The Fair!

I took last Friday off to go to the Common Ground Fair, just to play. It was great! I thought I was going to go to a bunch of presentations, but I only made one. And I didn’t take too many pictures.

Listening to Leslie Wood Paul. She was giving the talk about Traditional Passamaquoddy Medicines for Fredda, What my Grandmother Taught Me. She was charming and I’m sorry I didn’t get to hear Fredda this year. There will be another time for sure.

And the critters, of course. There were many, many more sights, sounds, smells, and creatures (4 and 2-legged), but you’ll just have to imagine…

I might have come home with some yarn from … I now have more than enough to mix and match colors to make several fabulous hats.

High Fashion, or Fashion Criminalista

I wore my knit skirt, and it got lots of comments and compliments. I kept telling people “you can make this too, the pattern is free at Knitty”

It was much like this, but this was another day (crappy photo, sorry)…

Between then and now I found some new boots! I have had the lust for some Frye boots, but they pinch my toes, and I’ve never felt like spending over $200 to be uncomfortable… so I was thrilled to find these for $50, and they’re comfy. Not the classics that Fryes are, but they’ll do.

In the Garden

I’ve been loving the morning glories out on the trellis. And also the sun gold tomatoes… num num!

Morning dew on a foggy morning… Amazing spinner with tiny jeweled beads…

And in other news

The mushroom sweater is done and blocked. I just need a photo of Don in it.

And my brother from California is visiting! He turned 50 yesterday, and we went exploring the Old Max (the maximum security forensic unit at the old mental health institute). He thought it was a great birthday present, especially the graffiti that said F*&* the Cops. Yes, we got a photo of him there too…

Or

Modeling for Breast Cancer Awareness…

Earlier this summer I took my nieces to Bella Intimates for a fitting, because I believe every young woman should know what a decent bra feels like rather than relying on what’s available at local box stores or places like Victoria’s Secret (who has notoriously bad fitting help). Mom came too, and my SIL stopped in as well.

The shop owner told us about a friend of hers who makes calendars for breast cancer awareness… He had this idea to do a multigenerational shoot to “start them young”, and so we were happy to help out. I’m not sure which of these he’ll use, but it was one of the two.

…and then…

He told me about some idea he had, and I said Oh sure, I’d totally do that!

So, get your mammo, pay attention to your breasts, do your self exam, and don’t let them go the way of the dinosaurs…

And remember, men can get breast cancer too.

If you haven’t seen these, The Scar Project is a powerful and moving series of photographs of women (maybe there’s a man, I forget). The photographs are stunning, beautiful, and a bit raw.

Back in July, I got some different fibers to play with on the spinning wheel. Sometime last month, I finished spinning up the two or so ounces of hemp.

Let’s just say I’m not a fan.

The fiber felt a bit greasy and looked very coarse. I had a bowl of water nearby for dipping my fingers as I spun, which helped. It’s softer than it looks (this is a very relative term here), and I hear that, like linen, it’ll soften with washing and wearing. I’m thinking this bit will do well as washcloths.

This,

Became 400 yards of single ply,

It really stunk when I wet it, and whew, did it make the water filthy! It also coiled tightly on itself. But I beat it pretty well, and it evened out some…

I think it came out fine… for washcloths…

Last Friday (a week ago), I headed up to Searsport for Fiber College. I had friends who were staying there and I went with friends who were taking classes. I was just playing. But I got put to work in the afternoon, because I was the human model for Gale Zucker’s photography class. The entire day was a great lot of fun.

Very foggy when we arrived,

And even though I was cold and needed to put my leggings on under my shorts, I still had to put my feet in the water,

Saw the work of a most awesome spinner,

for which I was extremely grateful.

Fiber College was held at Searsport Shores Ocean Campground. They have really beautiful grounds, right on the ocean, and lovely gardens. Here’s the “naughty finger” plant for Diana, who broke her wrist while she was camping here!

I learned a lot in Gale’s photography class, even though I wasn’t behind a camera… I got to play too in the first part of the class, and I was assigned “yellow”. I think I got some good pics, but they’re not loaded up yet.

And I did another “model” thing this summer, for a breast cancer awareness calendar… also not loaded up yet, but I’ll post about that soon.

It took about a week, but I finally took some photos of my “haul” from the vendors… It was a really foggy morning on my way to work, and I stopped by the river to take some photos

Alpaca/silk from Portland Fiber Gallery

It is SO soft… so cuddly… I can’t wait to get my hands on it to spin it!

But first I need to finish DH’s birthday sweater (from last January). There is about half an inch of collar left to finish. All the seams are sewn, the rest is done… I’m hoping the collar will be OK, we’ll see.

And buttons… I got some old casein buttons.

Not sure what I’ll do with them all, but there are plenty for three sweaters, and a single one (above) for a bag,

Blog post brought to you by my new laptop! The ipad is fun and great for browsing, but it’s way too much of a pita to manage photos on it, and certainly to copy and paste between multiple screens (write a blog post). Also, there was rather a lot of resource competition for the pc. And the laptop has Windows 7 and Office 2010, which are soon coming to us at work, so I figure I’ll have a bit of experience with them here first (justifications, I have them!)…

Here’s hoping that this will help me post more regularly… because, as always, I have a lot to say.