Adventure!!

Very early Saturday morning I, thanks to my new Rav friends Suzy, her husband Frank and adorable precocious daughter Sierra, set off to visit more Rav friends and others at Jacob's Reward Farm in Parker, TX. I got a REALLY early start. It had been decided that we'd leave Norman (which is about 60 miles from me) at 0630. That meant I'd need to leave about 0530 and get up about 0430. So full of excitement I set my alarm after returning from high school graduation ceremonies. My nephew-of-choice Tyler was one of the graduates! (Yay...but when did he grow up???)

Sleep was difficult...I kept waking up wondering if it was time yet, but finally the alarm went off. I had to prod Zo awake. Even the cats looked confused. And after they were all fed, I looked at the clock and it was 0345!! Eeek...too late for any more sleep. So, I took a soaky bath, ate my Cheerios and headed off.

So excited! Suzy met me at her door and it was like I'd known her forever! I gotta say, if you ever want to go on a fun road trip, you need to go with these folks. I laughed soooooooooo much.

Finally after negotiating some of the Dallas/Ft Worth area (I would NEVER attempt to drive this!) we arrived! Greeting us was Cindy and her husband, the owners, and also Susie, the owner of Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm/Hudson Valley Fiber Farm, the first fiber CSA (community supported agriculture).

The weather and the setting was super!





Pleasantly warm, good shade, and beautiful people!

Susie did a dyeing demo, and later after paying close attention, Suzy appeared to be a mad scientist mixing potions :)





Not to be ignored, the animals seemed at times to be quite interested in us too.





This little Babydoll Southdown was my favorite. Probably because he liked for me to scritch his ears. I'm SURE I was his favorite scritcher and I could easily fall totally and hopelessly in love!



We ate, we spun, we knitted, we talked, we laughed, we ate some more, and laughed some more and told stories and asked questions, and laughed. Nirvana!

Then time for spinning lessons. Cindy had cleverly made CD spindles with her farm logo on the cd. Very clever indeed. And Susie had a lesson. Go Susie!



And, ohhhh there were chickens! I adore chickens. I love watching them be their busy, little selves. There were chickens all over the place. I think Cindy said she had 29. These were hanging out in the coop doing their chicken things as Sierra discovered. And yes, some eggs came home with me! Nom.nom.nom.






All too soon, it was time to head home. What a great adventure! I loved meeting people who I'd met on Ravelry and the local people that came to support Cindy and meet us. I think, if she lived closer, I could become a real pest!

Fun, Food, Friends and Fiber

What a great group of nouns! Yesterday was the Rt66 Fiber Rendevous in Edmond and I fought my way through rain and road construction and it was every bit worth it.

While I have great friends locally, only a couple are fiber folks. So getting to be surrounded by them is all wonderful. Some of them I see a couple of times a year so there are lots of "How you been? What are you working on?" etc. And there was fiber and yarn and looms and spindles and all sorts of good things.

There was also a potluck but due to some apparent misunderstandings, there didn't seem to be enough food for all that were there. So Katya and I went across the street to a Pita shop (whose name I don't remember) and I had the BEST sandwich I've had in a long time. I need to find an excuse to go to Edmond again :)

And, yes, I spent money. I took cash in my pocket so I was controlled but when I left, I had $2.25 cents left. That would have been gone also but I couldn't find anything for sale at that price. Dang!

I bought yarn and fiber. I'm gonna spin well if it's the last thing I do. Here's the goods.



The green and orange skeins just hopped into my bag as I walked by the table they were on. And I certainly didn't want to be labeled a thief. So I happily paid for them and sure...I need green and orangey yarn. All the rest of the yarn was in a big box. Someone was destashing sock yarn. Be still my heart. The big skein of brown tweed (which is much prettier in real life) was $10 for 400+ yarns and the others were $3!! The brown..which looks really drab in the photo is a really soft tweed sock yarn. I could only find one of the rainbow skeins and it certainly isn't enough for a pair of socks but it was a lovely antidote to a very gray day. The big ball of roving is Ramboulliet and the little one is Ramboulliet and angora. And I know the R's owner so it's kinda like spinning with a friend. It spins like butter on my spindle. Well sometimes rather lumpy butter but you get the idea.

Today has been about catching up with laundry etc, and playing with the new stuff. Oh and soaking in the tub with some really yummy bath salts my girl sent me. She seems to have a real talent for making this and I told her that since I got some for Christmas and some for Mother's Day, she has inadvertently started a tradition. And I'm all about traditions. And, for me, it's a special day. The kitties and the dog have been unusually attentive and who doesn't like a fur/dog hair snuggle?

Balance?

The weatherman is predicting a rather cool front coming through in the middle of this coming week. We've had a couple already but nothing that required turning on the furnace. That time is coming though so this afternoon I scurried down to the basement to
1. Retrieve my long sleeved shirts
2. Try once again to light the pilot light on the furnace. I had a plan and I had a book on tape going so I wouldn't get too frustrated if I had to keep relighting.

