Now here's something vintage...

From the British Pathe film library, a short about Tunisian crochet from the 1930s. Video-based instruction isn't just an invention of the internet! Shorts like this might have been shown in a movie theater along with newsreels before the main feature started.


The blanket that she crochets is fine, but man, what I'd really like to find a pattern for is that amazing blouse with the zig-zag design!

Aurora Fiber Festival

The DH and I had our birthdays recently -- his on the 10th and mine on the 15th (yeah, yeah, tax day, sorry, couldn't help it, my father was an accountant, but at least it fell on a Sunday the year I was born). My son wanted to get together with us and the inevitable question was, "And what shall we all do?"

My suggestion -- "Well, there's this little fiber festival up in Aurora..."

Neither of the fellows seemed disinclined, so we picked up the man-child and went to Aurora to spend some time the Aurora Colony Handspinner Guild's annual Fiber Faire, the lead offering as fiber show season begins.

It's just a small fiber faire, held in little Grange hall just outside of Aurora. But oh, there were some lovely things to be had! There were plenty of vendors:


And quite a number of spinners:


There were spinning tools for sale. My son was a bit alarmed by the sign that read, "Orifice Hooks," which took some explaining and a handy wheel to point out where the orifice in question is located.


One could, if one were so inclined, buy an entire fleece and prepare it as one desires:


That was a little beyond my current equipment list and skill set, so I browsed the lovely prepared roving and top available, including this eye-popping display of saturated color from Dicentra Designs:

I came for pygora and I found pygora. I knew I wanted to leave with some pygora, so the only difficulty was deciding which of the angelically soft fiber I wanted to leave with. At $12 per ounce, one must decide these things carefully.

I sat in on a quickie needle felting workshop, as I hadn't tried needle felting before, and made this pretty kitty:

From there, we went to lunch (next door at Top 'o Hill Restaurant, since 1926!), and then drove into Aurora to visit the Old Aurora Colony Museum, which documents the Christian communal society that settled and thrived in the area in the 1800's. Then up to Portland because both DH and I needed some new pants, and we had a visit to the Apple Store to see the new iPads. Very nice! Want! But I'll wait for the early adopters to find all the bugs first. Then a bookstore and dinner.

So what fiber did I come home with? My son bought me this azure-and-malachite colored silk/merino top from Dicentra Designs for a birthday present. Licorice approves of the choice:


And I decided on this silvery pygora top, blended with about 20% merino to make it easier to spin yet still cloud-like and retain it's oh-so-cashmere softness:

A lovely day was had by all.

Shaun the Sheep - the Musical!

Have you seen this little musical cartoon from Aardman studios yet? Wallace and Gromit fans as well as sheep lovers everywhere will like this:



(If the video is getting cut off on the right side on your screen, here's the YouTube link)

If you don't know who Shaun the Sheep is, get yourself a copy of A Close Shave. Brilliant!

A contest! From Lorna's Laces!

There's $500 worth of yarn at stake here. Did that get your attention? Thought it would!

Check out How 'Bout a Contest? on the Lorna's Laces blog. There's a luscious new silk/alpaca DK yarn just waiting for a great new name, and Lorna's Laces is offering up an armload of yarn as the grand prize. Break out your Thesaurus, browse the yarn database on Ravelry, and see what you can come up with.