Last Weekend's Castle Farms Fiber Festival and Upcoming Shows!

Hi there fiber lovers! Here's a quote from Ghandi about spinning that you might find interesting...

"I believe that the yarn we spin is capable of mending the broken warp and woof of our life. "

This is from "Mind of Mahatma Gandhi" (Ed. Prabhu & Rao), 3rd Edn., 1968. I found the quote on this website: http://www.mkgandhi.org/index.htm. With this in mind, I am going to sit an my wheel for a little bit tonight and spin some samples of Blue Faced Leicester. Not that either my warp or woof are broken, but it couldn't hurt, might help. And I'll get some samples to boot!

City Knitting is having Sockfest again! Go check it out! They have several great patterns available, including some from the famous Cookie A. If you bring a sample sock in for display, you get a coupon for 30% off a subsequent sock yarn purchase. The display of knitted socks is awesome! There are some great knitters out there. They also have two varieties of Yarn Hollow sock yarn available, a Wool/Bamboo/Nylon blend and a Cotton/Bamboo/Nylon blend. The cotton/bamboo blend had some really wild, bright colors, and the yarn has a lot of bounce from the elastic nylon. Go check it out!

This weekend past was the Fiber Festival at Castle Farms, in beautiful Chalevoix, MI. It was an awesome event. Many kudos to Joan Hoover from Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion, MI and her friends and volunteers who put on an excellent show in a stellar venue.

Thank you to everyone who came to my booth to talk fiber, purchase fiber or fiber-related goods, and thank you to all the wonderful and friendly vendors, too. It was a great weekend!

For you fiber lovers who hadn't been able to make it to the Fiber Festival at Castle Farms, here are some other fiber events in the midwest so you can get your fix.

A mere three weeks (really, only 18 days and trust me, I am counting!) from now, Michigan Fiber Festival will be running at the Allegan County Fairgrounds. Don't miss it! This is one of the biggest and best festivals - over 150 vendors in four buildings and in tents outside, numerous interesting classes from local and national instructors, great demonstrations, raffles, etc. The dates of the festival are Saturday, August 18, and Sunday, August 19. My booth will be in the red barn, space D13. Please come and see me and see what new things are available. I will have loads of sock yarn, kits, worsted weight yarn, lots of rovings, tops, silks for felting, and other goodies.

Norther Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival is on Saturday, September 29th and Sunday, September 39th at the Ogemaw County Fairgrounds outside West Branch, MI. This is a nice festival with great, friendly organizers and vendors, and beautiful scenery. I'll be there! Stop by!
Other Festivals

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival - it is supposed to be very good! The dates are September 7, 8, and 9th. There are going to be some great vendors there!

S.O.A.R. is at the Shanty Creek resort at Bellaire, MI this year. This is an event not-to-be-missed! Check out the workshops and times for the Spinner's Market. The dates are October 7th through October 14th.

There's a new festival happening at the end of October in Ann Arbor, MI. Once I get more details, I will share.

I will try to get some pictures posted - I mean, seriously, do you really read this blog for my inspirational words? No! You are here for the colors! So I'll get at it this week...promise.

Targee X Roving Spun and Knitted

Sarah W. of Ellsworth, ME (one of the most beautiful places around), shared pictures of her hand-spun and hand-knit Targhee X Roving that she bought from my etsy shop. Wow! I think she's come up with a new name for this color. I was calling it "OCC" for Olive, Caramel, and Clay - the dye colors used. Her color name, "Deep Autumn" is much more evocative. Thanks, Sarah! It's such a rush to see what people create!

(Sarah's knitted swatch)

New Colors, New Projects

(Let's start with some color... "Seattle" in Wool/Mohair yarn...)

Hi there! Thanks for checking out my blog! It's been busy busy busy since my last blog post, and that's great!

Thanks to all my customers and friends for all your support in 2006 and continuing into 2007!

Check out my etsy shop for hand-dyed rovings, tops, and yarns: www.yarnhollow.etsy.com. It's updated at least once a week, (which is more than I can say for this blog...)

New and Interesting...
If you are in West Michigan and concerned about your food, where it comes from, how it is grown, check out the Winter Farmer's Market and Food, Farming, Health, Education & Native Culture Film Festival at the Wealthy Street Theater on alternate Wednesday nights. This is a great opportunity to see films about organic farming, food, agriculture, health, and Native culture. The next film and market is on Wednesday, March 28th at 7:00 p.m., with the Winter Farmer's Market beginning at 6:00 p.m. The market is a great way to get fresh eggs, hydroponic greens, books, and other farm-related products during the winter, when you are pining to go to the summer farmer's markets. I will be there with Targhee X rovings from Paul and Nancy Jones Kaiser's farm (Agriculture and Health Alive), knitted and crocheted goods, and yarns. See you there!

Rovings, Tops, Colors!
Yes, this is what you're really after. Here are some new colors and new fibers and tops!
A new color... I did this in bamboo and cotton yarn, and a pile of super-bulky yarns for a weaving project too. The fiber displayed is an alpaca roving, processed at Zeilinger Wool Mill in Frankenmuth, MI.
















This is a roving from Paul and Nancy Jones Kaisers' farm, dyed in "Helter Skelter" colorway. It's a little light on the olive, but I still love the roving. The rovings from their farm are such high quality, lofty, soft, strong. Excellent for worsted spinning.



This is another Targhee X roving, dyed in four really cool colors. I haven't named this color yet; still looking for inspiration on a name. Something to do with jewels, I think.





I am working on organizing my colorway pictures to get them posted on my website, too. That should be done this week...

More later everyone! Thanks a million for checking out the blog!