Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival
The Shenandoah Fiber Valley Fiber Festival was held October 27 and 28 - that was nearly 2 weeks ago! As you can see, I'm still trying to catch up on all my posts.
The festival was great! The weather was quite brisk and chilly - autumn had definitely arrived in Virginia....finally!
I'm a member of the The Blue Ridge Spinners and Weavers Guild and we had a booth at the festival. We sold handwoven and hand knit items from our members as well as demonstrated spinning and weaving. During the festival, we wove a shawl that will later be auctioned. Marilyn and I were both spinning on Sunday to provide the weft for Sandy to weave - sort of a "sheep to shawl" demo. It was a lot of fun and quite challenging. We had to card the wool and then spin it as we were working with a fleece.
Several others were also busy spinning and weaving over the weekend. Beth was weaving towels - they looked lovely. For some reason, I only have pictures of Marilyn and Sandy - and I somehow missed Beth!
I did manage to photograph our Dye-Master, Keith. She'd been dyeing up a storm all weekend. At the end of the festival, she still had the pot going with the Indigo dye...and decided that she needed to stay on and work on some additional dyeing - after all, the dye was ready and she was already setup. Waste not, want not!
I managed to find some "treats" while I was there too. I spent about 1 1/2 hrs. in a whirlwind of shopping and watching the sheepdogs. I found some fabulous items. I purchased some roving from the Barefoot Spinner - she has wonderful stuff! I've always admired the shawl that my friend Carol made using yarn she'd spun from the Barefoot Spinner's hand dyed rovings. The colors are spectacular and work up so nicely. I plan to spin this and then weave a shawl using the hand spun as the weft. Perhaps this will FINALLY get me to warp my loom!
I also purchased some fabulous wool/linen/silk roving from Gurdy Run Woolen Mill in a fabulous rasberry color way. It feels wonderful! My friend Lynn also purchased some of this delightful roving - and she's already spun up a bunch! It's heavenly!
My friend Jerry and her business partner had a booth here for the first time and sold the materials for rug hooking as well as some fabulous hand-dyed roving - some of which I HAD to purchase - LOL! I just LOVE the colors...and it's sooo soft to the touch!
Their business is called Wool Junction. The website is under construction, but hopefully, she'll have it setup soon! Again, this is another instance where I could have sworn that I had taken pictures of their booth and all the lovely hooked rugs, but I don't seem to have any!!!!
Jerry had numerous hooked rugs on display - as well as the patterns, wool, and tools for you to make your own. I found 3 patterns I just HAD to have! Two had sheep - one primitive, and one with 3 sheep and the third had a moose (hubby likes mooses!). I bought the wool to make the primitive sheep rug. And yes, I WILL use it as a rug.
Jerry has convinced me that these rugs are to be USED, not hung on the wall. Her rugs look like new, even though they've been used...not hung on the wall. I guess the secret is using good wool - like the Pendleton Wool she sells. I also ordered one of the lap hoops for stitching - much better than dealing with the standard embroidery hoop! I know...another "craft"....like I have time!
And no fiber fest is complete without a few shots of the sheep and a very friendly sheep dog. I did attempt to take some videos of the sheepherding, but the direction of the sun made it impossible for me to get quality shots. I couldn't see if I had the dog in the shot at the beginning or not...oh, well. I attempted to upload the best video, but after a couple of hours of "processing" (aka "churning"), it still wasn't "uploaded", so I canceled it. Better luck next time!
The festival was great! The weather was quite brisk and chilly - autumn had definitely arrived in Virginia....finally!
I'm a member of the The Blue Ridge Spinners and Weavers Guild and we had a booth at the festival. We sold handwoven and hand knit items from our members as well as demonstrated spinning and weaving. During the festival, we wove a shawl that will later be auctioned. Marilyn and I were both spinning on Sunday to provide the weft for Sandy to weave - sort of a "sheep to shawl" demo. It was a lot of fun and quite challenging. We had to card the wool and then spin it as we were working with a fleece.
Several others were also busy spinning and weaving over the weekend. Beth was weaving towels - they looked lovely. For some reason, I only have pictures of Marilyn and Sandy - and I somehow missed Beth!
I did manage to photograph our Dye-Master, Keith. She'd been dyeing up a storm all weekend. At the end of the festival, she still had the pot going with the Indigo dye...and decided that she needed to stay on and work on some additional dyeing - after all, the dye was ready and she was already setup. Waste not, want not!
I managed to find some "treats" while I was there too. I spent about 1 1/2 hrs. in a whirlwind of shopping and watching the sheepdogs. I found some fabulous items. I purchased some roving from the Barefoot Spinner - she has wonderful stuff! I've always admired the shawl that my friend Carol made using yarn she'd spun from the Barefoot Spinner's hand dyed rovings. The colors are spectacular and work up so nicely. I plan to spin this and then weave a shawl using the hand spun as the weft. Perhaps this will FINALLY get me to warp my loom!
I also purchased some fabulous wool/linen/silk roving from Gurdy Run Woolen Mill in a fabulous rasberry color way. It feels wonderful! My friend Lynn also purchased some of this delightful roving - and she's already spun up a bunch! It's heavenly!
My friend Jerry and her business partner had a booth here for the first time and sold the materials for rug hooking as well as some fabulous hand-dyed roving - some of which I HAD to purchase - LOL! I just LOVE the colors...and it's sooo soft to the touch!
Their business is called Wool Junction. The website is under construction, but hopefully, she'll have it setup soon! Again, this is another instance where I could have sworn that I had taken pictures of their booth and all the lovely hooked rugs, but I don't seem to have any!!!!
Jerry had numerous hooked rugs on display - as well as the patterns, wool, and tools for you to make your own. I found 3 patterns I just HAD to have! Two had sheep - one primitive, and one with 3 sheep and the third had a moose (hubby likes mooses!). I bought the wool to make the primitive sheep rug. And yes, I WILL use it as a rug.
Jerry has convinced me that these rugs are to be USED, not hung on the wall. Her rugs look like new, even though they've been used...not hung on the wall. I guess the secret is using good wool - like the Pendleton Wool she sells. I also ordered one of the lap hoops for stitching - much better than dealing with the standard embroidery hoop! I know...another "craft"....like I have time!
And no fiber fest is complete without a few shots of the sheep and a very friendly sheep dog. I did attempt to take some videos of the sheepherding, but the direction of the sun made it impossible for me to get quality shots. I couldn't see if I had the dog in the shot at the beginning or not...oh, well. I attempted to upload the best video, but after a couple of hours of "processing" (aka "churning"), it still wasn't "uploaded", so I canceled it. Better luck next time!
posted by Jinann @ 11:00 PM
1 Comments:
At 4:17 AM,
Kai said…
ohhh sounds like you had a great time! and the roving is absolutely fabulous. I love the raspberry one. Oh and just to keep you in the know, I've ordered a drop spindle... eek.
Post a Comment
<< Home