'tis the season! CT Sheep & Wool Festival

 

It's that time of year, to see all our favorite fuzzy faces and appreciate their fiber. For us, the Ct Sheep and Wool festival starts the spring and fair season. It's just a teeny little fiber festival, a mere smidge of a gathering. But it means winter is done.

My report:  Purple is big this year, no surprise there. The vendors here are smaller farms and local or regional dyers. I always admire  Tidal Yarns skeins. I love her patterns, too. There was a pullover sample at her booth I spent some time admiring *. You know how you look and think "ooh nice" but then the next day you're thinking " oooh nice and I really want to knit that.....it's stuck in my head....". Even though I've got my knitting pretty well planned out for the short term.  Note to self: follow her to another fair and do it.

There was some herding, of sheep.  And of a four year old.

My fave thing this year was Dancing Stick Man, and the dude who pulled the string as he played banjo.

The banjo playing was at one of our fave booths too- old timey stuff including what sister Lulu, who joined the fair-going expedition, called folk art and little spirit jugs. Many had faces on them, or tiny paintings.  You'll find a couple in our flower garden, if it ever gets warm enough to plant.
There was also  the Wearing of the Amazing Knits, Folks in Renaissance Clothes Doing Impossibly Intricate Needlework, Spinning In Group Formation, Shearing Demos and Really Good Buttons, along with all of the above. Want my 2¢?  Get out to some up and coming fairs .
- Maryland Sheep and Wool  May 7 & 8  --the big mama of east coast spring festivals

- Shepherds Harvest in Minnesota May 13-15 -  worth the trip from wherever you are

- New Hampshire Sheep & Woool Festival - May 14 & 15 - bring a sweater! it's in the woods- my memory of my two visits to this one is brrrrrr! and also- beautiful yarns & sheep

- Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair May 28 & 29th-- super charming

Taking a curtsy before we leave. Hope to catch you sipping lemonade and watching the sheep smile back sometime soon.

Just for funs : although I rarely miss a year of this festival, I sometimes skip blogging about it. oops! my first visit to this festival 11 years ago , back when my blog was a secret and I was purposefully posting small not terribly well made photos, to keep it separate from my professional commercial work (why? insanity??!!) . And also another,  sunshiney  lovely year there, on the blog seven years ago.

* so this pullover? It was worsted or DK weight looking, nice deep raglan sleeves, boxy cut, slightly scooped neck and an inset pocket (with contrast lining, I just love that)  on one side of the lower front. It was shown with color blocking near the lower quarter of the body but it'd be charming solid....

sneak peek: rhinebeck style

So, last year  at this time, and in 2010, I went to Rhinebeck for the NY Sheep & Wool Festival, set up my big white backdrop, and invited everyone to pose in their handknit finery for what became my Rhinebeck Style photo project. It was a blast. And it evolved into a book. That isn't ready yet.

What I've got for you? A glimpse of everything. It takes more than 8 minutes, and feels  like a home movie. For a very large & covered-in-knitwear family. So get a cuppa and pull up a chair.*

I can't tell you how much I appreciate every single one of you who posed. Thank you.

My favorite part of the festival is our special world on the fairgrounds, where you not only don't look loony even though you're wearing 4 layers of handknits...but you are greeted by strangers who know the pattern by name, applaud your stitches and can shout out your colorway and yarn dyer at twenty paces. 

Curious about the book? Get yourself onto the elist from Cooperative Press, they'll be my publishers, at the bottom of that linked page. 

* I'm not as savvy as I might be about what size to insert a video in a blog--I know some of you are reading it on an iphone and I don't want to jam it up...so if you find that window, above, too tiny, you can try this YouTube link for a clearer view. (or...so I hope)

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ps I am not doing the photo booth this year...but I am teaching a Photo Safari workshop each morning, so you may see us wandering the grounds..and you probably can still strike a pose...

talkin' handspun mitts

Can we dwell a little on my so-called Rhinebeck mitts? They waved at the blogsphere from the Yarn Harlot's reportage last week. (scroll down, we're just under Pamela Wynne/Flint Knits and her well styled scarf).  I showed them in the last post but they deserve their own stage. Truly, they do.  I mean, I have been churning out some knits, catching up with yarn accumulated in my travels.  I've been feathering my nest for winter. Yeah, I know this means accumulating wealth. Knitted wealth. 

