News and Events

Since I now am writing a blog this page will probably not be updated except for classes and events.

Rhinebeck 2007--or Carol and Susan's Wonderful Adventure.

On Sunday 10/21 before dawn, Carol and Susan drove to Watkins Glen, and boarded a small bus sponsored by Finger Lakes Fibers Yarn Shop for a day trip to Rhinebeck’s New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.  How delightful it was to get on the bus and see people knitting already at 6 a.m.!   But a bus with no rest room…how could 24 knitters survive?  Fortunately we stopped at Dunkin Donuts in Liberty, and literally took over the entire building and the single rest room.

Susan was especially looking forward to seeing and hearing the Yarn Harlot, who was speaking at 1 p.m.  That meant getting on line no later than noon.  Carol was more interested in seeing the entire festival, and not missing a single vendor.  At 10:30 we were concerned because the bus took a turn near Ellenville and headed in the wrong direction for several miles before Mary Jeanne realized it and got us turned around towards Rhinebeck.  But we’re running late.  Oh, no!  How could we fit in the entire festival and the Yarn Harlot, too?

We finally arrived at 11:30, and immediately headed to the rest room, which was quite an adventure in itself.  A Whoopie Goldberg look-alike rest room attendant greeted us and everyone else like long lost friends.  She recited bathroom rap with great joy and a big smile on her face.  Needless to say, she received lots of tips.

That done, we high-tailed it to the book-signing tent, where the crowds were not as dense as we expected.  There we found the authors of Mason-Dixon Knitting, Felted Jewelry, The Complete Yarn guide and others…but could not see the Yarn Harlot.  We kept walking further and further into the tent, and lo and behold, there she was.  There was only one person ahead of us, and no one behind us!  Our lateness to the festival worked in our favor; we had a private audience with the Yarn Harlot for about ten minutes.  She signed our books and checked out Susan’s fabulous sock yarn gift.  She proudly wore her Kauni cardigan, showed us the beautiful buttonholes, and shared her source of buttonhole expertise, Sweaters from Camp, by Meg Swanson.  So now we could go see the rest of the festival, because we had seen THE YARN HARLOT, and touched THE FAMOUS KAUNI CARDIGAN, and saw THE FABULOUS BUTTONHOLES, and no longer felt the need to get in line for her talk.  Stephanie recommended a vendor in the next building, Spirit Trail, where we headed to see the Jacob roving.

In Building A we found Skaska, Goldings, Pollywogs, Spirit Trail and many other wonderful fiber vendors, but no Grafton Fibers, as they are now wholesale.  We saw Grafton’s new made-in-Vermont multicolored wooden needles at Seaport Yarn, but found them to be tiny, short, and very expensive at $30 for a set of 5 inch DPNs.  We were delighted to discover Fenwick Alpacas from New Jersey, not your average alpaca vendor.  Fenwick’s owner designs garments and has them made in Peru to her specifications, with her own alpaca fiber, rather than importing the usual mass-produced offerings.  She is a talented designer, and in fact sold 16 of her Pacific jackets in an hour.  Carol had to order a jacket, because her size was already gone by noon.  Susan bought a gorgeous alpaca/silk sweater.  Were Carol 20 years younger and 5 inches taller, she would have bought a very attractive long fitted sweater.

By then it was after 1 p.m. and we were famished.  And the food…anything you could think of – pasta, sausage, tacos, Chinese, wonderful desserts, fast food, good coffee, ice cream…amazing.  We ate at picnic tables under huge umbrellas, which we needed because it was at least 80 degrees and sunny.  We were now fortified, rested, and ready to take on the entire festival’s vendors, all 275 of them.  We decided to start with festival souvenirs, a Blue Faced Leceister sweatshirt for Susan and a denim shirt for Carol.  All proceeds from the souvenirs went to the scholarship fund.  What scholarship fund, we can’t remember, but they definitely went there!

The search for forest green yarn had begun.  Susan wanted some hand-dyed worsted weight yarn for a Wallaby sweater for her grandson.  Yes, we know Susan could dye it herself, but she wanted to BUY some.  We must have walked miles, down one aisle, across the alley, down another aisle, around a tent, into more tents, and back into barns with tiny stalls.  We saw fellow guild member, Lisa Merion, whose booth was nearly sold out.  We spoke with and rested at the booth of Jackie Jones from Down in the Country, an Ithaca Roc Day vendor.  She imports Gotland roving top from England, which is the same wool used for the cloaks in Lord of the Rings. 

