Black Sheep Gathering ~ The Prequel

Never end your vacation with a fiber-buying spree. We thought 3 days of fiber and classes would be enough, but we were sadly underestimating our ability to hang with our fellow spinners, so the bitter end came all too soon. Last June, at the beginning of our one week vacation, Peggy and I traveled from Seattle to Oroville, WA, home of Betty Roberts "The Spinning Wheel Lady", a trip of approximately 6 hours, depending on u-turns and weather. It was hot. Very. With mosquitoes. We picked up Peggy's new wheel, took a couple of short spinning lessons with Betty, had dinner with the charming Perry and Hilary Blackler, cousins-in-law who have been in that valley for generations. We stayed over-night with them in their 100 year old farm house and left the next morning for Portland. Peggy and I drove to Portland two days prior to Black Sheep Gathering, to visit with my son, TJ, and his darling wife, Shelley, for a couple of days.

A Shelley Sandwich

We rummaged through a couple of local yarn stores, one of which was conveniently located next to a very nice lunch spot. We also braved the Portland Traffic (how can it be worse than Seattle? I don't know, but it was) to drive to Forest Grove for a visit with Michele of Toots LeBlanc & Co.

Michele, while she lived in Seattle, taught spinning (she got us both into this mess) and was a member of the Friday Knitters, a small group of us who used to work at a LYS and liked to get together to S&B. It's a slightly larger group now, because some of us couldn't stop inviting others to 'come on down'. We, sadly, lost a member who was adamant about it remaining small. MISS YOU, KARLITA!

Anyway, Michele showed us her 'new' 1950's house, all on one level which my aging knees loved and fed us lunch before driving us out to Woodland Woolworks. Now, going to a fiber warehouse BEFORE a fiber weekend...what were we thinking??? Just about all the good stuff was packed and on the way to Black Sheep where they would have their booth and yet I managed to find a sweet 8 ounce hank of Targhee dyed by Mountain Colors and some fiber for spinning for socks. Peggy delayed gratification (very adult of her.)
Because I was looking for yarn with which to spin for socks and believed that it would all be gone by the time I reached Black Sheep (I won't make that mistake again) I purchased 6oz of Grey Romney/Perendale Sliver, never having spun with that type before and fully trusting that it will work well for socks. We'll see, won't we?

Early early early Friday morning we left Portland for Eugene, arriving within minutes of our ETA. It's good traveling with another woman. We are in total agreement on when, where, what and how and U-turns are counted and cherished. Peggy invented a car game we call 'Snug 'Em', which we played the entire trip and still enjoy when we're together in a car. (It's not the same when one is alone ~ not nearly so funny.)

That's the end of
Black Sheep Gathering, the Prequel.