Alpacas at Oxford (MS) Fiber Arts Festival

Cathy Stauffer, of Coldwater Alpaca Ranch, will bring two of her adorable alpacas to the First Annual Oxford Fiber Arts Festival, January 21 - 23. Here are two of them enjoying the recent snow 'event' in North Mississippi.


Cathy will also have for sale at her booth: yarn, roving, raw fiber, batts, hand knit items, soap, lotion and other bath products, plus her best-selling dryer balls. What is a dryer ball? I had not heard of these, but Cathy says they are an all-natural alternative to dryer sheets. They contain no chemicals and are reusable, making them an eco-friendly product. Several in the dryer help to speed the drying process by lifting and separating clothes. They reduce static and soften the fabric. And they are pretty!

See blog posts below for information about workshops, lectures, Make & Take, etc. at the First Annual Oxford Fiber Arts Festival, Jan. 21 - 23 at the Powerhouse Community Art Center.

Oxford (MS) Fiber Arts Festival - Workshops

Several workshops will be offered during the Fiber Festival (please see post below for more info about the festival).

Fiber Artist Carolyn Webb, of Tucson AZ, will offer the following workshops:

Felted Clutch - Saturday, Jan. 22, 1-3 p.m.

In this 2-hour workshop, you will learn how to make a small felted envelope purse using wet felting techniques. You will create your fabric by blending colored roving and yarn, which can then be further embellished using yarn embroidery, beads and buttons.

Previous experience not required. $35, plus the cost of materials - available on site during the Festival.

Nuno-Felted Scarf - Sunday, Jan. 23, 1-4 p.m.

In this 3-hour workshop you will learn a unique art form - nuno-felting - to design your own silk scarf. Nuno is a wet felting technique which combines silk chiffon with wool roving and hand-dyed mohair locks to create a beautiful, one-of-a-kind embellished silk scarf.

Previous experience not required. $60. Fee includes white silk scarf and hand-dyed mohair locks. Wool roving to be purchased at the Festival.

See examples of Carolyn's fiber art by clicking on the box in the upper right of this page.

Penny Barnette, of Sky Loom Weavers in Cat Springs TX, will offer the following workshop:

Hand Painting Sock Yarn - Sunday, Jan. 23, 1-4 p.m.

In this 3-hr workshop you will create your own individual sock yarn - in your favorite colors. Learn techniques for dyeing as well as setting the color, and go home with yarn to knit a perfect pair of socks.

Previous experience not required. $40, includes all materials to make your project, including one skein of wool/bamboo blend superwash sock yarn. Additional skeins available for purchase.

All workshop participants should bring a couple old bath towels, small scissors and thin plastic gloves (if allergic to soaps and/or dyes). Wear clothing that you won't mind getting wet or stained with dye, and be sure to wear comfortable shoes as you will be standing for most of the workshop sessions.

To sign up for the workshops, please e-mail or call Knit 1 Oxford, 662-238-2829, or knit1oxford@gmail.com.

Oxford (MS) Fiber Arts Festival - "Vintage Knitting & Crochet" Opening Talk

The First Annual Oxford (MS) Fiber Arts Festival will be held January 21 - 23, 2011, at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center on University at 14th Street. Vendors, demonstrations, workshops, an opening talk by fiber artist Carolyn Webb, make & take for kids, alpacas, and much more will happen during the three day festival.

Admission is free and open to the public. Event hours are:

Friday, January 21, 5-9 p.m.

Saturday, January 22, 10-4 p.m.

Sunday, January 23, 1-4 p.m.

Featured in the Vendors' Market will be hand crafted items such as yarns, knitted and woven apparel and linens, soaps, lotions, jewelry and baskets. Supplies and tools for fiber artists will include yarns, roving, batts, skein winders, drop spindle kits, spinning wheels, rug hooking and punch needle resources, hand-carved and turned tools for knitters, crocheters, weavers, spinner, beadworkers, and much more.

Children will feel welcome at the event -- not only will there be live alpaca, but special kid friendly crafts including macrame, felted bead making and yarn bombing will be offered on Saturday.

Saturday and Sunday workshops offered will be:

Felted Clutch

Nuno Felted Scarf

Hand Painting Sock Yarn

(Please see above post for description of workshops)

The opening lecture, "Vintage Knitting and Crochet," will be a Powerpoint talk by Carolyn Webb of Tucson, AZ. The free talk, at 6:00 p.m., will feature many physical examples of vintage knitted and crocheted apparel, patterns, booklets and books. The public is invited to bring vintage items to show after the talk. A reception will be held after the talk at 7 p.m.

Please see other posts for more information about the Fiber Arts Festival.

Lulu's Christmas Corsage

I should be wrapping packages, or putting up the fake tree, but I didn't feel like it today. I was thinking about my mother and how she always wore a Christmas corsage. She was good at arranging greens and table decorations, maybe she created the corsages herself. They were usually made with holly leaves, red berries, maybe some evergreen twig, and little white bells that looked like sugared Easter eggs. I wish I could find those bells today! Lulu always looked cheerful and upbeat during the holidays.

So instead of doing something practical today, I made a Christmas corsage! Not quite like the ones Lulu wore, which I wish I could reproduce, but it was fun to be in my studio and I like the whimsical finished product. Did I go to far? There is a lot of stuff in it -- pine cones and seed pods, tiny bells, leaves and a vintage red blossom, paper rose, stamens, feathers, even cats whiskers! (I knew I was saving them for something.)

To make the little bird I glued birch bark to card stock, and when it was dry I used my "Martha" craft punch to stamp out the bird.

I really like the cats whiskers.

Morning Glories by Studio Door

I planted morning glories in two large planters on each side of my studio doors. They climbed up the strings and down, over the doors, and up and down the opposite side. There was much foliage, but no blossoms! It was so hot and dry this summer, they baked in the afternoon sun. I watered them like crazy. Then this fall, after most of the foliage was gone, the morning glories started to bloom, and there was no stopping them! They bloomed until I pulled them out two weeks ago to string Christmas lights around the studio doors.

Some of the blooms drooped down in front of the door. Here is Charlie wearing a live morning glory blossom behind his ear.

Fooling around with Photoshop Elements

When we were home in September we went up to the farm to visit John and Linda. Wow, their gardens are so beautiful, flower and vegetable! The next day we met them on Mt. Greylock (?) and Linda had picked a bunch of beautiful raspberries for us. I remember going up to the farm 40 years ago to pick berries in Mary's big, productive berry patch. Mmmm.

In Linda's garden I took a photograph of these phlox with part of an old machine sitting on a rock. It was a nice juxtaposition. When I came home I had HUGE problems with my old computer, and eventually decided to get a new one. Now I have to learn all new programs and software. It isn't easy. Since this photo didn't turn out so hot, I thought I would fool around with it in PSE. Wow, you can do a lot of fun things with a photo in this program.

Various "effects" I tried were: watercolor, sprayed strokes, Pointilist, mezotint, and grainy- speckled. I think I like watercolor (first one) and grainy-speckled (last one).

Autumn Arrangement

It isn't really much of an arrangment. Charlie brings home the flowers and I just kind of plop them in an appropriate size vase.

Charlie likes going to the Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings and buys delicious local produce, preserves and baked goods in season. Sometimes he brings flowers home for me too! This bouquet, picked in October, had several stemmed okra pods in it! That I had never seen in a bouquet, but they looked very pretty. And it sure beats eating the stuff!