I get to hang out with some other siblings every now and then. It's something that I've been trying to do to be a better/ more social person and to keep up a connection to people who share partial DNA. It helps that they are awesome people. Hyperactive, but awesome.
(For instance, first time... I was WAY more nervous about the encounter. They were completely cool and eager to see me. Thank goodness that my crazy self-consciousness comes from the Chinese side of my family and missed them by two oceans and a continent. That would have been a really awkward Chik-Fil-A dinner if they were all as socially handicapped as me.)
Anyway, last month we wanted to meet up. My area was too far, they had activities and they were signed up to go to a harvest festival in Charlottesville.
"Charlottesville?" Nothing gets my heart palpitating more than the opportunity to go to Charlottesville's outdoor mall and peer awkwardly through 'The Needle Lady' windows. "Alpha and I love it there. What is this harvest festival you speak of?"
Monticello's Annual Heritage Harvest Festival. (Try saying it 10 times fast... I dare ya.)
So we go, meet up, wander away from each other, meet up again, wander... listen to bluegrass music and wonder where the heck the 'South Terrace' is because it isn't listed on the map. We then realize 'South Terrace' meant 'Back Porch', and felt like the stupid tourist-y people we were. Anyway, you don't care about that! You care about the Farm 5, my top 5 picks of that festival...
Admittedly, it was all pretty cool. If I had walked in with more cash, I would have still walked out with zero monies.
Honorable Mention: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
They were the stars of the event. No question about it. Harvest festival goes hand and hand with seeds and gardening. Since my most successful garden was located in a windowsill, I don't think I'm qualified to talk too much on this subject. From their tasting tent I learned that I don't actually like tomatoes. I want to like them and that is a VERY different thing. Now onto the COOL stuff.
5. Monticello Festival Chocolate
Monticello only sells this chocolate at hosted festivals. They demonstrate how cacao is processed and how the Founding Fathers and the Continental Army drank hot chocolate. Frothy little samples were dark, rich, bitter and amazing, definitely not your everyday Swiss Miss. Hit up a festival sometime and pick it up. Maybe you'll see me. Walk away slowly if you do...
4. Caromont Cheese
Alpha and I have a problem. We are definitely food people. This causes problems when there are a million food vendors and only a tiny stomach to contain all the deliciousness. The Bloomsbury was such a good sample of cheese that it walked away with us, despite the warm walk to the parking lot and long ride home.
3. LFN Textiles
My family has a dish towel... fetish. I think that's the word best used to describe the way we handle dish towels. Dishes much be very clean, pre-dried with something we don't love as much and possibly, just maybe, we need to wear archival gloves to handle said dish towel. Let's just say walking into this booth was not the most brilliant idea if we want to keep money. Momar took the hit for me and walked out with a set of dish towels that had Jeffersonian sayings on them.
2. Java Bags
My families feelings about dish towels are pretty much my feelings about bags. I saw these beautiful bags (made from painted coffee sack bags) and nearly cried when my cash came up short. news for Alpha (and my wallet) she accepts custom orders.
1. Oakencroft Farm Grape Juice
Given my liberal use of the words "amazing, awesome, etc" I don't think there are words to describe my excitement over this stuff. It's a vineyard making a high class grape juice. As a teetotaler, I've always felt like the one drinking koolaid in a sippy cup at the kid's table when it came to fancy parties. (Or eating paste in the corner.) Now I feel I can enter the conversation in a limited way! YAY! This was far and away my favorite, but that might come from the natural feelings of inferiority bred by koolaid.
Showing posts with label fiber five. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiber five. Show all posts
Sunday, September 8
Wednesday, May 15
Fiber 5 of Maryland Sheep and Wool 2013
Maryland Sheep and Wool festival... if you don't go in with a plan you can lose a lot of money. A lot. My plan is to write what I want to buy and then assiduously ask for cards of all the places I would like to buy from. If I can get to a pen, I write what specific thing I loved from the booth so I can remember it amidst the freak-ton lot of amazing that is all over the festival.
Today I will present the FIBER FIVE! My top picks of holy-goodness wooly happiness.
5) The Spanish Peacock
Coming in at #5, the Spanish Peacock. I remember their beautiful wooden spindles secondhand to their books on Naalbinding. If they had some of the awesome (or disgusting, I've heard it both ways) antler needles... I would have remembered them a little better. As it is, I'll save money next year to buy a book from them.
The website, while a little dated in design, has nice pictures and is very easy to navigate. Sadly, they do not do custom orders anymore (My dream of antler needles wanes in this light. Curses!)
4) Fiber Optic Yarns
Everyone probably knows about this. If you don't, well... you will soon enough. These yarn and fiber sellers sell absolutely beautiful gradient dyed rovings. Their merino/silk gradients are in bright vibrant colors that are to die for. I have no idea what I would use the yarn for, but I would love to get a box of their rovings and go at it forever. I would never recover. They have a new colorway, Chocolate to Aqua.Hmmmm.....
