A View from Sierra County

Interlude with a Hat

I have been crazy busy getting all of the plants gathered, dried and packaged for my dye plant CSA, and just finished boxing up Shipment #2!  There are still more plants to be gathered before the snow flies, and cuts off my access to the high country, but I have been on vacation from my 'regular' job this week - fall break in our district at the end of the first quarter.  That has helped me get many small steps accomplished, so DH and I took off Tuesday afternoon and headed to our Forest City cabin.  25 miles can be a world away!

Autumn is definitely present there, with black locust and aspen leaves in various shades of yellows, though the black oaks haven't turned color yet.  The weather has warmed back up during the day, but is chilly at night.  I decided it was time to make a new hat for the coming cold season, and spent much of my time knitting.

I finished my hat by midafternoon yesterday, tried it on and then didn't want to take it off!  It was just the extra warmth I needed while still getting to wear my crop pants and short sleeved shirt.  I am especially pleased with this hat, an adaptation of the Slouchy Hat pattern in Harvesting Color.  The yarn is some of the wonderfully squooshy Rambouillet I have been spinning at many public spin-ins for the past few years.  I used a lot of my yarns to dye with this summer, and ended up with plenty of colors for the striping.  The orange is from madder roots, the blue is indigo-dyed, the purple from logwood, and the gold is from a boiled-up pomegranate someone threw in a dyepot while we were working at Anni Redding's back in May. 

The light olive color is a bit more complicated... I wanted to be able to demonstrate some dye processes while giving a talk at Ridgestock in August, so I set up a jar of zinnias and black-eyed susans in my solar oven.  Meanwhile, I had yarn soaking in my rusty-object mordant jar.  Later, when I got back home, I simmered the sun-mordanted yarn in the flower water.

As you can tell, my pre-dawn photo taken by myself with my phone won't win any photography awards, but you can see a detail I decided to add to the original pattern.  I have been admiring the hats in the knitting mags that are trimmed with cute little buttons, and as I was knitting, I made a reverse stockinette placket for the buttons.  This hat is worn inside-out, so that portion is flat stockinette.  When we got home last night, I had a pot of elderberry dye to simmer and time to paw through my button collection and find five small wood buttons.  Then, I used a nickel as a template and cut five circles from some felted wool that I threw into the last of the pokeberry dye baths a few weeks ago.  The berry red is a bit different from the rest of the hat, but looks good against the light olive and with the wood.  I am so delighted with this local hat, made by me from start to finish!

Now, to head off for a quickie vacation visiting the in-laws in Lake Tahoe for a few days... I've earned the rest and have a cozy, stylin' hat to wear too.  Happy autumn weekend, dear ones!

Moving Into Fall

  I have had a very hard time letting go of summer.  All September, I kept pretending it was still August, even as we restarted our early childhood program and the school was full of people.  I watched my tomatoes ripen and ate them.  I cut my plants for the natural dye CSA and dried them.  I even took a small rainstorm in mid-September in stride, hurrying off to harvest sage, lichen and lodgepole pine bark in the high country on a damp day, knowing that vacationers were all back home and winter was coming. But look... it warmed back up!  I was happy.

However, this week just ending brought an early but cold and very wet storm system through, and I finally had to concede defeat.  Now, I am searching out the best place to go in search of glorious color in mid-October, when we have fall break.

The highlight of the past few weeks has been spinning all of last weekend at the annual Celtic Festival put on by my favorite public radio station, KVMR. 

This photo was taken from the grand parade that officially opens the fair each day.

The music is grand, there's a wide variety of yummy food, and we all end up seeing old friends and wondering how another year snuck by.

 

I particularly liked listening to Molly's Revenge, Old Blind Dogs and The Young Dubliners this year.  If you haven't heard any of them, be prepared for traditional tunes that have been electrified and make you want to get up and dance.  Celtic music just warms my heart!

 

Our fiber guild sets up a double booth, dons our Renaissance-era costumes and talks fiber to the public. We also get a lot of yarn out of it!

