Ok, I'm fairly rested up now so here is the story of the retreat.
I was feeling a little hesitant about going at all because I had never met any of these people and I figured most of them were a lot older and probably a lot more conservative than I am. I seriously expected to just go, buy stuff, and end up sitting alone knitting probably 90% of the time, but that's totally not what ended up happening.
I got there around 3PM on Friday and didn't have any trouble finding the place. El-Reno is a pretty small town and everything. There weren't very many people there when I arrived so I just went in and found out where to dump my things, got my nametag, then wandered around looking at things the vendors had set up. Right away I got myself some great smelling soap from Leava's table and some "Mystery Roving" from someone else's (can't remember who it was). Here is a pic of the roving:
It's crazy looking. The color in that pic isn't perfect, but it's a wild acid green and a burnt orangey something. I think I want a hat made out of it.
Friday night I mostly just knitted and talked with people. Everyone was really nice and friendly and not stand-offish or judgemental at all. I got lots of compliments on the projects I brought with me, (The lady eleanor stole, the baby blanket, and the ruffles scarf) and I made a lot of progress on the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole.
See? It's starting to be a rectangle already. :)
It was cool to see other spinning wheels besides Louets and Ashfords in real life. There were all kinds, but I didn't ask anyone to let me try them because everyone seemed to be working on some project or another and I didn't want to bug them.
I stayed overnight there at the fairgound building. About five or six other people stayed with me, including Leava's husband Jeff who had a crazy monk looking robe and big felted slippers. haha Jeff is super nice and really enthusiastic about his silk worms. Talking to him made me want to get some silk worms of my own, but I think that'll have to wait till we get some of the clutter out of here.
The next day we got up super early and had breakfast. Gloria made some reference to having to "pay a fine and pick up the garbage in the snow" in conversation with someone else so for the rest of the day I had Alice's Restaurant stuck in my head. Gloria is really nice and funny and she had the cute service dog with her. She's also the one who made the awesome felted rocking horse. Gloria gave me a hard time the night before because I was wearing a Ramones t-shirt. She asked if that was my Mom's shirt, which made me laugh just thinking about it because, well...you'd just have to know my Mom. I told her no, it's mine and yes, I know who the Ramones are. I even know that there is only one Ramone left and I have a greatest hits cd out in the car. (I think Jeff would have died if we put that on though...he's way into the Yanni cd's)
Pretty soon more people showed up including Ruth and Lara, and then it was time to start the novelty yarn spinning class. I had a crazy good time with that. Here are some of the yarns I made:
That is a Marled yarn. It's made by spinning two different colors together at the same time then plying as usual.
Isn't that pretty? That's a Core-Spun yarn. It's mohair locks fed onto a previously spun single, then plied with sewing thread to bind it. Want a closer look?
I think that one is my favorite.
That's a Cabled yarn. It's made by spinning four super tight singles, plying them to make two energized two-plies, then plying those into a balanced 4-ply. It takes a while, but it looks really neat.
The other people in the class also made some Boucle, but I was too busy petting my Core-Spun sample. haha
After class, the nice little lady who's name I can't remember showed us how to skirt a fleece and gave us tips on what to look for when buying a fleece at a fiber festival. She was really entertaining and cute and funny. We had lunch while she talked, then she gave away a bunch of extra unwashed fiber she had with her, but I didn't want to be smelling it all the way home (a 3 hour drive for me) so I passed on that. I packed up my stuff and spent the last of my money on some soy silk and a Bosworth drop spindle, then hit the road.
I had a really great time, and enjoyed meeting so many other people who live relatively close to me and who like all the spinning/knitting/felting madness as much as I do.
Posts