Handspun knitted wealth.  I adore handspun yarn, but I do not spin. When I was photographing Shear Spirit, I was all up close and personal with fleeces and spinning, from one coast to another. Alpaca, mohair, cashmere, wool. But, nope.  Did not infect me with the spinning bug at all. I caught the fever for knitting with it, though.

  

For wearing it, too. The fingerless mitts are the Malabrigo Hand Thingies, modified to a tighter gauge and with longer hand portions. I cast on 72 stitches to get the right circumference (hate tight gloves) and knit till I liked the length,in the worsted weight handspun skein I won at the Shepherds Harvest silent auction. Details on that here. (scroll down--why do I always link to the bottom of posts???)

My bulkier weight handspun from that same  acquisition became the Kremlin hat by Annie Modesitt. I went for the poetics of knitting with yarn  from a Minnesota fiber festival, to wear at a new York one. I bumped into Annie at Shepherds Harvest as well as in New Hampshire last month, so it's all destiny.  

Or something like that. This pattern's fun to knit: short row wedges, knit flat, then joined and the brim is knit in the round. Perfect for this crazy bumpy multicolored handspun. The mitts, too, were so pleasing to make  that when I finished the pair, I knit a spare one.  But then I had enough yarn left for a fourth,  which meant a full second pair. Greedy!

I couldn't say no to Ariana when she said she wanted them, could I? BEST NIECE EVER . She worked all last weekend with me shooting. Plus, she's a knitter & maker.

All photo credits of me & my knits:  Ariana McLean. The photo of Ariana? That's a portrait of her in mitts. If you've taken a class from me, you know I'd say that it's not a photo of mitts, right?

rhinebeck photo shoot roundup love

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who stopped by and posed, and/or tweeted, blogged, FB'ed or stopped strangers with a tap on the shoulder and told them to come by to my photo project shoot, Rhinebeck Style, at the NY Sheep & Wool festival last weekend. It really was a spectacular weekend in every way.
 
Not to mention some big fun.
Huge thanks to my niece Ariana, who worked with me all weekend. I don't do the  Rhinebeck sweater thing (the pressure!)  but I did make us 2 sets of Rhinebeck fingerless mitts from handspun.

 I'm running out of town to work in DC this week but before I leave, just this report and many thanks--and a regret that I couldn't have stopped to chat with everyone, friends new & old. so....drumrolllll..... we shot

 • 2152 images at the festival 

 • around 203 people posed for us 

• a couple dozen are now doing the Hollywood chin everytime a camera comes out 

• we shot sheep, llamas, one pair of Paco-Vicunas  
and one adorable cashmere goat. Stay tuned for more. This is too wonderful to let sit unattended--I've got  my (handknit) (handspun) thinking cap on for sharing this project. You all looked wonderful (seriously).

let me shoot you ! at RHINEBECK 2012

 I am all systems GO to resume my Rhinebeck Style photo project next weekend. Stop by and get shot in all your festival fiber fineness !!  Saturday & Sunday, too*

 
*It says Saturday but I'll plan to be there for the early part of Sunday. Or if Saturday is bad weather...longer on Sunday.

WHY: A couple of years ago, I was thinking how my very favorite part of the NY Sheep & Wool Festival, AKA Rhinebeck, was looking at what everyone wears. It is perhaps the only place on earth you can be wearing handknit socks, a handknit sweater, a shawlette over it, handknit mitts and a hat--and instead of having people leave a wide path around you,  you are embraced by strangers shrieking "ooh, is that a Damson? I love what you did with your February Lady Sweater! Whose mods?"  and..this year I suspect.. "whoa! that is an amazing  Color Affection combo!" 
I realized I wanted to make a collection of all those fabulous outfits, for the permanent record. 
So in 2010 I set up my backdrop and made 128 portraits. I blogged about it a little here. 
This year, I'm continuing. I hope you'll be part of it! 

WHEN: You can find me with my backdrop, set up by the 4H snack bar, most of Saturday.  Depending on the weather, I might be there for part of Sunday too.  I'll tweet what I'm doing about this @galezucker  and also post to my FB page. It should look a little bit like below, from last time.
 This year I am thrilled to be setting up the backdrop by the animal barns on Friday, because it wouldn't be Rhinebeck without the livestock and those who raise them. If you are there with your animals, please look for me Friday afternoon and come strike a pose with a woolly/fibery critter!
I would also love to shoot some vendors-- they are so busy..but we'll try!

this little spread in The Knitter, a UK magazine, in  2011 is the only place any of the photos appeared

WHAT am I going to do with all these photos? I don't know yet. It might make a cool ebook. Or real book, or booklet, or one-off magaziney thing... I'll email everyone once I've got it figured out.

