Campaigns, Craft Fairs, and the Missing LYS

There is something wonderful about Saturdays. Maybe it's the no work no school thing that makes them so great! Husband rushed off bright and early this morning for his spinning demo. He was well armed with about 2 dozen spindles he'd made and painted himself as well as a large basket of hand dyed roving he and our daughter had prepared. I don't even know when he left the house--I slept in today!

By mid-morning, daughter and I had manged to get ourselves up, dressed, fed, and done with most of our clean up chores, so we headed into town. Our goals for the day were to snag some Kerry -Edwards bumper stickers and campaign buttons at the Democratic Headquarters and to check out progress at the spinning demo. The visit to the campaign headquarters was very interesting. I've never been heavily involved in politics, just firm in my beliefs. It really was cool to be in the company of so many people who think the way I do politically. That was very refreshing, because usually I find myself surrounded by conservative Republicans!

The Farmer's Market, site of the spinning demo, was D-E-A-D! There was hardly anyone there. It turns out that a big craft show was being held the next town over this weekend. That's where everyone was! Aiken's Makin is the name of the festival. We ended up over there this afternoon; it had been YEARS since we'd been. In fact, daughter (who is 11) said she'd never been, so I guess it's been at least that long since we have. I must say that I was highly disappointed in the quality of the crafts. If you want tons of candles (all of which look alike--not very attractive and in canning jars) or purses made from cheapo looking fabric, then you are in the right place. I saw ONE booth selling anything knitting related, and that consisted of a booth with maybe 2 dozen cotton dishcloths knitted in basketweave. They were pretty and reasonably priced ($2 each) but I don't need dishcloths. We found two vendors out of the whole lot who were doing anything that looked like it required talent. One man was selling hand-turned (as in made on a lathe) bowls which were gorgeous. I think he's a friend of the husband of one of our spinning friends. (Did that sentence make any sense??) Our friend's husband also makes bowls. In fact, I have an order in with him to make two black walnut bowls for us to give as Christmas gifts. The other worthwhile (in my opinion!) vendor was a man selling hand made boxes. These were gorgeous jewelry boxes made out of different kinds of exotic furniture grade woods. I bought two of them! One is for me, and one is going to be a Christmas gift for daughter. Shhh!! Don't tell!

On the knitting front, my sock with the Twinkletoes yarn is coming along beautifully!! I should finish the first one tomorrow. I turned the heel this afternoon on the drive over to the craft fair and will pick up the gusset stitches later this afternoon. This might be my fastest pair of socks yet. Good thing, because I really need to finish my Making Waves sock for the 6 Sox KAL. The new pattern is going up next week!

I also got two new patterns today. One is a lacy poncho from Chic Knits http://www.chicknits.com/lacyponcho.html and the other is a sock pattern called Landlocked Socks. I'll have to dig up the URL for that one. It's a great looking sock pattern. I can't wait to start.

Hey, I've got to tell you about our trip to the LYS in Aiken, and the true reason we ended up at the craft fair!! We didn't set out this afternoon intending to go to the craft fair. We were going to visit the LYS because we'd gotten a flyer from them yesterday saying they had moved to a new store. We finally found the new store. The flyer said it was "open and airy" and they told the truth!! The doors were wide open, and the place was completely gutted!!! It looks as if they are still in the process of renovations. We walked over the two blocks to where the store had been originally, and the place was completely empty. Sounds like poor planning on someone's part. The flyer we got advertised a class as starting today. Hmmm.... Interesting.