NCFF 2011- The Last Bits

Yesterday was great, but exhausting. I made it home, and went to bed early, and left the rest of the recapping until today.

Like all Fiber Festivals, NCFF is run, organized, and kept on track and on time by a dedicated group of volunteers who spend an entire year getting this thing rolling, and then work through the whole weekend, with nary a moment to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labors.

 Marty took over workshop scheduling, a gargantuan task. There were more classes and more classrooms and more workshops than ever, and she did a great job!

 Dianne spent most of the weekend at the info desk, dishing out info to any and all who needed it. I do wish I'd gotten pics of Brandy, Malissa, Kelly, Marie, Rick, Jean, Lorna, and all the others who did so much so that the rest of us could have such a wonderful weekend. My thanks go to all of them!

 I sort of broke my own moratorium, buying more fiber than I have in the last two years, but I simply could not resist this BFL from JL Yarnworks (link under Stash Enhancers). Jackie dyed this roving, and it's the softest, most beautiful BFL I've ever spun. She also designed (and sells) these great little hand-made tags. Not only is there room for the knitter's name, and info about the item itself, the back lists all of the washing and care options (you circle the relevant choices). It's a brilliant idea. Aleta VanKampen made the little crocheted beaded bag- it's made to hold the spinning oil bottle on the wheel. She gave it to me as a good luck talisman. I love it!

 My Mitered Square Cuff class went extremely well, with Ellen, McKe, and Corinne. Corinne used to go to my knitting group in Aberdeen, but she moved away a couple of years ago. I loved reconnecting.

 Remember that I entered a couple of my projects in the competition? Though it didn't win a prize, the rankings on my hooked sheep chair cushion were fine.

And I entered Cassy's Wedding Shawl.  You might also remember that I said that it had no chance of winning, any ribbons, and that the join was decidedly not invisible, which the judges would surely notice?

They did.

NCFF Day 2

As always, I don't know how real teachers do it. I have wonderful students who learn quickly, absorb  information well, ask great questions, and give me exactly the kind of feedback that I need to make my workshops better. In addition to that, I have taught some of these classes 6 or 8 times already, so I know the drill inside and out. And yet, by the end of the second day of teaching, even a day where I only taught a 2 hour class and played the rest of the time, I am totally worn out. It's a good kind of worn out, mind you, but I'm worn out just the same.

That said, it was a marvelous day.

 This sign greeted me as I left my motel this morning. As Teish says- there's a book in there somewhere.

 I did not buy this raw Cormo fleece. I wanted to, but I did not.

 This Angora on the Hoof is truly not Satan's Minion- he just has very blue eyes.

 Ann crocheted the most adorable carrot scarf.

 I did not buy the raw fleece. I did, however, buy this camel down roving. It is even softer than it looks.

 Here I am, at my noon booksigning.

 This is the very first time I have ever spotted one of my designs in the wild. Someone made the Grazing Sheep felted bag from I Heart Felt and entered it in the competition. I am truly honored.

 I'm sorry for the poor quality of some of the photos- both my camera and my phone misbehaved today. But here are some exceptionally bright future pattern writers.

 And a few more. I know we'll be hearing amazing things from them soon.

And I bought some Coopworth roving, dyed in the Tuscan Sun colorway. Gorgeous, no? And I finished spinning and plying the skein on the left with my wheel today.

I stayed for the banquet and door prize give-aways but snuck out before the end of the fashion show. My day was fantastic, full of fun and laughter with old friends and new, but it was time to head back to my room and veg for awhile.

Tomorrow, I can play in the morning again, and then after lunch, I'll be teaching the Mitered Square Cuff class, which I think is plumb full. After that, I will gather my things (and whatever I buy tomorrow- and you all know that I am going to buy something), and I'll head home. I'm already sad that NCFF is almost over.

NCFF Friday

NCFF doesn't really open until tomorrow, but people are trickling in, and vendors are setting up, and there were classes and workshops this afternoon and evening.

 This is what the Coddington County Extension Center looked like when I arrived, just before noon. A few tables were set up, and the exceptionally hard-working board members had already put in a hard day's work.

 Before the vendors started setting up, before the kitchen was open, before the classes started, the spinning circle formed out of thin air. It's a powerful force.