This next photo shows Susan on the left and Mardi on the right... happily spinning away.  I delight in the interest that spinning at the wheel generates.  Young children come running up and have to be warned off sticking their fingers right into the spokes (ouch!), then stay and beg for a bit of soft roving to carry around with them, or ask if they can give it a try.  We are on the lookout for a 'learner's wheel' that we can set up at such demonstrations, one that nobody minds if a beginner works on with instruction, as frequently a spinner is right in the middle of something and doesn't feel comfortable having a novice fiddle with their wheel.

We are also researching buying our own pop-ups so that we don't need to beg and borrow in the future.  We make more public contacts at this event than all others combined, even our County Fair, where there are so many things to see that many pass us by.

I did take some time to work on my current favorite bit of knitting, And So Are You.  Mine is made from Wooly Wonka Celestial (a blend of 60%alpaca, 30% wool and 10% silk) in Milky Way, a silvery-grey, that I overdyed with lodgepole pine bark.  The photo doesn't quite capture the silvery-green of pine needles that resulted, but I was awestruck (expecting a deeper brown than if dyeing on white), and everyone that saw my project loved that it still smelled like the piney woods.!

 

I only have four more rows to complete before starting the lovely pleated section, and just got an update notice from Rose, ahead of tackling that section, which makes some corrections. Before I started tearing my hair out! Life is sweet, even if summer is behind us.

Tour De Fleece Update

Several of the Team Sierra Spinderellas got together today at our monthly guild Spinning Saturday and compared notes... I must be running dead last on our team as far as yardage spun, and maybe even time put in.  Stephanie, our fearless leader (or at least she who proposed the team idea), insists that we are a 'no pressure' team, and not to worry about how I am doing. 

Yes, I really am spinning every day, but also reading (a lot), gardening (mostly keeping up with watering as we have had a week of hot and humid weather), taking care of baby Odessa a few mornings a week, and even working.  I managed to spend one Tour evening plying up another bobbin of pure white, squooshy merino, but it looks a lot like the last one.  I have done a good job on my slower speed/finer thread spinning of the lovely Mama Spider batt, though I showed a photo of that single on my bobbin in the same post as the white yarn... nothing but Wool In Progress here at Slate Range Camp.

However, several team members threw their skeins into a pile this afternoon, in solidarity and to show team spirit and all that. We are making steady, uphill progress as a team, at least!  There are browns from Luci, a big, fat and shiny red skein from Lindsey, blue plied with lighter blue from Sue, and green, blue, pink and white, all from Stephanie.

And this is just part of the team... wonder what the rest are up to?

If you are spinning along with the Tour, drop me a line in the comments and let me know how it's going!

Spinner In Training

The sage advice when approaching any strenuous athletic event is to begin training early.  As the Tour de Fleece approaches rapidly, I have to wonder if a week of prep is too early, especially for someone like me who as been all about the last minute far too often in my life.  I will be spinning for the Team Sierra Spinderellas and we invite anyone who wants to join us to do so!

I started off by a warm up "spindle in public" session on Saturday afternoon at the Willow Springs Living Skills Day.  Rowen had agreed to set up a spinning area, had really cool "Learn to Spin" kits complete with novice spindle and locally raised gray fleece batt, and invited some of us Foothill Fiber Guild grrls to join in.  I decided right then to make the Tour include both wheel spinning (road racing days) and spindle spinning (mountain climbing).  I am not necessarily going to match the cyclists day to day, but you get the idea.  I managed to finish up my red romney from Sue Flynn's Sweetwater Farm (clearing off my Moosie spindle) and continue working on the Rambouillet/Angora blend from Wooly Wonka Fibers(Rav link).  On Sunday, I finished plying the reds for a nice two-ply, shown below.  My spindle goal for the Tour will be to complete the 2 ounces of Ramb/angora and ply it so I can begin a nice little shawlette from it.  I am very happy with how fine a thread I can spin with my little chopstick spindle, and hoping for a nice challenge here.

Also on Sunday, I began the process of clearing off all of my bobbins and washing the finished yarns. From left to right, the white Rambouillet (from Harvey Farms) is some of the squooishiest yarn I have produced on the wheel to date... I have three partially-filled bobbins still to ply with more of this.

The red tweed is Sweetwater Farms Romney and is spindle-spun on the Moosie, some of the most balanced spindle-spun yarn I have made to date.

