 hours

Yesterday, I took a freebie workshop on making a Fair Isle gift bag at one of my LYS. I've wanted to learn the skill since I began knitting, and the stars conspired to make it possible -- and for free! (never mind that I spent $130 after the class...) I don't have anything to show yet, but I was impressed at how basic it was; more about keeping track of what you're doing than anything else. Our instructor, Paige Waffle (gotta love it...) was very good and patient with us, considering that of the 8 or so women there, maybe 3 of us were actually doing exactly what we were supposed to do. Some of us didn't know about the "homework" and hadn't knitted our bases, so we had to swatch, a few others were fiddling with new yarn and didn't have much time to practice at all, and a few were off on a different project altogether. Bless anyone who teaches anything to anybody...

Meanwhile, I'm almost done with my first Blue Moon socks. What great yarn! the stitch definition is amazing, and it feels more like cotton than wool. I'll post the pics when I'm done.

Last week I whipped up a hat out of three orphan yarns I had. I thought it was nice enough, but I keep getting compliments on it! Ya never know what people like.

Knitting to be less sad... a little

This weekend was a sad one. A very dear, close friend died last week and her funeral was yesterday. A few of us headed down to Englehard, NC (a tiny place on the edge of the state, more water than land) to say goodbye. I'll really miss her. Two years ago, she was alive and well, went in for a simple outpatient procedure, and stopped breathing. By the time the doctor noticed, it was too late and she lapsed into a coma. She later woke up, but the damage was done. A vibrant, electric, brilliant journalist was practically returned to infancy. Bye, Ruth. Hope the coffee is good where you are, otherwise they'll hear about it!

To cheer myself up, I made some screaming yellow cabled footies from the "One Skein" book. Flummoxed up the toe, but I don't care. The yarn is Peace Fleece, thick and soft and the color of old style cornmeal. Ruth would have loved the color.

From the 'Hood to the Burbs -- by the River

Last night, I attended a fun/d raiser at Knit Happens, a great LYS in Alexandria, VA. The store was open late to allow the the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS), a local nonprofit dedicated solely to restoring and cleaning up the Anacostia River and its tributaries, and a new yarn maker company, Neighborhood Fiber Co., to raise money for the society through the sale of some luscious sock yarn. The yarns are wool and seacell, petable and richly colored. Karida Collins and company are color mavens, offering amazing handspun, hand-dyed fibers. The yarns are all named after neighborhoods in Washington, DC (hence the name). $1 of each hank's price goes to the AWS, a worthy cause, if you've ever seen the crap that ends up in the river. The Anacostia is the city's stepchild-- everyone knows about the Potomac, but the word "Anacostia"has become an unfortunate codeword for a part of town that no tourist bus would visit, so the river suffers, serving as a flowing dump site. On Earth Day 2006 for example, volunteers removed 31.5 tons of trash (that's 63,000 lbs!) and 143 tires from the watershed.

Knit Happens was full of yarnies eager to see the new stuff, and I think the event was a success. We sat around, making friends with the yarn and with each other, needles, advice and gossip flying.

I had already splurged at Stitches East and got a couple hanks of Thomas Circle semisolid, but last night I got 2 hanks of Tenley Circle, a bright but not obnoxious orange. I recommend that everyone save their pennies and get some Neighborhood Fibers. Get good stuff and do some good, without getting your feet wet.

Dragon Scales!

If you attended the marketplace at Stitches East on Saturday, you might have seen me in my new Dragon Scales wrap. The pattern came from Bad Cat Designs, through Jade Sapphire, and was written for cashmere (I wish!) and intended to be a scarf. I had this great hand spun wool/tencel yarn I got from Springwater Fiber Workshop in Alexandria and used that instead. The color is actually much more purple/gray muted than the photos (darn phone camera!) but beautiful nonetheless. I doubled the width +2, and knitted til I ran out of yarn. I'm happy with it, and I have had more than one person ask about it, a few examining it from behind while I'm on the Metro or an escalator. Isn't knitting interesting? Any other time, we'd all be calling for cops if strangers began touching and examining our clothes, but if we made it. we feel like a mobile fashion show.