Wiley Winders

I had the most wonderful time at my first spinning retreat.  It was from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon at the campus of Wilson College in Chamebersburg, PA.  

The College Campus was a wonderful spot.  Wilson College was founded just a few years after the civil war.  It is an all women's college.  Many of the buildings are historic and the whole campus is surrounded by beautiful mature trees.  I have posted a picture of one of the twin buildings that founded the school (in white).  We stayed in a dorm, and ate in the school cafeteria - the food was surprisingly good.  Everyone at the retreat also brought homemade dishes to "keep our strength up" while doing such marathon spinning.  Our retreat was in a  large conference room inside a great big stone building (double door entrance also pictured).  I describe because the atmosphere was inspiring. 

Our group was probably about 25 spinners large.  The first day was filled with introductions and socializing and spinning.  Saturday was a true work day.  Everyone in the group made a brief presentation about a favorite fiber art project they had produced in the last year.  Because I was new, I talked about what I was making at the retreat itself (also pictured).  The presentations were fascinating - scarves, shawls, socks, puppets, - wool, silk, mohair, alpaca, - spun, woven, painted, - interesting appliques, new techniques, unusual and individual art & craft.

 
The theme for this year was working with color.  We were provided with two huge bags of wool fiber in two colors, close to a dozen hand-dyed fiber bags of wool and mohair, natural alpaca and other exotics in several colors... and told ready, set, go!!  It was so fun.  People chose all sorts of gorgeous combinations.  Folks had there choice of several pickers and carders of different styles and effects.  I brought some dyed locks to contribute to the table too.  Everything got used up!
 
There were all different levels of spinners and weavers and plenty experience in the room that you could find several someones to answer a question about anything fiber related.  With so many there, there were also many different wheels to look at, admire, and even give a spin.  Some people worked on long standing projects, but most jumped right in the pile of fiber at hand.  It was a great time.

This group doesn't actually have any official name, however, I titled my post "Wiley Winders" because on one conversation I had with one of the organizers - she mentioned that at one time they were thinking of naming themselves after one of the original spinners in the group that they loved and missed who had passed away not too long ago (her last name was Wiley).  So my title is done with warmth and fondness for the super weekend.  I came home so artistically rejuvenated and inspired.  I truly can't wait to do it again. 

Fall Fiber Festival & Sheep Dog Trials, Montpelier - Review

This was the 23rd Annual Show and my second time attending & vending at this event.  It is at the estate of James Madison's Montpelier in Orange Co. VA.  The link is:  www.fallfiberfestival.org

I was so worried about going to this show the whole week before I left.  There was a huge storm sweeping up the East coast dumping record amounts of rain.  In nearby Baltimore MD they got 8 inches in 24 hours.  I had herd that it was much worse further South.  There was a lot of gossip about years past being rain soaked at this show too.  The festival grounds are located on a beautiful pasture on the estate; there is a field for the many many tents and an adjoining one for the sheep dog trials.  However, Mother Nature saved us at the last moment.  The sun came out, it was breezy, the weather for the show was dry and gorgeous.  It just felt like fall.

Lots and lots of people attended.  I had wonderful sales and saw many customers that came to find me from the previous year.  For the last two years I have been in the first tent.  They are huge 3 pole circus like tents.  This year was even better because last year the tops of the tents were striped with yellow, so everything inside had kind of a yellow tinge.  This year all the tents were white.  Everything looked beautiful!!

It is also so much fun going over to get a glimpse of the sheep dog trials.  Many of my customers are walking about with sheep dog paraphernalia - leashes, little seats to see the show, shepherd walking sticks.  Very neat. There are also several fiber animal displays that include sheep, llamas, and goats.

New single-ply skeins featuring my goat Smokey

I brought a basket full of my hand-spun!

It was truly a success and I can't wait to go again next year!

Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival Review

Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival - October 2 & 3, 2010

Check out their site at:

Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival

 This year at the festival the weather was gorgeous!!  The sun was out, there was a breeze, tad bit warm part of the time, tad bit chilly part of the time.  The acorns were falling too.  This is a really nice place to go to for fiber shopping because of the lovely fairgrounds; the whole area in which people walk is under a slight canopy of very old and tall trees.  After you come in an park the first buildings you come to are animal exhibition areas.  This year there were fiber vendors all the way to the front in these buildings.  There were classes in the old rabbit building, and a ever expanding tent city most of the way back to the indoor craft buildings.  There were a few more food vendors there this year too.  That was nice.  I was in the same building as I was in last year.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone again this year.  However, the show has really expanded and there were a lot of new people too.  It was great that some loyal shoppers of Avalon Springs Farm found me right away - "ya'll come on back now!" again next year!