WHY have I not done something yet with the 2010 shoot? Well..when I first shot it, I wasn't sure what my goal was. (I still don't. That's the fun of a personal project, as we photographers like to call them). I was neck deep in working on my book CraftActivism with Joan Tapper, and busy with my usual work as a commercial photographer. So I put the files aside till last year, when I realized I wanted to continue and maybe get a more rounded collection, with animals and vendors and volunteers. Then..we'll see. 

 FYI Even if you posed last time, come by again. It'd be fun to have 2 years' of outfits, right? 

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ps that is the very wonderful Earthchicknits in the photo above. Sadly, she won't be at the festival this year. Do you follow her blog ? You should!  

pps I am still, after all these years, unable to hit reply from the comments. eh , whatever, blogger is free and I still like the platform.....but if you want me to reply to you, leave an email (you can do it with a SallyKnitsATxyzDOTcom or just email me, the address is in the sidebar.

shepherds harvest weekend

 I was invited to judge the photo contest and teach at Shepherds Harvest 2012, held last month in Minnesota. I jumped at the chance.  I've been hearing about this annual wooly festival for years.

So there I was. I judged.  It was not easy. A thirteen year old named Rachel made this image. Talent!

 

Minnesota's a forcefield in the fiberarts world. Shepherds Harvest is a truly vibrant, lively festival with 5+ barns of vendors and an equal number full of livestock. You could learn saori weaving, dyeing, knitting techniques or how to breed colored fleeces and build a flock. Anyway, it was just a flawlessly wonderful two days, unless you count that the Scandanavian food truck ran out of lefse  before I had some. (Got my walleye chunks though, so no worries.)

I booksigned, alone for Craft Activism and Shear Spirit (missed you, Joan Tapper!) and with my Minnesota knit author posse from WearWithAll. Here I am with Scott Rohr and Mary Lou Egan. And that stole. (I want to steal that stole).

Here are Theresa Gaffey and Shelly Sheehan. Shelly's working on the stole in an alternative colorway. In front? Those are stole kits. I still want to steal the stole, but perhaps I should just knit one? Speaking of WearWithAll, did you see this review from Clara Parkes? And, this one over at Mason Dixon Knitting? :-)))

I taught a large and diverse group for the Photo Safari class .  Knitwear designers, alpaca farmers, a dude who's photo hobby matched up with my class while his wife and daughters' indulged their knitting  jones, an Adobe PhotoShop engineer, someone who mostly knit & crocheted in all white, some friends...and a bustling festival to explore. I hadn't calculated how our group of photographers in action would draw a crowd, who seemed convinced they'd found a celebrity at the festival beyond all the lenses. (does Prince knit? That would be the local celeb sighting I'd be all over). So, what did we shoot on safari? All kinds of backgrounds, above.

Sheep, of course. Isn't this one's fleece magnificent? I want a sweater in just those gradations.

My exhortations to get close and try unusual angles were heard!-Here's Ellen Silva photographing in the reenactors tent. She may have gone home with some spinning wheel burn marks on her forehead. But excellent images. All in the line of duty.

On Sunday,  I strolled the festival as a civilian with Ellen, who mostly stayed  upright. It was so much fun--first off, Ellen seems to know everyone in the upper midwest fiber world. And,  she's a decisive shopper, with great taste in yarn/fiber. That makes for a satisfying festival buddy right there.

One of my favorite booths, from Great Wool. Can't wait till Zoe is old enough for wooly tutus and felted fox ears. Also soft squishy Rambouillet yarn.

More felting! My friends Judy & Tom MacDowell from Misty Meadows Icelandics were there. I hadn't seen them since I invaded their farm with the photo shoot for Shear Spirit. Judy is a felting artist, and had a wall display of these narrow scarves, I think she called them centipedes. One came home with me.

I said I wouldn't buy yarn,  I do not need any yarn right now.  And I don't do souvenir yarn. At least not until Ellen introduced me to this very cool fundraiser. See these bags? They contain fluff from all the vendors, who donate handfuls of their fibers. A committee divides it into bags (or, sometimes layers them into fiber sandwiches),  

and a swat team of volunteer spinners turn each bag into a skein or two of yarn which is auctioned silently. All of the money goes to Heifer International.  So--do you get it? It's not shopping for yarn. It's supporting a good cause! (Yup, the cause clause).

  

I'm thinking new mittens for next winter,  I will be so happy knowing where the yarn came from.

