Today I put together a collage showing what I bought this weekend at the Fiber Fair. Easy to tell I went tonal this time, and definitely bluesy.
So many of my spinning fibers are multi-colored and very bright; I love spinning them but they don’t work too well on lace or patterned projects, so I wanted to get something that would work well for my lace knitting adventures.
The undyed fiber? Well, Suzette and I are planning a dyeing day at her house one of these days, so I get to create my own colorways! I’m kinda scared about it, never having done dyeing before, but I know the colors that I love so it should be okay.
I got home from the fiber festival yesterday and suddenly realized that I’d forgotten to look for a matching yarn for a special knitting project I’m going to be starting soon. So I decided I’d just drive back up to Hood River again! Why not? It’s a lovely drive and I don’t mind going alone. So off I went, about 11 a.m. I figured I’d have plenty of time to look around because the marketplace closed at 4 o’clock. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It closed at 2 o’clock! No biggie. I had two hours to look around, talk to friends and enjoy the atmosphere.
I didn’t find the yarn I was looking for, but it was good to be there. I really enjoyed the afternoon. This was a fabulous fiber festival, and I am in awe that it was the idea of just one person who put last year’s first festival together. Kudos to Yvonne of Lavender Sheep for making it happen!
I love going to fiber festivals. I’ve found that the people who attend them couldn’t care less about what I look like or how much I weigh, whether or not I’m wearing makeup, or what kind of clothes I wear. That stuff just isn’t important. I never feel as though I have to dress up or impress anyone; we’re all connected because of our love of fiber. Kinda like being among all my friends and ‘ohana from da ‘aina. The outside stuff just doesn’t matter; what’s important is what’s on the inside.
But I digress. Here’s today’s photo, full of fibery goodness. It was a terrific weekend!
Today Nolemana, Suzette, and I drove up to Hood River to the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival. We didn’t get to go last year, so Suzette and I were really excited about going. Nolemana said he’d like to go, but his level of excitement was much less than ours. He’s not a knitter or a handspinner, but he said he’d enjoy our company and see what the CGFF was all about.
We had a great day. I got to see friends I don’t get to see except at fiber festivals, and Suzette and I had a wonderful time enabling each other. The floor was carpeted, and water was provided by the Best Western Motel where the event was held. It made for a pleasant shopping experience indeed.
The drive up the Gorge was absolutely breathtaking and the three of us ate lunch with a view of the Columbia River.
One photo couldn’t do justice to my day today. So you folks get to choose which one you think is the saddest, worthy of the photo of the day.
About a month ago I finished a really pretty cowl. I knit it out of my handspun. It was the first lace project I’d ever knit, the first handspun I’d knit, and I was mighty proud of it.
Nani, yeah?
It looked really good when I wasn’t wearing it. The lace pattern showed up great and I loved the feel of it. Oni one problem: Each long edge rolled up toward the center so that I was left with this ugly coil-y something around my neck, despite some rigorous blocking beforehand. Every time I looked at it I got upset. It had taken me so long to knit it, so long to learn how to do lace, and now I was left with something I hated.
So I went into Littlelamb and Ewe today and showed Cindy the Knitting Destroyer my trouble, and after talking about it, we both agreed that frogging the whole thing was the best way to go. She’s a great frogging enabler when it just hurts too much to frog your own knitting.
Oh. You don’t know frogging? Well, rippitt, rippitt, ribbitt.
Now you know.
Here is the good nurse, finding the end of my knitting where I’d woven in the ends.
She starts pulling out my knitting. Remember, I gave her full permission to do so. It just hurt too much to do it myself. Hours and hours I’d spent on that cunfunnit cowl!
Here is the mad Yarn Nurse Kavorkian at work. She has put the end of the yarn in the electric ball winder, which is slowly pulling out all my carefully knitted stitches. Oh, da pain!!
The yarn ball is getting bigger and bigger, and my knitting is getting smaller and smaller.
Eventually it was pau. My cowl was no more. And here is the proof. Do you think she looks like she’s having fun?
I will find another pattern for my pretty yarn. After I’ve recovered.
Today was an interesting day, to say the least. And I didn’t get a photo of the most scary experience, either.
This afternoon Nolemana called me in a panic; he was down at the barn and saw that Ricky, the horse we’re boarding, was lying on his side, back legs up and over the watering trough. He thought Ricky had had a stroke.
I got in my car and rushed down there and saw that the problem was that Ricky had gotten himself cast (by rolling and scratching his back too close to the trough) and that the trough needed to be moved so that he could get his legs under him.
Nolemana got a big bucket and scooped enough water out to move the trough, then pulled it away from Ricky, who was able to get his legs and feet in the right position to get himself up.
Whereupon he shook himself, trotted out of the corral, and had a nice long pee, then bent his head to graze on the nice green grass.
Silly boy.
At the other end of the scale was total cuteness. I’d taken my laundry hamper da kine to the laundry room and when it was empty, Kalakoa decided to jump into it. Ho da kewt!!
As I was leaving for The Gathering today, Rayado the llama and Ricky were pretty close to the fence, so I thought they’d make a good photo for today. One of our Jacob sheep is lying under the tree in the background, and the other is behind Ricky. One of these days I’ll get them all close together!
Today was my monthly spinning date with my friend Suzette in Canby, so as I usually do, I stopped at Willamette Falls to take a photo. This morning the sun came out and shone behind me, making a lovely rainbow near the falls. It was like a blessing for a lovely spinning day with a wonderful friend!
I hesitate even posting a photo today because of the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, which just sickens me. At the same time, I don’t want the people who set up the bombs to have any power over my creativity, so I’m going to post the photo I took.
It’s tax day, among other things. I saw this guy along a country road near here, and he graciously let me take his photo to commemorate the day. He even gobbled at me several times… it was hilarious! He had a bevy of girls around him, too. Chickens, but girls nonetheless.
Nolemana and I drove home along a country road on our way home from visiting long-time friends. We saw something so perfect for my photo of the day that I turned around, drove back, and turned around again so that I could take the photo.
This old fire engine used to belong to the City of West Linn, Oregon. It looked pretty cool sitting out there. Fire engines today have really changed; not so the brave men and women who drive them and fight fires. I personally know two firemen, and really admire their bravery in the midst of extreme danger.
I knit this chemo hat and another one in the same pattern for two women whom I don’t know. They’re both going through chemo right now, and I wanted to knit a hat for each of them.
The pattern is called “Sisters”, named for the Three Sisters Mountains in Central Oregon. I chose this pattern because in a way, we’re all sisters, linked together. Also, because to me, mountains are strong, ikaika, and these women will need a lot of strength to get through what they’re going through.
This is the first hat that I finished. The second is like it, in blue.
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