The yellow/orange singles skein is some of Wooly Daisy's hand-dyed merino roving, the first thing I spun on the Moosie... I had wound it off onto the knitty noddy, but never finished the skein so it got thrown in the bath and hung to dry too... the grey/green is a bit of Navajo-plied yarn, also wound off a bobbin, and leftover from my Circle Vest project.  Margene gave me the batts, from Spinderellas.

You might have caught that note up above, about having three partially-filled bobbins left to ply... there's half a possibility that finishing the plying task will be part of this week's training, though I might just charge ahead with the other three bobbins I have empty, since I picked up a wonderful bag of two huge batts Rowen had carded on her drum carder, and began 'stretching', and 'training runs', of at least ten minutes a day with this lovely combination of wool, silk, bamboo and sparkle (provided by recycled sari silk!).  My wheel-spinning goal for the Tour is to spin and ply all five ounces of this lovely combo.  The bonus round will be trying to fit in plying that white Rambouillet.

OK, enough about me already... what are your plans for the Tour de Fleece?  Leave me a note in the comments.

Joys of Spindle Camp

We are having some pretty unseasonable weather for the last half of May, but that didn't stop a hardy group of members from Foothill Fiber Guild and the Sierra-Carson Handweavers Guild from meeting last weekend at Lake Francis for some spindling fun.

This joint venture started back in the deep, dark days of winter, when someone posted to our listserv about the glories of the Golding spindle website.  Soon, it seemed that members were vying for the title of Queen Spindle Slut, based on who owned the most, or coveted the most, or something like that. 

We also realized that a few of our members were real spindle experts, and those who were newbies suggested getting together for a chance to learn from each other.  Spindle Camp was born, and our dear Jan E. was the one to make sure all the details were gathered together.  After several suggestions about location were thrown out, we voted Lake Francis RV Resort as the location, with something for everyone, including tent camping, cabins with indoor plumbing, a restaurant, and even a pull-through camp site for Amy and her peapod trailer!

The only thing that didn't work out right in the end was the weather, but as Barbara Sue kept telling us, it was just one more excuse to wear wool... lots and lots of layers of wool!  There was also enough of spring floating in the air to give me a nasty case of allergies, but I had already opted not to camp, since this pretty little spot is only 20 minutes from my house!  The sky did clear periodically, but then the winds would kick in.....

We gathered on Friday afternoon, and set up one of the giant pop-ups we use at our Celtic Festival spinning booth, and it was a good thing!  Just as we were settling in to enjoy a Mexican-themed potluck dinner (BJ's homemade goat cheese tamales were to die for!), we got rain and hail both!

It's a good thing we had more wool to wear!

Here's Sara, modeling a pile-woven bag that she uses as her spindling bag... it had been originally intended for a hat.

Note she is also wearing two hand-knit (and probably handspun as well) sweaters, while Barbara Sue, to the right, is wearing two handknit scarves around her neck.

Now, take a closer look at the next photo... in this case, Barbara Sue and her very thick braids are modeling the hat:) 

We stayed into the evening Friday night, as people from both guilds were arriving and all got busy spinning.  Most were choosing to use spindles, though wheels hadn't been banned outright, so a smattering of them snuck in.  Yep, that's the back of the infamous Wooly Daisy, busy at her Kromski wheel... no rickety spindles for her!  Note: hefty handknit sweater, handspun/handknit hat, and handspun/handknit mitts to keep hands working).  It really IS all about the wool!

Amy gave us a great talk about the variety of spindles and their uses.... featuring her ginormous collection.  She was one of our other experts, and has actually tried out every spindle, though she was quick to point out which ones were too thick, blunt, heavy, etc., to spin well and how to shop for a spindle.  Makes ya think she's had a lot of experience in the shopping part too.

Before Steph and I headed home, we wound round to Amy's campsite to admire her newly-refurbished trailer (this from a grrl with a personalized license plate on the truck that abbreviated "Purple Fuzzy Mittens" and another on the trailer that proclaimed "Folk Art").

Amy has had all the wood interior redone with new light birch, as well as a bed, kitchen counter and desks and cabinets to her specifications!  We love her painted details and the lighting she customized. 

I had such a great time on Friday evening that even though I woke up still sick with hay fever on Saturday morning, I decided to doctor myself up and go back for more!  I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn from some of the greats!

