GGAF

Have no idea how I totally forgot to post about GGAF last year!  For those who don't know, GGAF is the Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival and it is absolutely AWESOMENESS!  2012 was no exception!  Met new fiber/yarn people, sold some yarns I miss, and managed to pack and load before the rain hit.  That in itself is a great hit in my book.

Have I every told you....  I love my yarns.  Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that my yarns are better than everyone else's yarn.  What I am saying is that a little bit of me goes into every yarn/fiber dyed and spun, so it is like saying goodbye to a little piece of myself every time I sell one.  That definitely is not a bad thing, especially when my fabulous customers show off the lovelies they made.  It makes my heart warm inside.

This is the long stretch on Johnson Beach and is also where we were married.

My booth behind the rainbow adorned 'Wool Girl'.

Finally had a chance to finish spinning some very lovely hand dyed teeswater locks!

Don't you just love this knit hat!  Traded with a friend, yarn for knitting me this lovely hat using my Glammy yarn.  I seriously think I got the better end of the deal.

Very appropriate colors set up in the booth as the festival was in Florida!

Loved the Teeswater spun locks so much that they had to be shown again:)

Met a few Floridian friend for Pho (pronounced foe).  LOVED the fish sauce too!!!

Another Florida friend gifted me eggs, delicious, home-raised EGGS!  The little yolks come from eggs called and I kid you not.... 'Farters', a very technical term for the very first egg a chicken ever lays...hehehe

Had to show off some spindle spun yarn at the Barnes & Noble Knit Night...  PS, it is every Monday night at the Barnes and Noble by the airport in Pensacola.  Fabulous group of knitters and I LOVE THEM DEARLY!!!

A sand dune shot, just because I could.

Did anyone ever tell you they grow cotton in Florida!?! Well they do and in Alabama too!  This field of cotton was near Floamaton.

And why is there a picture of a room here?  Well, as chance would have it, these were my lodgings for the return trip through Georgia.  It was a darling room and I was a terrible guest... I broke part of the coffee table... Sigh, when will I ever learn!

Taught classes in Georgia on Carding and Core Spinning underneath this gorgeous chandelier.  This is one of those lovely places that one wishes they never had to leave.  Oh, I was so depressed leaving Georgia to go home!

Wonder if this sweet little guy missed me.  Probably not for long...lol

Luckily the fall foliage in it's gloriously colorful autumn splendor will cheer even the glummest of outlooks.

Seriously, I drove through this on the interstate.  Gorgeous no?

Georgia Alpaca & Fiber Festival

Yes!  Those are cupcakes with adorable little knit cupcake decorations made of icing adorning their sweet pink tops!  When you see these in the entry way of a Festival you know for sure you have arrived at the place to be for a fun filled fiber weekend!

The Georgia Alpaca and Fiber Festival was a great first year festival.  They had contacted me several months prior about teaching a few classes over the course of the week end.  I am so glad I went  And as always, as things often go with me, I do have a little story to go along with!!

The day before leaving my throat was a wee bit sore and scratchy.  Needless to say, upon waking, I had a full fledged head cold.  You know, the snotty nosed, sniffly, watery eye, throat so scratchy it hurt to swallow.  Yep, one of those.  

A trip to the pharmacy later, I was stocked up on cough drops, pain killers & cold meds.  Honestly, it really was not as bad as it sounds.  The congestion was the worst and being completely wiped at the end of the day was no fun, but as far as sickness goes it was fairly smooth going:)  Unfortunately, it did not let up until after the very last workshop I gave!

And that brings us to the classes.  Had an absolute blast being the instructor for 3 classes:  Coming Unspun about knitting with fibers; the Science of Carding which is about carding smooth batts, art batts and making roving; the Fundamentals of Dyeing where we tackle not one, but 3 different methods of dying! 

Have to admit, I hated for the Festival to end.  The committee members were absolutely awesome and just so very wonderful.  Attendees were so very kind and a really joy to share knowledge with.  And there was a great selection of lovely fibers to choose from!  How could anyone want the week end to be over, even if they had a nasty little head cold!?!

Welcome meeting with some fabulous door prizes!

This batt was carded completely with teeswater locks!  Is that not cool or what?

Carding alpaca

Some merino about to head through the carder after the alpaca.

Look who made the most beautiful ball of roving ever! And I'm not kidding, her roving was the most perfectly made rope I have ever seen in one of my classes!

Wish I had remembered to take pics of my other classes, but I was a bit more concerned with keeping my germs to myself:)  Oh well, next time!

Location:Georgia Alpaca & Fiber Fest