Spinwych visits Greenberry House

It has been a wonderful couple of weeks...occasionally frantic but always fun...typical October. The lovely thing about this October has been meeting some great people that I've known online, as well as reconnecting with wonderful old friends.

Spinwych is someone I've "met" in various handspinning forums through the years. She was here from Central Victoria (that's in Australia, y'all) visiting friends and it was lovely to finally see her in person. Apparently from the web site I found for her she's now into photography and she has a fantastic eye. I'll be excited to see what kind of photos she posts of her trip to America and the Blue Ridge Mountains!

Also this past week or so a bunch of Facebook folk came in to visit and I was thrilled to see them. Some are like family, really, with close family connections to Meadows of Dan. Others are just great people I've come to know online in various ways. It's always fun to put a face to a name, though!

And I almost forgot to mention one of the best "old friends" that I met in person this weekend. Lynn of Rocky Creek Scottie Adventures came to visit! For some reason, mainly because I've been seeing her comment on Tammy's blog for quite awhile, I thought she was living in North Carolina. But she lives nearer me and she and Tammy are planning to meet here next Thursday. So if anyone is wanting to visit with blogger/knitter/spinners come join us! it was really fun to talk to Lynn and I look forward to seeing her again!

The T and his new toy

I don't know how I managed not to get a picture of Chris (ahem) that I could put up on the blog, but it was great having her visit from Connecticut for the weekend. She came down so we could go to SAFF together, but at the last minute I couldn't make it away from the shop and the dogs. Chris was good-natured about it, went down on her own, and then came back so we could have a lot of fun knitting and talking. She came bearing gifts...an awesomely fun shaggy toy thing for TJ, above, and a glorious bump of variegated roving from Still River Mill for me.

It's called a mystery batt because it's not the same all the way through. I'm really looking forward to spinning it, and thinking I might ply it with something else. This is a really cool idea!

While Chris was here we did a lot of talking, as I said, and had fun trying out all the restaurants around. Our first stop was in Meadows of Dan at the new Two By Two BBQ. They just opened last week, just in time for Chris to visit, and we told them she came all the way down here just to come to their place. The food and service were great and we really enjoyed the way they're fixing up the place. Nice red checked tablecloths and they're putting together a bluegrass music theme with photographs of bands they know from festivals.

We also visited Tuggles Gap Restaurant up the Blue Ridge Parkway and had a nice evening there. Good food and we sat knitting in public, which attracted the attention of another knitter that was visiting the area. She came into the shop the next day and we had a nice chat. On Sunday evening after Chris got back from SAFF we headed to Stuart for dinner with friend Linda. The two of them kept me in stitches (besides knitted ones) and we may not be welcome back to the Mexican restaurant there on Main Street!

Dyed wool yarn for hat project

It was lonesome to see Chris leave on Monday morning. But I pulled myself together and tackled all the stuff that has needed doing this week. Chris brought back some lovely yarns from Avillion Farm and Red Gate Farm for the shop, and I've been putting them up on the shop shelves and admiring some talented spinning and color work! I also spent most of this morning stocking some lovely roving from a farm up in the Buffalo that features some of the most gorgeous Jacob I ever saw, along with some beautiful Romney and some merino/Rambouillet.

And I hit the dye pots quickly on Wednesday, although at the time I wasn't sure I was going to get the yarn done in time. This was some coarser roving I had made up just for projects like this. My usual spinning doesn't generally qualify as hat yarn. I was pleased with how this turned out, though, and Jane from Fiber on the Mountain is going to be knitting the hats before long.

And so to treat myself after finishing the dreaded hat yarn roving, I started spinning this variegated roving from Black Hills Woolies. I bought the roving when we were in Colorado at the Estes Park Wool Market. My original intention was to spindle-spin this, but I haven't been making much progress on spindling lately!

I have made progress on the Seine Scarf, though...see the last post for pictures. 45 inches long and counting! Thanks to Natalie, I've was intrigued about podcasts beyond our own. I went out and bought a little mp3 player, an adventure in itself. I had one before, but realized I never listened to music unless I was in the car. I didn't know anything about podcasts back then. Now that I want to listen to them, I had no idea where the cheap player I had wound up. It didn't work very well anyway. I went out searching for a player and would up with an RCA gadget named "Opal". Seriously. That's what it says, anyway. After a bit of fiddling around to figure out how to download these wonderful knitting talkers, I've been really enjoying my morning knitting sessions. Check out my review of my current favorite podcast, Brass Needles. I've also posted a review of the new Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2009 issue.

