Saturday, Scott and I set up at Lexpo for a day of meeting fans and selling comics.  Troy Hickman also had a table there.  While the crowds were rather light, it wasn’t bad for a first-time show.  I hope the folks who arranged everything and set it up will continue it as I see this could be a growing endeavor.  My only complaint was that there were no food vendors, which meant that we lost the public whenever they got hungry.  Having food vendors there means we have a more captive audience.

The Batmobile was there,…

…as was the Mystery Machine. 

While we were there I spun on some Wensleydale top dyed by Spunky Eclectic. 

This was my first time spinning Wensleydale and once I got the hang of how it wanted to be spun (long draw), it went very quickly.  I spun nearly the entire 4 ounces while we were there.

The most interesting thing that happened, though, was at the hotel as we came down the elevator for breakfast.  Another couple, slightly older than Scott and I, got on with us, and both glanced at my Johnny Saturn T-shirt.  Since you can’t see my shirt very well above, you can go to this link to see what is on my shirt.  They both frowned, glanced at each other and shook their heads.  Then they wouldn’t meet my or Scott’s eyes for the rest of the trip down.  Obviously, my T-shirt had offended them, but it only proved to me that they were the type to judge something they have no clue about.  The scene on my shirt is the villain, the demonic-powered Dr. Synn, being attacked by the good guys.  In the end, the good guys win.  Rather than be offended, they should have asked what it was about, I would have told them.

Sunday and Monday – Well, we rested.  Two busy days in a row and a night in a hotel meant that we just wanted a couple of quiet days once we got home.  I worked on some paperwork yesterday, sorted through some books and magazines, and took a load to Half Price.  I am setting aside several books that I think you guys might be interested in and will have an on-line garage sale in a few weeks.

I sure hope everyone had a great weekend.  The weather, here, was fantastic for once.  The temps were in the low 70’s, the skies were clear and the humidity was low.  It was lovely to be outside.

Do you want to help your Local Yarn Shop in a big way?  Go to Yarn Shop Review and do a review of your favorite shop (or shops).  This helps potential customers find shops in their area (home or vacation) and helps the shops get the word out.

Have you ever wanted to know what care symbols on clothing and yarns mean?  What about how to differentiate between yarn weights.  Here are several great sites to help with these questions. 

The Yarn and Fiber Company

Shibori Dragon Knits

Patons

Textile Affairs

I learned a lot from these.

And last, but very surely not least, remember my weaving student, Kristy of the gorgeous dishtowel fame?  Well, she is a fantastic artist with silk fusion. 

This is about 2 feet X 3 feet and is hanging in the hallway outside of their dining room.  SWIFT is in talks with her about teaching classes on this – a beginners one for those who weren’t able to attend the Celia Quinn workshop this past spring, and a more advanced one for embellishments like she does as well as making things from the fused cloth.  I’m in!

I went to my yoga class last night and we had a terrific workout.  It was a very full class (at least 20 people) and I loved every minute of it.  I wish I could go every week, but I’ll take what I can get.

Who all are planning to be at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival next weekend?  Sandy and I are driving up that Friday night, will be at the festival all day Saturday, and will drive home that Sunday.  We’ve been going through the events book marking all the things we want to do and see.  A couple of the things I want to do are the Shetland Sheep Breeders show and auction (No, I’m not coming home with a Shetland sheep – this year, but I want to learn more so when I do decide it is time to purchase some, I know what to look for in good fiber animals), and the used equipment auction.  I am looking for another workshop loom, Sandy wants a click reel and together we are looking for a good drum carder.  I can hardly wait until next weekend.

For those of you in America, have a great Labor Day weekend, have fun and be safe!  For everyone else – Have a wonderful weekend!!!

So what do I have to show for my two weeks?  Well, I’ve finished a sock…

…started its mate…

…Warped a loom and wove a little.

I’ve gotten the laundry caught up – for now.

And I’ve gotten someone else to mow my yard that was quickly turning into a hay field.

But mostly, I have worked and slept.  For some reason, my energy level has been on the low side.  Knowing what I’ve got coming up in the next two and a half months, it’s just conserving energy, probably.

