Fiber Arts Festival

 Today as well as tomorrow the Heart of New Mexico Fiber Festival is taking place in our little town.
It was cold and somewhat blustery when I ventured over there this morning--although I was told that it was even worse at the park last night.

 There were not a lot of producers and artisans in attendance.  That did make shopping a bit easier, but I do hope the festival grows by leaps and bounds in future years.  (Next weekend is our bit-more-famous Pinto Bean Festival, but the big Taos Wool Festival is next weekend.  And for competition the world famous Albuquerque Balloon Festival opens next weekend too.)  I doubt that I'll be able to go to the Taos Wool Festival, although I'd like to.

First picture featured both skeins of yarn that I purchased.  Second photo was a close-up of the lace weight.

Third picture is a close up of the sock yarn I purchased.  These were spun and dyed by Robin Pascal of Edgewood, NM.

There are quite a few batches of roving, both dyed and undyed, for sale  as well as some lovely yarn (but not sock yarn) from the Mora woolen mill--Tapetes de Lana.  Mora used to be the poorest county in New Mexico; now Torrance County is.  The woolen mill there now has 13 employees and has helped people move from welfare to paying jobs.  I'll try to post more about them later this week.

I hope y'all are getting to quilt or knit or something equally creative!  (Our jugband--we have only one jug, really--played and sang for a wedding this afternoon.  Fun!)

Happy quiltmaking,.....

Quilting, Patchwork, Knitting, etc.

First I want to let you all know that although my little town received so much rain that we still have some puddles, to my knowledge there is no lingering damage from flash floods.  We do have a lot more green stuff growing than we've had in years--although technically we are still in a drought.

 This is the first quilting that has happened in ages--and I managed that only because yesterday was the monthly meeting of our prayer quilt ministry, Victory Quilters.  This is a wonderful star quilt pieced by Judy; however, it's going to be a while before I can show you the rest of it. I was gifted a Necchi BF (straight stitch) sewing machine that I took to the church; it was nice not to have to lug a sewing machine along when I went there yesterday.

 I just tossed it over one of my treadles so that I also could show you one of the wonderful lights from Ikea that my young friend Kim Larkin picked up in Dallas and mailed to me.  I've wanted one for years, but Ikea doesn't ship them.  They are available on Amazon for about three prices.  I'm thinking those of you who do live within shopping distance of an Ikea store might want to pick some up as gifts for your relatives or quilting/crafting friends who would have to drive hundreds of miles to get to a store.  The lamps have a heavy solid base and are very easy to assemble with nothing more than a screwdriver.  (I sent one to NM Tech for my daughter.)

The respiratory virus/infection that has had me down for three weeks or so did not prevent me from making some other acquisitions.

 Dillard's is selling these Southern Living Christmas Cookbooks for $10.  In Albuquerque the funds go to Ronald McDonald House; I'm not sure if that is true in all markets, but these would also make good gifts.

 I've acquired this purplee lace weight yarn thinking it will make a nice scarf or shawl.

 These are the socks I've been working on.  I started the toes months ago but couldn't decide on a pattern. This pattern was called an eyelit rib--it's free on Ravelry, but I just searched and couldn't find it.  In any case, it was a top down sock that I'm doing toe up.

 I've started this sweater with some of Auracana Chilean hand-dyed yarn rather than the Cascade in the directions. Download Here. (Yes, I easily spend hours and hours on Ravelry--to the detriment of blog reading.)

 These are a few of the wonderful Bow Tie blocks I received in the recent Treadle On Block Exchange. The block on the left was made by an educator in Gallup; Gallup was the first place I lived in New Mexico 25 years ago!  I haven't yet met her in person--but I'm thinking I should!

This is the 3S Shawl showing the first picots I have made in knitting. (I've made more than a few thousand in tatting!)  It's not yet blocked; I just tossed it over the back of the loveseat so I'd have a photo.   I thought it would be larger, but I had only 100 grams of yarn.  It will be plenty big enough to wear as a neck accessory or in the collar of a coat.  (I have another on the needles in a dusty pinkish red color which will be quite a bit larger.)

I've been keeping very, very busy; you know I've been just trying to ward off loneliness with Sweet Teen away at college.  I can see that I could end up being very, very busy but not enjoying things if I don't give some more thought and editing to my activities.  I would love to start a little needlework/handwork group of four to six people who could meet in my home one evening every couple of weeks.  I'm not sure I know enough people to make that happen.

I did get home Friday evening and miss Sweet Teen--but Netflix had arrived so I got to re-watch Tuck Everlasting as well as another film that's not worth recommending. The truth is that I just love the music in that film--and the Edwardian dresses. I'm coming home from school really exhausted--and am looking forward to another special ed teacher coming on board soon so that I can have a reasonable sized caseload instead of about twice as many students as I should have.

I'm really missing my blog reading--I get so spoiled over the summer.  I even have magazines I haven't had time to read!

Happy quiltmaking.....