July's Penultimate Post

Time for another July post-sorry it's been a while. Time is just flying by. Today was a beautiful day spent at the Canton Farmer's Market spinning, chatting, and selling a little yarn.

There were also hula hoopers hooping it up to disco music. Lots of fun to watch.

I spent the beginning of the week at Camp Fi-Be-Gar with my children, some of their friends, and my friend Andrea, there to help me lend some adult sanity to the days. We went not knowing if we would have running water because we have had some issues this summer, it was sporadic, but it worked-nothing like being able take a hot bath and flush a toilet. We were treated to some fabulous food from the four professional cooks who were with us. Lots of time spent spinning on the front porch with Andrea and enjoying campfires with the kids, some swimming took place too, and a mountain was climbed, but not by me.

Here is Begonia doing her job keeping her people safe. She won't swim when the kids are swimming.

The camp isn't really on fire. I'm sure there is an explanation for why this happens which could be explained by someone who understands photography, but that would not be me.

One of the campfires. I think my children are maturing. I was not once in fear that we would catch a tree on fire this time. The campfires were not five feet high. It was great.

Andrea. Conor and I left early Wednesday morning. We took Conor to work at The Whiteface Club in Lake Placid, and then we went back to Saranac Lake where our spinning group was meeting at Eloise's house. It's a tiny house, but we all managed to fit in, although a couple people were sitting in doorways. It was a beautiful and enjoyable day.

Vernice and Barbara.

Holly and Dee, notice Holly has her very own spinning space on the porch.

Barbara again, Andrea peeking out of her spinning nook and Carolyn.

Time to unload the car and start packing for my trip to Harrisville Designs for Lynne Vogel's Spinning, Knitting and Dyeing class. It's my 4th year going, and it is such a hoot-a wonderful group of women, awesome teacher and I learn lots of new techniques too.

Friday at the Farmer's Market

When I went to bed last night, I wasn't sure that Andrea and I would be going to the farmer's market as the forecast was for a 60% chance of thunder showers, and we tend to try to stay away from those because we have discovered that getting our yarn and fiber wet is not much fun. I received a call at 7:30 a.m. saying it was looking good that the showers would hold off until this afternoon, so I got myself ready and the car loaded and I was on my way.

Since it was still in the high 80's and very humid I wasn't sure how many people would be at the market, but it was quite busy. We left early because there were rumors that the rain was on its way, and having experienced a sudden rain storm last year, we didn't want to repeat the experience. It's good that we left when we did. It has been pouring since shortly after I arrived home. I'm hoping the rain will take away some of the humidity.

I came home with some lovely salad greens, organic blueberries, and from the Amish girls that set up next to us, the first cucumbers of the season and some delicious raspberries. As soon as we saw the raspberries, Andrea and I made a bee line for them. They are going to be my before bedtime treat.

I'm getting my phat fiber samples ready to go off to Phat Fiber headquarters. The theme this month is Seaweed, Ships and Scallywags. I did some Bluefaced Leicester roving in a colorway I am calling "Sea Song", which was inspired by seaweed in the ocean.

I also dyed some merino, cashmere, nylon sock yarn, which is oh, so soft. I used this picture as my inspiration.

I'm really pleased with the results. Now I just have to make all the tags and get the samples packaged before tomorrow morning so I can get them to the post office. It's a good think there is a Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family.

Busy Dyeing Days

Before I left for a visit to my sister's family for the 4th of July I was busy dyeing some lovely fiber and yarn. I spent several days in my dye studio and am pleased with the results. One yarn I dyed is a rainbow yarn on both merino/bamboo sock yarn and worsted weight wool. Every time I dye a rainbow yarn, I tend to dye it a little bit differently, figuring that rainbows in real life are never quite the same. This rainbow is very bright and cheerful.

Here is "Rainbow to the Stars" on Merino/Bamboo sock yarn.

Here is "Rainbow to the Stars" on worsted weight wool.

I have been pondering the reskeining of my yarns. I personally like yarn better reskeined because you get a better idea of how the colors will combine in the final project. Reskeining also can make a tremendous difference in how a yarn looks in terms of how attractive the colors are together. I'm not quite sure why it is, but not having the color in blocks can totally change the look of the yarn, and gives a truer representation of how the yarn will look knit up. I have been reading that many people prefer the yarn in color blocks because they can see how large the color blocks are which gives them a better idea about color pooling in the finished project. I'm interested in what my readers think about this (if I have any readers left after my lack of blogging recently).

It would be much easier to not reskein, as it would save a lot of time and energy on my part. One of the things on my wish list is an electric reskeiner, although I've often thought it is a good upper body workout when I spend hours reskeining yarn.

I sold some yarn on Etsy this week that it turns out I already sold somewhere else, probably at the Farmer's Market. This is one of my biggest nightmares. Fortunately my customer was understanding, so I need to go and dye her yarn, and then I will be off to my spinning group. I'm hoping it's nice and cool at Andrea's this morning. I'm a baby when it comes to heat and humidity.