We searched high and low, pulling skeins of yarn out into the sunlight to check for the proper shade of forest green.  We searched for so long that we almost forgot to buy fiber, but there was no forest green worsted weight yarn to be found, as forest green is not “in” this year.  Susan was so focused that it kept her from adding to her stash, except for the Gotland, which she couldn’t resist, especially after hearing the Lord of the Rings story.  Carol now hates forest green, so she bought some beautiful silver Wensleydale cross locks.

At that point, we were ready to refuel at the apple dessert stand with some pie and apple crisp.  Suddenly we had an idea.  Let’s go have our photo taken with the Yarn Harlot for the guild newsletter!  Problem…no camera…but we did have a cellphone.  But we only had 17 minutes before the bus would leave.  We visited with Whoopie Goldberg of the rest room, and then, with just 13 minutes left, headed to the book signing tent.  There we found Stephanie all alone at the back of the tent, knitting on a sock.  She was delighted to pose with us for a photo, and told us that she only had 5 more minutes of work before she could head out for a beer.  We were like two little kids, so excited about the photo with the Yarn Harlot, and we ran back to the bus to tell everyone.

The bus was full of tired knitters and their stash enhancements.  As we headed home, some slept, some knit, and we all had dinner at the famous Roscoe diner.  We arrived back in Watkins Glen at 10:30 p.m., and drove home, all the while dictating notes into Carol’s cellphone for this article (we were surprised that we could understand our recordings, because we were laughing so much).

We started the day with a lot of plans that were thwarted by the tight time schedule, but found that when we dropped our expectations and went with the flow, things turned out beautifully, and we certainly had a lot of fun.  We’re already signed up for next year’s bus.

7/26   What a sweet lovely time I had at the Troy Fair Wool Day.  It's so delightful to meet and greet people I have only met on the internet and to see returning customers again.  Thank you everyone for a special fun day.

5/16

I sent this to the Knitlist last week and thought it also merited a space here.

My first memory of knitting is of my mother working on a brown wool sweater with different colored balloons on the front (color has always been my thing). I wanted to knit too.She taught me a few years later and I made scarves and small items. In 7/8th grade I learned to crochet in Home Ec class and found I was successful at it. I went on to do fairly intricate patterns, making bags and shawls and doily type items. In all this time either no one told me about gauge, or in my young arrogance, I thought it did not matter. HA! Probably the latter. After I crocheted several wearables that were not, either long bodies or too small necks or too short sleeves I just gave it all up for several years. I have always painted and drawn so I channeled all my creative energy into that.
After several years I found myself teaching myself bead crochet from 3 different books, taking a bit from one and adding from another. I learned Art Quilting, doing my own dyeing on silk and free motion embroidery. Eventually they were not satisfying enough, and knitting kept calling to me, so I bought some basic knitting books and sat there evening after evening relearning from the pictures. I found that knitting was perfect for getting me through endless meetings, I was teaching full time, and that others in meetings found my knitting calming. My principal and assistant principal would almost always sit right next to me and quietly watch. So many meetings allowed me to produce many chemo hats and other items for charity
As you all know from your own experiences, knitting became an obsession and for me, altering patterns to suit my taste, became the norm. This naturally segued into dyeing, which I had been doing to almost anything that sat still for many years. I learned to spin and that was it. I was completely hooked and still am. I started a business of dyeing fibers and then branched into yarns and designing sock patterns. When time constraints made it all a choice between the two I 'retredded' (instead of retired) from teaching into full time fiber joy.

                                              12/14  I am pleased to show you my version of the sheep puppet from Spin-Off.  With some help from guild members I adapted the Estonian design and puppet into an angora bunny after SmokeyBlue. All the white and grey is hand spun from his wool.  The color is Roses for You yarn.     6/5  You can see this puppet along with  Smokeyblue's reaction in the summer issue of Spin Off ---page 13 I think.

11/25  The shell is in place.  Whew those guys are amazing.  A 14 by 28 2 ton wooden shell brought here on a 4 wheeled trailer and pulled by a pick up truck.  They set it down exactly where we wanted it.  WOW! The windows are in. Next is electricity, insulation, ceilings, walls, etc

11/15  The shell for the shop will arrive today.  We have been preparing the driveway and redoing steps for 2 weeks now.  The shell was built by Kennedy Hardwood in Preble, NY and is being trucked here over the hills as it is too wide to go through Ithaca. VBG  Basically it is wood framed with a blue shingle roof and one front door.  We have the windows waiting to be installed by Jim and all the electrical supplies are here too.

11/13  This is too exciting.  We have gone international!  Pick Up Sticks is now selling Spinning Bunny sock yarn in Canada to Canadians.  So all you Canadian sock knitters can get our sock yarn easier and quicker.

