Weekend Fiber Fun

May is one of my favorite months! Spring has usually made herself known in a lilacs are blooming,  birds are singing and sun is shining by now. Since we’re just at the beginning that means it’s time for The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Another reason to love May!!

This year is special because MS&W is celebrating it’s 40th anniversary of serving our fiber community with this festival.  40 years,  that’s along time. I was wondering earlier this week what it would have been like to be at the very first one in 1973 when it was the Carroll County Craft Festival.

As we do every year we’ve sent a mega-ton of yarn with Toni Neil of The Fold .  A whole slew of new colorways ( including the new shaded solids)  and… some  good ol’ color friends, that even I, was hard pressed to remember.  All three of our new yarns are making their debut, the Targhee sisters, worsted and bulky, Victoria, queen of Polwarth and the soft and just flippin’ wonderful BFL Fingering. Toni also has our current trunk show, including but certainly not limited to Karen Alfke’s Ariadne

You’ll also see and carress and try on… :

Sartorial Cowl by Star Athena  in DeVine
Axis Mitts by Sam Roshak  in Twisted
Colour Affection by Veera Valmaki in both Seduction and Silkie Socks that Rock
Pretty Thing Cowl by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee  in our Worthy Fingering

I hope everyone has a great sheepy time!

Toni’s in Barn 3, Booth 18 right across from the food booths!

Things to look forward to for those of us who  can’t get to Maryland this weekend.

Twisted is hosting Amy Singer next weekend for a few very cool classes and a talk Saturday evening that is sure to be a good time. I know I’m going.  If you have not had a chance to meet or hear Amy’s knitty story this is your chance.

You know what’s right around the corner? Next week actually. Another thing to love about May, Mother’s Day!  When I was thinking what I wanted to do this year to pay homage to all that Mother energy, I remembered this gift I made for a dear friend. I took our silk hankies and wrote a wish on it for her ( in dye of course) then, decorated it with a wee bit of color here and there. I then knit it up into a lovely little shawlette.  Since she could not see what the wish was I wrote a little card and put it in the package and mailed it off.  She loved it so much and I loved making it for her just as much. A sentiment dyed and knit into silk.  Pretty sweet.  So sweet that I thought it would be a great Mother’s Day project/present.

So…

I painted a bunch of hankies!!

I decorated the edge with lovely May type hues and wrote MOM in the middle. This is what it looks like before we set the dye. It runs into itself a bit as it steams, which makes the message a hard to read, but gives a great effect for the knitting part and finished object. We’re calling these our Mother’s Day Message in a Hanky and we do have a limited number of them available. It is way harder to write on a silk hanky with dye then one would think. Seriously!  I can’t tell how thrilled Debra was that this little bit of creativity was my job. I love it.  What’s not to love about knitting a message to someone you love that they can wear and have forever – a treasure!

A little knit tip: When knitting these pull from the top and then the bottom of the hanky pile to evenly disperse the color range.

An ordering note:  If you order this by itself it will ship on Monday May 6th. If you add another something else to your order we can’t guarantee Monday shipment.

I hope, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing this weekend, that you have a wonderful one. It’s been seriously beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest so it’s gardening for me! Putting in an asparagus barrel, some new dye plant beds and a dye play date.