 A few hours later, the marketplace started to take shape. Already, I have spotted many things that I want to own. I'm going to try to stick to my moratoriums, but there is some fiber calling my name. And I  think there is a lurking spindle that wants to go home with me. I fear that I am doomed.

 Today was the debut of the Nordic Christmas Stocking Workshop. It's a 6-hour class that covers yarn wrangling, chart reading, and afterthought heels. Susan and Carrie were my genius students- they caught on so quickly that they didn't need me to show them how to proceed. See that knitting there? They started the class at 1:00pm with only a toe.

This is what they had done by 8:00pm. How's that for flat-out amazing? My goal for the class was to work past the waste-yarn heel marker, and then to go back and pick up those stitches and start the heel. Speedy Susan and Carrie not only did that much, they finished their heels, and worked past them. I knit along with the class, and my stocking is the red and black one on the table. It was a wonderful class- thanks ladies for making the debut such a success!

Tomorrow afternoon, I have my Writing Patterns for Publication workshop, and I'll do a book signing sometime in the morning. I suspect I'll also succumb to the wool fumes and I'll buy some of that peach color wool that is calling my name. In any case, I'll take pics.

Busy busy busy

I'm deep into workshop prep for NCFF (link to the right)- I'm ready for two of my classes, and today I'll write up the handout for the new class (All Day Nordic Christmas Stocking- we'll work on yarn wrangling, stranded knitting, and, if all goes well, get past the afterthought heel on a Christmas Stocking). I also have to prepare my entries for the competition. I'm entering Cassy's Wedding Shawl, and my hooked seat cushion. The shawl has some mistakes in it (which the judges will certainly spot), but it's still pretty enough to show off, even though it won't win anything. The seat cushion is just plain goofy, but I made it with all handspun yarns, and I learned the technique at last year's Fiber Fair.

I searched around the Interwebz yesterday, and I found a freebie Counted Cross Stitch Design program that seems comparable to the one that I can no longer use with the new computer. It's called KG- Chart for Cross Stitch, and it looks like it'll do everything I need for charting Fair Isle, cable, and lace designs. And if I ever get in the mood to do Hardanger work again, I think it can chart those designs as well. Download it here.

I also found a freebie graphic manipulator that has a clone function, which is something that I use frequently (for paper dolls, and just for playing around). GIMP has a fairly intuitive interface, and it's not a vector program- it works with pixels, which is what I need (I already have Adobe Illustrator, but sometimes, I want a simpler program for photo manipulation). You can find info on GIMP here.

Another freebie photo manipulator is PAINT.net. It doesn't have the clone feature, but it does have several other handy tools. You can find out about it here, but be careful of the ads- they look like the program download but they're not (they're not harmful, I don't think, but they're probably not what you're looking for.) Here's the page with the download link- it's not the big ad at the top of the page, it's under the line that says: if you want to download Paint.net, use one of these download buttons.

All three of the above programs are free, but they will all take donations through PayPal.

I've had absolutely no luck finding a Windows 7 compatible version of MJWIN, the old Mahjongg program that I fell in love with back in the days of Windows 3.1 and floppy discs. I suspect I'm out of luck on that one.

Well, I'd best get back to work. I'll leave you with what I saw outside my back door this morning.

That 360 degree horizon comes in handy sometimes...

Next on the calendar: North Country Fiber Fair

I'll be teaching 3 workshops at the North Country Fiber Fair in Watertown, SD, which runs from Friday September 16- Sunday September 18.

The class schedule is here, and registration is now open. You can download the 2011 Brochure.

Friday is just for workshops. I'll be teaching a class on knitting a Nordic Christmas Stocking From 1pm-8pm on Friday (with time off for supper... and good behavior). Saturday afternoon, I'll be teaching Writing Patterns for Publication. On Sunday afternoon, I'll be teaching a workshop on Knitting Mitered Square Cuffs.

There are lots of wonderful classes this year, and since I have both Saturday and Sunday mornings free, I may take a couple. Or I might just wander among the vendors, or sit in the spinning circle and catch up with old (and new) friends. Whatever I do, I know I'll have a marvelous time. NCFF is my local fiber festival and it's one of my favorite weekends of the year.

Hope to see you there!