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Am finally catching my breath after returning from the Black Sheep Gathering. My previous post was too long and scattered. In my haste to get a blog entry posted, I really didn’t think through all my thoughts. When I’m tired like this, I think large parts of my brain fall out.
My new toy! A Will Taylor skeinwinder!!
I truly enjoyed BSG again this year. Our booth is located in the corner of building #3. We’re back just on the other side of the wall from the first animal barn. It’s great fun to watch the kids spot the animals through the large barn doors - their eyes light up and they drag their parents forward, eager to get a closer view.
We always bring our show chairs (padded card table chairs - we need to find a more comfy show chair!). The cold metal “fair chairs” come with our booth payment and so each year we end up with two extra chairs. This allows us to have visitor seating which is nice. Diane DuBray always stops in for a visit (hi Diane!), as do most of our Pygora friends (hi Marcelle, Susan, Wendy, and Dorothy!). I’m sure we talked to other bloggers - we did have fun chatting with Jessica from Rose-Kim knits. The rest is a blur! We met so many interesting and talented people! There was the lady from up in the Chehalis area that was wearing the most gorgeous cable knit cardi that she designed herself and used all handspun to make it. Totally gorgeous! There was the lady all the way from Boston who bought some of our Pygora yarn! Wow! talk about long distance shopping!!
It’s nice to know that fewer and fewer folks come into our booth to ask “what’s a Pygora?”. Many spinners (and even some knitters!) know about our goat fiber and how soft it is. We met some new folks interested in raising Pygora goats. Thanks to the display pen that Marcelle Anderson sets up each year, we were able to take them back to the barn and show them her little Pygora goats. And of course, we told them to come to OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber) where the largest sanctioned Pygora goat show in the country is held!
We’ve been neglecting our little goatie blog this month. June is always quite hectic! There is our annual NwRSA (Northwest Regional Spinners Association) Conference that moves each year between Oregon/Washington/Idaho. It’s always the first weekend in June and was in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho this year. Then two quick weeks off and down to Eugene, Oregon for the annual Black Sheep Gathering. Hmmmm - where to start……
Conference was a blast. The small campus at NIC (North Idaho College) makes getting from the dorms to the gym and SUB quite easy. And what a beautiful campus! Right on Coeur d’Alene Lake. There was, however, a small problem. It was friggin’ hot. Like 100 degrees plus HOT. I’m no longer used to those kind of temperatures and pushing wool in heat is interesting, to say the least. We slept with our dorm window open and a fan going all night. Blankets? Heck, who needs ‘em?
A gym full of spinners!
It was great fun visiting with old (and some new!) friends. These are some of my dearest friends - folks who totally can relate to the ups and downs of raising fiber animals, dyeing fiascos and spinning misadventures. Everyone has a story. I think somebody should collect them and publish them in a book to raise some money for NwRSA. Best story this year was “how I learned how to spin” by Jan McMahon. Totally funny!!
Susan and I had a wonderful time selling our Pygora fiber. We spent all day in the gym - manning the booth, shopping, and visiting - it’s a nice, leisurely pace.
Our booth at Conference - notice the new yarns on the left!!
We like to retire back to our room, get rid of the crappy harness, and enjoy a glass or two of wine. I had brought the good wine bottle opener, but kept forgetting it in Susan’s truck. I always have my handy-dandy cheesy bottle opener in my purse - you know, the el cheapo ones that are a two-piece affair that you screw into the cork and then have to lift upwards to remove the cork? Susan and I aren’t terribly feeble folk - we wrestle hay bales - but we were both cussing out that crappy bottle opener. It would generally take both of us to force the cork out together (team effort here!). Once night we met an unusually stubborn cork. Someone would have to venture across campus (one block) to get the good opener out of the truck. Well, you know at this point we’re both in our jammies. I wanted that glass of wine, so I tossed my housecoat on (Susan is gasping - “at least put some PANTS on!”. So I had a pair of pants, my jammies, and a housecoat on as I headed out the dorm room with truck keys in hand. Keep in mind that I’m surrounded by “my people” - these are my friends and they know I drink wine and enjoy a good laugh. I was wondering how to tell my story to those I would bump into on my late night foray across campus. I felt like I was back in college (although I never did this at Moscow - really Mom, I didn’t!). All this funny-story-fodder and I didn’t bump into a single soul! But I managed to get the opener back into the room and a good bottle of wine was my reward.
