Friday, September 26, 2014

what happened to september?

i've sat down to write a post several times...... and still haven't been successful. it seems like yesterday that we were at the fair, then labor day was upon us ( awesome time at the lake) then it was back-to-school, helping amythefibergoddess get ready for the festival, getting myself ready for the finger lakes fiber festival, then it was set up at the festival.... you see what happened. so let's talk about the twentieth anniversary event.

this is where i spent most of my time. i lead the volunteer crew in parking. it is an awesome crew! i have my regulars and a few new faces this year. each and every one of them rocks. hard. they are the first impression that attendees get of our festival and i couldn't ask for better representation. we had almost 2000 people attend on saturday, which is a lot of cars to park. after previous years, we learned that it's better to guide people to safe parking, and i'm pleased to report no injuries (to vehicles or humans) no dogs left in cars and no one got stuck. yes, folks had to walk. but it really is all about perspective. once you got onto the grounds there was a lovely wagon to transport you about.
i did get to visit a few booths on sunday and the winery in the farmer's market. i think she took pity on me and was being generous with my samples. :)
this year, i entered a few skeins in the competition. knowing that we had a wonderful judge, i decided that it was a good thing to get some feedback. how did i do?
not too shabby! i appreciated all the comments. now i need to remember what i was going to use those skeins for.
monday i was able to take Barbara Parry's class on color. wow. it was amazing. so many of her thoughts and observations really resonated with me. the class started with observations about colors in roving and how to work with them. having had many of her same experiences, i was eager to learn how to gain better control of my spinning without loosing that special something that makes spinning work for me. you know what i mean? if i have so spend too much time deliberating about what path to take, it sucks the fun right out of it! she offered lots of suggestions and observations that really made sense.



she put us to work. we made singles, two-ply, chain-ply, and even cable ply. it was over way to soon. i've got a list of techniques to try when winter comes.
so that was my festival weekend. just wait until you see what i did this week!