For example, tomorrow, a friend and I will be going to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to the second largest genealogical library in the United States for a day of research.  I have been researching my family’s history since I was 16 when my grandmother gave me her mother’s family history notes for a school project.  During this time, I have found out that I have nearly every western European country in my blood-line along with Jewish, African and Cherokee Indian.  Our wonderful president joked that he was a “mutt.”  Well, let me tell you, he ain’t got nuthin’ on me, folks.

Then, on Sunday, I’ll be heading back to Greensburg to help Kristy rewarp her loom for her next set of dishtowels as well as to check out her first batch in person.  I enjoy working with her and her husband, David, and it will be a fun day.

Of course, I’ll take pictures.

Then on Labor Day weekend, Scott and I will be at Graphic Engagement  at Purdue University on Friday as part of the round-table discussion from 3 until 4:30.  Saturday, we’ll be at Lexpo meeting all our Johnny Saturn fans, which is always fun.  Sunday, Sandy will be over for a T-shirt dyeing session, and Monday, Labor Day itself, I’ll be washing out those T-shirts and cleaning house.

And the weekend after that?  Sandy and I are going to Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival!!!  We’ll drive up Friday night, shop ‘til we drop all day Saturday, then drive home on Sunday.  I cannot wait!  My LYS will have a booth there, so if you are at the Wisconsin fair that weekend, stop by The Trading Post for Fiber Arts’ booth.  Susan always has tons of the coolest spinning fibers and yarns around.

And, yes, I’ll take pictures. 

Let’s start with Saturday, though.  Sandy and I got to the fairgrounds around 9:30, unloaded her wheel in the SWIFT booth and stowed away the cart.  Next to our booth was the poultry association booth, and they had an egg chair.

So, can you tell me – which came first the Sandy or the egg?

Because the heat index was going to be well above 100, we decided to hit the animal barns first, then visit the air conditioned buildings after it got really hot.  Now, mind you, it was already over 80 degrees by the time we got there, so off we went to our favorite animal barn – the Sheep Barn.

There we saw a really lovely Columbia ewe,

and a really sweet Shetland whose fleece I wanted to take home then and there.  I mean, just look at that fleece!

Then we saw a few other sheep.

One of my favorites was this guy playing King of the Bucket.

I did take lots of other sheep pictures, but as most of them were meat breeds rather than fiber breeds, I won’t bore you with them.

From there, we went to the Hoosier Lottery stands where Sandy and I exchanged our ticket stub for free scratch-offs.  I didn’t win anything, but Sandy won $2 that she traded for two more tickets, but didn’t win anything on those.  Oh well.  We both wanted to win the $3000 because we have our eyes on some equipment that will make our fiber processing simpler.

The International Building this year was featuring Japan, and Sandy and I ended up spending an hour and a half in there. 

The dancers were high energy and fantasic!

And the drumming troup was fascinating to watch.  They had four different set ups and they worked hard and were great to watch.

While we were there, we ate a lunch of traditional Japanese food and it was much milder (and tastier in my opinion) than anything I’ve ever had in a Japanese restaurant. 

Then we went into the exposition hall and met a very nice local couple who run a screen printing business.  Lots of opportunities announced themselves in that meeting.  We were very excited to meet them and they us.  I’ll let you know more about this once we get some details worked out.

Then it was time to go and spin, which we did.  I always enjoy spinning at the state fair.  More and more people know what we are doing, and we only had a few people say that we  were sewing or weaving or called our wheels looms.  They were amazed when we showed them all the handspun and hand knitted or hand woven items that were on display around us.

The funniest things do happen with the crowd, though.  For instance, one little boy of about 7 or 8 came up to us and asked what we were doing.  We told him we were making yarn.  His eyes grew wide and he slowly backed away from us with a deer in the headlights look on his face.  Then he turned and took off.  We laughed for a long time over his reaction.

By the time 6:00 came around, we were tired and ready to go home. 

Sunday, dawned bright and very hot once again, and I was at the Opry Barn by 9:00, got my wheel set up and continued spinning on Ukulele.  Once the activity started, I managed to get some photos, then a few more times during the competition.

There were four youth teams this year, all competing to make a scarf of a certain length and width in four hours.  The looms were warped ahead of time with handspun yarn that they could dye using natural dyes if they wanted.  All of the teams did choose to dye some (or all) of their warp yarns. 

