Calico Corner Quilt Shop, Mt Vernon

Last Saturday morning spur-of-the-moment plan: go to Peggy F's favorite quilt shop 

so that Peggy could look at fabric for her potential quilt.

She found this:

a whole line from Henry Glass & Co.

called 

Wingin It, by The Buggy Barn

She really liked the one that she's pulling out for the border fabric.

She bought some of most of the others, too,
plus a couple more in the 'Wingin It' line found in different sections of the store.

It will be a fabulous quilt.

I was tempted by some lovely 'regular priced' Moda:

but I picked these from the sale section, $5/yard.
They will become pillow cases.

Lunch at Calico Cupboard, June 1

We had breakfast here not long ago and thought we'd give lunch a try, 

since we were going to Mt. Vernon for the quilt shop.

Peggy F. had the Fish Tacos 

and said they were yummy.

 Peggy had a combo lunch:

1/2 roast beef barbie sandwich, salad and chicken chili.

She says the sandwich was very good, the chili was ok 

and the blue cheese salad dressing had chunks of cheese.

I chose the combo 1/2 sandwich (shrimp and avocado), salad and chicken chili.

The shrimp was a tad fishy smelling as fresh shimp can be even after it's washed,
but it was a tasty sandwich.

The salad was great with blue cheese dressing and 

the chicken chili was ok, nothing special.

Here's what I really wanted:

Vanilla Cream Puffs.

Oh my.

We were adult about it.

We passed on desert.

It's time to retire

If you're Hellen, of Hellen's Needlework in Mt. Vernon, 

retiring isn't something you have contemplated very often.

Hellen is in her 80's, and has been running her yarn shop for so many years

that she's a mainstay of the downtown Mt. Vernon experience.

Sometimes it's years between our visits to Hellen's,

but she's always been there and with a great selection of sock yarn.

Hellen has been knitting socks for 70 years.

She knit every single sock that hangs in her shop.

We visited on Saturday, June 1st, and I bought this:

Two hanks of sock yarn, 

50% wool, 20% Super Fine Alpaca, 30% nylon

It's $10.50 a hank.  For 433 yards.  

Hellen prices her yarns quite reasonably.

During the last few years she's lost her long-time staff, and then last year her husband passed.

He was her back-up, he did the paperwork. 

She's been struggling with doing it all herself, and she's worn out.

The yarn shop business isn't for wimps.

Hellen is no wimp, but she's done.

The Hellen's Needlework store is closing this month.

She is starting the close-out sale on Friday, June 7th, with everything 25% off.

Higher discounts as June progresses.

Mt. Vernon is south of the Skagit River bridge, 

so the bridge being unusable is not an issue if you're coming from the Greater Seattle direction.

Hellen, thanks for all the yarn!  We'll miss you.

Car Spinning

On our way to the Whidbey Island Spin-In the first weekend of April, I tried Car Spinning.

The Hansen Electric Spinner has a car adapter,

 and there was plenty of room on the floor of the front passenger seat.

Peggy drove and I set it up.

There are two glove boxes and the upper one was perfect for holding excess fiber.

It was a short trip, less than two hours, so I didn't get a lot of spinning done.

The only problem seemed to be 'spinner error' ~ I kept allowing the fiber to break.

Trying to reset the system with a seat-belt on was awkward.

This is not very good Jacob fiber.  

Along with the vm, which is abundant, there is an amazing amount of kemp.  

Even though I have one full spool, I have to consider the wisdom of continuing the project.

So what if I end up with enough two-ply for a sweater?  Who wants to have all that kemp sticking out?

If you enbiggify* this photo, you can see the loads of kemp, those white wire-like bits.  

Ick.

*Thanks to LindaK for this word.  Is it a Portmanteau or a Sniglet?

Road Trip to Wenatchee, part 2

The way to Wenatchee: into the mountains on Highway 2 going east out of Monroe, Goldbar and Sultan.  It's pretty country and the mountains aren't scary on the inside lanes going east; it's a different feeling going west because we're on the outside lanes of the freeway, the 'cliff side', where the mountain falls away and it's a very, very long way down.

By 10:00am we were mid-road-trip, past Leavenworth and heading for Cashmere, the town not the goat.

This is our favorite fruit/vegetable stand east of Leavenworth, Smallwood's Harvest.  We didn't stop because we were running a bit behind schedule for our 11:am w/ Betty, plus we were still full from breakfast.

