Weekend in Redmond

The Friday Knitters spent the sunniest, hottest* weekend so far this year (May 4&5)

in a Pat Brunner class on Designing Knitwear to Fit Your Body (One Size Does Not Fit All.)

Lisa welcomed us to her Redmond home:

The view of the house and garage/shop/craft loft coming up from the pasture.

The Juliet balcony of the loft.

 

From the balcony overlooking the pasture.

 They have 16 chickens.

Two shy sheep,

and Wedding Cake,
a very friendly SallyBill** wether who loves cookies.

We spent quite a bit of time outside at the breaks and lunches.

Michale took advantage of Wedding Cakes' appetite 

for a close-up photo opportunity.

This is just a small part of the potluck as it was being set up ~ it was dee-licious!

 Trixie was riveted.

Henry was riveted.

Matilda: not just riveted.  She was fascinated by all the food.

Lisa has remodeled the upper floor of their garage 

for fiber related activities.

This is the classroom end,

and in this end there are 5 looms.

It was a wonderful weekend.  If we had to be inside for most of it, oh well! 
Spending time together, knitting and laughing: priceless.

*It was 87 on Sunday afternoon in Seattle.  It didn't get quite that hot in Redmond, maybe only 84.

**SallyBill: a flock of sheep from Island Fibers on Lopez, one of the San Juan Islands, started about 70 years ago by Sally Bill, blended to the originators' handspinning preferences.  Nobody knows quite what the mix is at this point, but the fleeces goes for about $16.00 a pound, unwashed, in a bag.  That must be a pretty good fleece.

The Market at OFFF

Saturday, Sept 22nd, came in bright and shiny, if a tad cool.  The weather just got better during the day, never too hot but hot enough to burn off the heavy dew and allow us to leave our sweaters in camp.

Shopping at OFFF is something of a contact sport ~ the event officially opens at 9:00am but the crowd gets there at 8:00, growing by at least 300% by 9.  You can't walk fast from one booth to the next ~ it's more like swimming upstream, gradually insinuating yourself into the actual environs of the booth of choice while about 25 other shoppers are attempting the same thing.  In short, OFFF is very like every other fabulous fiber festival and it's all good.

Well, most of it is good.  We get there early so some other knitter or spinner doesn't buy 'our' stuff, and unfortunately sometimes we're not early enough and we see someone carrying off the exact thing that we wanted.  Darn!

In spite of that, this year we we're very happy with our shopping experience.  We did Toots, Carolina, Clouse, Michael & Sheila, Lisa, the other Lisa and then all the rest or at least most of them.  There seemed to be hundreds.  They were in two big buildings, the barns, the grassy plaza, everywhere.  It was awesome.

Michelle LeBlanc of Toots LeBlanc, purveyors of fine and rare yarns.

Sheila & Michael Ernst, makers of awesome glass needles, buttons and more.

Cheryl Newhouse of NewHue Handspuns

Lisa of Dicentra

We were buying for ourselves and also door prizes for the upcoming early November Knitters Retreat at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA.  Our plan was to not go discount but to go with quality over quantity, hence the above mentioned vendors.  It's so fun to spend other peoples money!

We did manage to find some of 'our' stuff in there, so we bought:

Mystery Fiber from Fantasy Fibers ~ P

Shetland Fleece from Whistlestop Shetlands ~ P

 

 This is Brandy Chastain from Whistlestop Shetlands & a good shot of the Sunday Fiber Sale

 

Corriedale Fleece ~ R

Cashmara Sock Yarn from Fly Designs ~ R

Corriedale Fiber dyed by Lisa of Dicentra ~ R

Merino Bamboo from NewHue ~ R

By the end of the weekend we were ready to go home.  The awful traffic at/around Tacoma is becoming an annual ritual, not something we look forward to but at least it means we're only an hour (once we get through it) from home.  Sometimes that means 90 minutes, sometimes 2 hours, but we have our books on cd, snacks from the cooler and plenty of patience. 

A very satisfactory way to spend 4 days.

We must do this again sometime.
Maybe next year. 

 

Camping and Koi at OFFF 2012

It's about time we went back to OFFF.  It's been a few years and during that time we gathered 'grown-up' camping equipment so that we could camp in a semblance of comfort:  largish tent and self-inflating queen-size air mattresses for starters.  We had one lantern and a few flashlights, but were lacking a stove, another lantern and, who knew we would need one, a heater.  These we borrowed from good friends and we will use the coming year to invest in our own.

