Catching Up- Michigan Fiber Festival Friday

On Friday, I forgot to take pictures during my two classes. In the morning, I taught the Little Tips and Knitting Tricks class. The Michigan Folks asked if I could teach this as a 3 hour class (I usually do it in 2), and that actually worked out really well. The class count was nearly at the max, and the extra time gave everyone plenty of opportunity to practice the new techniques, and to ask questions.



Blog Reader Georgienne (it's always wonderful to put faces to names!) showed all of us an ingenious way to hold our socks on the needles for travel, using just a rubber band and a couple of stitch markers. I'm co-opting this trick for my next class. Thanks Georgienne!

Carolyn dropped by to show me her finished Fair Isle hat. She designed this original hat in our Wednesday class. I think it turned out beautifully, and I hope the other designers will send me pictures of their finished works of art.

The Elephant Ear booth was open by lunch time on Friday. I asked the nice young man for a smaller portion, since I can't eat a full-size EE and I hate to throw such sugary goodness away. This is what he made me. I can't begin to imagine what a Michigan Regular EE weighs.

The vendors had set up between Wednesday and Friday. Such intoxicating wool fumes!

So many pretty things! This is just a fraction of the vendor booths- there were people set up in several barns, outside under little canopies, and many times the number shown in my photos in the main exhibition hall.

I bought this gorgeous little Greensleeves spindle. It's a laceweight Mjolinor- the hollowed out center-weight whorl is made from Bubinga and Bloodwood, and the shaft is mahogany. It spins like a top. I bought this little bag of alpaca roving (each ball is .5 ozs), and I'm going to spin it all up with this spindle.

Gorgeous, isn't it?

I also bought a Fiber Festival hoodie, and a tee shirt. I plan to Represent all winter long.

Here's my finished hat from the Fair Isle Design class. I love how it turned out.

In the afternoon, I had a lovely captive audience for my Writing Patterns for Publication class. We had an excellent discussion, with lots of thoughtful questions from the students. I do love teaching that class.

I lucked out on the weather- it was warm on Wednesday (maybe 84) but we had a nice breeze through the barn where the my classroom was. On Friday, it was a bit cooler. Given that it's August, the temps could have easily been triple digit.

After my last class on Friday, I wandered the grounds a bit, and then went back to Hastings to celebrate my niece Danyelle's 30th birthday. The festival didn't really kick into high gear until Saturday and Sunday, but I had to get back to SoDak, so I had to leave. I had a really wonderful time on our Michigan trip, and I hope to be invited back next year!