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I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday as much as I did. I had a last-minute change of plans in some work-relating training and found myself wide open for the holiday weekend. Ugh - too late to snag airplane tickets (and really, who wants to fly during the holidays?). So we packed up the Jeep and headed east - over the river (the Columbia River with Mt. Hood in the background
- to Idaho, where I was born and most of my family still resides. It’s a flipping-long drive (9 hrs unless you skip all potty stops!) and Cabbage Hill just east of Pendleton, Oregon can be a bit dicey this time of year. We were so fortunate! The scenery was breath-taking, yet the roads were bare!!
Top of Cabbage Hill - at a lovely area they call “Deadman’s Pass”
Amongst all this holiday cheer - I was able to visit three knitting shops…..despite some seriously bad knitting kharma! What is bad knitting kharma? The first shop I had planned to visit (on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving - on our way to Boise) was CLOSED! Closed on a Wednesday? Apparently they are normally open on a Wednesday, but had closed in anticipation of a big “Black Friday” sale. Great. I can’t make it to this shop on Friday without driving a ton of miles - so guess I’ll have to skip this one.
Next on my list was a shop in a nearby town that we drove to mid-day on Black Friday. Uh…I couldn’t believe it - but they, too were CLOSED! This was NOT GOOD. What the? I know I own way too much yarn - but hey! It’s YARN. I could be blowing my money on useless gambling or something equally as futile. I LIKE yarn. A lot of yarn (tee hee)! So mom and I head back to the car and proceed to the next shop in the same town my mom lives in. I have a Google map and everything. We get to the address - and uh - no, it wasn’t closed - it wasn’t even THERE! I was beginning to have a very bad feeling about me and yarn in the Treasure Valley. Luckily, they had left a small sign, advertising where they had recently relocated - including a phone number which we had to use because my poor Google map was no longer any help.
Ahhhh - I finally found the yarn shop. It’s in Meridian, Idaho and is called “The Yarn Shop” (I think - and no website). They have lots of higher end yarns (Fiesta, Mtn Colors, an entire wall of Noro). They also have a good selection of staples: Cascade 220, Lamb’s Pride, etc. I couldn’t ge to their book selection: their table where knitters gather to knit and visit was in the way. It was a nice shop - but I left empty-handed. Can you believe that?
Next and last stop (which ended up being my fav) was a stop in Boise at FUZZ! I attempted an outdoor photo with my cell phone - not a good photo. Once I got inside the shop I completely forgot about taking photos - they have everything! Spinning stuff, weaving stuff, and plenty of yarn and fiber, even coned yarns! As a reward to myself (and the shop owner for being OPEN) I purchased two nicely colored skeins of Lorna’s Laces shepherds sport. I just love the colors in Lorna’s Laces yarn.
One last shot - taken through the windshield (DH was driving) as we travelled through the Columbia Gorge - it’s difficult to take a bad photo in the gorge because the scenery is stunning. And I really love this shot as it shows great movement/action (purely accidental on my part!).
Terry
I’ve been neglecting my fiber activities and my studio the past few weeks. My life at work is so screamingly hectic now that I don’t want to think about it. Home life is great - except I’ve done something to myself (or is it old age??) that causes my neck and shoulder to hurt and my left lower arm and fingers go numb. Great. This really has put a cramp into my already-limited fiber time! They’ve taken xrays of my neck and I get to have an MRI. Keep your fingers crossed that my numb fingers aren’t a permanent thing.
I have dyepots to get back to ~ (ugh - this is my old crusty one! have since replaced it with a shiney new stainless one!)
And I’m getting a new grandchild this spring - and so had begun to warp the big loom with some “toddler” colored machine-washable yarn. I just couldn’t do the pastel thing - and the sex of the child is never known ahead of time - so I chose nice bright colors
And I need to get back to my winter project for the business !
Terry
Ok, so it’s November already! When I think of November, I think cold and rain, dark storm clouds overhead, a fire in the woodstove, and an interesting knitting project (ok - so that covers my weekend/not at work vision - I’ll spare you the ugly “at work” vision). So as I make my way outside this morning, I see all kinds of signs of the impending cold weather season:
don’t laugh - you wouldn’t if you’d been suspended upside down in the dark, hanging by your seatbelt as we were last winter….
It’s been cold in the mornings, some stuff frozen, but not a hard freeze as of yet…but I’ve got the electric water bucket all plugged in and ready to go!
Ugh! A huge brown sea of dead maple leaves. I won’t show you the gutters on the house and barn. It’s not pretty.
Gotta have wood for that crackling fire in the woodstove! We’re ready!!
This, however, was completely unexpected!!!
Now for an animal update. Not sure if I shared the fact we lost Scooter this summer. Not sure what happened, but he had gotten out one night and never came back. His brother, Hunter, was beside himself for the next week. It almost broke my heart to see him literally moping around. So we went and rounded up a new buddy for him. His name is Shadow. Hunter hated him for about two weeks. Now they’re best of buds…here’s a close up of Shadow (difficult to do because he’s so BUSY!) And another shot of Hunter (left) and Shadow playing together.
Here is why a goat owner needs a super strong fence (and why we never have to use the weed whacker next to our fences…)
That is Thunder. He’s far from being underfed. He just can’t seem to help himself!
And lastly - a photo of some really yummy fiber we’ve been dyeing - it’s a great blend of wool, llama, and mohair and it is really NICE! Pin drafted roving, too! And see our new package label? I’ve been working on that for a long time and finally created something I really like!
Terry