Fiber festival and the moth wars

First, a grim notice: more casualties in the moth wars.  Investigation showed another pair of handmade socks has suffered moth-related fatalities.  During that investigation, it was discovered that the owner of these socks had worn right through the sole of another pair. 

Kim, a good friend with a truly impressive sock yarn stash, offered to send new supplies.  A friend in need is a friend indeed.  However

I have some sock yarn.  I am going to go through each batch today, looking for signs of moths.  Then each batch will go in a zip-lock baggie and into the freezer for a week.   Just to make sure.

But, given the casualties, and the timing of the Kid n Ewe n Llamas Too festival this weekend in Boerne TX, I had license to buy some sock yarn.  I did keep things under control.  Two new skeins of sock yarn (which will immediately go into zip lock bags) found their way into my big red going-to-a-fiber-festival bag.  First item found and purchased was a skein of sock yarn from Alisha Goes Around.  This is her Tittering of Magpies yarn, which is merino, nylon and, to my surprise, a bit of metallic.  A very tiny bit.  We will have to see what it is like when knit up.  It is in a lovely subdued/grayed purple.  See?

Sorry for the poor nighttime artificial light photo.

The other skein that decided to join us is from Western Sky Yarns (or is it Western Sky Knits), their Aspen sock yarn with nylon:

Another late night photo.  The colorway is called Eagle Mountain.

See?  I was very restrained, especially in light of all the sock yarn to be had at Kid n Ewe.  For those of you who are familiar with the fiber festivals at Rhinebeck and Maryland Sheep and Wool, let me point out the first difference between those events and Kid n Ewe.

The parking lot, and one of three buildings used for the festival, on Friday afternoon, the opening day of the event.  Today is sure to be busier, but it is nothing like the behemoth events at Rhinebeck and Maryland.  That said, there was a very satisfying amount of fiber, spindles, yarn, looms, spinning wheels and fiber enthusiasts.  There were also some alpacas being kept just outside the State of Texas Apaca Ranchers exhibition hall.

The white one did not want to have her picture taken, and was bleating rather plaintively while I was there.

One of the first booths I visited was Jeri Brock's Woodworks, since I had decided to pick up one of her Turkish style spindles.  Turkish style spindles are unusual, in that you wrap the yarn you are producing around the removable arms of the spindle, with a resulting center pull ball of yarn.  Jeri cuts interesting designs into the larger arm of her spindle, and makes them out of beautiful wood.  I fell in love with, and brought home, a spindle of hers with a weeping willow design in bloodwood, with a cherry wood shaft.

Unassembled:

Assembled:

You can spin using these spindles as drop spindles, suspended from the yarn you are spinning, or as supported spindles, with the pointed end of the shaft resting on a surface like a table or a spinning bowl.  You can spin very short fibers that way, and very soft low-twist yarn as well.

Speaking of which, I explored other-than-wool spinning fiber at the event.  There is of course tons of alpaca and mohair from local producers, but this is South Texas.  I can't even think of touching alpaca and mohair for most of the year.  I found these gorgeous batts of silk and tencel though, and they came home with me to use with the Turkish spindle.

I picked up a couple of patterns.  A nice cardigan pattern called the Willow Breeze Lace Cardigan, and a pattern for a stole done in squares, the Triple S Shawl.  It occured to me that it would be a very nice use of relatively small amounts of handspun yarn.  As usual, what attracted me was seeing the finished products.

I did NOT buy the very interesting spinning wheel I saw there.  It is Spinolution's small travel wheel, called the Hopper.  The spinning sits facing it -- this photo is a side view, so the spinner would be sitting on the left.

Here is a video about how they work.  When they refer to it as an art yarn wheel, they mean you can produce thick, irregular yarns.  The treadle is unusual too, in how you rest your feet on it, rather than using just the ball of your feet.  I really don't need another wheel, I don't need an art yarn wheel, but it is a creative and unusual design.

Spinning

I have been doing a lot of spinning on my Columbine wheel, working my way through the Confetti roving.  I was worried about an itchy spot on my thumb, wondering what it could be, and I actually now think it is due to all the time I am spending running the roving over that thumb as I spin.  I have almost filled a second bobbin, so soon I should be able to start plying.

Knitting

As usual and as I predicted, once I reached the button band, and my fear of button holes, my work on baby Laura's cardigan slowed down.  I do commit to finishing it this weekend though, and there will be an addendum to this post when it happens.

Cats

Maggie in a Maggie-nest.

Comments

[Martha H]

Beautiful yarn and fiber finds! The smaller festivals are so nice and provide the ability to really look at the merchandise, talk with the vendors, and know more about what you purchase.

[Judy]

Do moths like alpaca yarn? I'm suddenly worried for my alpaca sweater in the closet, not in a ziplocked bag.

[kayT]

Interesting: I went to the Kid'n'Ewe festival on Saturday and also bought a Turkish spindle from Jeri. I have never spun before and a spindle might not be the most sensible buy as I just adopted two kitties...

Anyway, I don't mind doing the same things you do as long as it does NOT involve moths. Yikes. Good luck with getting rid of them.