Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat

This weekend was the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat, in Tacoma WA. What could be better than going with my good friends Jen and Sam to the retreat on Friday and again on Sunday? (Well besides maybe going again on Saturday - but we had to do some stuff at home this weekend.) What a wonderful time we had seeing friends from on line, and from our fiber network in the Pacific Northwest. Here's a photo of some of the dinner group. That's our group clear down to the window and um, yes, the Christmas Tree.

I learn so much from hanging with these friends. Not only seeing knitted items to check out how they look in real life (as compared to seeing a photo), and being able to ask the person who knit the garment any questions, but by listening and hearing how others have tried various ways of doing projects. We all bounce ideas off of one another and share the love of fiber arts. Sam showed me Magic Loop knitting Friday night, and with my good friend Sheila's circular needles, the rest is history. I love it. Not only that, I got to talk parrots with Kerry! Not everyone understands parrot people. It's great to find someone else who is owned by a Quaker Parakeet.

The vendors out did themselves with wonderful rich colors and soft dreamy combinations of fibers that were irresistible. The Ernst Glass booth was awesome. I walked up and this deep red flower button jumped right out at me. The Chili Pepper glass needles were destine to come home with me as well. I bought a couple of skeins of Blue Moon, Socks and Rock lightweight yarn. I started knitting with it Friday night and you will see how my progress has come along as of 4:00 Sunday night in the photo below. Some of my other finds were Blue Moon Merino Tencel roving in the Rooster Rock colorway, Crown Mountain superwash sock fiber in "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Say a Little Prayer" colorways.

My power cord on the laptop is funky and needs replaced. I was able to get it to work tonight by turning the cord to the left or right until the computer came on. Let's hope that new cord I ordered comes in tomorrow!

Ya, you do want a closer look at that glass - I knew that you did! Double click on the photo if you want to blow it up.

Sunday Spinning

Spinning Guild held a surprise this month. Someone found that a family was threatening to throw out a spinner's stash! The lady who owned the stash was in her 80's and had forgotten how to spin, and the family was not interested in learning how. They had boxes of colored and natural fleece, mostly Romney. This photo was taken after about 1/2 of the entire stash was already spoken for.

We spinners all chipped in to help find homes for the fiber. The bag on the floor in front of my wheel came home with me, along with another bag that somehow fell into my car. All those boxes on the floor were full of clean fiber too. More spinners showed up after the photo was taken, more fiber found homes. All but about 2 or 3 pounds of fiber ended up finding homes and the woman who brought us this treasure took that. I'm sure it too will find a happy spinner to care for it. It was all lovely fiber.

If there comes a time when I no longer remember what my wheel is for, and Wayne even thinks of tossing my stash, it's up to each and every one of you to help find homes for my stash. I know you will not let me down. I have quilters in my family even if there are no spinners, but it's going to take a few of you to take on my stash as it stands today. Let's hope I get some spinning done before I get to the age where I forget how, or loose the ability to do so.

Yes, the photo of the spinners taking fiber home is small to protect the innocent and to make the amount of fiber you collected seem smaller than it truly is. Um... my bag had air in it too!

Here are a couple other creatures I met while at Spinning Guild. I thought you might enjoy them.

Blue Days

I have been having fun spinning tencel. It is hard to photograph because it is so shiny. I have 4 ounces of this beautiful blue, and I have 4 ounces of a tencel merino mix that has blues and greens in it which is already spun under this blue color on the bobbin. I was going to ply it with a black tencel that I have, but instead I think I'll ply it with some wool.

I dyed some "soft wool" that I bought at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last year. Soft Wool is what the vendor calls this mix. All I know is it has some targhee in it. I used Blueberry Blast and Artic Apple Kool Aid and Blueberry Gaywool dye. It's drying tonight. I think it will work well with the tencel.

Muffin

When I go to my parents by myself and spend the night, I sleep with another dog. Shhh... I don't think Missy knows! This is Muffin. She is a smart little dog and she will actually pull her lips back and smile when she gets happy to see someone. It's really cute. She likes to sleep with her people, but not too close. Missy on the other hand sleeps snuggled up tight to her bed buddies.

