Yarn & Fiber Drying on the Porch
Looking forward to 2021
October 26, 2020
This year has been challenging for small businesses like Nightingale Fibers. We have seen all the fiber and wool festivals cancelled or go virtual in 2020. New Hampshire Sheep & Wool was the first show for us to cancel, quickly followed by all the others. The fiber festivals are great fun for David and me, we consider them part work, part vacation and always a time to get together with friends. We were sad that we were unable to spend a week in Boothbay Harbor, which we always do while vending at the Maine Fiber Frolic. We missed seeing our friends and customers at the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival (the t-shirts are amazing!).
I applaud other vendors for all the hard work they have put into the virtual festivals. The videos, demonstrations and “tours” of their booths were all amazing.
One event that did take place in 2020 was the New Hampshire Wool Arts Tour over Columbus Day weekend. This event has been happening in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire for 37 years. The organizers and three of the host farms felt comfortable holding the tour because, for the most part, it is outdoors and small. We had a good “crowd”, all with masks and respectful of our requests for social distancing and hand sanitizing.
Nightingale Fibers was a vendor at Spring Pond Farm, an alpaca farm in Greenfield, New Hampshire. A perfect place for a festival. We had visiting sheep from Ten Talents Farm. And, in addition to the alpacas, the ever-present SPF chickens and the Highland Cows gave us a good dose of farm life.
We had great weather, which has not always been the case in past years. It was warm and the colors were just becoming quintessential New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival is already planning for 2021 (always held on Mother’s Day Weekend). Hopefully, we will all be together at the fairgrounds in Deerfield. If that is not possible, I will see you in the virtual world. In the meantime, I will look for other ways to connect with knitters and spinners in New Hampshire. If you are local to the Monadnock Region, visit Knitty Gritty yarn shop in Depot Square in Peterborough. It is a great little shop, and you will find three of my yarns in stock: Ernestine, Eddie, and Ida.
“How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their final days.”
John Burroughs, Naturalist and Nature Essayist
