Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Here We Are in Maryland 2009


Here is a shot from my IPhone looking out of our tent at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Not the large puddle? We we had a very rainy weekend, but lots of fun. This was the wettest Sheep show every at Maryland. It didn't keep those fiber folks away, Saturday the parking lots were full and the trafic was backed up on I70 coming to the Howard County fairgrounds.
It is always great to see so many old friends and to meet new ones at the show.

Monday, October 27, 2008

SOAR 2008 Spin0Off Autumn Retreat October 5-12 2008




Closing night at SOAR, here I am spinning on my new Lendrum Saxony wheel. Do I look Happy with the new wheel? Yes, it is true; I'm happily oiling the black walnut wood and sanding every coat. The finish is coming along beautifully.






On Thursday morning we took a two hour bus ride to the Antique Tool Museum. The museum is on a 24 acre sight.
Spinning wheels, looms, natural dye displays and shetland lace knitting displays were setup for us to visit.


Here you see one of our guides spinning on a pendulum wheel.
The loom house on has 6 looms each different in construction and setup for weaving different structures.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Outdoor Classroom ~ Nevada Missouri

September 21, 2007
The school buses started arriving at 8:30 am. Fourth grade students from the Nevada R5 School district piled out of the buses and began their day learning about Missouri in the early 19th century.
You can see a class watching my fire and dye pots as I teach about native plants and trade goods brought to Missouri by trappers and traders.


Madder Root, Cochineal and Indigo dye pots are cooking on my fire. I am holding up a skein of yarn from the madder root pot. The dye the students found the most fun to watch was the Indigo, they oxidation process was absolute magic!
The bright red color from the Cochineal drew ohhs and ahhs..

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Color From Life



Here are some new color ideas. In my wanderings around the Shetland Islands I found that the muted colors derived from the surrounding landscape created a wonderful palette for my design work.

I find great inspiration for both painting and weaving in nature.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

What fun in Maryland

Journey Charkha's on display at Maryland Sheep and Wool. So inviting, to just stop by and test drive the book charkha. I resisted the temptation, for another charkha, but I did get an ebony drop spindle with a cocobola shaft. It spins like a dream. I spun gotland wool all the way home on the plane.

Maryland was great again this year, the spring weather was cool enough to make it pleasant both days. There were lots of folks on Saturday, the traffic was backed up 4 miles at noon when my husband came back to take me to lunch!

I spent Friday and all Day Saturday as the Fiber Groupie with Little Yarn; stocking shelves and bagging goodies for customers. Sunday morning was my time to run around and get pictures. There were many people out enjoying the wonderful morning air.

Here is Morgaine demonstrating a new wheel at Carolina Homespun. Her booth had some great things, the fibers were in the most amazing colors! She had so many wheels to try, as you can see from the picture. The first thing I checked out at Carolina Homespun was the new Ashford rigid heddle for knitter's, a great little traveling loom. It is designed for making scarves.

Early morning at Hillcreek Fibers, the square loom set up to make a rectangular shawl. This is a great new design for the square loom. Check with Carol Leigh for details on how to use the square loom on the rectangle.

The food vendors had many varieties of lamb deliquesces; on Saturday we had bar-b-q'ed lamb sandwiches and on Sunday lamb sausage subs. MM MM Good....

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Maryland Sheep and Wool Show

What a great weekend! Two beautiful days at the sheep show. I have some great pictures that I will put up on the blog as soon asI get back to Missouri. Spent the show as a fiber groupie with Lewis at Little Bar; bagging sales and stocking shelves. It was a great time, we had lines out the door. Everyone said it was the way they got to meet new people!

The show was great fun, lots of wonderful tools and fibers to try out. Even found a new technique. knitted blanks from the knitting machine, scarf length; using different shaps of plastic pieces and rubberbands, tie-up the plastic bits as if to do tie-dye. Then felt the scarf and pull out the plastic bits! What a great idea! I am going to give it a try when I get home.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Our Summer Trip to Russia


The summer of 2005 we visited St. Petersburg, Russia. Here you see me waiting with a bronze statue of a writer. Don't ask me who! We had a wonderful experience check out our slides at http://bartlettfarm.com