Woolapalooza 2026!

Hey Pretty!

What're you gonna do, now that you've knit three pairs of surprisingly similar socks? 

I'm going to Wooster! 

Lol... that's right! It's time for Woolapalooza at the Wayne County Fairgrounds once again (aka The Great Lakes Fiber Show), and that's where I'll be for a good chunk of the day, with my knitting peeps...a knitted X marks the spot! 

Will I see you there? There's so much fun to be had, so shout out if you see me, and we'll grab a selfy! (Bring an umbrella this year!) Details and stash flash coming to the blog soon! 

Until next time, thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

Woolapalooza Number...???

It's official. I've lost count of how many times I've visited the Great Lakes Fiber Show at the Wayne County Fairgrounds on Memorial Day Weekend! My local knitting group (CKW) visits the yarn and our favorite vendors (Hi Jeanne, at Destination Yarn! We're coming for you first!)

Usually I put up this weekend's post on Saturday morning, as we are taking off for the fairgrounds, but I'm changing it up for 2025, and posting on FRIDAY! I'm not sure I've ever posted on a Friday before, but I'm gonna be up to my eyeballs in fiber fumes and yarn tomorrow, so I figured I'd better get this done while I still have my wits about me...

In short, if you're looking for the blog on Saturday afternoon, you're gonna be disappointed. But if you're looking for Pretty, I'll be in Wooster, and I'd love to see you! Just remember that the pink "X" marks the spot!

I promise to flash the new stash that comes home with me in the next post or two! 😜

Whether I see you or not over the next three days, I hope your Memorial Day Weekend is good. Remember those who gave their all for our country, and maybe have a hotdog or burger from the grill alongside your knitting. 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

(For anyone really counting, CKW started attending this event in 2009! 2020 was a Covid bust, so that means this is Woolapalooza Number FIFTEEN!)

To Everything, Turn Turn Turn

If you know, you know. There's a season for eveything. This is a universal truth that brings comfort to my soul. Spring is here with its longer days and tumultuous temperatures, making me question my wardrobe choices by noon each day. But spring also brings new life! 

I planted 6 daffodil bulbs last year, and they all came up! Only one is blooming, but I'm sure the rest won't be far behind. 

The duck was back in the courtyard at work, and her babies hatched this week! We herded them out, as per usual, to find more food and water as they grow. It was quite the kerfuffle, also as expected, but no video this year. 🤪

And I've learned a new skill! Some years ago, I learned to spin with drop spindles, and it was great fun, but it takes a long time to make yarn on a drop spindle! 

Last summer, a friend loaned me her spinning wheel, which was collecting dust in her houseful of rambunctious boys...and the prospect of learning to use it was daunting. But this week, inspired by the sun, I took it out and made some yarn! 

This is definitely practice yarn. The art batt it came from was full of different fibers, some of them very lumpy and bumpy... 

but that makes it perfect for practice. After all, if it's not supposed to be a fine, even, super-perfect yarn, then no pressure. Simply draft and treadle, treadle and draft, getting to know the wheel, and voilà! Yarn!

This batch still needs to be soaked and thwacked and measured, and I'm not sure what I'll do with it... but it was fun to make, and now i look forward to trying something new on that wheel.

Rain is coming, and temps are supposed to cool down for next week. I won't be sitting outside as much, but you can bet I'll keep ushering in springtime with my knitting and spinning! How will you celebrate this new season? Maybe with some rambunctious boys of your own? 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Bananas and Fiber...

It's just bananas, I tell ya!

Yes, I have knit some bananas. In fact, I've knit a whole, tiny bunch.

And there were monsters. Excuse me, Nomsters. Hungry, Nesting Nomsters. Sooo cute!

You know what else is bananas? My friends and I have been going to Woolapalooza since 2009! That's more than 10 years, yo! (Excluding, of course, 2020, the Year of Doom.) 

Every year, on Memorial Day weekend, we have met up, climbed into cars and traveled to Wayne County for a day of fiber, farm animals and fun! 

2017, I think...so fun!

There will be knitting, and much laughter. If we are lucky, the day will end with a margarita or two, and a little roll in the yarn that we have brought home! Oh, it's going to be a good day for Pretty!

One of my fave photos of this festival!

2010 yarn overload

Do you have big plans today? For the weekend? It's a long one for us in the US, and I know that many will have a cookout and gather with family to celebrate an extra day out of the office. Please also take a moment to reflect on those who have sacrificed more than anyone should have to for the sake of God and/or country. 