The first part went well; the shirts were actually where I thought they were! And that gave me hope that for the first time in years I'd actually be able to get it to stay lit. The furnace and the water heater live in a little enclosed closet sort of thing. I opened the doors and removed the covers to the pilot area and sat down to light it. That's when I noticed the water. On the floor inside the closet. Not deep but it did cover the area. Hoping against hope that there was a leak where the water comes into the heater, I managed to get my creaky self back on my feet to check. Dry as a bone! Oh hell...just what I wanted to do. Buy and have installed a new water heater. &%$&^%@ Words better left untyped spewed forth and with a very whiny face I went back upstairs to pout.

But, it was a gorgeous day outside. So I thought at least I could pout out on the porch swing. And that's when the balance thing started to happen.

I wasn't home yesterday when the mail arrived, but no matter. There wasn't anything particularly interesting in it. But what's this??? Behind one of the big flower pots I can see something white sticking out. OMG! Look!



I can't really capture the rich jewel tones of this BFL which I ordered midweek from Jessie at A Piece of Vermont. I wasn't planning on ordering anything, just went to monitor shop, so to speak. But the colors! It wasn't payday yet, but who cares. I could replace the money with cash left over from my spindle and fiber last weekend. She shipped it Thursday and it arrived way down here in two days!

I've petted it and loved on it and took pictures of it and then put it back in it's bag with some lavender for good luck and placed it in the little fiber tub. No way would I attempt to spin it until I'm a better spinner (although today I did actually spin a bit of actually consistent yarn!).

Then tonight the phone rang. It was my friend Leava saying that she and her hubby had gone to their cabin for the day and she brought back her old wheel and I get to use it this winter! She said it's a bit tricky, or eccentric, and she'll teach me first on her Louet so I'll have a better idea of what's supposed to happen.

So, although I'm going to take a big hit on my wallet, I've gained fiber and a chance to spin on a wheel. I think it's a balance..or at least close. And I'm smiling.

Fiber Rendevous

Ohhhhh what a good time I had! It was a day full of nice shade in the sunshine, a gentle breeze and lots of fun people. I'd not been there long when I heard someone call my name. It was Katya in real life instead of in eMail, and she gave me this! A Peace Lily. And how appropriate since I'm told that my name, in Hebrew, means lily. Thanks you so much Katya! It was fun, too, meeting her friend and her adorable kids and getting to visit with folks I'd met at last fall's retreat. And meeting people that I only knew through the Yahoo list. Now I have faces to put with names. Not that I'll have the right faces with the right name, but hey it's a start. :-)

I only made one mistake getting there and it wasn't a disaster, I just got to drive through a town that I'd not been in for years. Whoa it's grown!

The Rendevous was held in the little town of Arcadia, which is northeast of Oklahoma City. It's most famous for this round barn and it's right on old 66. And the event was held at Fort Braxton. Not a for real fort but a great venue for such an event, or a family reunion...and in a way that's what this was. A family of fiber folks.

The directions stated it was right across from the barn, and I took that literally. So what did I find? A bunch of bikers! Wow who knew bikers knitted and spun??? They were all quite burly and tattooed but very nice and pointed me about a half block down the street. *G*

Right away I knew it was going to be a 'me' sort of day when I met this nice attendee. I'd never actually seen an alpaca before, but I'd love to have spent a lot of time with this one and it's friend/sister/whatever. I also didn't know they cried. The darker one was being quite pitiful. I was told it was because this babe was used to being around more. It's been weaned so it shouldn't have been missing it's mom, but that's surely what it sounded like. I'd wander around looking and visiting and then, every little bit I would go feed the alpacas a few more pellets that the owners had provided. This blonde one's hair or whatever you call it, feels a lot like my dog Zoey and they are about the same color. I was told that she was a standard poodle/??who knows what. Could she be an alpoodle? polacka? LOL

There were lots of spinners, a few knitters, a lot of dyers, and vendors galore. I got to watch someone use a drum carder; watch and visit with lots of spinners; hear about a lot of experiments in dyeing and such.I got a new spindle (since mine was at home on the dining room table..oops) and a 1:1 lesson with Kati. I was in her class last fall and it was a disaster for me. I couldn't do anything, I wanted to cry, I wanted a nap yadda yadda. But this time it made sense. I'm to spin for 15 minutes a day. She said that until I was a bit more comfortable that should assure that I didn't get frustrated and throw it across the room. LOL she must know me! The white part is some practice fiber that she brought me. The seafoam green is alllll mine! If I unwound the yarn on the spindle it would e an odd site. Some is soooooooooo tight and some is almost too loose to hold together. But I think when I actually get better..and I will..I hope... I'll put it in a little shadow box.

I stayed for about 4 hours and then headed off to part 2 of the days adventures. Which will be told after I see if this collage will actually upload.