10/1  Amy B made some wonderful bracelets with leftover 12-18 inch lengths of targhee.  She divided the   pieces lengthwise, spun the fiber very thin and plied it with itself. We had these gorgeous samples in our booth at Hemlock where they were much admired.  See them up close on the Customer Creations page.

9/21  What a success and what fun to meet so many of our customers in real life.  Both Fairs were delightful experiences for all of us.

Here are a few pictures showing our booth at the FingerLakes Fiber Festival 9/16-17.

Both Jim and I won prizes in the competitions at the FingerLakes Fiber Festival.

Jim won a red ribbon and an award for best

spinning of a chemically dyed fiber

- kid mohair/merino.

          I won a blue ribbon for this modified

EZ Surprise Jacket and a red ribbon for the matching hat.

The yarn is a corriedale single

hand dyed by Bob Smith of Winderwood Farm.

  8/13  We will also be vending at the Florida Fiber In in the Radisson Barcelo Hotel in Orlando, Septemter 15-17.  Yes, the very same weekend as FLFF.   I tried to clone myself and the buns, but it isn't working yet.  So we have an enthusiastic Jackie and Janette representing us at this Fair.  Those of you attending this weekend event will get to see and fondle this lovely sampler of hand dyed and hand spun targhee.

8/10  We want everyone to know that we will be vending at the FingerLakes Fiber Festival at the north end of Hemlock Lake, south of Rochester on September 16 and 17.  We will be in Barn A, booths 11 and 12. Please come see us, enter to win a prize and have some neat fiber fun.  There will be 70 vendors, plus dog trials and workshops and competitions.

8/2  I heartily apologize for the bad linkage on the Hand Dyed & Needles Pages.  Anyone who tried to purchase Kid Mohair/Merino or alpaca/merino/silk or Surina needles was sent to the Paypal Welcome page instead of the shopping cart.  The links are now fixed.  Please refresh your page and try again.  Thanks, SmokeyBlue

7/27  What a great day we had in Troy, PA.  We met lots of interesting fun new customers and some previous ones too. The Sheep to Shawl contest went so well. The winning team broke records--2 hours 10 minutes!  However the jersey cows on the other side of the railing liked our goods as well as the humans.  Those ladies licked the tablecoth and pulled crates off the tables.  Sweet cows but we still moved our fiber away another foot.

6/7  The rain is just too wild, too often this spring.  SB tries to stay dry but the wind comes from almost everydirection gettting most of his hidey spaces all wet.  We finally relented, so now he is a part time house bunny.

5/24   Yesterday, SmokeyBlue was in the yard, munching his dinner, when Basel spied us from the deck and loped down to join us.   SmokeyBlue flattened himself until he realized the intruder was his friend Baz.  A 99 pound rottweiler and a 10 pound French Angora proceeded to sniff each other.  SB then crawled under the dog and resumed eating dinner.

From mid March through mid April we conducted Our First SpinningBunny Lucky Rabbit's Foot Event  

The winners, drawn by SmokeyBlue, were:

First Place = Sock yarn = Jennifer L.

Second Place = 8oz Multi Merino   Dear Susan,  just wanted you to know that I received the Fall Splendor fiber yesterday.  It is lovely with wonderful vivid colors....you named it right....just the color of fall in its peak! 
 Thank you very much for this gift.  It is appreciated....thank you, Cindy T.

Third Place = Gertrude Hawk Chocolate Raspberry Bunny Smidgens = Mary I.

2/26/06  I have a GOLD MEDAL!!!!!!!

I must say I am proud of myself.  The gloves look awful on the table but fit rather well. See below.   Of course that is me with my medal and neat warm new gloves.  Notice how the stripey part is vertical rather than horizontal--these are side to side gloves. I testesd them out yesterday in the zero degree temps and they work rather well.   Closing Ceremonies were fun too.  Seeing all the finished items from scarves to hats to purses to complicated cabled sweaters was thrilling.  And the goodies to eat were Olympic quality as well.  Thanks to Hickory and the Yarn Harlot for elevating our knitting addictions to a self challenging sport.

To find out more about his new sport,

led by the Yarn Harlot, click on the logo.

2/23  Update on my Olympic Knitting. 

• I finished the first glove but it was too large.
• frogged it but the gauge would just not comply
• chose another yarn and finished that glove in record time (just goes to show ya that the second time through you know more and can actually read the directions).I am not good at grafting (read as- I don't like it very much)  but I trudged onward and grafted the glove.  arghhhhhhh too big again and very boxy
• what to do?????????
• aha! steeking, yes steeking!!!!!
• I found my sewing machine under some silk and proceeded to sew the seams.  Now the glove 'fits like a glove'.  clever huh?
• I am now on the second glove. 

