Dyeing is such fun!

We had a great time dyeing last night, and hope to do this again while the weather is decent for hanging out in the warehouse, maybe on a Saturday.

We did a 2-step process on Karen's first batch. She wants to knit a shawl with these 3 skeins. We put some dye in the dye pot and heated it up, tossed in the skeins for a semi-solid look. Then we laid them out on plastic and put "dots" of a darker version of the same color (more intense amount of dye, plus a dab of dark blue) on the yarn. These were rolled up in their plastic robes and steamed to set the 2nd dye job.


Here are some rolls of painted yarns in the steamer:


We had some very lovely helpers, who dyed their skeins in coordinating colors for the outfits they were wearing:

And here are some pics of some skeins that have been steamed and rinsed. Yum, color!


Hope you can join us for the next dye party!


Diane

We're Dyeing on Monday

Come join us! We're going to throw some dye around on yarn, and who knows, maybe even roving or fleece.

Our own Karen is leaving us, moving to points east, and we thought she couldn't possibly leave without dyeing first, so that's what we'll do. We'll dye on Monday evening from 5 till whenever. Be here, or be, uh, un-dyed.

Diane

A Nebraska Fiber Fest

I just saw this on Ravelry, and thought I'd pass it along for all the mid-westerners who aren't as lucky as we to have such events as Black Sheep Gathering and Oregon Flock & Fiber every year (not to mention SOCK SUMMIT and SOAR this year!)

1st Annual Scotts Bluff Valley Fiber Arts Fair!

Saturday, October 17, 2009
10am-4pm
@The Farm and Ranch Museum
2930 M Street
Gering, NE 69341

Brown Sheep Co. and Barn Anew Bed and Breakfast will be co-hosting the event.

Vendors and demonstrators will be coming from all over Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and South Dakota to offer a variety of fiber art related products, projects, and techniques to share with participants.

Join us for this interactive fiber arts event! There will be activities like educational demonstrations, hands-on projects for children and adults, the sale of local/regional artists work and fiber art supplies, information and instructional resources, and a chance to pet and interact with some of the animals that provide the fiber we love to work with!

Our goals are to:
•Foster connection and education between the generations
•Explore the history and contemporary importance of fiber and textiles
•Inspire others to discover their talents for creating with fiber
•Share new techniques as well as offer an opportunity to relax and work on your projects with us. (Bring your latest fiber project to share)

Exhibits and on-going demonstrations for all ages!

~Knitting
~Spinning
~Crocheting
~Weaving
~Needlepoint
~Wet Felting
~Needle Felting

And much more!

We will also have door prizes, a silent auction and great food catered by The Feed Barn in Mitchell, NE.

This is the first fair of its kind to be held in Nebraska and we are so excited for you to be a part of it! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post on this thread or pm me and I will get back to you as quickly as possible.

If you are interested in being a vendor, the deadline for applications is August 15th, 2009. Due to limited space this will be a juried show and applicants will be notified by August 19th, 2009.

So gather your friends and family and plan to come and spend the day with us! With a good turnout we are hoping to make this an annual event here in the Panhandle! Hope to see you there!

Donna
Store Manager
Brown Sheep Co.
100662 CR 16
Mitchell, NE 69357

Sock Summit Report

What an amazing and wonderful weekend! The amount of work that goes into something that runs this smoothly has got to boggle the mind. People everywhere were in happy overload. Happy to see old friends, happy to make new friends, happy to see incredible yarns, incredible knits, happy to learn more things than we all thought possible, happy to see so many of our own personal knit idols, all in one place!

I took a fabulous class called "Cast On Cornucopia" with JC Briar, who does an excellent job of pushing an amazing amount of information into an all-too-short 3 hours. We got to practice a slew of different techniques, and learn where they might best be employed. JC has a great method for showing a whole room how to do stitches - she has an enormous length of knitted I-cord in 2 colors to use as her "yarn", and huge needles, so everyone can see it - and performs the stitches up over her head, standing with her back to the room, so that we get to see it as we would see it, not trying to translate it backwards. Excellent! I highly recommend taking classes from her, she's outstanding.

Karen and Wanda got to participate in the attempt to set a world record - most knitters knitting at one time. Here's Wanda:And here's a crowd shot (somebody said there were 935 people??)

And Karen got to meet Stephanie, AKA the Yarn Harlot, which made her day!


It was a really great event, we all had more fun than can be recounted, and will have many wonderful memories! Here's hoping we all get to do it again soon!

Diane

See you at the Summit!

We moved into our booth (317) yesterday, and the whole town has this Happy Place vibe going, this is going to be great! Karen and I had dinner at the Burgerville ("where you go when you know!"), and saw lots of people wearing their Sock Summit badges. Sometimes you'd see somebody take their badge off, and then look around and see everybody else wearing it, and they'd put it back on. We all want to be part of the cool gang! Everybody is walking around with these goofy grins on their faces, everybody is an instant friend, admiring each other's knits. Disneyland for knitters.

I can't thank the organizers enough for all the incredible work they've put into this, everything is working well without a hitch from what I've seen.

This is going to be great!!

Fiber Bucket List

I ran across a link for a person at Storey Publishing that is working on a new book - a knitter’s “life list” of projects to complete, techniques and yarns to try, places to visit, and more. She needs as much input as possible from passionate knitters. If you are interested in helping her out, click here to give her your input. Your name will be entered in a contest to win three Storey Books of your choice.

This, coupled with the Navajo weaving class we had last week got me thinking a bit about "bucket lists" (have you seen the movie? - the list of things you want to accomplish before you "kick the bucket") for fiber. One of the ladies in the class said that learning to weave a Navajo style rug was on her life list. Do you have bucket lists? Fiber related bucket lists? Things you want to add to your repertoire of skills? Knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving? I've always wanted to make a fair isle sweater. One of those amazing catches-your-breathe-with-their-beauty ones. Course, I'm intimidated by the thought of it, so it stays in the background of "someday". When I first started making sweaters I really liked the Lopi style sweaters and thought that "someday" when I really got good, I would try one of those. I finally did it, and you know what? It was EASY. When I taught a friend to knit, I had her make one of those as her first sweater because they're so easy. I don't know if a fair isle will fall into that head-smacking, why-didn't-I-try-this-sooner category or not, but probably it will. I should pick a pattern and go for it.

What's on your fiber bucket list? What are you putting off for "someday"?