Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival

It is that time of year again! 

I get to pet some short sheep and fondle woolie goodness to my hearts content. I just have to remember to buy the woolies before I love them, and pet them, and call them George.

I do believe I will start documenting one of my festival traditions. I like to wear a pair of socks made from yarn bought at last year's festival. It is a way for me to connect with the vendors. I can be rather shy or quiet at times so this works as a method of breaking me out of my shell. A beautiful form of woolie armor.

This year's armor is Fiber Stash's You Pick socks. Now these socks have my heart with all their vibrant beauty. It is very difficult to be sad looking at these socks.

So I bought more yarn from them.

Left to right: Tweedy Toes in "Moss", Polworth Roving in "70083" and Twinkle Toes in "Bushel".

Now I am not a Twinkle Toes kind of girl but sometimes when the yarn calls to you, you just pay the darn bill and be happy about it.

From D's Salt Rimmed Margarita Socks vendor, Mt Rutsen Studio, I found some more lovelies.

Little Abbey in "Auroa Borealis" (with neps) and Madison in "Deep Cornflower". Also I bought two more packs of my favorite stitch markers. You know the ones that made sweater knitting fun.

Last year I bought yarn for a sweater from Ensign Book Farm. I swatched the yarn but started having anxiety about running out of yarn so I let it sit and marinate in my mind. Last month I realized I can just buy more yarn in different colors and knit a colorwork yoke sweater. (I think I may have enough for sweater, cowl and mitts, na maybe I should buy more.)

In front may be my last skein of their Great Scott sock yarn.  

A nice big sweater/shawl bag from Stitched by JessaLu. Doctor Who themed of course.

That is five of the sweater skeins in there! Yowsa!

All of my new pretties taking a class picture. Could I be any more proud? 

Oh right I will be once I knit them into their destiny, right!

Like this sock of D's. It was showing off what some of them could/will be.

D came out at the end of the photo shoot to check out the new kids. 

Then he played yarn Jenga with them. 

Yarn Jenga is the best kind of Jenga!

Yarn Chicken

I lost, sigh, at yarn chicken. Let me explain, yarn chicken is when you're happily knitting along and you realize that you may not have enough yarn to finish the project. I know what you're thinking how can someone with so much yarn not have enough? I buy a lot of single skeins of hand dyed yarn. Shhh, you don't need to look at my stash, let's talk about how to handle the problem at hand.

Into the Whirled - Gloucester Sock - Children of Time

Me? I went to my big bag of left over sock yarn and found a bit of complimentary yarn. I sorta like it. I keep thinking that I want to start making my toes out of different yarns. It would use up some of the left overs that I am hoarding.

Or I could find another use for them.

D has a love/hate relationship with the wild socks I make for him. He prefers to wear business appropriate blue/brown plain colored socks, till I let him in on a secret. When you wear wild socks it boosts your I-can-tackle-this-day feeling.

Since  colorful socks are so fun to wear, he has worn these out a few times. Sometimes repairing socks feels like work. Knitting new toes onto old socks? That just sounds like fun knitting.

Instead of trying to find a complimentary yarn I just went with something more wild. So now D has new/old socks back in the drawer for the cost of weekend knitting. I have a couple more toeless socks to work on when the whim hits me. Plus it lets me enjoy a yarn all over again.

And yes I do know that the next time these get a hole it will not be in the toe area. That is the game you play when you knit socks for a hard on his feet guy. It is either that or play more yarn chicken.

Five More Presidents

Back in May, my sister and I had a quick tour of the Presidents in Rapid City.

It has been a little while but I think we should learn a few more presidential facts before my local trivia starts up again.

Anybody want to guess who this guy is? I would have gotten it wrong myself.

 He threw out the first presidential pitch, making it a tradition.

That's why they gave William Howard Taft a baseball.

 This guy was the only president that had been a POW.

Andrew Jackson and his brother were taken captive by the British during the Revolutionary War.

This poor guy and his wife, Jane, lost their last son to a train accident two weeks before he was elected. Jane refused official duties for the first half of his presidency.

 Franklin Pierce

He is the only president to hold a patent.

Abraham Lincoln

Our only bachelor president. 

James Buchanan

How did we do? 

I know Taft was quite a bit trimmer than the pictures I had seen of him. And I had no idea that he was the presidential pitch thrower.

Pierce's story broke my heart. All I will say here is that it was a very bad accident and they both witnessed it. No wonder she became a recluse.