giva geta

Spa Knit and Spin 2009 with the New England Textile Artists, an entire weekend spent amongst hundreds of fiber enthusiasts, has come and gone. A few highlights, in list form:

The entire thing is based on the premise that we all have something to teach and we all have something to learn, and that many hands make light work, so here are some of the entirely enjoyable ways that we contributed to the event:

1. donated 4 handknit hats for soldiers
2. demonstrated how to frame needlework (Debbie), how to wire beads to make stitch markers (Scott), two-handed two-color no-tangle knitting (Leah - see above), and how to make a felted scarf out of leftover yarns (Debbie). I actually did that last demo three (or was it four?!) times because more people kept asking to see it!
3. Spa 2009 glass bead stitch markers for the main organizers
4. Donations to the group's Treasure Chest for giveaways.

5. Two hours as volunteers at the Greeters' Table, answering questions and selling raffle tickets for the beautiful afghan some members made to raise funds for charity. 

That's the "giva" part of the weekend. We gave a little, but oh, what we got in return!

First, the tangibles:

1. Spunky Eclectic black cherry roving for Leah to spin and ply with Grafton Fibers singles already on a bobbin.
2. burgundy angora yarn for Leah's Just Enough Ruffles scarf.
3. Dye Dreams royal purple merino/tencel yarn for Leah to make Knitspot's Delicato handwarmers.
4. Dye Dreams sea green merino/tencel yarn for Debbie to make Knitspot's Gust scarf.
5. Woolen Rabbit's Arabian Nights for Debbie to make Knitspot's Brambler scarf. Apparently we're liking the Knitspot patterns. :-)
6. Ball and Skein's burgundy yarn for Debbie to knit Miriam Felton's Persephone scarf.
7. Three beautiful natural colors of Icelandic Lamb roving blended w/ baby alpaca or Tussah silk, a fabulous door prize won by Debbie from Frelsi Farm Icelandics!

Intangibles also received:

1. Tatting workshop with Kat Parks. This was a refresher for me, since I took a tatting class many years ago. I never got very good at it, but apparently tatting is like riding a bike because as soon as I saw Kat do a knot or two, I was off and running.
2. Nalbinding workshop with Rudy Amman, who was even able to teach a lefty! I've always been curious about this technique and am tickled to have learned the basics. That's the little gray bit of stitching in the center of the lowermost row in the yarn photo above.
3. A new cast-on taught to Leah. 

4. Time to relax and chat with friends we've known for years (see that character above, concentrating on his very first knitting project ever? You might recognize him from Spa 2007. This time, Bart was knitting while Scott was spinning.) and those we just happened to sit near or stop along the way to admire something they were making/wearing/using/doing.

Other random reasons for smiles:

1. Within minutes of arriving, Leah spotted somebody wearing one of Scott's sheep beads as a necklace.
2. Free, fresh, delicious cookies in the lobby.
3. When I stopped at the Frelsi Farm Icelandics booth to say thanks for the door prize I won, we learned that the owner used to live in our hometown.
4. Warm pool, cold days, kids splashing about with glee.
5. The owner of Dye Dreams yarn, also wearing one of Scott's sheep beads as a necklace.
6. People randomly stopping us to chat because they remembered us from the 2007 Spa or they read our blog, and us doing the same with others.
7. Thai Garden. Yum.
8. Willing observers of impromptu yo-yo tricks from our favorite yo-yo guy.

9. A whole slew of new-to-us local microbrews to sample!
10. The bed at the Hilton, which was comfortable enough that Scott and I have debated -- MULTIPLE TIMES -- whether it was The Most Comfortable bed we've ever slept in (besides our own), in close competition with the awesome bed at the Rose Island Lighthouse. Hotel reservations were a xmas gift from my mom, so thanks, mom!
11. People who get it admiring something you've made, such as the Sylvi coat and Swirls hat modeled by Leah in the fashion show. BTW, the pic above shows approx. 1/8th of the crowd gathered for the fashion show. The stuff that paraded by was amazing. Even Jesse was impressed -- enough so that he didn't choose to zone out with the Dragnet radio shows on his iPod!
12. Those same people romping about with items we admired and found inspirational. Seriously, some mind-boggling fiber artists gathered at this event. And not just knitters. There were spinners, weavers, feltmakers, lacemakers, quilters, and probably countless other fiber arts represented.
13. With every such event, the circle of friends grows, the horizons expand, and the enthusiasm is refreshed.
14. We expect to get to do it all again next year! Yahoo!!

Spa Knit and Spin 2007

We spent last weekend in Portland, Maine, at the New England Textile Artists' Fifth Annual Spa Knit and Spin. We've been home for a couple of days now and while I was working, I've been trying to figure out exactly what was my favorite part of this fantastic mini-vacation.



Was it the knitters, spinners, crocheters, needleworkers, felters, and fiber artists of all kinds filling every nook and cranny of the Doubletree Inn for 2-3 days? Was it the informality that encouraged beginners to folks with advanced skills to mingle and share and just have a good time together, exploring their chosen fiber art and perhaps dabbling in some new ones? Was it that two strangers enthusiastically volunteered to untangle Jesse's ball of yarn so he could continue on his first knitting project, or the way the male spinners (Scott, Bart, Doug, Lars, and eventually Jesse) bonded as a jovial group within a group? Or the way somebody could plop down at any time to ask all about your current project or to get some help with a skill, and you could do the same with anybody else there, so everybody had something to offer and everybody had something to learn?



