This past Saturday was the 7th annual Powhatan Festival of Fiber (and the 6th annual Lee Family Trip to the Fiber Festival). My husband is not exactly known for his punctuality, so I jokingly told him I was going to go without him. This got me thinking about our tradition (we only missed the 2nd year because we were living in North Carolina at the time). I heard of the first festival by chance when I was just starting my knitting business. I couldn't find a partner in crime w

Most fiber artists will tell you about their bins of yarn or hanks of fiber. Some will even talk about how they came home with a whole fleece, ready to wash and card before spinning it into yarn. I may have some of the former happening (definitely none of the later). Somehow, I have amassed a huge collection of knitting needles. My first needles were actually hand me downs from my mother. As she taught me to knit, she was busy with sewing, so I got a bunch of needles she wasn

I have always thought about doing drink and knitting pattern pairings, similar to drink and food pairings. I find a nice wine or fun cocktail relaxing in the same way that I find knitting relaxing. What is better than knitting one, then sipping one? Today I start with a local spiced wine spiking my hot apple cider. This pairs well with a pattern like a washcloth. The pattern may be a little more challenging - counting may be involved. If you make a mistake, frogging is easy,

Welcome to part 2 of our beginner knitting series. If you haven't read vol. 1 yet, I definitely suggest starting there. We are going to touch on a few things left hanging in that post. Today we're going to talk about choosing your knitting needles, along with a few other tools. If you have picked out a pattern for your project, you probably already have an idea of what size needle you need. Most patterns will suggest a specific yarn and needle and then say something like "or

I know. It is Saturday. But I actually had a few things to post for FO Friday this week. Problem is, I sat up to watch the first episode (second season) of Luke Cage with my husband, and sitting that long wore me out. My neck still isn't quite up to the task of supporting my head for more than 30 minutes. So I pretty much just went to sleep after that, completely forgetting about my blog post. For this one time exception I bring you Finished Object Friday on a Saturday. We ar

I promised more yarn reviews, and considering how many skeins I have of Kim Dyes Yarn, I thought this was a good indie dyer to start with. But first - I will give you a very quick update on me. You probably noticed I missed a few of my regular posting days. My surgery was a week ago and was a complete success, not that there were any concerns. If you haven't been keeping up, I had a cervical fusion to remove a badly herniated disc in my neck. It really had gotten to the point

Let's be honest - I had no plan for today's post. I frankly forgot it was even Tuesday. I am just shy of 1 week away from my cervical fusion surgery and that is pretty much all that is on my mind. What little things I need to buy, what I need to pack for my stay in the hospital, the cleaning I want to accomplish... my husband is wonderful and helpful, but he just doesn't see dirt and clutter in the same way I do. I have 4-6 weeks of cabin fever ahead of me, I want to at least

Can I drink a red bull at 10 o'clock at night? Asking for a friend. I am seriously exhausted. I keep thinking I will just get through this week and then I will get a break...and then I find myself filling up that time too. When I was shopping at all those wonderful yarn shops last weekend, I kept getting asked what I liked to knit. My answer - things that knit quickly. I do not have the time or the patience to knit a fair isle sweater. They are gorgeous and I am thankful for

Happy Tuesday! Sorry for missing Friday's post, but there was no way for me to get the blog post published while traveling. That just means there will be more finished objects for this Friday! As for how my husband and I spent our Memorial Day weekend, we traveled through the mountains of Virginia, stopping at every yarn shop along the way. All in all, there were 12 shops participating in this year's yarn crawl and we hit all 12 in 3 days. I believe we were some of the first