The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival and Why I Might Become A Luddite

I'm a bit late with a post about this year's Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival held September 22nd and 23rd. I can sometimes procrastinate, but this time it's not my fault. It's Microsoft's fault! Seriously, it is! [If you don't care to read a rant about technology, skip the rest of this paragraph.] My computer got automatic Windows updates on September 25th and 26th and promptly ground to a halt. It ran. It even booted into Windows. But it ran so slowly that it was unusable. For example, when I clicked on the Chrome icon nothing happened. I waited. Got up to make a cup of tea. Came back to find the window for Chrome open but the page still trying to load.Tried to open Task Manager to see what might be wrong. Decided to clean the cat boxes while waiting. Came back and found Task Manager trying to open but blank. Ten minutes later Task Manager completed opening and told me my hard drive usage was at 100%. Now, just a minute (or 10). I know that I have gigs and gigs of space on my hard drive so this makes no sense. I used my tablet to google the issue, and sure enough others have had this problem after Windows updates. There are many pages with lists of possible solutions so I started working through them. Two weeks later, I had tried everything I could find except the nuclear option: reinstall Windows. It was that or pull this machine's plug for good. So, reluctantly I clicked the button to reinstall. Bottom line, it fixed the problem but uninstalled a lot of my software. To Microsoft's credit, they popped up a warning saying this would happen. But why did they uninstall their own applications (Office), but leave some third party applications alone? Bless their hearts, at least they didn't touch my data files. 

So, yes. I yearn to become a Luddite* and pull the plugs on all my electronics especially after having spent time at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival where all crafts are hand made and the most complicated machine is a spinning wheel. You knew I'd get around to talking about OFFF eventually, didn't you? 

OFFF, as usual, was just loaded with fibery fun. Unfortunately, I just got back in town from a vacation on the 22nd so I only had one day to enjoy it. My first stop was my CGOA chapter's display. We are Always In Stitches, and we meet in Tigard, OR on the second Saturday of each month. See our website for location and time and come join us if you're in the area. Every year we have a display of crochet at OFFF. Here's what this year's looked like.

Our display was conveniently located outside the gallery displaying the entries in the fiber arts competitions. Here are some ribbon winners in the crochet competition. The tan shawl on the left was the Grand Champion and was made by my friend Connie. The photo doesn't do it justice. It's in lace weight yarn and just a great piece. The doily on the right was Champion in it's category and also exceptional. The brown/purple gradient is one of my entries - the Decadent Bliss shawl pattern by Laurinda Reddig.

Some more crochet entries. This is called the Funky Chunky hat. :-) What fun.

Another of my entries. Wanderin' and Wonderin' also by Laurinda Reddig. I do like Laurinda's patterns!

I wish I had a better photo of this lovely shawl and also knew the name of the pattern.

This year's featured craft was felting. There were some absolutely amazing entries.

The next one is a tower on a rotating base. Incredible.

Some closeups of parts of the tower

I was pleased to see crochet displayed by some of the vendors this year. I always look for crochet friendly vendors and support them as much as I can. Lilliput Yarn had a lot of shawls displayed in their booth, and three of them were crocheted. I also love that the name of her business was inspired by her Corgi, and her yarns have dog related names.

This is the Lost Lake Shawl by Noriko Ho. It was the pattern for this year's Rose City Yarn Crawl mystery crochet along.

This lavender shawl was also made from a Rose City Yarn Crawl mystery crochet along pattern. Vicki's Hike by Julie Blagojevich was the pattern for 2017.

Lastly this is the Taegan Shawl by Kendrea Beers.

It's not surprising the next vendors chose to display a crocheted shawl since they're makers of hooks. Gina and Rob of Treasured Hooks make hand turned hooks in a variety of shapes to fit any hand. 

They had a version of the popular Virus Shawl by Julia Marquardt in their booth. 

Rock N' More Accents, a maker of magnetic shawl clasps had this gorgeous shawl in her booth. I didn't get a chance to ask the pattern name, but it looks like the Sunset Shawl by Laurinda Reddig. It's pinned with a lovely amethyst crystal. 

That's all I had time for at OFFF this year. Next year I'll have to remember not to schedule a vacation that will overlap it.

*Postscript regarding Luddites

You might be familiar with the commonly accepted definition of the term Luddite as a person who is opposed to progress and technology, and that is the way I used it above. However, this is a bit unfair to the original Luddites. They were a group of skilled textile workers in early 19th century England. They weren't opposed to technology for it's own sake but rather that some factory owners used the machinery to get around standard labor practices such as apprenticeships and also produced low quality goods. See this article on Smithsonian Magazine's website if you're interested in the story. I'm not opposed to technology either. Heavens, without computers and the internet, we wouldn't have Ravelry. I just want technology to work!