Maybe it was the vendors. No doubt about it: this was was a top notch group of vendors assembled for the weekend. Our trunk was overflowing with spinning fibers and yarn. Leah was given the gift of a beautiful shawl clasp from Leslie Wind...just because. We won a Friendz Blendz Hexi-Hat kit from Friends' Folly Farm and a most spectacular bag of merino for spinning from Sereknity. Leah says it looks like strawberries and peaches. I think it looks like a bouquet of deep red roses with pale peach accents. Our friends won goodies too, including a pound of fiber. Definite highlights included chatting with Jackie Fee, who wrote The Sweater Workshop, and her equally pleasant daughter, who sought Leah's opinion on spinning wheels for kids; Scott going nuts at the the Grafton Fibers booth (as expected); and pawing more handpainted rovings at Friends' Folly Farm (where he just about wiped them out of one colorway so they threw in the remaining few ounces and the sample skein as well). Or buying a traditional hooked rug kit from J. Conner Hooked Rugs and having Janet then spend over an hour teaching Emma and Leah how it's done. Or the folks from Circles, who were enthusiastic enough about the stitch markers we were giving away (over 50 of them!) that they asked Scott to make more to sell at their knitting salon in Jamaica Plain.




Yeah, I liked all of that, but more too. There was the live music and the vibrant storytelling. There was the swimming and the spa services and the fun meals. There were the free shuttles to area yarn stores and brochures for upcoming events and area guilds. There was charity knitting and fundraising. There was a fashion show, in which Leah modeled the hat, poncho, and slippers she knit, enjoying a strut down the runway with Emma, who was also wearing her own handknit beret, as well as a poncho by her aunt and slippers by her mom. And then there was the free cake to go with the cider that Jesse enjoyed throughout the weekend.



But above all, there was laughter and learning, history and handcrafts, community and camaraderie. It was the kind of weekend where the whole was waayyyy greater than the sum of the parts.

(You see those spinnerguys up there? They had so much fun spinning together that they've decided they need to learn to knit so they'll have a reason to spin more yarn. And Jesse's just about ready to ply the bobbins he's been spinning lately too, but there will be a little delay because he's also working on creating an electric spinning wheel made out of K'nex. :-)

Maineiacs

We're getting ready to head to Maine to enjoy Spa Knit and Spin weekend with the New England Textile Artists. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may remember how much fun we had at the 2007 Spa weekend. We missed the 2008 event because were on a little jaunt for a different kind of excitement in a different kind of place, but we're psyched for the 2009 Spa weekend to come!

Scott again made some commemorative stitch markers as gifts for the group of women who do much of the planning.

We're all gathering supplies for some demos we plan to offer. Scott will show how to do wire wrapping to make your own stitch markers, Leah will demo colorwork knitting with one yarn in each hand, and I'll demo needlework framing and felted scarves using leftover yarn and roving. I did some feltmaking last night so I'd have samples of a stashbuster scarf at different phases of completion. This mini-scarf is partially felted and ready for some hot water dunking and counter-thwapping to full it, which shrinks everything and helps it become more stable.

Jesse's not doing any demos, but he plans to do some spinning, swimming and, as always, yoyoing. His Ipod is freshly loaded with classic audiobooks and video podcasts with yo-yo trick tutorials, so he's every bit as psyched as the rest of us. Projects are planned and we're all looking forward to a good time with friends we know and those we haven't met yet.

score for 4!

The Connecticut Sheep, Wool, and Fiber Festival is an event that all four members of my family enjoy, all for different reasons, but all in a big way. The 2008 festival, yesterday, was no exception. Scott had a blast selling his glass buttons and beads, sharing a booth for the 2nd year with one of our soapmaking friends. He just loves to chat it up with anybody who stops by and gets a kick out of how many say they remember him from Spa 2007 , or they read this blog, or they too are homeschoolers, or they know Leah from some event or guild. He didn't expect to discover that one of them is a not-so-distant-but-long-lost relative, but there you have it.

There were, of course, eleventy billion skeins and batts to fondle, wheels and spindles to try, workshops and demos with knowledgeable fiber enthusiasts.

There were many cute critters to pet. I spent much of the time cuddling a baby angora bunny, which seriously cut into my knitting plans, but the soft snuggliness of those little fiber fluffballs is irresistible. There were also plenty of bigger types of fiber fluffballs looking beautiful.

It's a big enough festival to offer a good variety of things for sale and things to do, small enough to not be overwhelming and exhausting. It also happens at a time of year when being outside, in the sunshine, among the blooming everything, is a much-needed breath of fresh air.

(An aside: Have I told you about the yo-yo obsession here? I don't think so. Jesse is yo-yo obsessed x 4 months now. We have had videos and books from the library about the diff. tricks. We have bookmarked websites with instruction. The yo-yos go everywhere with him -- one for his own use and at least one more in his pocket for anybody who wants to join in. He taught somebody at the Polynesian Cultural Center when we were in Hawaii, he taught some kids at Old Sturbridge Village, and he put on an impromptu show for a group of girls at the fair yesterday. Good stuff.)

What I can't capture in this group of photos is the non-stop stream of old friends we ran into and new friends made along the way. Everywhere I turned, there was somebody we knew from some fibery aspect of our lives, and then there was a Ravelry meet-up where I put faces to the online names and those virtual acquaintances turned into local friends and neighbors. I was going to do a linkfest here, but there are just too many. Such fun!

Bonus prize: We'll see a bunch of them, and more, again today. Can't wait.