During the four hours, they have to card, spin, ply and weave a scarf between 60 and 62 inches in length and between 8 and 10 inches in width.  Only one team came in under the length, which was too bad because they would have come in second place instead of third place because of the points docked for that.

Here were the teams.

First was the Ewe Crew and this is the sign they made for their team.  I especially like the sheep at the spinning wheel on the table.

The Ewe Crew busily doing their thing.

And the weaving of the Ewe Crew scarf.  This is the scarf that was too short and should have been second place.  Too bad, really, because they did a lovely job.

Then there was the Princesses of the Treadle.  Look at the crowns on the sheep at the bottom – so cute!!

And the busy princesses in their pretty crowns.  Who says royalty don’t know how to work.  I did not get a picture of them weaving because every one I took had the weaver’s arm in the way.  They chose a very striking weave pattern and would have fared much better if their spinning had been more consistent.  They came in fourth place.

The Pirates of the Treadle were an all boy team.  These fellows won last year’s competition and were back defending their title.

A bit of last minute strategy being worked out.

The Pirates working hard.

The pirates weaving on their scarf.  Again, it was the consistency of the spinning that counted against them, but they came in second place, which was really rather good.

And then there were the Traveling Gypsies.  They dyed their entire warp using chickory and something else that I don’t remember.

Don’t you just love their costumes?  The weaver in this group had only been weaving a couple of months and I believe theirs was the least experienced group.

And the weaving on the Gypsies scarf.  Isn’t their design lovely?  The only real trouble they had was the plying.

The judges, Kate and John, worked very hard and checked over each scarf in tremendous detail.  Nothing got by their notice.

And the Traveling Gypsies won!  Don’t they look so proud!  They ought to be considering what they did.

And here are the finished scarves in order – Pirates of the Treadle, Princesses of the Treadle, The Traveling Gypsies and the Ewe Crew.

Next year I will be one of the two judges bring my knowledge of weaving in to replace professional weaver, John, who has been judging this for three years now.  I sat in with them as they reviewed each scarf this year to see what they look for and how they award the points for the different areas being judged.  I’m look forward to it.  I just hope to heaven it’s cooler next year.

The first thing I did was dump off the wheel at the SWIFT booth and head to the Home and Family Arts Building.  There, I wanted to check out how well my friends fared and what all people had done this year.

Ahhh… There they are – and such lovely things they are, too.

I think everyone outdid themselves this year.  There were lots of ribbons, wonderful skeins of handspun and the handspun/hand knit or hand woven items, and more beautiful sweaters than I could have dreamed about.  Several of the ribbons were won by my friends and the grand champion above was won by someone who deserved it.  I was very pleased with it all.

When I got back to the Pioneer Our Land Pavilion to start my stint at spinning and educating the public, I noticed two signs.

I thought, “That’s wonderful and how it should be.  Indiana’s farm should be family owned.”

And then I saw this one.

And this sign made me sad.  The average age of a farmer in Indiana should be closer to 40.  Too many of the younger generations are not growing up to be farmers and that is a scary proposition.

And here we are!  This building is air conditioned and it was very comfortable. 

On my way to my car in the northeast 40, it started to rain.  I did not carry my wheel out since I’ll be using it again tomorrow, so I just plowed on through the huge drops that fell quicker and heavier until I got to my car.  Too bad I didn’t have soap with me.

From 2 PM until 6 PM today and tomorrow, I will be at the SWIFT booth in the Pioneer Our Land Pavilion with my spinning wheel.  I will be spinning some of the Corriedale roving called Ukulele that is in my store while there. 

Then on Sunday, I will be helping with the Sheep to Shawl from 10:00 until it is finished.  Besides being the resident correspondent and taking pictures, I will be helping to set up the equipment and assist in whatever way our wonderful chairman, Kate Larson, needs.  This will be my first time attending sheep to shawl and I am looking forward to it very much.

So, if you are coming to the Indiana State Fair, stop by the SWIFT booth in the Pioneer Our Land Pavilion this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon, or by the Sheep to Shawl in the Opry building in the pioneer village on the back side of the fairgrounds tomorrow and say hi.  I’d love to meet you!