Tea, allergy meds, propolis/echinacea throat spray, eye drops and lots of layers of wool, and soon I was feeling well enough to crawl into the car with my spindles and drive back to camp.  I had to take Sunday to rest up, but heck, it's supposed to be a 'day of rest', right?

Anyway, I am really grateful for the time that Jan gave me in understanding how to match fiber to spindle (it's all in the staple length, which she taught me how to check), and for more fun and laughter with Sharon (old blog friend) and Heidi (new blog friend).  Also, for the grand campfire Sara had made at breakfast, which I kept going strong all afternoon, while still acknowledging that it was "her" fire, as the firemaker!

I did manage to fill up my Greensleeves Mjolinar spinning up one red roving dyed by Sue F from her flock's Sweetwater Farm flock, and my Bosworth Moosie (my two favorite spindles, though I only have four) with a lighter pink, also from Sue and plan to ply them together using my Lizzy Kate from Greensleeves.  I had a wonderful time and feel blessed to have such great fiber grrlfriends.

Spinning At The Celtic Festival

Last weekend, for the third year in a row, I donned Renaissance peasant garb and headed out to join my buddies from the Foothill Fibers Guild at KVMR's Celtic Festival, where we demonstrated wooly crafts.

This first booth shows our set-up, early on Sunday morning, with no spinners yet hard at work.  I spent both Saturday and Sunday spinning happily, gabbing with friends, browsing fair wares and eating fair food, while listening to some awesome music.

Sunday was much colder, as a cold front was moving in late Saturday afternoon, and barefoot spinning had to come to an end.  I arrived Sunday much more warmly dressed, and of course most of us at the booth have a large stash of wooly wearables at home, so we probably looked both more authentic and warmer.

Each morning, the fair opens to the sound of bagpipes, with a pipe band leading the grand parade into the grounds... 

Of course, there are guilds representing several eras and demonstrating a wee bit of what life might have been like 500 years ago in the Celtic lands... queens, fairies and even trees are represented.

A lively group spinning at midday on Saturday....

Jocelyn, bundled up in her cloak on Sunday.  

Luci, our wonderful spinner and hairbraider... was responsible for several elaborate and beautiful styles featured on our heads by the end of the weekend, though I think Barbara Sue's (below) was the best.  Her wooly shawl's pretty nice too!

After I had filled two bobbins with the lovely Ramboulliet fleece that I split with Sharon two years ago, and was sitting down to ply, the tension band on my wheel snapped about mid-afternoon (it is a thin piece of fishline, for those who aren't wheel-savvy), and I took that as a sign to visit with friends, drink Irish coffee in an attempt to warm my fingers, and listen to the wonderful music of Dougie MacLean, both at his afternoon workshop and during his headlining act Sunday night.

I had such a grand time, but the chill took its toll... I spent the next few days still bundled trying to get warm and was happy to see the temperatures rise back up in our area... however, I still ended up a bit sickly, under the weather today with a sore throat.

DH and I did squeeze in a visit to baby Odessa and her parents on Monday afternoon (luckily, before I starting feeling ill).  I will leave you with a photo of her, trying to answer her papa back!

Suspending Life In Order to Spin

While many people in KnitBlogLand are busy putting up posts about their fine, fun times at Sock Summit, you won't find that here.  Instead, I want to share some of the fine, fun times my Knit Night grrls and I had at my high country cabin (built in 1864 in a Gold Rush mining town), where I hosted my very own Spinning Summit.

I set things up all Friday morning, in a cool and cloudy, ever-changing mountain climate, following full-on downpours and thunderstorms the day before... the place smelled so fantastic, with that wet-earth, just after a rain aroma.  Stephanie was the first to arrive, after we had made frantic, last-minute phone calls to all the confirmed attendees when we realized that the directions I had emailed out stopped in 'downtown' Forest City, and not at the end of my driveway!

She and I had her tent pitched before any other guests arrived....

On Friday, we stayed in the sunlight, near my kitchen door... with Claudia, Rowen and her little daughter Maizie, Barbara Sue and Luci all straggling in before dinner.  Only Claudia, who lives about 10 miles from my place, opted to be a day tripper, with everyone else spending the night.

And what a night it turned out to be!  As dusk approached, bringing mosquitos with it, we moved inside for a potluck feast, complete with beer and wine, and followed by a dessert of spinning and knitting.

