Jackson, Michigan (continued)

...........as I was saying:   I found this wonderful artisan at Jackson!   Picked up a dozen of her fabulous sock skeins, and she is going to send me a dozen more, once the show is over.  With small producers like Cakewalk Yarns, it's often best for the artisan to try to sell materials at full price during the festival and then to deal with people like me, who need to buy at some kind of discount.  Here she is -- we will see more of her.  She's talented.

In addition, I found a pile of gorgeous yarn made by a woman from Fort Wayne, Indiana, under the name Hippie Penguin (!), who is leaving the business.   This isn't a recession story really.  She says she can't do both -- raise a family and dye yarn.  So, really, it's a story about women's lives.  I wish her luck.  I bought a LOT of what she had left.

After a delightful lunch in the winery's newly spacious tasting rooms, a big fat egg-salad sandwich on Zingerman's fabulous rye bread with some watermelon on the side -- all for five bucks -- I took off, or at least would have liked to take off. 

The difficulty was this:  When I came west to Jackson, it was hard not to notice that the entire eastern side of Interstate 94 was completely choked with single-file traffic moving at about 10 miles an hour.  The geniuses in charge of road construction have apparently decided not to pay attention to weekends.  It used to be that, when lanes were not actively under construction, people took down the barricades and dreaded Orange Cones over the weekend so people could move about.  No more.  Now when there are no workmen anywhere, the cones remain, even though work is only prospective.  So I couldn't get home the easiest way.

The solution, of course, was Matilda:  Larry suggested that I set her (she's my GPS) for Lansing and do what she said until I ran into I-96.  So I did.  She took me through the wilds of rural Michigan for a long time.  It was gorgeous.  Finally, I ended up on state road 127, which leads to I-96, but NOT before I went through Mason, Michigan, and noticed signs that said ANTIQUE DISTRICT.  You KNOW that I can't resist that kind of sign.

So I went into Mason.  The district turned out to be a series of antique shops and 'malls' (not big enough to be malls, but never mind) occupying a square block.  The first one, which was otherwise interesting enough, had no vintage buttons.  The second one had no antiques!!!  This, too, reflects our economy.  So much of the texture of America is simply vanishing.  BUT.  This weekend the building provided a home for a craft festival.  I found some DARLING brooches made by a woman I'd never met before, Linda Maxwell, from vintage zippers, buttons, and silk neckties.  The prices were, shall we say, ridiculous (someday women will learn to value their labor, but I'm tired of delivering lectures everywhere I go, so increasingly I'm just rolling with it).  I bought about 20 of them.  They will be wondrous on hats, coats, and god knows where else....our clients have good imaginations!

Here is the porch area of the no-antiques antique mall containing the craft show -- The lovely person sitting at the table had been handing out pie samples all day and was just plain exhausted.  It was VERY hot, with humidity matching the temperature.

 
I forgot to mention the amazing Suri Alpaca handspun yarn that I bought from a Michigan producer at the festival, and the root beer float procured at a genuine old-fashioned A and W root beer stand (shades of childhood).  (I will never be thin, I guess).   Got home in one piece and dumped everything on the lounge coffee table, much to Lois' and Larry's astonishment.  More soon.    I'm going to be home now for awhile, the better to get some scholarship done!!!!!

svb

Wine and Wool?

Yesterday, I visited Sandhill Creek Winery's annual, modestly sized fiber festival -- one day only, maybe a dozen vendors.  It's a wonderful spot -- close enough to Jackson, Michigan, to be near a grocery store and espresso shop, but far enough away to be well and truly in the wilds of rural Michigan.  At the very end of this photograph, you can see the start of the festival -- the driveway is VERY narrow, the booths drawn along in a medieval string until you get to the winery's wonderful tasting rooms. 

Before I was done, I should say in advance, I had found more truly fresh, engaging wool than I sometimes find at some of the big, better established and better-known shows.  There are reasons for this:  The brand new people often choose to show their work first at small shows, where table costs are relatively low.  So -- in search of new blood, I go to such places, and find WONDERFUL yarns and buttons -- it's SOOOOO exciting.  The great find for this trip was Cakewalk Yarns (see the next posting). 

....and here are some of the vines and scattered picnic tables that make things so pleasant:

I visited with Ann Ryan of Color Bug Yarns at long last.  We have been missing one another for quite some time.  She is a Detroiter -- I want her to come to the studio with her yarns, which are unusual and quite beautiful (colorways that are surprising and deftly painted, particularly in fingering weight), but she has two kids, ages 3 and 5, and both parents told me that I do NOT want the kids in the studio at this stage in their development.   Too bad.   Maybe later.  In the meantime, I bought a boatload of her yarns in a wide array of colors.  Here's Ann from the back, standing behind her booth.  I know.  An odd photograph.  But -- I couldn't find her later when I could have shot her booth from the front!

....and then, of course, there was Riin Gill (Happy Fuzzy Yarns) -- Riin of the delightful purple-y hair and stunning yarns, woven pieces, roving, and so on.  I bought only a handful of her skeins and then some gorgeous green-toned rovings for our spinners.  But -- it was great to see her, and, right next door, also to see Barb Lambrecht (Winding Creek Wool), from whom I secured lovely sheepy-y pendants and glass buttons.  Barb is the one who does NOT have purple hair.  The third photograph shows the back side of Barb's booth with its cool baskets -- Riin's booth off to the right.

The new find for the day was this gorgeous woman -- the owner of Cakewalk Yarns.  She makes truly delectable sock yarns with speckles in two dyeing stages, and at a reasonable price -- has only been doing it for six months or so.  What a gifted person!  But Blogspot won't let me download more photos, so on to the next entry.  Two can play this game!!!!!!!!!!!!   I've got a Ph.D., and Blogspot does NOT.     smiling...........  svb

Riin Gill Visit......!

When my two wonderful beginning knit-crochet people came last evening, they found ---PILES AND PILES of utterly gorgeous yarn and roving and combed top........Riin Gill (who makes and sells Happy Fuzzy Yarn) had arrived!  Riin is an up-and-coming Michigan fiber artist, a dyer and spinner, expanding her stock and colorways and fiber offerings steadily and brilliantly.  She brought us some of the prettiest and most ARTFUL hand-painted Tencel I've seen in a very long time, truly painterly, and in colors that are both engaging and unpredictable.  I do so look forward to seeing where Riin goes -- each time I see her, she has done something new and adventursome.  Sometimes, hand-painters are content to do the same thing, year after year.  It's at that point, I confess, that I stop watching them develop -- because they aren't developing anymore.  Not this young woman.  Two of the skeins walked off the premises before she had pulled out of the parking lot.  The only problem I see right now is that she is still not making more than about ten skeins in a single, reliably similar colorway.  But never mind.  That's better than the four she used to do.   She works in turkey roasters in her basement!!!

NOTE, please, if you are a client, that Riin will return for a trunk show on July 16 from noon to 6:00.  This is a rare opportunity -- you get to buy MICHIGAN (she lives in Ann Arbor) and you get to buy GORGEOUSLY, all in one stop.   She will have yarns (including some handspun) and fiber suitable for spinning or needle-felting.  They will dazzle you.    They certainly dazzle ME!      svb