Like most of the rest of the country, we have been sweltering under abnormally high temperatures with very high humidity.  I remember how nice last summer was here in central Indiana, when we had about 1 week above 90 degrees, and the humidity level was low enough to make being outside enjoyable.  Even Scott spent a lot of outdoors last year and he is extremely heat-sensitive.  Not this year, though.

This last week, it was a little cooler (in the upper 80’s as opposed to the 90’s), which made my morning walks bearable, and Saturday, we had a pretty powerful storm come through.  This storm front gave me a migraine, so I slept part of the day and stayed quiet the rest of it. 

Yesterday, Sandy came over and we dyed three T-shirts (one sold, and two as samples for the shop that ordered 20), two pairs of undies (Yup!  We figured why not!), and a canvas tote bag to see how well it would take the dyes.  Tonight, they will be washed out.  I can hardly wait to see how the sample shirts, undies and bag came out.  Keep your fingers crossed for us that they are what we are hoping them to be.  Especially the sample T-shirts as the shop was very particular about the colors and pattern to be used.

Once Sandy and I had the dyeing done for the day, she and I went through about 10 large bags (you know those XXL sized Ziplock bags) that I store my fiber in to keep the moths out.  In fact, all my roving and top are stored in individual ziplock bags within the big ziplock bag so there is double protection.  Within these particular bags, we came up with 39 samples of different fibers (sheep breeds, other animal fibers, cellulose and silk) that we separated out and put into their own small ziplock baggies.  And don’t think these 10 large bags constitute my total fiber collection – Nope, this is about a third of all of it, but the rest is blends and dyed fibers and, therefore, not appropriate for the display.

SWIFT has a new table-top display that we are getting ready for the Indiana State Fair, which starts this coming Friday.  Sandy will deliver it Friday when she goes there to work the SWIFT booth in the Pioneer Our Land Pavilion building.  On it will be a collage of what SWIFT encompasses, a list of state fiber and textile guilds, samples of different fibers, and samples of knitting, spinning, weaving, dyeing, felting, etc.  Also, I am putting together a brochure to pass out to those people interested in joining SWIFT.

If you are going to be at the Indiana State Fair, stop by the SWIFT booth and say hello.  I will be working there from 2 PM until 6 PM on Friday, August 13^th and Saturday, August 14^th.  Then I will be back on August 15^th to take pictures and do a write up about the Sheep to Shawl competitions that will be held in the Opry Barn in the Pioneer Village starting at 10 AM.  There are four youth teams participating this year, so come and cheer on these young fiber artists as they spin and ply the yarn, then weave the yarn into a shawls that will be judged and auctioned off that afternoon.

Mary could hardly wait to get her shirt and showed up before I could get its picture taken for my archives.  It is because of her that I thought you might want to see pictures of some of the shirts we have sold.

Colette loved her shirt so well, that she ordered ones just like it for her mother, daughters and granddaughter and they are getting a 4 generation portrait taken in their matching shirts.

So, if you have a family gathering, company picnic, Little League or soccer team and need matching shirts, please email me and ask.  This is something we are more than happy to do for you.

This shirt is for a young lady who saw the Pinwheel Fireworks that Sandy made a few weeks ago and wanted one similar to it.

I wish I had thought to take pictures of some of the others, but I will from now on. 

We also dyed several extra shirts to put in the store for you to purchase.  Check out the following!

X-Ray Dyed T-shirt
This shirt is a men's size small and is a Fruit of the Loom 6.1 ounce weight T-shirt, making it a heavier weight shirt that will last for many years. I call it "X-Ray" because of its bright pattern with black "ribs" and a red "heart".
Available Qty: 1
Price: $17.00

Caribbean Beach
This is a men's size large shirt in Fruit of the Loom 6.1 ounce weight making it a a nice shirt that will last for many years. It's bright yellow under bright turquoise and green coloring reminds me of sunny skies and a beach.
Available Qty: 1
Price: $17.00

Sailor's Delight
This is a men's size small shirt in Fruit of the Loom 6.1 ounce weight. I took the name from the old saying "Red sky at night, Sailor's delight" because it reminds me of the sun setting on a lovely day with the promise of the same tomorrow.
Available Qty: 1
Price: $17.00

Sprucey Girl - SOLD
This is a men's size medium shirt in Fruit of the Loom 6.1 ounce weight. The spruce and hot pink colors together look awesome.
Price: $17.00

