Tour de Fleece Start

Started the Tour de Fleece this year with a bang literally!  Bill frowns on bringing a spinning wheel to the lake when we go so this year, I opted for a couple of spindles.

After giving the boat a quick clean and hitting the dock kitchen for a greasy burger & fries, it was time to hit the water to drift in wait for the big 4th of July fire works show put on at our end of the lake.  This year it was between Kennedy & Sunset Marinas.  

This is the first year that my allergies have really gone hay wire.  I think that since I have quit smoking over a year ago my nose is really affected by all the things that never bothered it before.  I'm not complaining though as I very much so enjoy being able to breath after going for a short walk;)

Our boat.  Click to 'biggify'.  The arrow points straight at us.

Spindling before the big show.

The pre-show.

The big show about to start.

After the show, get out of the way or prepared to be run over.  This is a wall of boats heading our way to go back down the lake to their perspective docks.

Singles

Dropped the fiber into the lake.  No way am I going in after it.

You too can be protected from the big storm...lol  Amazing what you see on the way to the lake!

The Score

Finally had a chance to make it down to the local auction house the other day. I have to say I have never seen so much junk, erm treasures, packed in one place. There was a monstrous stuffed dog, penny jewelry, framed posters, purses upon purses upon purses, longaberger baskets, cherry bedroom suites, couches, divans, chairs, table, you get the idea! Basically the joint was packed full of one mans trash soon to become another mans treasure.

I got a number and waited for the bidding to commence. Outside of loosing out on a mandolin, I won all the other auctions I was bidding on. I was really looking for displays for the new shop. I did find one old oak dresser, a tool box, 3 amazingly huge lamps and a smorgasbord of odds'n'ends.




The booty. I have no idea what to do with the slatted piece, but I'm sure it will come in handy at some point in time or another. I have a serious addiction to antique hand made tool boxes. I am just captivated by the fact that someone built this box to hold the tools they used on daily jobs. Or, maybe it was used to hold someones house hold tool collection. Either way I am fascinated with the uniqueness and beauty of each box.



Green glass globe lamp. Winning bid...$5




Gold pineapple globe lamp that supposedly lights up. Winning bid $5.




Taking ideas for what this could be. It was so cute that I just couldn't pass it up. Will take pics of the rest when I have a bit more time.

Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair... Part Deux

A funny thing happened on the way to the Fair ...  I know it is so dang cliche to use that phrase, but there has never been a post more fitting than now!  See I come downstairs to have a bit to eat at the Continental breakfast before heading out to the Fair when low and be hold who should I run into but ......

Insert drum roll please ....

The one, the only, the Franklin Habit author of 'It Itches' and blogger extroidinair of the panopticon.  Of course what are the first words I utter out of my mouth?  Probably the creepiest thing a published author ever wants to hear...  'Hello Franklin, You don't know me, but I'm such and such and we're Facebook Friends'.  Yep, something along those lines came out of my mouth!  Franklin took it with stride and we had a lovely conversation during which I offered to give him a lift to the fair grounds when he said he was not sure he had any transportation.

Of course, he had not seen my marvelous 'yarn mobile' consisting of truck and trailer vinylized with hot pink yarn balls.  I think the truck might have been the real clincher in what turned out to be one fabulous week end of meeting not just Franklin, but Carol Sulcoski author of 'Knitting Socks with Hand-painted Yarns', co-author of 'Knit so Fine, dyer extroidinair of Black Bunny Fibers and blogger of Go Knit In Your Hat; Abby Franquemont fiberista and author or 'Respect the Spindle' and (video)'Drafting: The Long and Short of It' and blogger of Abby's Yarns and Jacey Boggs also know as Insubordiknit, author of 'Spin Art' due out this fall and DVD maven of 'Sit and Spin'.

Our first meeting.  Franklin was working on his tessellated socks.

Checking out Merike Saarniit's beautiful estonian lace sample.

I think Merike was lucky to get her sample back from Franklin

Franklin & I about to head out to the show on Saturday morning. Carol Sulcoski took this pic.

LunabudKnits Booth

View of the booth from the other side.

When the shop is up and going.  I am definitely having this gal down for classes!  Are these bird houses not just to dye for!!

This booth had the most awesome array of buttons and trims all sorted by color.  Amazing!

My favorite hand formed soap ball lady was there too!  Hoping I see her at Corydon this year too!