Enjoy your weekend, and if you happen to be planning a trip to the Great Lakes Fiber Show today, look for Pretty and her crew...X marks the spot!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Woolapalooza Wrap-Up 2018

Last Saturday my post was  kinda short, and my day was kinda long. This was a good thing, because last week was the annual trek to Woolapalooza for my knitting group! Are we happy to be here, Girls???

Yes, this is a weekend to be celebrated for sure! Yarn and fiber and animals...I am thankful, by the way, that I did not ride home with a lamb in my lap, because this was an option that was discussed...at length! But I digress...

Once we were out of the van, it was off to our favorite indie dyer, Destination Yarn! We had to get our hands on the Show Exclusive...Farmland Sunset!

Oh man! The purples! The pinks! The beauty of it all...we could barely control ourselves, and we dove right in!

I mean, just LOOK at it! (That's the mastermind behind all the color we love, right there she is. I am standing so close to a celebrity for this photo! Hi, Jeanne!)

While we were waiting in line, I did my best to capture a couple Saturday selphies with some of my favorite folks...

(I know that I am not as good at selphies as I am at others-ies, but at some point, you just gotta do it!) 

Anyhoo, as per usual, midway through the shopping, we stopped for lunch...

And (of course) knitting...

And (of course) some good, old-fashioned belly laughs! (They are clearly sheep, Lauren!)

And we wrapped up the shopping with one last stop to that favorite yarn booth, where the man behind the woman behind the yarn agreed to be the man behind the camera for our group photo! Extra kudos to Matt for knowing his stuff and taking 4 shots...I think all of our eyes are open in this one...I hope! (Thanks again, Matt!) 

Heading back to the parking grass, we decided to try our hands at some photos of the beauty of the day. Alice showed off a lace-and-beads shawl she had just finished for a friend, and Jenny agreed to model...beautiful barely covers it!

And Jenny took it upon herself to model how we all really feel about yarn, and knitting, and lace, and fiber, and spending the day shopping with friends...

I mean, look at the group haul we left with! Yarn and baskets and jewelry and soaps and YARNS...all the yarns!!!

We even managed to get ourselves out of the open fields and nearly home before the skies truly opened up and dumped the rain that we had watched all day. By the time we returned to our starting position in the local Wal-Mart parking lot, it was coming down pretty good, with lightning and thunder and everything!

Once I hit home and kicked off my shoes, I took a minute to survey my own personal stash enhancement. It is pretty impressive, and since I didn't set any over/under goals for myself, I neither overspent nor underbought! Go me!

Destination Yarns in a DK base in this year's show exclusive, last year's show exclusive (Roadside Wildflowers) and Electric Storm (the purple-est one!), handmade sock soaps from Tuft Woolens, a few cute buttons, a Behind the Pines hand-painted sock blank from Yarn Cravin', and a ClusterFluff Box ("an assortment of sizeable scraps") from 716yarns (aka KnitBuffalo)...all good stuff!  

Of course, this box o'scraps just tickles me to no end! And, with all the tiny toy knitting I tend towards, I think it was a pretty good buy. Besides, how can one even consider attending the local yarn festival without purchasing yarn from a truck?!? I love this ClusterFluff Box so very much! And the Destination Yarns! And the yarn that has funny sayings hand-painted onto it (even if some of the words are misspelled...lol!)!

So, to sum up the day, it was AWESOME! We can hardly wait for next year, and off I go now to decide what to knit next today! I hope your today is good, and that you have friends around you that spur you onto to bigger and better things, knitwise and otherwise, just like me.

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

That Time of Year

Not quite summer (although it should be 85 and sunny today!).

Not back-to-school...

Not Christmas.

What time of year is it?

It's Woolapalooza time, Baby! And X marks the spot that I am spending my day, with all my yarny friends, at the Great Lakes Fiber Show!

If you are a yarn loving friend...Heck! If you like fair food and fun, you should check out that link and think about joining  us! There are live animals and lots of people watching...and, of course, YARN! If you like to knit, bring a chair and a project, and come sit in our sunny circle in the parking grass at lunchtime! I hope to see you there! Maybe we can even catch a selphie together...

You know, like we did in 2014!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

On our way! 

Tour de What?

This past week, I went on my first bike ride of the summer. I couldn't help but think, as I white-knuckled my wobbling handlebars for dear life, that many people enjoy riding a bicycle. Many people grew up running and playing and riding bikes. I grew up reading. Yes, I was THAT kid...with hand raised, "Excuse me. Mrs. Teacher! You forgot to give us homework, and it's almost time for the bell to ring...!" After all, if you don't run and play and ride bikes, you do need something to fill the time until The Cosby Show comes on. Did I mention that I was not popular in school? Nevermind. At this point, you've already figured that out.