2/10/06   The Opening Ceremonies at Knitting, Etc were  a treat.  A whole table of purposeful knitters, sharing ideas and help and munchies. I will have photos here very soon.  My gloves are one quarter done.  Side to side knitting is very different, fun and intriguing but it takes up most of my attention. This is definitely not take along knitting. OK, less housework (read as no housework), no cooking, more knitting. That's me in the center next to Carl. Carl's challenge is to learn to knit and finish a simple scarf.  Hickory Lee, the owner of Knitting,Etc, is the blur in lavender in the foreground.

1/4/06---While I have been dying anything I can get my hands on for years, such as a shirt with a stain or a plain coat or or wool fibers  and silk material of all kinds that I fashioned into art forms, I have recently plunged into dying silk fiber.  I love colors so I love dying.  Silk especially creates a happy feeling in me -- the hankies, caps and sliver are too fun.

November 11, 2005

Some very good news for everyone. You are looking at a totally renovated site.  One that should be visible to all viewers no matter what your browser may be. Please look around and let me know if things are working for you and what you think of our new look.

October 16, 2005

The table top Yarn Measurers are ready to go!  These stand alone accessories come in oak, cherry or maple and are signed and numbered by Jim.  Put one near your bobbin, line the yarn through the analog counter and then onto your skeinwinder or ball winder. That's all it takes to know just how many feet you have plied.  You can find these handy items on the Accessories page.

September 25, 2005

Jim has just completed restoring a Louet S-15. It was in a rather poor abused condition when we acquired it but he replaced the leather tension adjuster & screw (brake band) , the footman/wheel connector & bearing.   He also sanded the entire wheel and recoated it with an antique Golden Oak finish.  Oh and made the Skeinwinder work again!  All in all a magical restoration of an excellent Louet model.  You can see it on the Used Wheels page.

September 11, 2005

We are very pleased to be introducing an original product!

Single Drive Spinning Wheel Poly Drive Belts

Jim and I have been testing this new product (Jim on an Ashford Traditional and me on a Kromski Minstrel) and find it to be smooth, way easy to install and extremely forgiving as to tension.  Sometimes this poly band even looks loose but I have had no trouble at all spinning angora with this drive belt.  11/6  We are hearing that this is also working on many Double Drive wheels as well.  And it comes in neat colors too -- white, frost, pink, red, black, orchid and lavender.  Buy it on the Accessories page

September 6, 2005

In light of the disaster down south I searched for something I could do living way up here in the north. Through Knitters Review Forum I found a group on yahoo that is knitting cotton facecloths to send south. Cloths for Katrina   As I do not sell cotton on this site I am not making any money off this which feels right.  Giving and sharing is always important but especially right now and the foreseeable future.  Patterns can be found almost anywhere but KnittingNonsense has great ones. 

I found 2 hanks of Berrocco Rasta in my stash.  I love those colors yet thought there wasn't enough for a project but now they are delightful cheery cloths.  I am looking for cotton terry to use although I am told Sugar 'n Creme is good too as well as Cottontot.

August 30, 2005

Is this you?

"When I took up spinning, my husband worried that it was just going to devolve into another addiction. To make him feel a little better I pointed out how much money I was going to save spinning my own yarn.  Then I bought a spinning wheel, carders, fleece and dye."  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, The Yarn Harlot

BTW, even though my husband has no interest in knitting he watched my spinning with absolute fascination and asked many questions. Eventually he began to express interest in spinning himself so I offered to teach him to use a drop spindle (thinking to save money-VBG). Nope, no interest there even though he is mesmerized when I use one.  So he began his own search for the perfect wheel, bought one on ebay, taught himself to spin!!! and is one of my biggest corriedale customers!  Oh, and you ask what is he going to do with all that yarn if he does not knit?  He is planning on learning weaving! 

Almost every week something more is added to the site.  We have made great progress but are still 'under construction'.  (Feels like a house being built - almost there seems to last forever.) Eventually all pages will be up with items to purchase and all purchasable items will have a secure shopping cart link to PayPal. Most now do. If you find an item you want that is not yet linked please email to me whatever items you are buying.  I will email back to you with an invoice for the order. You can then make payment through PayPal or call me with credit card info. Use our Toll-free number 1-866-505-7236

Please let me know if there is something special you would like that we are not yet carrying.

SmokeyBlue thanks you for your patience as we get this up and hoppin'.

content  Dragonfly Studio 2005