3) Kate's Cauldron
Okay, technically, this should have been the fiber find of November when I went to the Alpaca festival. Oh well. Better late than never. Kate's Cauldron has some wonderful handmade spindles with the twist top or a t-notch. Also, they are very affordable. I am a HUGE fan of her short shaft t-notch spindles. I already had one and had to buy another. My current count is 3. That count didn't include the one I stole back from my sister since she doesn't appreciate it enough. I will probably buy a new one each show I go to from now on because these spindles (and the lady who makes them) ROCK!
2) Golding
Have you ever seen something that just makes you weep with jealousy? (I have several times, usually at the festival.) These spindles made me die a little inside. I guarantee one of these has gone on my Christmas list. (It's not too early!) Beautiful craftsmanship, fun designs, ingenious groove in the shaft for easier grip.... the only what I could be any happier is if one of them came with a t-notch design. Sadly, not the case. Either way... I strayed to that booth several times, dragged my friends, family and everyone else into the booth and just basked in the glory of it all.
1) Solitude Wool
Now, the #1 fiber find had to grow on me. I admit I didn't run into the booth oohing and awing over the goods like I did with other booths. (Fiber Optics and Golding, I'ma looking at YOU!) In fact, I skipped over the booth the first time and only looked into it as my friend and I were looking for fiber for her. They had bags of wool from particular species that didn't look matted or nasty. She was drawn to the brown Targhee wool. I was drawn in by the fact that they HAD Targhee. The YARN was separated by breed, not just the roving. On top of this all, the wool is harvested from local sheep... (I kind of want to be these people.)
The wool is beautifully prepared, by the way. Very good for a beginner or me... or more advanced.
Anyway.... These were my fiber finds this year. I only bought one spindle (from Kate's Cauldron), but I asked for cards and I will dream away until my budget recovers from the awful things I did to it.
Today I will present the FIBER FIVE! My top picks of holy-goodness wooly happiness.
5) The Spanish Peacock
Coming in at #5, the Spanish Peacock. I remember their beautiful wooden spindles secondhand to their books on Naalbinding. If they had some of the awesome (or disgusting, I've heard it both ways) antler needles... I would have remembered them a little better. As it is, I'll save money next year to buy a book from them.
The website, while a little dated in design, has nice pictures and is very easy to navigate. Sadly, they do not do custom orders anymore (My dream of antler needles wanes in this light. Curses!)
4) Fiber Optic Yarns
Everyone probably knows about this. If you don't, well... you will soon enough. These yarn and fiber sellers sell absolutely beautiful gradient dyed rovings. Their merino/silk gradients are in bright vibrant colors that are to die for. I have no idea what I would use the yarn for, but I would love to get a box of their rovings and go at it forever. I would never recover. They have a new colorway, Chocolate to Aqua.Hmmmm.....
3) Kate's Cauldron
Okay, technically, this should have been the fiber find of November when I went to the Alpaca festival. Oh well. Better late than never. Kate's Cauldron has some wonderful handmade spindles with the twist top or a t-notch. Also, they are very affordable. I am a HUGE fan of her short shaft t-notch spindles. I already had one and had to buy another. My current count is 3. That count didn't include the one I stole back from my sister since she doesn't appreciate it enough. I will probably buy a new one each show I go to from now on because these spindles (and the lady who makes them) ROCK!
2) Golding
Have you ever seen something that just makes you weep with jealousy? (I have several times, usually at the festival.) These spindles made me die a little inside. I guarantee one of these has gone on my Christmas list. (It's not too early!) Beautiful craftsmanship, fun designs, ingenious groove in the shaft for easier grip.... the only what I could be any happier is if one of them came with a t-notch design. Sadly, not the case. Either way... I strayed to that booth several times, dragged my friends, family and everyone else into the booth and just basked in the glory of it all.
1) Solitude Wool
Now, the #1 fiber find had to grow on me. I admit I didn't run into the booth oohing and awing over the goods like I did with other booths. (Fiber Optics and Golding, I'ma looking at YOU!) In fact, I skipped over the booth the first time and only looked into it as my friend and I were looking for fiber for her. They had bags of wool from particular species that didn't look matted or nasty. She was drawn to the brown Targhee wool. I was drawn in by the fact that they HAD Targhee. The YARN was separated by breed, not just the roving. On top of this all, the wool is harvested from local sheep... (I kind of want to be these people.)
The wool is beautifully prepared, by the way. Very good for a beginner or me... or more advanced.
Anyway.... These were my fiber finds this year. I only bought one spindle (from Kate's Cauldron), but I asked for cards and I will dream away until my budget recovers from the awful things I did to it.
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