Anyway, when I ride a bike these days, there is no thought in my head that even comes close to resembling "This is so much fun!" or "I should ride my bike to work this summer...it is great exercise!" My bike riding thoughts are more along the lines of "Don't tip over! Don't tip over!" and "Don't think about your sore butt." and "Pretend you are having fun. Everyone else is having fun!" Apparently all reading and no fun makes Pretty a dull girl. Still, riding a bike is good exercise, even if the anxiety makes me break out in hives. As a matter of fact, I bet I get twice the cardio workout from all the heart palpitations that accompany my fear of tipping over!

"So, then, why are you writing about the Tour de France, Pretty? We've heard that you break out in hives even looking at a bicycle."

Correct you are! However, there is another event that starts today, and it runs concurrently with the Tour de France. Bicycles are not involved, but wheels often are. And spindles, which is how I plan to participate. Sooo, without further adieu, bring on the Tour de Fleece!

Yep. It is a thing. Click the link if you don't believe me...I will wait. (Cue the waiting music...)

During the Tour de France, which runs from today through July 23, I will be spinning this lovely 4 ounces of fluff into yarn! 

I'm not sure I can get it all done in 23 days, but I am going to give it my best shot, to be sure. I will try to challenge myself to more spinning while the bicyclists climb their challenge hills, and I plan to rest on their rest days...maybe I will go for a bike ride rather than spinning on those days, in an ironic twist of events! (Yeah. You're probably right. I will just knit more...)

In preparation for the TdF, and my first participation as a spinner, I have split my fiber in half, and then in approximate fourths. I will spin half the fiber from pink to red, and the other half from red to pink before plying them together. My spindles are all ready to go, and I am chomping at the bit to start the spinning...so off I go to do just that! 

Tell me, are you one of the bicycle people? Do you love biking so much that you even head for a spin class when the weather is lousy? I promise not to judge, one way or the other, if you will extend to me the same courtesy!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit (and Spin) in Good Health!

Almost Heaven...Woolapalooza!

Woolapalooza was, as usual, GREAT! We stuffed seven, obsessed-with-yarn-and-fiber, adult women into a van,

and we drove into the country, where we descended like locusts on the Destination Yarn booth for our first stop! (Some of us even skipped the potty break to head right there!)

Yes, within moments of getting out of the van and sloshing across the muddy parking-lawn at the fairgrounds, we were finding other fiber friends and buying yarn...So. Much. Pretty! Destination Yarn is a local favorite, and Jeanne's fame is growing outside the state as well! After we'd all blown at least part of our wads of cash at her booth, we tried to make a plan...

...but that was a little like herding cats! Fun cats...high on catnip and yarn fumes!

In the end, we broke into groups of 2-3, and off we went until lunchtime. After filling our tummies on fair food (that I neglected to photograph this year), we all met back at the van to share lunches, fiber purchases and notes about our finds...

We sat in the sun, knitting and comparing until some of us just had to go back inside to see if we had missed anything. Alice and I headed back to the grandstand where we petted some fibers to spin, and she picked out one that looks like mint-chocolate-chip ice cream!

It was so lovely, and she also grabbed a Turtle-Made, turkish spindle (my favorite spindles!)...to make the yarn of dreams! We all took some time with our knitting and spinning, laughing out loud while Lauren listed things she has lost!

Before long, someone noticed the time, and we decided that we had better get back to reality before our chariot turned into a pumpkin! We said our goodbyes to the passengers of other vans, who had also made the trip from our neck of the woods, and packed up the van for the trip home. Back on my own front porch, I took stock...

Not bad. One yarn purchase from Destination Yarn (Ohio mini skeins and the Show-Exclusive colorway), and one fiber purchase. If you don't count sales tax and lunch, I even stayed in my budget quite prettily! Of course, there is still not much knitting or spinning in my house, as the family stayed with us through the week, but we did get lots of time with these super-cuties...

...so there is no complaining from me! What a fun Saturday we had last week! We have had a great time with the kids and their kids for this visit. As usual, it ends too soon and leaves me counting down until my first flight to their new military home. 

It has been a busy three weeks for the Pretties, and I hope to share some more of the pretty with you in the coming weeks. I hope that your summer has started strong and healthy! What are you counting down to? Whatever it is, may it come to you at just the right time!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!