FibreFest North

Acknowledgements

Thank-you to these organizations and individuals for their contributions to FibreFest North! The event would not have been as successful without your contributions, encouragement and support. (In alphabetical order.)

DeeDee Williams, Moorpark, California

Elizabeth Huyer, Owen Sound, Ontario

Emma Hogbin, Owen Sound, Ontario

Katherine Matthews, Guelph, Ontario

Lindenhof Wool Mill, Allenford, Ontario (Angelika & Sabine Hamel)

Maryann Thomas, Owen Sound, Ontario

Mill Creek Chocolates, Owen Sound, Ontario

Nomad Press, Fort Collins, Colorado (Deb Robson)

Oceanwind Knits, Teeswater, Ontario (Lori Law)

Philosopher’s Wool Company, Inverhuron, Ontario (Ann & Eugene Bourgeois)

Riverside Yarns, Owen Sound, Ontario (Colleen Raco)

Shelridge Farm, Durham, Ontario (Buffy & Don Taylor)

Spinners’ Quarterly, Toronto, Ontario (Lorraine Smith)

Waterview Resort, Wiarton, Ontario (Dave, Evan, Tracy & the staff)

Wild Geese Fibres, Gibbons, Alberta (Barb Brown)

Fibrefest North: Summary

(image heavy post)

Back at the end of April, I was a participant at a technology conference called HickTech, held here in my city. What some of us knew was that this wasn’t just a technology conference. Emma thought it would be cool to have a birthday party and invite some of her geeky friends: HickTech grew out of that. (You know the line of thinking: “Hm...my birthday is coming up and it would be fun to have party. I know! Why don’t I organize a conference and invite my friends to come and present programs! What a blast!”)

Partway through the HickTech presentations, I wondered what I’d be doing on my birthday, and decided it would be nice to get a half-dozen of my knitting and spinning buddies together. Just a stressfree getaway at a nice venue—a break from the day-to-day routine of life. A couple of days of not having to cook meals; some opportunities to share techniques; get some help with a knitting problem. Fibrefest North grew out of that idea. Thanks to Emma for the inspiration, and to Emma and Maryann for encouraging me to go ahead with the idea. I’m embarrassed to say that I forgot to thank them during the event, so am doing so now.

In the end, a baker’s-dozen knitters and spinners, and a half-dozen husbands, gathered at the Waterview Resort for a couple of days of informal learning, and just hangin’ out. Lorraine taught Mona to spindlespin. Blogless Pat decided to try her hand at laceknitting. Buffy showed some of us how to “knit” bobbles with a crochet hook.  Laurie taught a few people to read laceknitting charts.

Angelika presented an informative tour of the Lindenhof Wool Mill, running each piece of machinery and explaining its role in the process from fleece to skeined yarn. We stayed at the mill for knitting, conversation, and refreshments. Many thanks to Angelika for interrupting the production schedule to get the mill tidied up for visitors and to prepare for the tour.

Thanks also to the vendors who brought yarns, patterns, needles and buttons. Given that there was no theme or classes to guide them in selecting what to bring, I thought we had good variety with little overlap.

Thanks also to those who contributed items for inclusion in the participants’ “Welcome” package and for door prizes. As it turned out, there were more prizes than participants, so we had 2 rounds of draws. (What a happy dilemma.)

Finally, thanks to the staff at the Waterview Resort for keeping us warm and well-fed.

All in all, a successful and enjoyable time for all, I think. A great location, splendid weather, wonderful people, lots of laughter. See you all in October 2008.

Looking across the lake from the motel's waterfront. It was a misty Saturday morning.

Looking up to the motel from the waterfront.

Angelika talking about skirting fleeces.

The group at Lindenhof.

We ate, we shopped.

We knitted and spun.

Update 3

The countdown has started – for me at least. FibreFest North is less than a month away!

Registration closes on September 14^th. The Waterview Resort reports that are still 3 rooms available. If anyone is shilly-shallying about attending, you’re running out of time! Book one of these rooms before September 10^th; contact the Waterview at 1-877-534-0921.

If you would like to attend the retreat, but are unable to get a room and would like “Meals Only”, send an email to me before Sept 14^th.

Market Morning

Any participant with (even vaguely) fibre-related product for sale is invited to bring it on Sunday morning. (This includes handpainted yarns, rovings, tools, patterns, chocolate—you get the drift.) If you would like to sell, send an email to fibrefestnorth@yahoo.ca with “Market” in the subject line. I’ll send back a short questionnaire (what are you planning to sell, accepted methods of payment, etc.). We’ll post that information here so participants are prepared, and know to bring USD cash, CAD cash, chequebooks, credit cards, etc.

Area shops that would like to attend to sell that morning should also contact me.

Who’s Selling

Katherine will be bring yarns and needles from "Shall We Knit" in New Hamburg, ON. She'll have JoJo lace yarns, Hiya Hiya needles, Regia sock yarns in the Kaffee Fasse colourways, and some other lace yarns, as well as some patterns. She'll take payment by cash (Cdn at USD at par) and credit cards.

Maryann from "The Ginger Press" is considering a serendipitous selection of new and used books and yarn. (There’s still some Koigu in the store, isn’t there?) She will accept payment by cash/cheque/credit card in CAD, or USD at par.

