The ladies of the Sanguine Gryphon took this great video at the Homespun Yarn Party. Check it out!
Filmed by Laura Garcia, edited by Sarah Eyre, music by L'Ensemble Cercamon.
Do you have video or photos from the party to share? You can add your photos to our Flickr group (linked on the sidebar), and if you have a video please send us the YouTube link.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Attn Lisa who purchased Cosy's book...
I was going through my book stack the other day and noticed that I had an autographed book made out to Lisa! The last show I did was Homespun Yarn Party and I remember writing this inscription there - so I assume this sad person thought they misplaced their book, when really I still had it. Whoops!
Anyhow, I’m looking for Lisa so I can send her book to her. If you know a Lisa who attended or if you are Lisa, please contact me!
Cosy
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thanks, Lost & Found, and a few Announcements
We'd like to thank everyone who helped make our third Yarn Party a great success. We had over 550 attendees (not counting vendors, helpers, or organizers) throughout the day and gave away nearly 50 prizes.
A button was found on the floor during cleanup - it's large, round, with a gold rim and a cream conical center. If it came off your garment and can't be replaced please let us know.
A ladies ring was lost during the event. If you found this and picked it up, please let us know so we can put you in touch with its owner.
Ewes-ful Fiber Arts has asked us to announce a Spin-In coming up on April 10 from 12-6pm in Westminster, MD. If you are interested in attending, please email Susan at ewesfulfiberarts at gmail.com.
If you took photos at the event, please add them to our Flickr Group (brand new for 2010)!
- Our wonderful volunteers. I’m not going to name you all individually because I’m afraid I’d miss someone but you guys were such great help this year that the organizers actually had time to shop and sit and socialize a bit. Thanks for helping us get set up on time, make sure we had everything we needed, get door prize tickets to all our visitors, and thanks especially those of you who stuck around to make sure we all got out on time. Thank you SO SO much!
- Our super-talented vendors. You are all rockstars and we hope you had a great show!
- Our sponsors, who give us much needed financial support to keep putting this party on: A Tangled Skein, Fibre Space, Lovelyarns, The Yarn Spot, Woolwinders, Yarns International. These are all great shops - make sure you check them out!
- Blueswirly for our excellent new logo, which was featured on all the Homespun Yarn Party swag this year.
- Everyone who came out to the Mill and shopped and learned and shared and stopped by to say hello! (psst - that’s you)
A button was found on the floor during cleanup - it's large, round, with a gold rim and a cream conical center. If it came off your garment and can't be replaced please let us know.
A ladies ring was lost during the event. If you found this and picked it up, please let us know so we can put you in touch with its owner.
Ewes-ful Fiber Arts has asked us to announce a Spin-In coming up on April 10 from 12-6pm in Westminster, MD. If you are interested in attending, please email Susan at ewesfulfiberarts at gmail.com.
If you took photos at the event, please add them to our Flickr Group (brand new for 2010)!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Persimmon Tree Farm
1. What is your website?
www.angoragoat.com/persimmon
2. What do you make?
I have been doing fiber shows for about 18 years now up and down the east coast and Midwest. I have even had a booth at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, Black Sheep Gathering and Estes Park CO. I hand dye custom/commercial spun yarn. I also produce hand dyed blended 50/wool/50/mohair roving for handspinng/felting. I also carry handspun yarn, hand knit/woven finished items. Raw and washed natural colored mohair.
3. How did you get into making stuff?
I got into all this wonderful stuff when my husband and I bought a farm in 1989. We needed some lawn mowers, so first came some Border Leicester sheep, and then came Natural Colored Angora goats.
4. What is your favorite thing about the local fiber community?
They are just as nice and friendly as the local sheep and goat breeders, wonder people.
5. How does what you do/make influence the rest of your life, and vice versa?
Just ask my family, it is my life, and they get drug into it also. It is a huge part of my life. I enjoy working with the animals and the fiber.
7. Any funny stories, words of wisdom, something else to share about you or your business?
Stories?? Which one do you want to hear? Fiber and animal folks are full of stories. Like when the head gasket blew on the way to Michigan and we had to stop every hour to put water in the radiator, or the time the truck/trailer broke down going up the mountain getting home from SAFF, or even the time I put diesel in the gas tank and could not figure out why the truck would not run ,,that was on the way back from Michigan another year. I could go on and on. Life is an adventure. I keep telling my girlfriend we should write a book.
www.angoragoat.com/persimmon
2. What do you make?
I have been doing fiber shows for about 18 years now up and down the east coast and Midwest. I have even had a booth at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, Black Sheep Gathering and Estes Park CO. I hand dye custom/commercial spun yarn. I also produce hand dyed blended 50/wool/50/mohair roving for handspinng/felting. I also carry handspun yarn, hand knit/woven finished items. Raw and washed natural colored mohair.
3. How did you get into making stuff?
I got into all this wonderful stuff when my husband and I bought a farm in 1989. We needed some lawn mowers, so first came some Border Leicester sheep, and then came Natural Colored Angora goats.
4. What is your favorite thing about the local fiber community?
They are just as nice and friendly as the local sheep and goat breeders, wonder people.
