The sun is finally shining! .....or maybe not....

I woke up this morning to bright shining sun.  It feels like I haven't seen the sun in years although I think it's only been about 10 days.  We had sun for the drive from Houston to Destin, FL last week but haven't seen it since.  Destin was really fun.  We went to be vendors at the January Spin-In.  It was a great group of spinners from all over the southeast and other places too.  It was a long show for us... arrive Tues, set-up Wed morning, be open Wed afternoon and all day Thurs, Fri and Sat, then drive home on Sun.  And it's a very different type of fiber festival - no classes or workshops, just 120 spinners in the ballroom, spinning, chatting, seeing old friends and getting to know new ones.  It's a really creative group, all spinning the kind of yarn they love.   We saw more "art-yarn" spinners in one room than we've ever seen before, lots of people spinning lace and everything in between.  It was great to actually see the yarn made from our fiber.

We did a lot of fiber dyeing leading up to Destin.  We dye lots of yarn and our own fiber but dyeing prepared combed top is a bit more challenging.  I think we did good since most of the fiber flew out of our booth.  We talked to other fiber dyers in Destin and got some great ideas for different dye techniques to play with.  Our next dye day should be really fun!

At every show we get asked about our wonderful baskets.  We have picked these up in a variety of places and use them to display our fiber and yarn.  They are made in Ghana, mostly by women, and made available in this country by people who want the weavers to get paid a fair wage for their work.  In Destin we sold one of our baskets to a lovely woman who was really insistent about having one.  We have found someone in our local area who will sell them to us wholesale.  Because they are a "Fair-Trade" item, the mark-up is really low but they are wonderful and every fiber person should have one.  I'm sure you've seen them.  They are round baskets in either natural color or with bright woven patterns and have a leather handle across the top.

As I have written this, the sun has vanished.  We are back to dreary overcast skies and cool temperatures.  I think they are predicting sun for later today.  I hope is comes.