And, a hat from this skein. I am slightly ashamed to admit I was bidding against the spinner who so beautifully spun the mix into a fat single, and plied it with a single laceweight strand of turquoise silk. I won't tell you how little I paid, even so.  As a non-spinner with a longing for handspun  , this is heaven.  So to sum up: Shepherds Harvest= good. Go if you can, next year.

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 Next post--I'm going to show knitting. It's been awhile , hasn't it?

post rhinebeck photo shoot shout

My Rhinebeck shopping: one skein of yarn (up 100% from last year!) and 2 indie published books, by Ann Weaver of Weaver Knits and Mandy Powers of ZigZag Stitch.

Wait- does Artichoke French count as shopping?

Thanks to ClaireArsenault for getting this action shot.
 Back at you when I come up for air with more about the Rhinebeck Style photo shoot but let's  just say this:

1817 images downloaded

123+ fabulous models in handknits (or crochets or felts) posed

1 million thanks to everyone who joined in. So cool to meet you! There's no word for the loooove!

Me and Ann Weaver herself at the very end of the weekend. Now I see it says "Rhineck" Style.  photo by Chris

Another fun statistic:

2 times I was mistaken for Amy Singer of Knitty and embraced in a hug.
And I don't even own a ukelele.

the long post-rhinebeck post

Mine was a daytrip. I took the Robert Frost route to get there.

".........I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by......"

I was enjoying the scenery right down to every punny barn sign but worrying about the poor poor vendors, I wasn't seeing any other traffic. Had the economy finally thinned out the fiber fest crowd??? Till I realized I was just a little, cough ,off target.

Happily the New York Sheep & Wool Festival at Rhinebeck is as popular as ever.
The vendors with ready to wear woolens were happy, too. It seemed like all the vendors were doing OK , although I didn't succeed in adding to their totals. So much to admire! Too much to take in! I am a sucky shopper!

This yurt between 2 barns was full of fantastic wet felted pieces & rugs. I liked the scarves, I can't explain exactly how they did it, they are part woven fabric and part felt.

Retail slacker's remorse: wish I'd bought one.

Here's why I really went to Rhinebeck. My plans to hang with Team Mason Dixon Knitting:

Progressive Knitters in Support of Progressive Lenses

id's by Rav link: Kay, Bonne Marie Burns (of ChicKnits, she designed for the MD book), Ann, MaryNeal (another MDKnitting designer- Rav link to that Margaret sweater with the words) and yours truly. The combined brains & talent of these 4 is a forcefield. Plus they're a lot of fun to have a photo shoot with. Or a beer.

Here's some foodstands area play by play action:

While BonneMarie is interviewed and taped for LetsKnit2gether knitcast,we ran into Guido, of Its a Purl,Man .

So Kay sits down, takes my knitting and starts going a few rounds (I am thrilled. It's a sportweight alpaca hat begun Thursday and I want it done NOW). Guido plops down next to her, take a sidelong glance and pulls out his drop spindle.

Only at a fiber festival is this so extremely normal as to not even get a second glance. Well , yeah, Guido's sweater may have gotten a second glance but its got a sweet story behind it, go ask him.

I know its silly since I live so close by them but I was thrilled to run into New Haven & Shoreline SnB friends all day long.

Fr'example Rebecca, Anne w/ 2 kidlets and no blog, and Alina. Between fairground and the Ravelry party later that night, our little corner of the knitting world represented.

What else is there to report?
Tons of inspiring handknits , reallive sheep & alpaca, delicious food and excellent company. What more could you want for a chilly fall day?

Maybe a little bunny to go.

bring on festival season

Cathy with her puppet.

Kicking it off yesterday at Connecticut Sheep & Wool Festival. You know what I like about the festivals? The culture.

Where else can you be "matchy-matchy with your stockinette style".
Or with your headgear while, watching the sheepdog trials in sunshine.
While next weekend is the Knit-A-Palooza in Maryland, this one is so small and manageable,you park your car, walk for a minute and there you see half the festival as well as the New Haven SnB representing.

NutmegKnitter, CafeEclectic, SunflowerFairy, MissAliceFaye ,Archiknist, (hidden but there, KnittingEwe), some of the blogless, and oops I can't find anyone else's blog that's shown. But they 're there too.
Lots of talent on display.

But I believe the New Haven posse deserves a shout out.

For best knitting in transit. That's Gauss, Editorgrrl & Cottonhollow (rav links for those last2)