TN Fiber Festival

This festival was my THIRD in May. I was so tired after getting home from Winnipeg that I was concerned about making it to the festival in one piece. It was so worth the effort!

This festival, in Dixon, Tennessee, is a small one. It's about three years old, and it grows every year. I had a great time teaching there last year, and as Beth, the organizer is so competent! She and her husband Steve own Three Creeks Farm. They saw a need for a fiber festival in our area, and gosh, they're doing their best to fill the need!

This year, I'd signed up to teach two classes and to do an after dinner presentation about Fiber Gathering. To our surprise, neither of the classes had enough students in them to go--so I just came down for the presentation, spent the night, and came back home the next day. Even though I was sorry the classes had to be cancelled, it was much easier for me and more relaxing this time to enjoy the festival, give my talk, and skip the 6 hours of teaching.

Dixon is about 100 miles from my house in Kentucky. On a regular day, it's maybe an hour and 45 minute drive. On Memorial Day weekend? I thoroughly enjoyed the back roads to avoid the highway traffic, and it took about 2 and a half hours. It was a pastoral trip...gorgeous scenery and a good audiobook made it go by in a flash.

There were very interesting class options and some amazing vendors at this new festival, including Coloratura Yarns. Bjorn, the amazing indie dyer who creates these masterpieces of color, is from Germany and was first a weaver, taught by a weaver from Bauhaus weaving school. His skill is impressive. It took all my self-control not to invest heavily in their yarns. I got one skein of sock yarn. I get the feeling I might be buying more later. You know, after I move, I'm going to need some warm clothes, right?!

When it came time for me to give my talk, I was amazed to see the room was completely full. There were about 40 people there, and we had a grand time. I got to sign lots of books and give several friends big hugs. Definitely a fun trip.

On Saturday morning, I returned early to visit with the sheep at the festival. There was a shearer scheduled for Saturday, plus several farmers were hoping to sell lambs. I went crazy with the sheep photos. The bottom image is a Shetland lamb, the top one is an Icelandic ram, I think? (the Shetland and Icelandic rams shared a stall, so it's one or the other.) Look at those horns!

I was home on Saturday in time for lunch with the professor. I'd hoped for a relaxing few days together...but relaxing doesn't seem to be in our vocabulary lately! We discovered, also on Saturday, that the professor would have to head back to Winnipeg right away to continue the house hunting..it's really a seller's market up there. The house we're most interested in is now being shown, and he has volunteered to continue working on this. We need a house, and now's the time frame for finding one! I'm so tired out from travel that it was all I could do to print out his boarding pass and feed him lunch before he rushed out the door today. He's off to Minneapolis, where he'll stay with a good friend of ours. Then he'll continue north by car.

The dogs and I are enjoying a quiet day at home, doing laundry, but I've also got my work cut out for me this week. The proofs for Knit Green: 20 Projects and Ideas for Sustainability --BOOK NUMBER TWO-- have arrived!! I'll be spending the next week or so concentrating hard on making the very last edits on this. I'm excited about this topic, and I'm hoping the knitting world will be too! The book will be out by the end of September, I hear. Just in time for me to start talking about it...in Winnipeg. :)

I hope you're having a more restful weekend than we've had!