Mostly wordless bits and pieces and souvenirs

 World's Largest Truck Stop

 I'm a sucker for penny stretcher machines.

 Kitras Art Glass

 April

 The maker of the polymer clay spindle- though I don't think there are any spindles on the website.

Road spinning.

Michigan Fiber Festival 2012- Day 3

Today was great- cool and cloudy and comfortable, and no evacuation worries. My students were geniuses and they did a wonderful job of designing their own Fair Isle Hats.

 Am I right, or am I right?

 See?

Told you so!

 Carolyn stopped by to show me her finished Christmas Stocking from yesterday's class.

 Here's my only festival purchase- a handmade polymer clay spindle and a little naturally dyed wool. I love love love the colors and design.

The Elephant Ear booth opened finally today. Fried bread and powdered sugar... oh my...

 The vendors were up and running. They were blurry but amazing...

and more.

 On the way home from the venue, we passed by a hops farm

and this wonderful old stone building,

on our way to Waldorf's in Hastings for an amazingly wonderful mushroom pizza and microbrew.

All in all, it's been a wonderful week. We hit the road early tomorrow- I'll check in tomorrow night if I can.

Michigan Fiber Festival Day 2

I'm at the stage in every festival where the classes are going very well, but I'm just too tired at the end of the day to write a blog post. Today is the final day of my classes (though the Michigan Fiber Festival only officially opens tomorrow), and we're going out to supper tonight (it's The Hub's 60th Birthday), and we're leaving tomorrow morning, so the wrap-up posts may not happen until I get home.

In the meantime, yesterday was interesting. The Weather Folk had warned of thunderstorms and gusty winds all week. The morning dawned cloudy and cool.

My Nordic Christmas Stocking class had started and was going well (as always, I had Genius Students)

Oops, there's my empty McCafe cup. This is my second year of teaching at the MFF, so not only am I meeting up with friends from last year, but some of my students (Bonnie and Carolyn) were repeats, which is always wonderful. And Bonnie, on the right, vends not only at MFF but also SAFF, so we run into each other a couple of times a year.

The skies got progressively darker.

And it started to rain. And then it started to rumble. And then the flashing began. Do please remember that my classroom was in a barn, which is not exactly the safest place to be in a thunderstorm. And it was a doozy- within about a half hour, there was a steady flash and boom. Over the PA system, we were informed of the evacuation procedure, and the safest place to huddle, in the event that a tornado formed (the bathrooms, which were not attached to the barns).

In all of the years that I've been teaching classes, this is the first time we've had to consider running for our lives. It made for an interesting hour or so, especially given that I Don't. Do. Lightning. However, I pulled up my Big Girl Panties and managed to teach the class without perching underneath the table and howling like a frightened puppy.

After an hour of storm, and maybe another hour of steady rain, the clouds broke. Afterward, it was cool and damp.

 I have no idea what this flower is, but it was beautiful after the rain.

And knitting happened even during the storm. By the end of the day, Carolyn was ready to take out the waste yarn for her afterthought heel.

She wasn't the only one.

I survived to tell the tale, though I admit to having a glass of wine when I got back to Home Base.

I finished my class stocking as well, though I forgot to take a pic. Today's class is a design class- mentally intensive but not a lot of knitting (students may begin knitting their original design if they have time, but the majority of our day will be taken up with drawing and charting).

It's been wonderful so far, and today the predicted high is 72 degrees. I'm taking a sweatshirt.

Oh- we've been tasting local beers. This one is very good- a fruit beer...

and I finished Road Socks #2- these are staying with Jayne in Michigan.

If I don't blog tonight, I'll try to on the road tomorrow. Catch all y'all on the flip.

Michigan Fiber Festival 2012 Day 1

We got up this morning to a beautiful foggy sunrise.

By 7am, we were on our way to Allegan from Hastings- it's about an hour drive (give or take, depending on the traffic, and how long it takes McDonald's to make an iced caramel latte).

It was lovely to be greeted once again by the Big Metal Chicken at the gate.

My friend Judy drove up to have lunch with me. We've known each other online for years, and known of each other for over a decade but this was our first in-person meeting. We both brought our little UPS trucks to meet each other too- our Photo Challenge group also has a sort of Flat Stanley project going with these little trucks, taking pictures of them on our various travels. This is the first time any of the trucks have met in person either. They were very happy to make each other's acquaintance.

 The fiber festival has a new design logo for tee shirts and sweatshirts this year- lots of cute bunnies. I bought a new hoodie. It may actually be cool enough on Friday to wear it.

 The registration desk was hopping by 8am.

My classroom is in this building- it'll be my home  for the next 2 days.

Have you noticed that there are no pics of students? There would have been, especially given that I taught two classes today that were chock full of brilliant students. But did I remember to take any pics? Nope. So you'll have  to imagine tables full of geniuses who instantly understood every single thing I tried to teach.

I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Today was great fun- it was warm, especially in the center of my barn, but not unbearably so. Tomorrow it may storm, which will be interesting. By Friday, the high is only going to be 72, which means it could be darn cold at 9am when classes start.

I'll take my camera, and I hope to remember to use it tomorrow.

Oh yeah, this is what I had for supper tonight...

That is a Ruben sandwich... made with homemade sauerkraut. Eat your heart out.

Michigan Trip 2012 Day 3 (mostly yesterday)

Tomorrow starts the reason for this trip, but today is another relaxing day. Just like yesterday.

 The view is excellent...

 in all directions...

 The garden spiders are big...

Even the weeds are pretty.

 I think this is a sort of Queen Anne's lace.

 I have no idea what this is but it's such a pretty color.

 In the evening, it was Wine and Sock time... This is a Michigan wine.

We opened the Cherry Riesling last night- it's good, a little tart but with a nice Riesling tang.
Tonight we're going to try the Late Harvest Riesling- it should be delicious.

Who knew that Michigan had longhorn cattle?

 'em are some damn big horns...

It was nice of them to pose for us.

Tomorrow the Michigan Fiber Festival classes open- I'm excited to get to work. There will be pictures. Lots of pictures.

Michigan Trip Day 2 (yesterday)

636 miles yesterday... We got to Hastings fairly early, but it was family reunion time, and things were just too busy (and I was too tired) to get to the computer. So here's what happened yesterday.

I started this sock when we left Madison, WI.

Yarn barf.

By the time we crossed into Illinios, I had this much done (note the crack in my windshield)

I do love self patterning  yarns- it doesn't matter how many I knit, it's always fascinating to watch the pattern develop.

Traffic was pretty manageable the whole way. We went through Gary, IN on I-80 in order to bypass Chicago.

I can't remember whether we went over this bridge coming into Illinois or Indiana, but it was a great rusty bridge.

Shoot- I was hoping to visit Impure Michigan.

I had just passed the heel when we drove down Jayne's driveway. Not too bad for a day of car knitting.

We don't have anything specific planned  today- lots of talk, food, and laughter. I'm sure I'll take pics.