Bluemont Fair

This past weekend was the Bluemont Fair. One of the guilds I belong to, "Blue Ridge Spinners and Weavers", had a booth there. The weather was absolutely perfect - not too hot, not too cold.


Everyone had a great time as you can see from these pictures. You also get a taste of the fabulous items our guild members have created. Christmas is just around the corner and we had some fabulous items for sale - hand spun and hand dyed yarns, hand knit scarves, and variety of hand woven items from bookmarks through elegant wraps. If you missed all the goodies at this fair, you definitely need to check out the booth at the Long Branch Balloon and Wine Festival (October 16th-18th) or the following week at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival (October 24th and 25th).












Linda and Felicia were our very organized and very dedicated co-coordinators for this event. They did a fabulous job! Everyone that worked this weekend had a great time.



Linda and Karen, two of my fellow spinners,were both in rather silly moods! Their enthusiasm was absolutely infectious and I think we spent most of the afternoon laughing! I was having such a great time that I stayed for the entire day even though I'd only signed up for the morning!



Several guild members and I had volunteered to demo spinning. We taught a number of those attending how to spin. Here, you can see Karen teaching a couple of interested girls the basic process. Several walked away with a coveted piece of yarn they'd spun themselves.




We finished weaving an alpaca shawl during the fair as well. Beth wove on Saturday, and Sandy (shown here) completed weaving the shawl on Sunday. Several of us spun the weft for the shawl and all the alpaca came from Dail's alpacas. The completed shawl was raffled off and all the proceeds went to the Women's Shelter. This was definitely a community project!


I took a quick break from the spinning demos and helping with the booth to take a quick spin around the festival and do some shopping. I found some fabulous treasures and keepsakes - including a festive fall apron, some fresh green peppers, and an antique black felt hat. My most highly prized purchases were several handcrafted items from our booth - some for me, and some as special gifts for family and friends. The photo on the left shows just a few of the items I purchased...I can't show the ones I bought as gifts, for obvious reasons!

I also purchased some wonderful mugs from Earthen Arts Pottery. The leaf imprints on these are fascinating. The leaves are pressed into the mugs before firing. The firing process burns off the actual leaf leaving just the impression. The artist then paints the impression and coats it with a clear layer and fires it again. I just love these mugs! By the way, these are the larger mugs - holding approximately 15 oz. which is perfect for tea! (Many thanks to Linda for steering to this booth!)

Of course, no fair or fiber festival would be complete without the gratuitous fiber animal photo. I believe that the one llama even held the pose specifically for a photo shoot!