This and That –

This past week has been a blur of snow days, meetings, school delays and working on taxes, and YIKES,  I haven’t updated this blog with the winner of my drawing from my last post.  The results are in, and the winner is Andrea , who is knitsandknots on etsy.com, where she sells some really cute knitting patterns for baby items, and who blogs here: http://knitsandknotsweb.blogspot.com/.  Congratulations, Andrea !  I’ll be sending you an e-mail so I can find out if you prefer the yarn or spinning batt, and get your address.  (The picture is  of the yarn: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17982819)

Now, for some other news.  It’s less than a month until the Homespun Yarn Party, an event featuring  30 indie fiber folks, getting together to show and sell our products and have fun.  I’ll be there as a vendor – would love to see you!  Here are the details:

Second Annual Homespun Yarn Party! March 15, 2009

Who: All your favorite local yarn dyers and spinners, plus some extra crafty goodness! And all our knitting/crocheting/spinning friends (you!) of course!!

Where: Historic Savage Mill 8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763  Just off I-95, plenty of parking!

When: Sunday, March 15, 2009 – 12 PM to 4 PM

Why: Who needs an excuse to get together and craft?! We wanted to get together and spread some fiber love!

In addition to some great crafty vendors, we’ll also have:
free lessons on knitting, crochet, spinning, fabulous door prizes to be given away throughout the event,crafty goody bags for participants (while supplies last) and weather-permitting, a sit and spin/crochet/knit area out on the deck.

A complete list of vendors and more details on this event are available here: http://www.homespunyarnparty.blogspot.com/

And if you like supporting and learning about indie fiber artists, you may be interested in the Phatfiber Sampler Box.  The Phat Fiber Sampler box is a way for independent fiber, yarn and related needlecraft companies and artisans to promote their products through a tactile goodie box that goes on sale once monthly. Contributors get exposure while the consumers get to handle and experiment with products before making larger purchases.   Here’s a peek at the February box I received:

It included several mini skeins of yarn, roving, several different kinds of handmade stitch markers, knitting patterns for socks, fingerless gloves and a lace scarf, hand lotion, a kit for making felted beads, and even a knitting comic book!  I’m a member of this group, and just sent out my first batch of samples in the now-sold out February box.  If you want to know more about this, and get on the list for notification about when the March box goes on sale, go to http://phatfiber.com.  Support your local independent fiber artist!

And finally, one last note – the new knitting group in Front Royal is going well — if you live near enough, please come join us!  Our next meeting is tomorrow (Sat. Feb. 21st) at the Daily Grind on Main Street, Front Royal VA  from 10 a.m. until noon, in the back room.  I’ll be there with some new batts and rovings for show and tell.