Tonight I'm supposed to be helping with the Haunted Corn Maze, so I've spent the day in striped stockings and a black dress. Only a couple of people have looked at me like I'm a bit weird. Not sure if that is good news or not! 

For more pictures check my blog At the Top of Squirrel Spur.

Completed Dog Hair Yarn

As usual, things have gotten very busy around Greenberry House! With fall festivals, leaves changing and Pancake Days happening here in Meadows of Dan, I haven't had much time to think about writing. Spinning special orders have taken some of my attention, along with running the shop.

I have to admit that I'm not always thrilled when someone brings dog hair for me to spin. It doesn't always hold together well for spinning and sometimes it turns out coarse and lumpy no matter how I much I try to get a nice yarn from it. Adding sheep's wool helps a lot with some of the less cooperative dog hair, though, and I've successfully spun some yarns from a less than promising beginning.

This time, though, when Mrs. W brought in a pound of her beloved pet's hair to be spun, I almost couldn't believe it wasn't alpaca. It was a dream to spin, and I got four beautiful two-ply skeins from it. I think the customer was pleased as well! Now I'm spinning some coarser wool for a special order hat project and I miss the dog hair!

Last week was taken up with catching up with outside chores...mowing the yard, shearing rabbits, cleaning up the garden a bit. This week it rained on my day off, so I cleaned house a bit. Friend Chris is coming down next week to go to SAFF with me, and I really need to scrape off at least one layer of dirt. If the sun comes out this week I'm going to have a hard time making myself finish the house!

It has been a fantastic time despite the rush of fall traffic to get together with friends, new and old. I saw Karen at the Chestnut Creek School of the Arts in Galax, when we were invited up to see the new space on Thursday. Karen is a warm, talented artist and I love her work, some of which she made out of my fiber! She's teaching classes already at Chestnut Creek and her talent is just amazing.

The school is in an old bank building on the main street in Galax and I think it's going to be a wonderful thing for the artisans of the area. I met some interesting people there...some musicians, fiber people, potters and other artists. Some I knew already...Kathy was a member of the guild in Independence when I was and Mary is a neighbor.

I also had a lovely visit on Friday with Tammy, who brought a knitting project along that she's talked about on her blog. We had a good time talking about books, dear doggies, ghosts and the Wizard of Oz! Then Linda called on Saturday and we headed down to Christopher's Pizza for more knitting, good music and lots of fun chat. Oh, and great pizza! Linda sang at the Indian Summer Days Festival today with Sammy Shelor, Gale Shockley and Barry Collins. I think she had a terrific time, although she was a little nervous before the show. Today I also met some great people from Yarmouth, Maine, who had heard of the little town where I lived when I was in Maine SO long ago. It was great to talk to them about how things are in the North country and to see the pictures of snow they took up on the Blue Ridge Parkway north of here.

I guess it's cold everywhere...I've been seeing snow on some blogs as well as in the pictures my visitors showed me. Yesterday morning I decided I had better bring in the watermelons, ripe or not! I cut one over a week ago and it wasn't quite ready yet. But it ripened in the refrigerator and I had half of it for breakfast this morning (quite a little one, by the way). It was really very good. The mountain is not known as a good place to grow watermelons!

Current project: Seine Scarf, pattern by Ann Budd

Even though things are very busy right now my mind turns toward the slower days of late fall and winter. I'm looking forward to lots of spinning time in my warm and cozy room with sleeping dogs lying nearby, and a purring cat that is pretending not to be annoyed because he can't get into my lap. A stack of carefully selected books is awaiting my attention and I'm planning a special knitting project or two, along with lots of crocheting. Do you suppose I'll get half of what I plan to do accomplished before spring?

For more pictures and details visit my blog At the Top of Squirrel Spur.

Thank you for stopping by my Artfire Studio Blog. I have just settled in, so be sure to check back soon for updates!