The Mail Buggy and White River Junction

This morning involved a trip to the post office, where many shiny yellow slips awaited me. The post office man had to wheel my packages out in what looked like a giant baby carriage. My stellar cart pushing skills (remnants of pushing hospital beds around back in college) kept me from crashing into any pedestrians or giant glass doors between the post office counter and my car. There were many small packages, filled with fiber-related items that will be sent out with my yarn clubs, but there were big boxes, too. And inside the big boxes were amazing things: many, many pounds of wool, soysilk, and cashmere. This is the first time I have worked with cashmere, and it is amazingly soft and cloud-like. I can't wait to spin it! A Smittens cd arrived as well, so now I have happy, sugar-coated pop to spin to. Woo!

slowly expanding wool in the box, soysilk in the lower left, cashmere in the lower right

This past weekend was the Holiday Fiber Festival, hosted by White River Yarns. Lois (of White River Yarns) did a fantastic job of planning and promoting the event. I, as a vendor, was spoiled with an abundance of customers who knew their stuff when it came to fiber, friendly fellow vendors (Country Woolens, DyakCraft, Ellen's Half Pint Farm, Grandview Farm, Snowshow Farm Alpacas, and the Wee Piper), and a whole lot of homemade baked goods and tea. I sat next to Merit Scotford, who taught me (and a ton of other people) how to make Dorset buttons. Back in the day people used to use cross sections of Dorset sheep horns and scrap thread/yarn to make buttons, hence the name. It turns out that these are mildly addictive to make-and a great portable project. Perhaps they would also be a good way to use up small scraps of fancy handspun, too.

a few of Merit's buttons
I hope this event happens again next year. It was like a mini fiber festival that focused on local fiber producers and artists. Putting everyone in the same room with a project table in the center allowed us to all feel like we were part of whatever was going on. We knitted/spun/rug hooked together, and took part in the yarn tastings and button-making, and I felt like I was both an attendee and a vendor, which was great. Business was good, too. I made some new contacts, found some new customers, and had a great time with people who love fiber in all its forms.

a hotbed of fiber activity