Monday, November 23, 2009

Second Storie

It's time once again for my favorite craft show of all time! Every Thanksgiving weekend is made better by the fact that Second Storie Indie Market exists. This show is phenomenal, Second Storie knows how to put on a good show and invites absolutely amazing people with great work. They entertain us with live music, feed us, and even give us time to mingle and shop amongst ourselves (yay for getting holiday shopping done without ever stepping foot in a big-box store!).

This year I will be joined by Chey (sister of the manwife) and my Mom (who will be celebrating her birthday on Sunday while she's at the show!). Stop in and say hi!

Saturday, November 28th, 11 am - 6 pm
Sunday, November 29th, 11 am - 4 pm

And, have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 16, 2009

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

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Sick Bunny

Oxtoby decided to get sick late last week. I'd like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable when it comes to rabbit ailments, considering what I went through with George, but I'd never experienced rabbit intestinal issues firsthand. I called my vet's office, where they offered no help at all (my regular rabbit vet was unavailable), so I got out my syringes (the kind without needles) and started orally hydrating him. That seemed to work out just fine, but I still made an appointment with the vet to double check for other problems, and they sent me home with some antibiotics. The next morning I woke up to find an almost-dead Oxtoby...unresponsive, labored breathing, and I couldn't get him to take water or even lift his head. Extreme badness.
So...we took a lovely rambulance ride to the animal hospital where Oxtoby was admitted. Sub-q fluids, x-rays, and fecal cultures ensued. His intestinal bacteria had spiked. Luckily, my vet is awesome and knows her stuff when it comes to rabbits. When I came back the next day Oxtoby was back to being himself, trying to escape and eat the potted plants. We're sticking with penicillin injections for a week, but by the amount of trouble he's been getting into, I think he'll be just fine.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

More things to binky about.

The Fuzzy Bunny will be at the BUST Craftacular in NYC on December 6! I'm so excited...NYC around the holidays, the Metropolitan Pavilion full of awesome handmade things and music. I hope to do a little holiday shopping of my own, as well as introduce Fuzzy Bunny vegan yarn to NYC.
Also, there's a great giveaway on Ravelry for one of the Spindies paintboxes (pictured above). 5 ounces of fiber from an assortment of indie fiber artists! If you aren't the lucky winner, you can purchase a paintbox in the Spindies Store-they are a great deal for the variety and amount of fiber that you receive, and a different color theme is offered each month.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Holiday Fiber Festival

How could I pass up participating in another fiber event? The yarn store in White River Junction, VT (White River Yarns) is hosting the Holiday Fiber Festival this weekend. I will be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with handspun yarn, spinning fiber, and all the bath and body goodness you could ever want. There will be other vendors with fibery goodness, yarn tastings, door prizes, drop-in spinning and knitting, and really interesting workshops. Come visit, do a little holiday shopping (time to get knitting those holiday presents!), and learn a new technique. It promises to be a fun weekend!

Friday, November 13: 5:00PM-9:00PM
Saturday, November 14: 9:00AM-9:00PM
Sunday, November 15: 9:00AM-5:00PM
White River Yarns/Junction Marketplace
1011 North Main Street
White River Junction, VT 05001

Binky Balls

My bunnies are silly little fluffmonsters, and they love to binky. Binkying is a true art form that involves jumping, and then twisting and jerking while in the air. It appears to be a fun thing to do, and frequently involves mid-air crashes into walls and furniture. The binky is essentially a physical manifestation of pure bunny joy.
This becomes relevant when I think about my reaction to fiber. I, too, feel like binkying when I am exposed to great fiber, although I rarely do this in front of others as a grown human looks ridiculous spasming mid-air (especially if I crash into things...). Annnnnyway, my newest favorite thing to create are balls of hand-pulled roving. I drum card combinations of my own hand-dyed fibers then pull them, and have aptly titled them "binky balls". They are super easy to spin and make for spectacularly colored yarns. You can find them in my shop.