Fall Fair Weekend

 Last weekend I was one of the hand crafters asked to demonstrate their craft at a local Fall Fair.   On the Saturday I was asked to demonstrate spinning.   This is my display table.  The colour wheel is of nature dyed yarns.  Almost all of them were either harvested locally or grown in my garden, except for the Cochineal reds and a logwood purple.  The rest of the yarns were examples of different yarn structures or different fibres.   Sadly this is the only photo I took.  It was a lot of fun.  I talked with a lot of people and even helped a few gals with some spinning issues they had.  It's amazing how many people see spinning as "keeping a skill alive", and don't realize that there are many modern spinners out there, making miles of yarn.

On Sunday - and I wish I had photos- but I forgot to bring my phone or a camera.  On Sunday, a bunch of us got together to do a Sheep to Shawl demo.   The demo was nice because we didn't have to rush things.  It also allowed us to have a beginner spinner with us, who learned but was under no pressure to produce yards upon yards of consistent yarn.   We had a shawl warp on a table loom and 4 spinning wheels.  I also brought the same table cloth  (which is an old sheet) and the nature dyed colourwheel.  The colour wheel became a good talking point, which lead to the spinning and weaving.   And the loom became a talking point which lead to the wheels and the yarns.  The spinning wheels became a talking point which lead to the dyed yarns and the weaving.   We talked with so many people.  At one point, 4 of the 5 of us were talking with small groups of people.  There weren't many slow times, but mainly steady people through.  

The whole team was comprised of SCA members and we were all dressed in garb; mainly viking.  People commented on how good we looked (yay us!) and how right it looked that we were weaving and spinning.   I had to appreciate that people recognized that the skills were ancient but no one realized that our equipment was thoroughly modern!  Still, a good impression was made and many people were amazed and intrigued by what we did.  And nope, we didn't finish the shawl.  I think we got it half woven.  However we went in with the goal of education, and there was no need to finish.   Regardless, it was an awful lot of fun, with much socializing.  We took lunch breaks and saw some of the fair.  It was a very good day.   I'm a bit sad that I didn't get photos though.

The fun stuff and not so fun

 

At our last Weavers Guild meeting we had a guest speaker.  Cat Haggert came to speak to us about processing flax.  After a brief introduction on how to grow flax, she showed us how to use her processing tools.  These were modern tools that were made by a fairly local gentleman who makes and repairs spinning wheels.   Cat also showed us how to process flax using easily available tools - an ice scraper and a dollar store pocket comb.  Of course these are only useful for small amounts but they did the trick.   These are some of our guilds results.   The top 2 small stricks of flax were processed by me and the bottom two were Iva's and Ashley's, who gave them to me to spin up.   It was a fun program.  Cat is incredibly knowledgeable and an excellent speaker.   

These are a few of the socks I've made this month.   I finally found the right tension for this yarn.   I've one more pair to make and I have all the Xmas socks done for my kids and their spouses. I was having issues with sizing in that they were coming out too small or odd.  One pair was even different sizes between socks, which were done in one shot.

  One day I read an online post from one of the prolific sock makers/teachers.  He said the weights should be changed up for different weights of yarn.  His thoughts were 1 weight for super fine or laceweight yarn, 2 for normal sock yarn and 3 for bulky sock yarn.  A single weight is 580g.   Adding the second is 1159g, and with the third weight it weights 1589g. The next piece of information he gave was that the spaces between stitches while you're knitting on the sock machine should be about the size of the yarn.  

I removed a weight while knitting up my regular sized sock yarn and all of a sudden, everything was good.  My sizing was spot on and as a bonus, there were also fewer dropped stitches.  The dropped stitches though could also be me reminding myself to pay more attention to needle latches and toe V hook weight placement too.

I asked for some info before trying out my ribber.  I was directed to search for videos.  I've been watching SockTV - yes it really is a thing, which was one of the suggestions.  However while this summer has been the summer of ribbing, it's all about different ribbing patterns.  As a hand knitter of socks, I already know I can do any ribbing patter that my stitch count will allow -and subsequently, how many stitch combos the ribber will accommodate.   What I didn't have information for was how to set up the ribber to get started.  Luckily there is a gal out in Vancouver who has put together a whole bunch of very beginner videos on sock machines. She had one on how to get the ribber set up her machine.   Happily I have the same machine that she used for her demo, so I don't have to work it out on a different machine.

Blackberry update -  2 kg of berries are in the freezer, waiting for me to make jam!   There are more on the brambles, but the weather has cooled dramatically and now they're starting to get smaller and seedier.  I may call it done for harvesting them.  

Tomato update -  The tomatoes in the garden are finally ripening.   I've managed to can 5 jars of the plum tomatoes.  They are really nice fruit, but ack, having them ripen this late and slowly is frustrating. I've no idea how many more will ripen in time to be used.

Threes - the oil light on the truck came on...  The lawn tractor will only run for 10 minutes at a time and periodically, the new battery dies...  The sole of my only pair of running shoes has detached from the shoe...  I hope that's it for now.   While I'm sure we can replace the shoes, a new truck and lawn tractor aren't in this year's budget :(