I just got back from an amazing weekend: I spent Friday night and all day Saturday with my favorite cashmere supplier, Jane from Spring Gate. We spent the time down in Bedford, VA at the Olde Liberty Fibre Faire (Bedford used to be called “Liberty”). For those of you who may not know it … I do alot of designing for Jane using her luscious cashmere and cashmere blends — so I offered to help her sell in her booth at the OLFF, a fund-raiser for Bedford Hospice House.

We stayed in a lovely B&B (much better than spending the night in a Super 8 or iffy-Comfort Inn) with a gorgeous view of the Peaks of Otter. The owners were very friendly and knew lots about the area’s history and local gossip and we had such fun chatting with them.

We went down Friday so we could set up the booth (it’s a 2 hour drive from Jane’s farm, which would have been pretty tough since the show opened at 10). Here are pictures once we had the booth all set … most of the designs (except for the big shawls) in these pictures are mine (and all available in my Ravelry shop) ….

We had SUCH a great time — great weather, great fellow fiber fanatics (including connecting with Elisabeth of Wolle’s Creations and Maggie Radcliffe, author-extraordinaire whose brand-new Circular Knitting book is the BEST I’ve ever read on the subject (and gives lots of great tips for knitting in general) and her Color Techniques which is my go-to book for teaching about color), and Lawre of Lawre Laine who has the most beautifully made knitting bags, needle cases, and other nifty holders for all things knitterly (she even will do custom orders … like my lime green circs case which I’ll get next weekend!). A wonderful fund-raiser, for a wonderful cause, with abso-toot-ly wonderful folks!

Mark your calendars now for the next “catching up with Mary and her knitting” events:

1. Saturday, April 21 — Dog House Yarns Spring Knitting Workshop (2nd Annual) — Graves Mountain. I’ll be teaching a class on color-work and getting the knitters started on either a baby tam or a color-work sampler
2. Friday-Sunday, April 27-29 — Dog House Yarns — working the shop each day … come on out and visit me!
3. Thursday-Monday, June 21-25 — The National Needlework Association’s trade-show in Columbus, OH — attending classes and hanging out with other shop folks (and my LYSowner)
4. Saturday-Sunday, September 29-30 — Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival — I’m scheduled to teach four classes again this year; come one out and enjoy my knitterly ramblings filled with tips and tricks based on my 40+ years of knitting experience! Kit and I had such a blast spending my 50th bday here last year … can’t wait to see what happens for my 51st!
5. Sunday, October 7 — Montpelier’s Fall Fibre Festival — a wonderful spot to meet-n-greet fellow fiber fanatics. Hopefullly I’ll work Jane’s booth again and be able to show folks the luxurious art of knitting with cashmere!
6. Friday-Saturday, October 12-13 — Spring Gate Farm’s Getting Cozy with Cashmere — I’ll again be workshop leader for learning all about cashmere while knitting on the farm. Jane has asked me to do a hands-on demo of working color-work in cashmere for Friday evening’s session and then switching to creating a lace-sampler all day Saturday while I teach the knitters about lace design.

Seriously, mark your calendars for these chances to knit with me … they often fill fast (not necessarily because of me but because they’re great opptys for knitting) … and you wouldn’t want to miss any of these great knitterly events.