First Annual Fiber Flea Market & Spin In!

Sunday, October 9th, 10am-4pm

Join us this Sunday for a day of fiber and fun!

At Windrush Farm in Chileno Valley
2263 Chileno Valley Road
Petaluma, CA 94952

Shop from local vendors who will be selling carders, spinning wheels, roving, yarn, knit wear, and more. Bring your spinning wheel or knitting project, and join the spin in. There will be goodie bags for participating spinners. Don’t worry if you can’t bring your wheel, there will be extra spinning wheels and carders to use for the spin in.

Bring a yummy dish to share at the lunch pot luck. The apple tree is full and needs to be picked, so bring a bag and take home some fresh apples.
It will be a fun day to do some shopping, spinning, knitting, and hang out with other fiber enthusiasts.

Looking forward to seeing you on the farm.

Check out Windrushfarm.wordpress.com for details.

 

More Felting Done

I made this dress for a window display in Pt. Reyes. The materials and dyes used for this project had to be all locally sourced. It was a lot of fun collecting the materials to create the garment. I tried the dress and I was very surprised that wasn’t itchy at all.

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I finally finished this dress/coat that I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks. Since the walnut tree behind my Post Office is about to loose its leaves for the season, I decided to take advantage of it for the last time and harvest a handful of them to print the garment. I love the back, but I’m not so trill about the front. I have to think about something else to spice it up a little. I think that I jumped way too fast and didn’t plan well enough before placing the leaves. I’m already planning another version.

Icelandic

I got this beautiful Icelandic fleece from Marilyn who lives in Half Moon Bay. I took a few pictures yesterday and I couldn’t help sharing them here. This fleece along with another not less beautiful, was delivered at my doorstep by Marilyn itself. It was very nice of her to take the day off and drive all the way to the beach to meet me. I enjoyed meeting her and spending time talking about her farm and her work while having lunch at our local restaurant. Then, we walked to my house and showed her my current project.

I have have big plans for this fleece.

The finished piece

I finally put the piece together. Well, actually I just had to seam the two sides where the armholes are. I’m very happy with the colors, however, I could add a few more stitches at the bottom of the piece for a more comfortable fit.

But I like how the fabric drapes without the feeling of a heavy garment. The yarn worked perfect for this project.

I’m working on a hat now and maybe a scarf later on using the leftover yarn, but so far I’m not very happy with how the hat is looking. I’m working on the round using the same stitch, but I’m noticing signs of a biased fabric. Hmm… I’m wondering why. Any take on this?

On another note…

My yarn got highlighted in the One Brown Crafter’s Blog to encourage readers to buy and support handmade. Yay! Tracy has been a good supporter of my work through her website. Thank you Tracy!

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• Knitting with Local Wool

Great weather at the Craft Fair

The weather was in fact wonderful! Whew! I was nervous about having a rainy and cold day, but the day was sunny with a nice warmth during the day and afternoon. We received visitors of all ages and from all over the Bay Area. One of the most fun aspects of doing these fairs is meeting people that support handmade, but not necessarily know much about fiber, so they come up with the most interesting questions.

I really love these ceramic coffee mugs made by Dana Hooper.

Ceramic bowls by Marlie DeSwart

I have one more show to go. The next show will be held in San Francisco at the Bazaar Bizarre at the Concourse Exhibition Center. More info to come…

And the quote of the day:

May Day at Windrush Farm

First day of May. It was a beautiful day to be outside to celebrate fiber with friends and visitors. The day was gleaming with a beautiful sunshine.

Once again, Mimi Luebberman invited friends and fiber lovers to come to her farm and participate in her annual shearing. It was offered some fiber demonstrations during the day by Mimi and Marlie DeSwart. It was hard for me not to bid at one (or more) of the nice fleeces they have for auction. I had  booth there to sell my hand dyed goods as well my friends Marlie and Charmaine.

Charmaine’s specialty are her soft hand spun yarns richly colored with natural dyes from fennel, indigo, and onion skins. She sells her yarns at Black Mountain Artisans in Point Reyes. It was also a section at the fair where people could learn spinning with spindles made with discarded CDs. Susan and Laura from Spindles and Flyers set up a space and invite people to try spinning. At one point I remember seen a whole family engaged in their spinning.

Susan brought with her a huge basket filled with mini batts of different colors and textures.

I couldn’t resist to give a try myself. I spent most of the day with my CD spindle.

Of course we also had delicious pizzas and handcrafted bread made by Mike the Baker from Sonoma.

Marlie’s handspun

Fiber Auction