Here's a peek inside my 1930s kitchen (not redecorated to look like 1930s, but the original), with Rowen happily spinning away on her SpinOlution Bee while Barbara Sue spins with her Lendrum and both listen to Luci elaborate on a funny story while knitting a baby jacket.  Little Maizie amuses herself drawing for us in the background.

We all laughed and talked and worked until midnight, and then finally admitted that sleep would be necessary to be successful spinners the next day.

Saturday morning started with a breakfast of gluten-free pancakes, topped with a variety of sugar-free fruits... it is so nice that my grrls are all healthy eaters!  The day dawned early for us and a bit cool, so we stayed inside spinning until mid-morning, then adjourned to my shady back flat to spend the afternoon.

I managed to spin up these two lovely skeins of Wooly Daisy hand-dyed blue-faced leicester, and ply it before dinner!

Claudia rejoined us for most of the afternoon, and Rhodi and Mary Lou both arrived to spend the remainder of the weekend with us.  Sadly, as evening came on, first Rowen, then Luci and Barbara Sue both needed to depart... Barbara Sue to return to Nevada City and the start of her work week on Sunday morning. Rowen was missing her two-year old son, Mossie, and Luci had promised her DH to return in time for evening goat-milking.

As you can see, dinner was once again a potluck feast, accompanied by good conversation... here, Stephanie is describing something (probably to do with chickens!), while Rhodi (in green) and Cheryl (in pink) listen.  Cheryl is my neighbor in Forest City, we have been friends for 23 years, and we have also worked together in two different schools a total of 14 years, so I was delighted when she joined us for a visit Saturday evening, bringing a large vase of Forest-grown flowers.

While not talking, eating or drinking beer, Stephanie also adorned DH's antique truck as an alternative to the outhouse, complete with trash bag... 

spun up about 250 yards of this beautiful piece of sky and forest....

and started a pair of Boxcar Willie socks using this fabulous sock blank specially dyed for her by Sox Chick! She really is a farm grrl after my own heart!

Although there were only four of us sharing the accomodations for Saturday night, we were probably just as loud!  Mary Lou, a beginning knitter, polished off a washcloth, and on Sunday morning learned the new skills she needed to do yarn overs and lifted increases for a beret.  The rest of us spun and gabbed late into the night, with the three of them outlasting me... but we all got a longer night's rest and Sunday dawned warm, sunny and summery.

The overnight four of us took a morning hike, and I am hoping Stephanie has posted photos of the new rock bridge over the creek behind my house...  we were happy to stretch out our bodies and ready to start in on some spinning in the shade Sunday afternoon.

Here, Steph and Rhodi are both hard at work... you will note that Steph is using her Kromski, while Rhodi prefers a Lendrum.

Claudia returned for the third afternoon in a row and Jan and Angela (more Camptonville Knit Night grrls!) also arrived.

In this photo, Jan is modeling Claudia's felted finger puppet, who we dubbed "Spider Woman".  Claudia is a kindergarten teacher at a Waldorf-inspired public charter school in Chico, and made both a tiny spider and a lovely little woman who can help escort errant spiders out of the classroom using sheet felting techniques earlier this summer, but brought sewing (heretic!).

Jan chose to use her hand spindle, while Angela knit away on an elegant shaped cardigan.

I alternated between spinning and knitting over the course of the weekend, and mostly finished the Little Undershirt featured in the summer and fall 2009 issues of Interweave Knits... the first photo is the back view, which still needs the straps finished, and the second photo is the front, with straps waiting to be joined by 3-needle bind-off... as you can suppose, the stripes are variegated and wrap around in a rainbow effect... nothin's too good for my granddaughter.  (She is set to make her appearance at the end of this month!).

I am planning to make a couple more of these cute little shirt/vests, though I found the pattern to be 'fussy'... for once it will be about the product and not the process, and they really do only take a few hours.  My other knitting project over the long weekend was the Fiesta Friendship Shawl, which deserves new photos and her own post... she has grown to the third center large diamond and the first of the two rows on either side of that, meaning I am probably somewhere near the middle.  I am still so grateful to all of you who sent me sock yarns last month, and am loving how they blend with each other, just as my grrlfriends and their personalities got along so harmoniously this past weekend.

