The Celtic Festival

The weather was quite hot and humid at the Celtic Festival on Saturday, but not nearly as bad as the previous weekend. This weekend, you could breathe! At 11:30, Amy and two of her friends performed "In the Bardic Tradition" - I've missed their performances in the past, so I committed to being there this year!

While watching Amy's performance (The Bardic Tradition) as well as the performance of "The Bog Band", I managed to work in some "knitting in public". The band played many traditional Irish marches and reels. Then, at 11:30, I was off to the workshop tent to hear tales and songs in "The Bardic Tradition" - it was fabulous! Lynn joined me at the workshop tent to listen to Amy and her group while she did some knitting on a gorgeous lace shawl. Jo showed off a really cool "4th of July" sock that she's currently working on - she's using a Sockotta Yarn that knits up into red and white stripes and then a section of blue with white stars. She's on her second sock, so they'll definitely be done by the 4th!

The afternoon was "interrupted" with a major thunderstorm....we all huddled under the workshop tent....trying to stay dry as the wind whipped the rain sideways. The torrential rains caused the Irish and Scotch Gaelic workshop to last longer than they'd planned, but none of us were bothered by that. It was a fascinating discussion that we truly didn't want to end! I'm almost glad that the rains came as I hadn't initially planned to attend that workshop!

Next, the fiddlers played. I was quite intrigued by the difference between the Irish songs and the Scottish songs - they really are distinctive! I think my favorite piece that they played was "Scotland the Brave". Although it's traditionally a bagpipe song, it sounded wonderful on the trio of fiddles!

I managed to get a few photos before the rains started. The first two photos show some of the members of Amy's group in their stone age garb as well as some wonderful naturally dyed skeins of yarn. The next two photos show the Romans - it was their first year participating. Check out their leather tent!


















I totally forgot to take photos of the folks that Jo, Lynn and I taught to drop-spindle spin! Oh, well - you'll just have to trust me that both the students and the instructors had a good time!

Oh...I found out that another new yarn shop has opened nearby (Wahoo!) It's called, "With Yarn in Front" and is located in Centreville. I haven't been able to check it out yet - it just opened on Saturday. Jo told me about it - and she was even their first customer!