Miniature punchneedle designs.

Saturday's dinner with Abby, Jacey & Franklin

You know you are having a fun time when you are eating Tai with Jacey Boggs and Franklin Habit!

Sunrise as I was driving home Monday morning

I loved the wind catchers.

PS....  Franklin, this one is just for you.  These are the roads I grew up driving.

Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair Post 1.... The Drive

What a long strange trip the past 6 days have been.  It all started with a drive from Central KY to Grayslake IL which is basically a suburb on the Northwest end of Chicago.

Chicago, Chicago, CHIAGOO.  I don't know why but each time I think of Chicago, ChiaGoo pops into my mind.  Do you think subliminally I am trying to tell myself something?  Like, I really need to start and account with ChiaGoo.  Who knows!

Back to the trip though.  The drive up was fairly uneventful but I did take that opportunity to work on my  commando style of picture taking from the truck as I'm driving down the interstate.   Basically, with out looking, I hold my camera in the direction of the interesting thing and click away hoping against common sense that maybe, just maybe one shot out of 50 will turn out even remotely viewable.

It is hard to see in the photo but the arrow is pointing to a huge peace sign on the barn roof.  I have a feeling this is one of those farms I would enjoy driving up to just knock on the door and say hello.

Approaching Indianapolis heading to ChiaGoo Land.

Now these wind harvesters are probably some of the mightiest things I have seen is a very long time.  I litterally slowed down so that I could take picture that might turn out a little less blurry.  Unfortunately I could not stop as I was surrounded by semis and they frown upon having to slow down for the crazy lady hauling a trailer with huge pink balls of yarn plastered on the side to constantly pull over on the side of the road.

The pictures really do not capture the immense size of the wind harvesters.  They are huge monoliths set in offset rows.  The arms are gracefully turned with the intense wind this area of Indiana has.  A truly unique show.

Hard to read but basically, this is the sign that says I-65 ends.

What the previous sign failed to mention was that I-65 ended on a narrow freaking mile long bridge with absolutely NO shoulder and a terrible drop to your death if you should say accidentally drive through the barrier and over the edge.

This sign lied to me.  15 minutes in ChiaGoo Land is actually 1.5 hours to the rest of the world.  The rush hour drive was not as boring as I might have expected though.  An fellow from India called the number on the side of the trailer and tried to pick me up while in bumper to bumper traffic.  Is that crazy or what!?!

The First toll booth was only $2.  The next sign which I failed to get a picture of was  'The Mayor of Chicago Welcomes You'.

Remember when I said the Mayor of Chicago greeted me, well he took it back less than a mile down the road with a Toll fee of $10.  What a warm welcome to ChiaGoo Land.

I have no idea what these signs meant, but they were a bit of color in the drab existence of rush hour traffic on the Chicago Skyway.

I think if they can charge me $10 to drive through ChiaGoo Land the least they can do is patch the holes showing exposed rebar under the bridges.

At this point I had gotten off of the Interstate thinking that maybe, just maybe traffic would move a little smoother.  HA! They had a storm the night before which knocked out all the lights at intersections.  Is that crazy or what.  Took 45 minutes to go 400 feet.  As luck would have it the pretty little grasses kept me entertained for hours on end as they swayed in the breeze of our exhaust pipes.  I might have been a little delirious at this point.

More to come tomorrow,..............

Garden 2011

I haven't had much time for posting due to shows and getting ready for shows between shows;) The next show you will find LunabudKnits is the Midwest Fiber and Folkart Festival outside of Chicago June 24-26.

I had a moment to take a few pictures of this years garden as Bill was finishing up his little project. He tells me stories of the 'lettuce box' they had as a child and how they would go out pull up the old door and pick some lettuce for dinner every day. The other day, he comes home with an old storm door someone was throwing away and wood. a few days later, he has his 'lettuce box'. I have to say that he did a very nice job on the construction of the box. Do I honestly think the lettuce will grow in a humid little glass box in the middle of summer? Let's just say, erm, how do I put this nicely..... I think I will sow more lettuce seeds in the fall. And, it should make for a great seed starter in late winter early spring;)

Bill finishing up his lettuce box

Lid open

Seeds

Lid closed

Miss Kitty supervises

Sweet Basil

Cematis

Cactus

Cactus

Delphinium

Delphinium Flower

lettuce seed I started a few weeks ago.

Miss Kitty follows where ever we go.