5. How does what you do/make influence the rest of your life, and vice versa?
Just ask my family, it is my life, and they get drug into it also. It is a huge part of my life. I enjoy working with the animals and the fiber.
7. Any funny stories, words of wisdom, something else to share about you or your business?
Stories?? Which one do you want to hear? Fiber and animal folks are full of stories. Like when the head gasket blew on the way to Michigan and we had to stop every hour to put water in the radiator, or the time the truck/trailer broke down going up the mountain getting home from SAFF, or even the time I put diesel in the gas tank and could not figure out why the truck would not run ,,that was on the way back from Michigan another year. I could go on and on. Life is an adventure. I keep telling my girlfriend we should write a book.
Woolarina
1. What is your website?
http://woolarina.com
2. Your Ravelry username?
woolarina
3. What do you make?
I dye yarns, mostly, along with a little roving and spinning some yarns.
4. How did you get into making stuff?
My mom taught me to knit when I was 5 or so. I remember having this awful minty seafoam green hat that I made! It's SUCH A GOOD THING that there are awesome indie dyers today, as it just wasn't so pretty in the 80s!
5. What is your favorite thing about the local fiber community?
People are so willing to pitch in and help out! This is our third year of HYP, and it's all volunteer-based. It's great to meet so many people as interested in fiber and yarn as I am!
6. How does what you do/make influence the rest of your life, and vice versa?
Playing with yarn grounds me, I think. Life was pretty hectic already, and we now have a 6 month old keeping us busy. Being able to escape into the yarny world every so often keeps me happy!
http://woolarina.com
2. Your Ravelry username?
woolarina
3. What do you make?
I dye yarns, mostly, along with a little roving and spinning some yarns.
4. How did you get into making stuff?
My mom taught me to knit when I was 5 or so. I remember having this awful minty seafoam green hat that I made! It's SUCH A GOOD THING that there are awesome indie dyers today, as it just wasn't so pretty in the 80s!
5. What is your favorite thing about the local fiber community?
People are so willing to pitch in and help out! This is our third year of HYP, and it's all volunteer-based. It's great to meet so many people as interested in fiber and yarn as I am!
6. How does what you do/make influence the rest of your life, and vice versa?
Playing with yarn grounds me, I think. Life was pretty hectic already, and we now have a 6 month old keeping us busy. Being able to escape into the yarny world every so often keeps me happy!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Loop! - needs text
1. www.loop.etsy.com
2. loop
3. I blend specialty fiber for spinners and make art yarn for knitters, crocheters, and weavers.
4. I've always been a "creative" type, but it manifested itself previously through dance and creative writing as a kid and young adult. I'd always envied artists who made something tangible, but never seemed to find my medium. Years later, my mother-in-law tried to teach me how to knit and instead of being a good student of knitting I became obsessed with yarn. I googled "spinning lessons" in my area and found my spinning teacher and mentor. About a month into my classes with her, she introduced me to my first drum carder and I was hooked.
5. My goal is to make hand-carded batts and handspun yarns that are as beautiful as the finished objects produced by those who use them. By focusing on supplies, and not on the end product, I feel like I'm able to share my affinity for fiber with many other crafters. This artistic collaboration is what drives my work. Nothing motivates me more than seeing my customers' finished projects.
5. Favorite thing about the local fiber community.
I love meeting other fiber enthusiasts and have enjoyed meeting them at spin-ins in my studio. The online fiber community is awesome, but there's nothing better than getting to spend time with fiber friends. I've met some of my best friends through Loop and I treasure that more than anything.
6. How does what you do influence the rest of your life?
I started Loop while I was working in international development and pursuing a PhD in international education policy. Since then, Loop has grown from a part-time hobby into a full-time fiber business. I basically fell under a spell. I became fascinated with fiber as a creative medium and realized I wanted more than anything to work with it every day. And that's exactly what I do now!
In 2009, I moved Loop from my fiber-packed living room in Maryland to a 2500 square foot studio in a pre-Civil War textile mill turned arts center in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley. The new studio is like a fiber candy store. Visitors can hand pick their favorite color and fiber combinations from the rows of bins and jars lining the shelves. They can blend these ingredients on a drum carder themselves, or have me feed them into my new mini mill carding machine to make custom clouds or roving. The studio is a perfect setting for fiber gatherings and classes- from carding and spinning to felting and weaving.
2. loop
3. I blend specialty fiber for spinners and make art yarn for knitters, crocheters, and weavers.
4. I've always been a "creative" type, but it manifested itself previously through dance and creative writing as a kid and young adult. I'd always envied artists who made something tangible, but never seemed to find my medium. Years later, my mother-in-law tried to teach me how to knit and instead of being a good student of knitting I became obsessed with yarn. I googled "spinning lessons" in my area and found my spinning teacher and mentor. About a month into my classes with her, she introduced me to my first drum carder and I was hooked.
5. My goal is to make hand-carded batts and handspun yarns that are as beautiful as the finished objects produced by those who use them. By focusing on supplies, and not on the end product, I feel like I'm able to share my affinity for fiber with many other crafters. This artistic collaboration is what drives my work. Nothing motivates me more than seeing my customers' finished projects.