The Wenatchee River runs along Highway 2 on the east side of the mountains.  It's a short trip from Seattle to white-water rafting and camping, neither of which we do but it's there is we want to.

Peggy was driving and I was taking pictures out the window. 

Here we have an example of Law Enforcement in action.

And here is an even bigger example.

You just don't see that every day.  My guess is the trucker was doing better than 45mph.  

We arrived in the parking lot of the Wenatchee Walmart (as close to actually going to Walmart that we ever get) and met up with Betty.  Betty was mighty surprised to see the new car!

We swapped wheels ~ Betty took the Koa

and we took Bruce, a wheel owned by Jerri in Monroe and that Betty had been repairing.

Jerri came to collect it shortly after we returned.

We sat down for a nice visit and then headed home, but not before visiting  Ohme Gardens.

They have a nice but limited supply of plants for sale; their focus is The Garden Itself; the plants they sell are all on display in the natural setting and all the plants are native.  We bought a couple variegated Silene for the stone retaining wall by our drainage ditch. 

The goal is for a variety of ground-cover-draping-type plants to cover this: 

 July 2010

July 2011

July 2012

We think the plan is working.  The wall looks much better.

I got to drive Peggy's new van part of the way home (the scary bit going down the mountain in the outside lane) and by 3:pm we were finally hungry for lunch, so we stopped in Monroe.  We were home by 4:30.

And that was our Thursday.  Taking a day off for a short road trip is so much fun!

Fleece Sale

On November 14th Melinda, Peggy and I traveled I-5 from Edmonds through the Skagit Valley to Burlington and our destination: Jonnasson's Farm for the annual fleece sale there.

The Skagit Valley

We didn't stop for Alpaca.
You would think we would have
but perhaps some other time.
We didn't stop for cider either.

A typical Skagit Barn.

The Jonnassons, along with 3 or 4 other sheep breeders, hold a fleece sale every year and the prices are quite reasonable. Inexpensive. Cheap, even. The goal for me was Dorset, as Sam, an amazing spinner and knitter in our NwRSA area 2010, had shown us her Flying Geese sweater (if that link doesn't work it's because you're not part of Ravelry. Get on that!) she made from what she called the filthiest little Dorset fleece and said it was a fabulous fiber, once it was cleaned and carded (or words to that effect.) Thanks for the lead, Sam!

I've been looking for Dorset roving ever since. It's not available. Not at Black Sheep, not at OFFF, not at Whidbey Spin-in, not at Madrona, all fiber conferences with large, if not huge, markets. So then I figured I'd have to find a fleece, since my search began prior to jumping in to the 'fresh off the sheep' part of spinning. No luck at any of the fiber conferences for fleece either, but then, finally, Gretchen at Gretchens Wool Mill gave us a lead to this fleece sale which the Hordyks of Sand Hill Farm are part of and and they raise Dorsets and would have some available, which we knew because we called to make sure. yea! We've been looking forward to this for a month.

The exit to Burlington and
to the North Cascades Highway.
North Cascades Highway is a worthwhile road trip
if it's not winter.Although I suspected we did one,
I was assured that no U-Turns happened this trip.
The Jonnassons farm building
which housed the fleece sale.

There was fiber and fleece available,
dyed and natural.
Eileen Hordyk shows Peggy the crimp in
a brown Dorset/Rambouilett cross fleece.

Melinda weighing the pros and cons
between two brown Rambouilett/Dorset cross fleeces.
One was darker, a ram fleece and 7lbs;
the other was lighter, from a ewe and 6lbs.
We took the 6 pounder and
will have it washed before we split it three ways.
It was only $24.00.
Peggy bought some Mohair.
The Dorset fleece.
This turned out to be the only one at the sale.
Of course I had to buy it ~ it was only $18.00. For 6 pounds.
After washing I should have at least 3 pounds,
enough to spin for a sweater.
6lbs of Dorset Ewe #1011
Like Sams, it was very filthy
but also very crimpy.
Eileen, who owns the ewe this fleece came from,
showed me how to remove the damaged tips before washing.
So when we arrived home I immediately worked with
a little of the fleece because why wait?
This is rinsed just once in hot water.
And here it is washed one time with Dawn and hot water.
Through the carder once.
Spun and 2-plied.

Not the best spinning job but I rushed it.
It's bouncy and cushy. This will be great!

And in closing,
some of the Jonnassons Fleece on the Hoof.

Apples in the Jonnassons front yard.
It is such an interesting tree that
I had to take a picture.