Friday, October 03, 2008

Off to Fall Fiber Fest


I'm nearly packed up and ready to take off for the Fall Fiber Fest near Orange, Va. on the grounds of Montpelier. It's a beautiful setting, across the road from the past home of James and Dolly Madison. Tents are set up in a large field where the vendors set up. There are field trials for sheep dogs and a few tents that house fiber animals. This will be my 18th year. The past three years have been hard weather-wise. Three years ago and again last year, the temperatures have been in the mid=90's, not conducive for yarn buying. It really should not be 95 degrees in October! And 2 years ago, that area received 10" of rain right before the festival. I packed everything up, drove 2 hours, pulled into the field and stopped. A Ford 350 pulling a large horse trailer was buried up to the bottom of the doors in mud and was stuck. A big tractor was pulling it out. I wasn't stuck yet, (but would be if I tried to move) so the wonderful tractor guys hooked me up and pulled me through the mud to the road and I was on my home. What a mess that fest was! Besides the hot temps last year, the red clay dust settled on everything, all the yarn, all the garments, on the people, and in our lungs. So.....this year is going to be perfect. Cool, crisp weather, sunny skies and one happy attitude! I'm picking up my son, Garrett, we'll set up, camp out tonight, then sell our hearts out Sat and Sun. Should be fun! If you have a chance, come on by. BTW, next weekend is our Countryside Artisans Autumn Studio Tour. I'll give a sneak peek after I unpack and put my studio back together.


I could get a few more crates of yarn in.


And this is Casey, being very sad that I'm leaving. He'd love to go and visit all the sheep dogs.

2 comments:

Milly said...

sounds like lots of fun.

Ophelia Chong said...

i am sure he would love to visit the sheep. i was up in Portland OR last weekend, and it is a city of fiber. everyone is wearing hand made scarves, sweaters, everything. it was so inspiring to see all the creativity.