We checked the 10-day and the 7-day forecast and here's what we were expecting: 75/52, mostly sunny.  Here's what we got: 64/48, heavily overcast Thursday/Friday, rain Thursday night, and then 68/50 and sunny on Saturday/Sunday.  We moved the kitchen into the tent and refreshed the  propane canisters twice, as that little heater was getting a workout.

We called my son, who lives in Portland, to meet us at the campgrounds and help us set up the new tent, which was way easier than anticipated and left plenty of time for beer after.

 

 

Friday dawned cloudy and gray, the tent dripping and the ankle-high grass soaking our jeans on the way to the outhouse about a block away.  Note to selves: consider a travel toilet...

Evanne was camping w/ Tazo about 30' away; she had minimal goals for the free day: get a pedicure, visit the dahlia gardens and get some 'hammock time'. 

 By 10:00 Friday we were all three sitting in the nail salon, Evanne with her feet in a tub and Peggy and I having our fingernails done.  In Oregon they have a law: you must buy a 'nail kit' which includes an emery board and a buffer for hands plus a callus buffer for feet.  $1 or $2.  Or you can bring your own.  We love this, for obvious reasons.

By 11:30 we were at Swan Island Dahlia Farm, which we walked through for at least two hours.  Think of the Tulip Fields in the Skagit Valley, squared.  Bigger blooms, taller flowers.  And a Koi pond!  The Koi are for sale, just fyi.

Koi Pool

Waterfall

Crowd

Big head

Big mouth

Bigger mouth

Orange

Orange and Gold

White and Yellow

After dahlias and Koi, we stopped at a fruit/vegetable stand, checked out the Canby Ferry on the river,

 

meandered back to camp, fixed chicken sandwiches and then spun for awhile.  It was the only long-term spinning time we had for 3 days because on Saturday things got really busy: 

OFFF officially opened for the weekend.

Labor Day carding projects

We spent the Labor Day weekend on regular weekend chores with a little 'special' in there once in awhile.  I did some carding while working with the laundry and Peggy went to work to get ready for a big event in her department.

The carding involved the second time through the carder with my pale gray shetland, Strudel, and the third time through on the Corriedale "Birch", which I bought at Whidbey Spin-in in 2011.  Both of them evened out, became consistent in coloration, especially the blue Corriedale.

 All of Strudel laid out.

 Once through the carder.

 Finished carding ~ all evened out, color-wise

Bag full of Corriedale named "Birch".

Dyeing the washed fleece with 3 different blues.

Three times through the carder.

Early Monday I went back to carding, working on a 50/50 blend of brown CVM named Humphrey and apricot Alpaca name Alessandro, hoping that the alpaca would brighten up the CVM.  Sadly, the opposite happened ~ the brown overwhelmed the apricot and, once spun and 2-plyed, gave me a drab, lifeless color that I do not want at all.  I also don't want to dye either one, so on to:

Plan B: card the CVM by itself; it's a nice color and there is enough for a sweater if I do it well.  Then find a nice white fleece and try the apricot alpaca with it, hoping for a glint of color from the alpaca.  I have less than 2 lbs of the alpaca so I can't afford to experiment very much.  I think I can get a hat out of the CVM/Alpaca blend I've already spun and plied.

We have plans for Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival later this month, so perhaps I'll find an appropriate fleece there. A few months ago Peggy and I put ourselves on "NO NEW FLEECES" status (the fiber room is full of plenty of fleeces ready to be spun), but there is no need to be unreasonable if the right fleece presents itself.  I'm pretty sure that's one of the "Spinners Rules of Acquisition".

Spinning BFL

Ashland Bay Natural Colors Blue Face Leicester

(or Blue Faced, if you prefer. I've seen it both ways.)

Fun stuff. I tried my larger whorl and put my drive band on the big wheel to see if I could spin bigger yarn, by bigger I mean not lace or fingering weight, which is normal for me. I acquired one pound, purchased from Heidi at The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble. Love her shop ~ if you get a chance, stop by. She has a weaving annex now, and gives classes.

Three hanks, 647 yards.

Prewashing, it's not so sproiny.After washing: sproiny!
The swatch is worked on 8's, 7's and 6's.

The 8's gave me a nice fabric and there is probably enough yardage for a vest. Or maybe a shawl/wrap. I briefly considered buying another pound but I have plenty of other fibers to spin right now and so I'll just move on. By the way, when I washed the three hanks to set the spin, the water was filthy brown. Not oil, dirt. I have heard that Ashland Bay fibers are processed in China and this may be true, I don't know. I do know that I haven't yet run into fiber quite this dirty. I have also heard that Blue Face (or Faced) Leicester are called that because they look sad, not because their color is blue. I know they aren't blue, but can that 'sad' bit be true? Surely not...