Lori from "Oceanwind Knits" hopes to have some of her patterns and hand-dyed yarns: merino, suri-silk laceweight, 100% cultivated silk. She will accept CDN cash and US cash at par.

Colleen Raco from "Riverside Yarns" in Owen Sound will have buttons, patterns by Fiddlesticks Knitting, yarns by Fleece Artist and Marasol, and Sari Silk.

Ted has 6 spindles made by Tracy Eichheim, his preferred maker. They are Tracy's "Comet" and "Heart" models.  Payment by check or cash, CDN or USD at par.

Buffy Taylor from Shelridge Farm will bring a selection of her kits and yarns. Payment is by cash (CDN or USD) or credit card.

Additionally, FibreFest North attendees are invited to check the Shelridge Farm website; if there is yarn or a kit you’d like to purchase, call them toll-free at 1-866-291-1566, have your credit card ready for payment. Buffy will bring the goods to FibreFest, obviating the shipping charge.

If there’s any garment or yarn you’re particularly interested in seeing, give Buffy a call and she’ll do her best to pack it up and bring it. (She regrets that she can’t bring her entire inventory.)

Open House at the Wool Mill

Lindenhof Wool Mill welcomes Fibrefest North-ers for an openhouse during the event.

Angelika and Sabine intend to run the mill equipment for us (including the feltmaker), and will answer questions. (Example: “Why is the feedbelt on the carding machine marked off in sections?”) This is a great opportunity to see how a small production mill makes yarn, from skirting the fleece through to winding the yarn into skeins. If you’re a handspinner and have never seen the process from beginning to end, it’s quite amazing. (It takes 6 machines, for example, to do what a spinner does with a set of hand cards, a wheel or spindle, a niddy noddy, and their hands.)

The mill store, carrying yarns, rovings, and other goodies, will be open for sales. (They accept payment in cash (US or CAN). They are not equipped to to take credit cards or debit/check cards.)

Update 2

Rooms

The Waterview reports that there are about a half dozen rooms remaining. In other words, if you're planning to attend and want a room at the resort, you best call them to get a room assignment. The phone is toll-free 1-877-534-0921.

The resort is tightly staffed, and if you call when the guys are in the kitchen serving dinner for 150 people, they may ask you to call back. I really do suggest you call between 9am - 4pm EST, Monday-Friday, when Tracy the Office Goddess is there. She is a pleasure to deal with, in my experience.

Remember that if you are unable to secure a room and need to sleep elsewhere, you can still buy the "meal package": Saturday breakfast, lunch, supper; Sunday breakfast, lunch; snacks Friday and Saturday nights; taxes; event registration fees for participants.

Information about fees is here. Registration process is here.

Roommates

If you're wanting a roommate, leave a comment in this post.

Additionally, Lorraine is looking to travel with someone from Toronto. Contact her at spinnersquarterlyATsympaticoDOTca

Button

Here’s a FibreFest North button image for you to put on your blog or website.

You know the drill. Right click on the button image and download (upload?) to your computer, by selecting "Save image as..." (or whatever equivalent term your browser/OS uses...); then upload the image file to your blog or webpage and link it to the FibreFest North blog. (That’s this one.)

Teach, Learn, Share

Put a group of fibre-workers in a room, and at some point you’ll hear things like:

Dang ! I just can’t get that [whatever] to work right!
I know how that works. Let’s take a look at what you’ve got.

Does anyone know how to...?
Oh, yea; I can help you with that. Just let me finish this row.

Um…I think I did something wrong...maybe?
Um…yup. You did. Let’s take a look at it and see what happened.

People share ideas and techniques. They help each other out. They make suggestions for how you could approach a problem. They offer suggestions on coordinating colours and how to sew something together. They might troubleshoot a pattern for you and show you how to fix mistakes. Or how to use a tool.

There’ll be lots of time at FibreFest North for this kind of informal learning and teaching **. Already, people are talking about what they want help with, or what they’ll help out with. I’ve been volunteered to help some people with their spindlespinning, and another person with her sock knitting.

On the other side, I’m totally mystified by how handcards work, and hope a spinner will be able to show me how to use them efficiently.

Marilyn will have her spinning wheel along. So will a few other people, I think. There'll be help with spinning.

Will anyone be bringing a drum carder that can handle merino and/or Icelandic fleece?

If there’s a group of people that want help with a particular thing, we’ll have a sign-up sheet available on the Friday night/Saturday morning to coordinate their getting together.

It's amazing what you can learn just by hanging around with people. You can learn more if you ask for help.

What do you want help with, or want to learn? What can you help others with? Leave a comment below.

**And it should be pointed out that if you want some peace and quiet to work on your own project, you can get that at FibreFest North, too.

Update 1

July 2nd, 2007

• The registration instructions have been revised slightly, which should make them easier to follow. (I hope.)  You can always email to ask questions.
• In response to enquiries, we're offering rates for people who want to stay alone, and for groups of 3 and 4 to a room. See the updated fees here.
• Do you want to share a room? See here.

Roommates

A couple of people have emailed me to ask about a roommate matching service.

People have booked a room, and are willing to share it.

People want to attend, and are looking for a roommate before booking a room.

If you want a roommate, leave a comment to this post. I suggest you put your email address in the body of the comment, so people can contact you. When you get a match, send me an email and I'll remove your comment.