Day's End Medium
This is a men's size medium shirt in Fruit of the Loom 6.1 ounce weight. This is called Day's End because it was dyed using the remaining dyes available at the end of a very long day of Dyeing. It has a mate in size large if you need matching shirts with another person.
Available Qty: 1
Price: $17.00

Day's End Large
This is a men's size large shirt in Fruit of the Loom 6.1 ounce weight. This is called Day's End because it was dyed using the remaining dyes available at the end of a very long day of Dyeing. It has a mate in size medium if you need matching shirts with another person.
Available Qty: 1
Price: $17.00

Pink Zebra
This is a men's size XX-Large in Fruit of the Loom 6.1 ounce weight. My first impression when I pulled this from the dryer is that it looked like it had Zebra stripes - in hot pink.
Available Qty: 1
Price: $19.00

Caribbean Waves
This is a men's size extra-large shirt in Fruit of the Loom 6.1 ounce weight. I don't know why, but whenever I see this bright blue and yellow together, I immediately think of the Caribbean - all sunshine and blue skies mirroring the beaches and water below.
Available Qty: 1
Price: $17.00

And, beginning today through the end of July, we are offering free shipping on all orders over $100, so take advantage of this offer while the getting is good!

If you are looking for a custom-made shirt in your choice of colors and design, please email me.  We will even email you a proof photo of the shirt before shipping it to you to make sure it meets your expectations.  Just remember, we might not be able to match some of the designs exactly, but we will do our best to come as close as we can.  Also, if you want either Woman of Peace, Man of Peace or the Latin I Spin, I Weave, I Dye (in solid colors) on your shirt, just let me know by email when you place your order and I will add this to your shirt for free.

Now, to show you a couple of other designs we did over the weekend.

Thanks for letting me brag and jabber on about these.  Now go and buy a few!

The brown 100% Corriedale in fiber form,…

On the bobbin, …

and as the finished skein.

Ivory mixed breed in fiber form,…

On the bobbin (isn’t it lovely!),…

and as a finished skein. 

The light gray/tan in fiber form,…

on the bobbin,…

and as a finished skein.  This one was Cindy’s favorite and I’ll be shipping out her 4 ounce ball in tomorrow’s mail.

The medium gray mix breed in fiber form,…

on the bobbin, …

and as the finished skein.

And, finally, the silver-gray, 100% Corriedale in fiber form,…

on the bobbin,…

and as a skein.

Cindy’s Samples Sheet-sm

And here are the evaluations that Cindy filled out for these samples.  Thank you, Cindy for doing these so quickly and for the great production shots.  I appreciate this more than you know.

Remember, these fibers are available in my store, so order some and spin it up for yourself.  So far, the results have been very good on these fibers.  We still have two more test spinners to turn in their results and I can hardly wait to see what they think and do with the fiber.

I had heard some rather disturbing stories about drunken routs and orgies with any male she can get, so I was a bit apprehensive about Lulu’s visit.  In fact, when she arrived, her first task was to email Roxie.

In this email she mentioned booze, dry and thirsty.  First, I had to disappoint her by telling her that Scott and I didn’t drink alcohol, but Sandy said she would bring Lulu something on Monday if Lulu could hold out until then.  Lulu grumbling said she thought she might make it but bringing chocolate, too, might help.

That was on Friday, and that evening, Scott and I took her to our favorite Mexican restaurant for supper.

Lulu loved the decor and kept demanding “Where’s the fiesta!”  Finally, we calmed her down and suggested she look at the menu.

Lulu really took a liking to Scott.  She heard me call him “Angus”, which is Scott’s middle name and he gets called that as much as he does Scott here.  She kept pestering him to see if he were a “chip off the old bull” until I finally had to have a woman-to-ewe talked with her and explain that Scott belonged to me so she might as well give it up.

By the time the food arrived, Lulu was pretty famished (it’s a loooong flight from California to Indiana), so she devoted her time to eating.  I think she liked it because she cleaned her plate, leaned back, belched, and remained pretty quiet the rest of the night.

