On My Way . . .

It's that time of year again -- show time!  I am about to head up to Connecticut for the 106th Annual Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival.  It is a sweet little festival -- only one day -- but really charming. Come and visit us in the green barn.  Information is listed on the Shows & Event page -- click the button in the navigation bar above.

Out of the Loop

I have been out of the loop -- the blogging loop, the hooking loop, the everything loop.  Spring has finally arrived -- the osprey are back on their nest, the tulips and daffodils are about ready to pop, the sun is shining more, but I have spent the last two and a half weeks locked indoors.  On the same day my husband left for a two week trip to the family sugar bush in Wisconsin, I came down with the worst head cold ever.  It started with a headache and a scratchy throat and just got progressively worse.  Thankfully, I have good friends who kept me supplied with soup and soufflé -- thank you Paula & Ann, thank you Osinski family!

I kept myself busy -- when I wasn't sleeping -- dyeing wool, thinking the moisture the pots produced would help clear my sinuses.  I was dyeing to match colors in some quilting fabrics, so that Janet at Farmhouse Quilt Company and I can tag team teach a matching quilt and hooked rug.  I think I finally succeeded.  Now I need to hook the rug.

I also spent some time on Pinterest and ebay.  My sister Barb sent me a link to an auction of a Grenfell mat, supposedly from the walls of the Dog Team Tavern in Middlebury, Vermont, which burned to the ground several years ago.  (I have a small but prized collection of Grenfell mats.  If you don't know about them, check out Paula Laverty's book Silk Stocking Mats.)  I didn't bid on that rug, but it led me to another -- a woodland scene with a moose, hooked with stockings but not labelled "Grenfell". I'm sure it is Canadian, not sure it is a Grenfell.  Didn't care -- my finger hit the Buy it Now button without me even telling it to!

Now I'm prepping for the first show of the year: 

106th ANNUAL CONNECTICUT SHEEP, WOOL & FIBER FESTIVAL

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Rain or Shine

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Tolland Agricultural Center

Route 30, Vernon/Rockville, CT

Stormy Weather

The blue grey clouds moving across the sky this morning make the fluorescent yellow of the forsythia and the purple of the pansies even more luminous.  This is classic April weather -- the rare time of year that I welcome grey skies and rain.  It won't be long before the cherry trees that line our street blossom and turn to pink snow swirling around the neighborhood.

treats on my desk

We had a lovely Easter weekend.  Old friends joined us, and brought all sorts of treats, the most exceptional of which was a cassata, a traditional Sicilian spring cake covered in emerald green marzipan, then a glaze of confectioner's sugar, and piped flowers.  Our goddaughter Natalie brought it from an Italian bakery in Providence.  Pretty spectacular way to end our Easter meal of lamb, farro strata, and roasted asparagus.

We also hosted a young woman from Slovenia for a week.  She is a relative of one of Pete's relatives, here to learn English and see the sights before heading to university in September.  Pete took her into Manhattan for a day to see the Empire State Building and the Museum of Natural History, and on a tour of the Hamptons and the beautiful beaches of the South Fork.  Pizza is her favorite food, so we had a pizza party with the neighbors on Palm Sunday, and some friends hosted a festive lobster dinner for her one evening.  It was a long ten days of house guests -- lots of cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping and laundry -- and, while fun, I am glad to be back to my normal routine.

I'm packing up for the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival.  I will head up on Friday. All you rug hookers in the Metro area should stop in and see us.  Since the demise of the Newtown and Fairfield rug shows, it is difficult to find rug supplies in southern New England.  I have some new patterns drawn up and ready to go.  Hope to see you there.

Easter is Coming and So Are Our Spring Shows

Easter is just days away now.  How did that happen, lol?  Am I the only one who thinks they have more time than there actually is?  I've been doing more spring cleaning -- washed some windows this past weekend (because I couldn't see out of them they were so dirty) and raked and pulled weeds and mulched a bit.  The warm weather has been wonderful.  I love sleeping with the windows open.  We are having fierce April showers today, with lots of wind, and the temperature is going to drop a bit, but spring is definitely here.

Spring brings with it a host of fiber festivals -- all those wooly sheep are ready to be sheared! Our first show this season is the 105th Connecticut Sheep, Wool, & Fiber Festival at the Tolland Agricultural Center in Vernon, Ct.  It will be held Saturday, April 26, 2014 from 9 am until 4 pm.  There will be workshops and seminars, sheep dog trials, a spinning bee, a fleece sale, vendors, food and lots more.  Barb and I will be in the Green Barn, so come and see us!  We'll be debuting some new patterns and creations for your pleasure!

On the March

I'm so happy to see the back end of February. Even though there is still snow on the ground and the thermometer read 18 degrees when I woke this morning, the days are getting longer, the sun is growing stronger, and the birds are returning to Greenport. March means spring is drawing near!

A few weeks ago a large flock of robins (what were they doing here so early?) descended on our front porch, eating all the winterberries from the Christmas bouquet in my sap bucket.  I watched them for a while, flitting and flying against the monochromatic background of white snow and gray sky.  I thought about how their wings are sort of paisley-shaped and wouldn't it be fun to hook a whimsical bird with paisley designs all over it? I decided to design a new pattern called Birds and Branches. It's a fairly large mat, to fit the piece of linen left over after I draw a White Whale Tavern pattern.  (I am always trying to find a way to piece together my patterns so that I don't waste any costly linen.)  

I measured the piece of linen and did the arithmetic to have the pattern fall with a four inch border, but, of course, I measured wrong and the pattern is too big.  Arrgh.  Measure twice, cut once.  I'm now in the process of redrawing the pattern to fit the linen.

The bird pattern sparked another paisley-centric design, this time with a sheep instead of birds.  I have paisley on the brain, obviously.  I also have sheep and fiber festivals on the brain -- our show season will start in a month and a half with the 105th Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival on April 26, 2014, followed by the Long Island Fleece and Fiber May 17 and 18, 2014.  I want to have lots of new stuff for our customers, so I'd better get down to business!

Connecticut Bound

I'm heading up to New England for the weekend while Pete stays home and repairs the fence and walks the dog.  (I think I got the good end of the stick!)  I will swing by Barb's this afternoon and pick her up so we can set our booth up tonight.

The Festival is just one day, so don't forget!  Although this is the 104th year of the festival, it is our first year vending here.  So we need all our New York and New England friends to come and visit.  This is a great opportunity for those of you who miss the Fairfield and Newtown rug shows.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

If You Would Like Some of Your Own . . .

I just wanted to mention that my sister Barb sells her wonderful hand-dyed wool -- the same colors as we dyed over the weekend and others as well -- in her etsy shop thimblefolk.  I use it in many of my hooked rugs.  Fleur the Fox Terrier was hooked with lots of Barb's colors.

I am not the best photographer -- the camera flash made the colors in the photo in the previous post brighter than they actually are.  Her colors have a softness to them that my photos don't capture.  And, of course, computer monitors can distort colors . . .   The best way to view Barb's woolens is in person. Our first show of the year, the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival,  is coming up on April 27.  It's our first year as vendors at this show, which is in its 104th year!  Come and visit if you are in the area.