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We’re off - or should I say we’re almost off! Thursday morning we’re headed north to Tacoma (Univ of Puget Sound) for the Northwest Regional Spinner’s Association Conference!! Woo-hoo! This will be the first time I’ve not taken any classes - and the first time we’re vending at this venue.
I just hope I make it. Heh. Nothing like cramming a bajillion things into a single week! Yikes! We had a hay delivery today (gotta get it while ya can, ya know!). And I’ve discovered you can actually get blisters from wool if you’re working too hard. And ya know what happens with all this rushin’ around? I get even more clumsy than normal. You just don’t want to know how many bruises I created today. Gotta just get to Tacoma, unpack, sit back (maybe sip a little WINE?) and relax. Heck, I might even SPIN.
Now if I can get through tomorrow at work without injuring myself - we’ll be set!
Terry
I knew the implosion of the Trojan nuclear power plant cooling tower was scheduled this morning. But it seems that I forgot about it as I was out letting the goats into the grassy pasture. I was monitoring the two new additions to my herd (two more white wethers) when all of a sudden the ground rumbled and I heard a loud, kind of rippling ka-boom sound. Oh! The goats took off for the barn and I stood out in the pasture (in my jammies and housecoat - heh) and realized the tower had just gone down. I won’t miss it - that plant seemed like it was down more than up and running. Yet it was kind of a landmark of sorts.
On to more fibery things! Look what my dear hubby Gary made for me!
Isn’t he just awesome? He then made another for Susan. I couldn’t wait to use it! Just look at it now!
Too cool! What a great drying rack! He sure is a keeper!
Now to the kid update. Susan’s three kids Burt, Ernie, and Sherman are growing like weeds! Burt is the shy one, Sherman is sort of shy and Ernie is the curious one!
Here’s mama Chable nursing her growing boys:
Here’s shy Burt with his mama:
Here’s a couple shots of Ernie
He’s such a sweetie! Since I forgot to upload the photo of Sherman, I’ll save his picture for the next post.
And a parting shot! Back to the barn!!
We spent Saturday down in Forest Grove, Oregon at the gorgeous home of Dianne McKinnon - a fabulous fiber artist! This was kind of a BYOP affair (bring your own pot). We had gas cookers going everywhere! We had both synthetic and natural dyes. We had the talented Ruth Haworth and Rita Miller down from Seattle to show us how to make our own self-patterning sock yarn. Wow! What a great day! Here’s a few overview shots. The weather could have been a bit nicer, but at least it was just a few occasional sprinkles - you know, “Oregon Sunshine”!
Everybody, it seemed, was doing different things. There were people dyeing locks, roving, yarn, and even a sweater. It was very interesting to go around and check out different techniques and colors. We brought a two-burner gas stovetop and an electric turkey roaster. Our plan was to both handpaint and dip-dye. I had a bunch of yarn to dye, so I focused on dip dyeing. Susan and Lynn had some sock yarn they wanted to handpaint:
See, we were good girls and wore our gloves! I’ve been known to skip them, thinking “I’ll just be very careful”. Ha! Lynn here is a waitress and she decided that it would be very difficult to serve food with turquoise-colored fingers!!
Here’s some of our results for the day - The first shot is the stuff that Susan, Lynn, Nancy, and I did. We like more muted stuff (except every now and then we get some LOUD stuff! Too fun!!)
Here’s another table’s results for the day ~
And then there was this gal who loves orange. She looks very good in this color, too ~
And last, but hardly least….photos of Rita showing us how to make our own self-striping yarn! And we all got a chance to purchase the clever little warping boards from them.
Notice the glad wrap box - they were using that “press n’ seal” stuff for this. What a clever idea!
Dyeing each “section” and wrapping them up separately.
It appears that I dorked out (or sniffed far too much vinegar today) and forgot to get a photo of the finished sock yarn. However! I ended up with one of those warping boards and did all of this yesterday. Stay tuned for my self-striping sock yarn. And yes, if I’ve screwed it up, I’ll still show it to you. Laughter is good for the soul!