Sunday afternoon also led to my first successful attempts at spinning pure alpaca... no photo of that yet.  I had a two-ounce bump of a lovely coffee and cream alpaca roving I had purchased at Lambtown a few years back, and every time I gave it a try, found it too slippery for my abilities.  With coaching from my more experienced spinning buddies, I found a short-draw, lots of twist method that held together, and only have about one-third an ounce left to complete.  Judith McKenzie-McKuen taught a workshop for our fiber guild (that I missed, unfortunately) this past spring, and Steph, Rowen, Rhodi and Barbara Sue all attended, so throughout the weekend I learned tips they had gleaned to improve my spinning... though the universal tip was "be sure to attend the next time she'd here!"

Mary Lou improved her knitting abilities and confidence over the course of Sunday afternoon, and promised she would be here for the whole time next year...

Rhodi finished off a skein of beautiful iris-colored yarn...

and I realized, as I approach my crone years, that while I might not be wise, I sure have learned how to throw a good party!

I wish ...

I wish I had managed to get some photos to share with all of you of the fabulous skies we have been having, from last night's full moon, through the storm system that has been passing through. I love summer rain, since it is so very rare here in the west, and even though big clouds usually mean big lightening strikes, the coolness and freshness to the air has been really special today. 

Instead, I am sharing this photo taken a few weeks ago, while we were working at our high country house... which will be the site of my own personal "Sock Summit", spinning odyssey, etc.

You see, my friends and I started discussing several months back how cool it would be to go to Portland, but we all realized we couldn't afford it... so I decided to throw my own fiber party this weekend. While some knitbloggers have been sharing photos of packed suitcases, travels through airports, and empty halls gradually filling up for the event, my week has been filled with emails back and forth from my dear Knit Night Grrls (plus a few friends from around the edges of our circle), about food, drink and lodging plans as we prepare to gather at my place tomorrow to revel in fibery doings for three whole days.

My house there is high in the piney woods, somewhat primitive and far quieter and calmer, but I am sure we will be able to make a lot of noise and have a grand time together.  

Stephanie has helped me with the planning, and graciously took my Circle Vest to the fair receiving group this morning, while Luci is coming the furthest. Rowen has agreed to teach us how to weave a basket around a drinking bottle, and her dear little daughter Maisie will be there too, along with Barbara Sue, Mary Lou, Jan, Angela, Claudia and Rhodi (we think).

While I wish I could have gone to SS, and met up with Knitnana, Karen Jo, and several other friends, I sure love my grrlfriends, and will take photos to share.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Circle Vest on the Home Stretch!

I have been MIA as a blogger, since I needed to get the latest update for my photo program in order to share some exciting news... the Circle Vest is off the needles, half the ends are woven in, and the stitches for armhole ribbing #1 were picked out of their waste yarn this afternoon...

it's a little hard to tell from the photo, but I ended the outer circle with my turmeric-dyed handspun, with a thin row of some lovely rose quartz merino top... that one ounce of spinning, and Navajo plying at a heavy worsted weight, only left a small bit after completing one of the outer rows!

There is enough of the green left to do the final bits for both armholes, and all the final bits need to get woven in, as well as washed and fluffed and dried, so that I can drop this piece off at the fairgrounds Thursday morning... luckily, hot weather is predicted to continue all week.  Otherwise, something this thick might still be damp at the check-in, and that really would be embarassing!

I won't be able to try this on until the armholes are finished, but overall, I am pretty pleased with myself to have completed a garment all from my own handspun yarns!  I am not so sure I would have picked all of these colors out while on a free shopping spree at a yarn shop, but then that has been part of the learning process as well... a bump of fluffy fiber may spin up to look considerably different as a yarn.  There is a lot more control in spinning first, then dyeing the yarn using one of Sara's color formulas, but the spinning is more pleasurable (at least sometimes) when working with colorful, hand-painted rovings.  Speaking of Sara, did you know she has a book coming out this fall?  Yes, I saw the write-up in the Interweave Press catalog that arrived at the shop last week!  It is titled Woven Treasures, and looks really elegant, at least from the glimpses I can get so far...