These were all very tasty! And rather inexpensive.
I will save further conference stories (think I have a few) for later posts…..we need to be moving on to the Black Sheep Gathering! I love going to BSG - Eugene is a great town to visit - we stay in our “regular place” with the “Easygo Farm” folk (we don’t know them, but see their van parked in front of the motel each year) and some of the Twisted Sisters (Hi Sandy if you’re reading this). We are in walking distance to some great resteraunts (If you’re in Eugene and like Thai, eat at Sweet Basil - it’s the best Thai resteraunt around and a hugely great bargain!).
Black Sheep was great this year - as always. It’s a huge gathering. We run into folks we visiting with at conference as well as great friends we see only at BSG each year. I enjoy people watching from our booth. You can usually spot the newbies - they’re the ones with large saucers for eyes and the appear to be wandering around in a fiber-induced daze. We want to thank our repeat customers and our new ones. We would also like to thank the local breeders who bring to us a ton of fabulous fleeces to choose from. This is how we acquire many of our blending fibers each year. We were able to purchase some stunning fleeces again this year.
Shopping at Black Sheep!
We have a routine at BSG - we vend all day and then leave to enjoy a nice dinner (Saturday is usually a nice dinner with a great friend (Hi Glenda!)). Then back to the room - toss off the old harness and enjoy a nice bottle of wine or usually at Black Sheep it’s a margarita. Susan makes a wicked margarita - sometimes she even puts the mixer in! heh heh…. I guess I should point out that we never get sloppy - we just end up with a nice glow to finish off our evening. I find it very relaxing.
Weird BSG stories? Oh yeah…..Saturday morning while I’m in the shower (I totally missed this one…..) - Susan is watching out the window as she’s enjoying her morning St*rbucks kick. There in our motel parking lot is a very very old woman with long, gray, greasy, lanky hair in a t-shirt wiping maple tree “winglets” off her car. Ok, so it IS Eugene, but the problem was that her shirt wasn’t nearly long enough - and her panties were showing quite a lot. Also, I guess as she’s quite old, her thighs are no longer where they once were - they were down around her knees. Poor thing - I wonder what that was all about. Susan said she was quite a sight!
And I got to do another “midnight jammy foray”. This one was quite minor, however. Both of us are in our jammies - and we’re ready to enjoy a nice, cold margarita - but our ice bucket is EMPTY! No problemo! the ice machine is outside, just around the corner. It took me less than two minutes in my housecoat. I told Susan the trick is to act nonchalant - nobody will even notice. I am, however, worried about getting a jammy-reputation!!
Well, I suppose that’s enough of our vending adventures for one post. Black Sheep is amazing! I got to see a chinchilla! He was soooo cute and soft. The baby Olde English Babydoll Southdown’s were utterly charming (think wooly teddy bears). I saw some of the neatest pins at Gita Maria (think that’s correct). My loot? A really nice maple skeinwinder by Will Taylor, some nice stainless steel Pygora goatie earrings, and a signed copy of Judith’s new spinning book.
Totally cute chinchilla!
Black Sheep barn (one of three!) and a portion of a large spinner’s circle.
I’m going to have to learn to write shorter posts more often! My apologies to Teyani & Klaus for not stopping for wine! We had some suprise company join us on Saturday. And a great big HELLO to Nicole from the Seattle area - Nicole your orange juice is fabulous! Can’t wait to see what you make out of that gorgeous tussah you were spinning.
More later - time to go feed the boys their dinner hay ration…….Terry