Saturday, both Lulu and I were rather tired, she from jetlag and me from not having any time off for a month.  So she and I spent the day watching Lord Peter Wimsey episodes.  She fell asleep about halfway through the second one and I had to turn the sound up to drown out her snores.  I cannot imagine what she would be like if she had been allowed to have alcohol!

This morning, we told Lulu we were going to go out for breakfast, then take her to a museum.  She sulked all the way to the breakfast place.

When she discovered how nice all the people there were, she settled down to the menu and picked out what she wanted.

Lulu’s not a morning sheep, but once she had her cuppa, she declared she felt better and was ready to humor us about the museum.

Now the museum we had decided to take her to just isn’t any old museum – It’s the Indianapolis Children’s Museum!  This is the largest children’s museum in the world and other cities from all over the world come here to see how we did it so they can go back and set up their own children museums.  We are simply the best!!

The site of those life-sized dinosaurs trying to get into the building perked Lulu up and she dragged us through the skywalk to get there from the parking garage.

She wanted us to get a closer look at the dinosaurs before we went into the building.

And from inside.  At this point, we realized that Lulu LOVED dinosaurs, so that was the exhibit we went to first.  The next pictures are Lulu with the dinosaurs and all we heard from her was “Hey!  Get a shot of me here!” the rest of the time there.  Sorry if most of the shots gotten today had dinosaurs in them, but she insisted and who were we to deny her such a simple pleasure.

From the dinosaurs, we went into the model train exhibit and Lulu thought it would be fun to ride some of them.  Luckily, those that were running on their tracks were going too fast for her to climb on board, but she did look around her furtively on occasion, so I had to keep a close hold onto her in case she tried it anyway.

Lulu insisted on having her picture taken next to this red light and giggled the entire time.  Not sure what the joke was…

There’s a big Chihuly exhibit at the Children’s Museum and Lulu loved all the glass and the reflections from them.

This polar bear was in the original Children’s Museum here in Indianapolis and Scott remembers it from when he was a kid.  Lulu humored him and got her picture taken next to it.

And she humored me by standing so that I could get her picture with the huge water clock, which is one of my favorite things here.

Currently there is a Rock and Roll exhibit there and Lulu went nuts over the items in there.  Here she is with one of B.B. King’s “Lucille” on the right, Chuck Berry’s guitar on the left and Mick Jagger’s above her.  I think she would have licked Mick’s if there hadn’t been glass between her and it.  Now, that I really can’t understand! Ew!

The same with members of KISS.  Not my taste, but there you go.  She said it was about time she got close to someone famous. 

She smiled prettily when Scott asked her to pose with Spiderman.  It was hard to get her to look at the camera, she just kept murmuring something about the view from this angle.

And then Lulu saw the Indy race car and we got in line so she could drive it.  The noises she made while at the wheel made me realize that there was no way she was getting a hold of my car keys.

By the time we could finally drag her away from the race car, there was a long line of impatient children waiting their turn.  We drew some angry stares from the parents, but we just explained that Lulu was visiting from Australia and it was her first time seeing a race car in real life.  They then smiled and told Lulu they hoped she was enjoying her visit. 

Lulu and this young man really loved one another.  She kept going back for “One more hug!” 

She thought it was odd that Scott and I had a section of the museum named after us, but we explained that it wasn’t really named after us but a section devoted to real stories about real people.  I don’t think we convinced her, though.

She loved the Barbie exhibit and said they had the best clothes!

And she said that since she couldn’t have my Scott, she’d take this one.  This one had more wool anyway.

Outside the museum, Lulu wanted to have her picture taken with the replicas of these famous buildings.  She said it might be the closest she’ll ever get to the real things.  Taj Mahal.

An Aztec Ziggurat.

The Great Wall of China.

The Sphinx.

The Coliseum.

The Parthenon.

A replica page out of Anne Frank’s diary – she did this one for me.

And back around full circle to more dinosaurs. 

Lulu loved the Indianapolis Children’s Museum and admitted that it was like no other museum she had ever heard about.  It’s not everyday you get to go to a museum and get placed in the jaws of a dinosaur, get your picture take with KISS, get to scope out Barbie’s wardrobe and drive a race car.

She is now taking a nap.  She said she is still feeling the jet-lag and hopes Sandy remembers her promise of booze tomorrow. 

Now, I need a nap.  Lulu’s worse than a kid!