In other news, Allison arrived safely in Portland, with her car "stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey", as she put it, and ready for Sock Summit.  We are all excited to see how the items we have been collectively working on will be received there; I think people are especially going to love the dye kits, which some of our loyal customers helped to assemble Thursday evening.  Each kit will contain either a skein of sock yarn or a sock blank and enough dye in small bottles for you to create up to five skeins, as well as the other supplies and instructions needed to get you dyeing your own yarn.  Although I am sad to miss out on the chance to meet up with dear friends from around the country, if you are going please do go by the Fibers booth and say hello, and also look for another friend, KnitWit Momma's fabulous stitch markers (at the Mama Llama booth), as well as JessaLu's bags, and Lisa Souza and her hand-dyed creations (she's another NorCal grrl, so I have to slip in a plug for her).... what a crazy time you will all be having!

I decided about a month ago that rather than mope around about not being able to get away for a week or more in order to go to Sock Summit, I would host a gathering of my favorite Knit Night grrls up at my high country cabin... we could simply make our own knitting, spinning, eating and drinking fun in one of the prettiest spots on the planet (at least from my worldview).  I have spent a handful of days off cleaning the place and making it mountain-sparkley, and will be thinking about food this week.

Thinking of food leads to showing you the other grand accomplishment for today... yup, fresh strawberries from the farmer's market yesterday, turned into strawberry jam this morning!

My local cooperative is sponsoring an Eat Local Challenge through the month of August, and one big part of my own personal challenge will be to turn summer's abundance into stored foods that will further our eating locally throughout the year.  A few of the jars are already spoken for; DD claimed one after reading what I was up to on FB, and youngest son and pregnant sweetie dropped by for a visit this afternoon, leaving with a jar and a bag of garden produce.  There might be a recession on, keeping me from some goals, but I have an abundance of lemon cucumbers, blackberries, tomatoes, apples and pears, and even got three eggs today, meaning one of the young pullets is starting to lay, as there have only been two producers prior to this.  Whoo, hoo!!

Come back for an update on the Fiesta Friendship shawl later this week; it has continued to grow but taking a photo will also mean annotating and acknowledging the donors of those diamonds produced since my last update and I am sure you've had enough of me by now... so let's hear about you!

WIP Thursday

Thursday is almost over, but I wanted to give a quick update on progress on the Fiesta Friendship Shawl (based on a Cultured Purl pattern).  First, I have to explain that even Thursday almost slipped by because Stephanie and I decided to join Rowen (Rav) at her studio at Willow Springs and spin for a few hours.  We all joked that we should be at the river beating the heat, but that it is even harder to carve out some spinning time!

Here, you can see only a portion of the room, filled with looms owned by Rowen and another weaver... and Rowen with her daughter Maisie.

She is spinning on a SpinOlution Bee, a really cool fold-up wheel produced here in California.  It actually sets up in less than a minute, while also folding into a case to fit under an airplane seat!  I honestly think one of these might be in my future, particularly when I heard how happy she is with the double treadling.

My lovely little Traveller is in the foreground, though it isn't as portable... I am spinning some blue-faced leicester that Stephanie dyed, and thrilled to finally be getting to it.

Now, for an update on the Friendship Shawl... which has seen the lion's share of my attention this week...

since we last met to discuss her, I have added a second large diamond, in deep maroon, from some sock yarn that is several decades old and came from Lois, a fellow quilt guild member who used to KNIT those lovely two-piece skirt and sweater combos for her wardrobe in the late 1940s.

I had just finished the small diamond composed of browns and russets (from Sallee) in the bottom right of the photo, then added the bright blues with greens to it's right, from Elizabeth.  The light pink above the browns was contributed by Monica, one of my fellow Yarnistas at Fibers.  To the right of the large red diamond, in what constitutes the top row in this photo is a lovely earth tone/purple combo from Gale, the WIP diamond, in pink, white and brown tweed comes from Ally B, with the hot and pale pink one next to it contributed by Cookie, who also provided the lime green, pink and blue yarn to its left... which covers what was added in the past week!  I am also grateful to Arisha, who sent me this link, to the Heathen Housewife... she made a large blankie for her family by employing the same begging strategy, as well as getting some famous knit bloggers to spread the word, and it took her 20 months. It's well worth taking a look, but I am now thankful I opted for a shawl!