5. Favorite thing about the local fiber community.
I love meeting other fiber enthusiasts and have enjoyed meeting them at spin-ins in my studio. The online fiber community is awesome, but there's nothing better than getting to spend time with fiber friends. I've met some of my best friends through Loop and I treasure that more than anything.
6. How does what you do influence the rest of your life?
I started Loop while I was working in international development and pursuing a PhD in international education policy. Since then, Loop has grown from a part-time hobby into a full-time fiber business. I basically fell under a spell. I became fascinated with fiber as a creative medium and realized I wanted more than anything to work with it every day. And that's exactly what I do now!
In 2009, I moved Loop from my fiber-packed living room in Maryland to a 2500 square foot studio in a pre-Civil War textile mill turned arts center in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley. The new studio is like a fiber candy store. Visitors can hand pick their favorite color and fiber combinations from the rows of bins and jars lining the shelves. They can blend these ingredients on a drum carder themselves, or have me feed them into my new mini mill carding machine to make custom clouds or roving. The studio is a perfect setting for fiber gatherings and classes- from carding and spinning to felting and weaving.
Wild Hare Fiber Studio
1. What is your website?
www.wildhare.etsy.com
wildharefiber.com (under construction)
2. Your Ravelry username?
wildharefiber
3. What do you make?
I'm primarily a hand spinner and dyer. I love creating beautiful colors on wool and other natural fibers, and spinning yarn of all kinds, including art yarns (one of my skeins was pictured in a recent Spin-Off article about art yarns). In my spare time I also knit, crochet, felt and do a bit of frame loom weaving.
4. How did you get into making stuff?
I was cutting up socks and fabric scraps to make doll clothes when I was three -- so I've been 'making stuff' pretty much my entire life. My great-grandmother, who was an accomplished quilter and crocheter, passed her skills on to me at an early age, and I taught myself to knit in middle school. I studied fine art and design in college, and also sew and do a bit of light carpentry/home renovation. I guess I'm like Tinkerbelle, making and 'tinkering' with stuff is just what I do!
5. What is your favorite thing about the local fiber community?
the enthusiasm! It's so gratifying to connect with people who share my love and appreciation for these things.
6. How does what you do/make influence the rest of your life, and vice versa?
Involvement with fiber arts has always been an important part of my life. The meditative and creative qualities of knitting, spinning and other handcrafts have brought me peace through the ups and downs of life, in good times and bad. In recent years, my passion for these pursuits has become even more important, as I've transitioned to follow my dream of being a full-time fiber artist. I hope that my children will grow up with the confidence to pursue their personal dreams as well.
7. Any funny stories, words of wisdom, something else to share about you or your business?
Sometimes people assume that "Wild Hare" means I'm selling angora rabbit products -- which is ironic, since angora is one of the few fibers I have trouble working with (it makes me sneeze). In reality, the name 'wild hare' comes from the old saying that someone doing something crazy and unexpected was 'going off on a wild hare' (which refers to that animal's mating behavior). I thought the name expressed the creative, adventurous spirit of my shop, along with the 'crazy' leap of faith I made in pursuing my fiber-business dream.
www.wildhare.etsy.com
wildharefiber.com (under construction)
2. Your Ravelry username?
wildharefiber
3. What do you make?
I'm primarily a hand spinner and dyer. I love creating beautiful colors on wool and other natural fibers, and spinning yarn of all kinds, including art yarns (one of my skeins was pictured in a recent Spin-Off article about art yarns). In my spare time I also knit, crochet, felt and do a bit of frame loom weaving.
4. How did you get into making stuff?
I was cutting up socks and fabric scraps to make doll clothes when I was three -- so I've been 'making stuff' pretty much my entire life. My great-grandmother, who was an accomplished quilter and crocheter, passed her skills on to me at an early age, and I taught myself to knit in middle school. I studied fine art and design in college, and also sew and do a bit of light carpentry/home renovation. I guess I'm like Tinkerbelle, making and 'tinkering' with stuff is just what I do!
5. What is your favorite thing about the local fiber community?
the enthusiasm! It's so gratifying to connect with people who share my love and appreciation for these things.
6. How does what you do/make influence the rest of your life, and vice versa?
Involvement with fiber arts has always been an important part of my life. The meditative and creative qualities of knitting, spinning and other handcrafts have brought me peace through the ups and downs of life, in good times and bad. In recent years, my passion for these pursuits has become even more important, as I've transitioned to follow my dream of being a full-time fiber artist. I hope that my children will grow up with the confidence to pursue their personal dreams as well.
7. Any funny stories, words of wisdom, something else to share about you or your business?
Sometimes people assume that "Wild Hare" means I'm selling angora rabbit products -- which is ironic, since angora is one of the few fibers I have trouble working with (it makes me sneeze). In reality, the name 'wild hare' comes from the old saying that someone doing something crazy and unexpected was 'going off on a wild hare' (which refers to that animal's mating behavior). I thought the name expressed the creative, adventurous spirit of my shop, along with the 'crazy' leap of faith I made in pursuing my fiber-business dream.
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