I think I will try and spin some Muffin fiber this spring if Mom and Dad will collect some for me. For a little dog, Muffin really sheds a lot of fur!

Dinner with a View

We went out for dinner in Edmonds and had some beautiful scenery, wonderful food, and a fantastic time visiting.

Sweater Finished!

Wayne's sweater is finished. This started out as the Trinity Sweater, but we modified the pattern so it's a moss stitch and garter stitch combination. I spun the super wash wool as a three ply yarn in a heavy worsted weight. The sweater is more of a coat. Good thing Wayne is strong, he says if it gets rained on, he may need to get the wheel-barrow to haul the sweater around.


I used my size 9 glass circular knitting needles, made by my friend Sheila Ernst, to knit this sweater. I love using these needles. They have such a great feel and the points on them are hands down the best tips I have found.

Potted Poultry

The girls are sleeping in the greenhouse for awhile as they get used to my parents farm. They decided to try a flower pot as a good sleeping place. There are 5 bantam hens in this photo and two other hens are in other sleeping places.
A small rooster was put into the greenhouse with them last night so he can show them the farm when they get released from the greenhouse in a few days. I'm sure the rooster and the hens will wake up surprised to meet one another in the morning.

Family

The electricity came back on Sunday morning about 6 AM. I haven't had time to write as I headed to Onalaska to visit with my parents. Mom had a appointment at the hospital this morning, but she's doing great this evening and hopefully will be home tomorrow.

Mom has washed and dried the socks I spun & knit for her. I'm glad to say they've even held up to the dryer. Here's a photo of my Mom (Eleanor) on the right, and Gladys on the left. You can certainly see they are sisters! I've got another pair of siblings to share with you too. Here's my brother Mike and my sister, Sandy.Now to get a photo of my other brother, Terry, and you'll have seen us all on the blog - Dad was in the crab fishing photos some time ago. In the photo above Mike and Sandy is a photo of Mom and her brother, Clarence. Hey, you see that hat Michael is wearing?! I made that hat - and he's worn it for the last two or three winters. He just might get another hat one of these days :-)

Boom, Boom - OUT GO THE LIGHTS!

Early this morning we had another PNW wind storm come sweeping through our area. The power went out at 2 AM, and is still off. Thank goodness for the age of Internet - you can take your laptop to many places and get your internet fix.

So, today was the St. Distaff spin-in and about 100 people were able to attend this annual event. I know you want photos, but I think there are some friends who would wonder about my true loyalty if I put them up on my blog for all the world to see. So, if we don't have a photo - do we still get credit for attending the spin-in? I say yes, we do! I spun some Merino Tencel, and I bought some black Tencel to ply with the peacock colors that I was spinning today. I also bought some beautiful silk merino from the Artful Ewe. I need to take photos of to show you when we have our power back on.

All the fiber for Wayne's sweater is spun and plied, Hooray!

Starting the Year Right!

I had fun today with my projects and friends. I sat at my Fricke spinning wheel and spun. Moved over to the Lendrum with the jumbo plying head and plied, and have a 3 ply jumbo skein of yarn drying tonight. I really enjoy having two wheels! I'd better wrap this sweater project up very soon. The January sky is usually gray, and so is this sweater (although there are wisps of blue in some of the fiber). I like gray, just not too much of it at once.

I was tipping them back today in New Years celebration with friends. Yes, it was organic, green, and hot. Forgive the photo quality but this is the nearest I think I've ever come to an underwater shot - it's a rose tea blossom. (That's green tea Mom - no worries)

I am truly counting my blessing for the joyful colors in the Onalaska Skein. The shawl pattern has been chosen, the needle gague has been selected. The pattern I chose was the Alberta pattern from Stahman's Shawls & Scarves. I promise not to show you every row as she progresses, but I did want to show you that she is indeed begun. What a great start to 2007!