Please leave your comments below!

Granny Does Yoga

Back in August, I made a granny rectangle for Granny Square Day (August 15). 

Starting granny rectangles is a bit different from starting a granny square. Probably the most common way is to start with a chain for the length of your starting round. I don't care for the flimsiness of the chain so I started with a double crochet eyelet. I've seen this technique a variety of places, but I learned it in Marty Miller's Craftsy class Mastering Crochet Foundation Stitches. It's a great class, by the way, and covers all sorts of variations of foundation stitches and things you can do with them. For the eyelet foundation, chain 3 then dc into the 3rd chain from the hook. That's one eyelet. Repeat for your desired length. How long should that be? If you know what you want for your finished dimensions, subtract the short side measurement from the long side measurement. The result is how long to make your foundation. The first round of 3 dc clusters is made into the spaces of the eyelets.  

I liked my rectangle so I decided to continue working on it and use up some more leftover bits of yarn. I wasn't sure what I was going to make with it until I hit on the idea of a bag for my yoga mat. I kept going on the rectangle until its short dimension was a bit larger than the circumference of my rolled up yoga mat. Then I seamed it into a tube. For the bottom of the bag, I made a granny circle.

I made a strap that resembles a granny rectangle using this tutorial from the FutureGirl blog.

It needed to be a bit longer so I added a few rounds of granny clusters to the top, and this was the result. All and all, not bad considering I had no plan. Plan?? Who needs a plan??

So, dig out your stash of little leftover balls of yarn. You know you have one. But don't be square. Try a granny rectangle!

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival 2016 

 

The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival was last weekend. It was a gorgeous fall weekend if a bit on the warm side. I spent the weekend hanging out with my crochet guild buddies at the display our CGOA chapter - Always in Stitches put together. Many thanks to Karen for these 2 photos of the display.

 

 
I loved this felted octopus mobile that was entered in the felting category of the fiber crafts competition. There was also a great felted octopus hat.

There were 2 wonderful knitted blankets. One was adorned with many little sheep and has a matching pillow. Here's a section of it.

This fabulous blanket was made with the fiber of all the breeds whose names are knitted into it. It deservedly won the Diamond award - the best of the best.

There was the cutest little jackalope among the crochet entries. It was in a glass case and hard to photograph so this doesn't do it justice. It won grand prize in the crocheted toy category.

My shawl made from Laurinda Reddig's Robin's Wings pattern didn't do too badly either.

 

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival 2015

I love fiber festivals. I can't think of anything more fun than spending time with other fiber lovers shopping for yarn, admiring beautiful yarny creations and visiting with fuzzy alpacas, llamas, bunnies, sheep and goats. The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival is always held the last full weekend in September. Each year they have a featured craft, and this year it was, for the first time ever, crochet! 

Always In Stitches

For me and my fellow members of Always In Stitches, the local chapter of the Crochet Guild of America, the excitement started last year. We had a display at last year's festival to publicize crochet and spread the word that it would be this year's featured craft. We worked hard all year to finish lots of projects both for this year's display and for the crochet competition. The centerpiece of our display this year featured 8 versions of the Rose Trellis Shawlette by designer and teacher Darla Fanton. Darla created this pattern for last spring's Rose City Yarn Crawl in Portland. Each year in the weeks leading up to the yarn crawl, there are mystery crochet and knit alongs. Darla's shawlette was the project for the 2015 crochet along, and many stunning versions of it could be seen about the Rose City during the yarn crawl.

Here are a few other FO's from our display. The two shawls at the center were the mystery crochet along project from the 2014 Rose City Yarn Crawl - Rosaline by Laurinda Reddig.

This turkey hat by one of my fellow AIS members was a favorite of visitors to our display both last year and again this year. It's a kid magnet, but the adults love it too. So cute!

Competitions

The festival features many competitions. There are shows for the different fiber animal breeds, several spinning competitions, and the fiber division competitions for crocheted, knitted, woven and felted items and skeins of handspun yarn. This year's grand prize winner in the crochet division was this lovely doily in size 20 thread.

Remember my orange pullover from an earlier post? 

It won a 3rd place as did this filet crochet shawlette that I made from Kathryn White's Eolande pattern. 

Critters and Yarn

I always have to visit the animal barns. I love seeing all the different critters that produce fiber. Here's one of the inhabitants of the bunny barn getting a blow dry. At least I think there's a rabbit under all that fluff!

Another reason the bunny barn was a favorite of mine this year was that they were having a raffle. I do love a good raffle. Especially when I win something like some hand spun merino and silk yarn.

So if you're in the neighborhood next September or can plan a trip to Oregon, put the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival on your calendar. It's well worth the visit.