Terry
Our grandsons were up to visit the other day. They aren’t city kids, they live out in the country, but they’ve never really been exposed to “farm life”. Not that our place is farm life, but they get some exposure here. They are enthralled with my Pygora goats and want to feed them every time they come for a visit. I informed them that the goats like fresh dandelions. Needless to say, there isn’t a dandelion anywhere in sight near the goat pasture now! Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier?
Being in the barn with a four year old can be quite funny.
“Grandma, what’s that?”
“That’s salt for the goats”
“Oh.” Then he does a perfect 360 around my small barn, looking at everything.
“Grandma, where’s the one for their pepper?”
I wanted to enjoy a nice, big belly laugh at that point and couldn’t! That was one of those priceless moments!
Later as we were standing outside the chicken pen discussing something, the same grandson was standing at the fence staring at a hen standing in the open henhouse. All of a sudden grandson shrieks, “hey, hey! That chicken just laid an egg! I saw it come out! Hey, it’s a chicken egg! Can I have it?” I couldn’t believe it - talk about perfect timing! I thought it was great that he got to see a chicken lay an egg. It was one of those “wonder” moments.
Dye Day Today! Yipppeeeee! Susan, Nancy, Lynn and I are off to enjoy a fabulous dye day hosted by Dianne McKinnon in Forest Grove, OR. Will post pictures when we get back! Yay!
It would seem my blogging frequency is directly proportional to the amount of job stress I experience. I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in a couple of weeks! What has been happening in our little corner of the Pacific Northwest?
Our new “pet” decided she loves to stop by for numerous visits. She also happens to love our front porch. So much for my flower gardens this year…..
The problem is the sound her hooves make on the porch and the deck. The first time this happened (at approx 3 am one morning), my husband went on “red alert” thinking it was a burglar!
I’ve talked to the WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and found out our pet’s name is Molly. Her mama was killed by a car and some guy raised her by hand. Nice gesture, but unfortunately Molly imprinted to humans and wants nothing to do with other deer. They’ve relocated her once and if she continues to be a bother, they will come out at “dispatch” her. We can’t have that! Afte all, we live out in the country and expect a little munching from the wildlife from time to time. She’s certainly less destructive than the elk herd which comes through occasionally. So for now Molly stays. The neighbor dog was licking her face yesterday. Sheesh!
On the knitting front: (and please excuse the crappy photo) here is one of my fingerless gloves made from bits and pieces of extra fiber from our website. It’s 40% Pygora, 30% Merino, and 30% Cormo. Nice. I really really like this fiber blend. Don’t want to sell any of it! Cormo is absolutely the best wool to blend with Pygora because the Pygora has no memory. Cormo has TONS of memory. This pair of gloves weigh 1.3 ounces and they aren’t as short as they look in this horrible photo (guess that’s what I get for being in a hurry).
Do any of you use those Denise needles? I broke down and bought a set for two main reasons: they’re great for swatching and you can make several needles from one set. This allows me to have numerous projects going at once! I usually swatch because I’m a notoriously loose knitter (I’m talking tension here, folks!). Every time I take a shortcut and don’t swatch, I get to frog the project due to the gauge being waaay off. So far I hadn’t any complaints with the Denise set. I took my knitting to our weaving guild meeting the other night. I had nothing hard or unyielding in my bag, and when I drove home the bag laid on the back seat of the car. Imagine my suprise when I pulled out my knitting Friday afternoon at our local yarn shop:
Yikes! Where’d my other needle go? And the black “thingie” is mostly gone. I say mostly because it appears it broke right off - I can see the remainder of said black “thingie” inside the blue cable. What the hell? This is my second Denise issue, really. I had already broken one of the little cable connectors. Am I the biggest klutz in the world? Are others having similar troubles? Am I torturing my knitting equipment? Ack! I am so amazed at this! I have no clue how this happened!!
So much for knitting! The dyeing front is much more fun to talk about. Have been dyeing up a storm getting ready for a couple of June venues. Here’s our new Cormo fleece already transformed and hanging out to dry…
Now if I could just make it dry more quickly!!
And once it’s dry, the teasing begins. This can be a rather boring step in fiber preparation. How does one make it more interesting and enjoyable? Invite a good fiber friend over, grab a nice bottle of wine and visit all afternoon! Pretty soon the wool is all teased, the wine is all gone, and you’ve managed to solve all the world’s problems! Perfect!
Terry