Aaaahhhh.
That was amazing. Hectic, a bit stressful, but wow.
So here’s the rough and ready recap. Thursday afternoon we arrived, checked in at the hotel, headed to Brewfest to meet a great college friend. I was driving so I couldn’t do much damage at the 80 or so taps, but I snuck a few tastes from hubby. We caught up with our friend and met his family, then went back to have a late dinner at the hotel’s pub.
Friday morning was an early start, since I was scheduled for a 9am class and still needed to register and figure out where the heck I was going. I bumped in to a spinner from Whidbey first thing, and just that one friendly face soothed my nerves. I found my class, and another acquaintance to whom I introduced myself by my Rav name – only to be accosted by nearby students exclaiming, “Ohhh, it’s YOU!” That was to be a frequent theme of the weekend, and a source of great amusement and pleasure to me. I thought I was barely tolerated, at best, on Ravelry, but here were all these people honestly glad to see me in person. Wow.
First up was Judith’s class on Sheep Feet, where we got to play with piles upon piles of absolutely gorgeous Judith-selected fleeces from across the country. I feel more confident already to select a fleece of my own, and I came away with many little baggies stuffed full of fleece to play more with later. I can’t believe how much information is already dribbling back out of my overstuffed brain though. Why were we supposed to take the less tippy part of the Cormo, and after lock-washing it, were we supposed to flick or to comb it? Gah.
At noon I rushed around like a chicken with my head cut off, meeting my Fleece to Foot team, delivering my wheel to Huckleberry Knits’s booth in the Marketplace (collecting my club fiber from her — divine!), heading out with the group to Subway, eating and strategizing, returning to the Marketplace just about in time to browse for 10 minutes then head to my one-hour class on Natural Dyeing. Kristine from Verb gave us a great overview and I was as inspired as I’d anticipated. Instead of worrying about getting just the perfect color, it’s OK to sort of experiment with natural dyes, determining the palette that YOU get with YOUR water and YOUR available dyestuffs. I envision a stockpile of dyed fleece in every color I can muster, ready to use as-is or to blend a la Deb Menz for an infinite spectrum. And I need to get a good book on foraging dye plants because I keep looking at the weeds with a new eye but would like to have some help figuring out which are worth my time to test out. The minute my class was over, I ran out the door where my husband picked me up on the curb. We did a little tax-free shopping at Fred Meyer, spent some time in the soaking pool, then Indian food for dinner with great company from his sister and our nephew. After dinner we went to Cowboys and Aliens, which wasn’t quite as good as we’d been anticipating (in retrospect the whole thing was remarkably cheesy), but still an entertaining good time.
Saturday was early, again. For once though it wasn’t just me driving the schedule, hubby had someplace to be at 9am on the other side of town. I walked into the Convention Center and immediately was met with familiar faces, confused people by knowing them, offered my Rav name to their puzzled expressions, received an immediate softening and brightening and huggening of people’s facades. I expressed to these newfound old friends that I was concerned: my class started at 9, but my wheel was in the marketplace that was closed until 9! But immediately someone flagged down an event Authority Figure, who provided me immediate access behind closed doors. So grateful to friends! I was set up at my next class with time to spare.
This time Judith deluged us with luxury fibers. Superfine alpaca! Cashmere! Silk blends! The tactile experience was divine and the yarns we spun were outrageously lovely. I walked away from that class completely confident that I could make socks that are whisper thin, heavenly soft, and that will wear like iron.
Lunch proved to be my one opportunity to shop the marketplace, so I didn’t worry about eating and instead got down to business. I came away with four braids of fiber (Schafenfreude, Spirit Trail, and Huckleberry Knits), one skein of yarn (Fiber Optic), a set of needles suited to the yarn (DyakCraft), a diz and a pad for clamping my hand combs to a table. Oh, and some gorgeous soap and a lip balm (Goodies Unlimited). I’d meant to be a little more careful with my spending, but honestly when faced with the overwhelming selection of yarns and fibers and tools with no shipping and no sales tax, products I’ve known of and even lusted after for years, I think I got off easy! Then it was off to my afternoon class. I’d really been looking forward to this Ergonomics of Knitting session and it proved to be every bit as interesting as I’d anticipated. I think I’ve already made some positive changes in my knitting technique to keep myself from getting achey after just a few minutes, and learned a lot of tips and tricks for keeping my whole body limber. I still need to email Carson and pester him about how I should be sitting at the spinning wheel though.
Almost immediately after leaving the convention I headed out to meet with one of my oldest friends, my college roommate and bridesmaid whom I haven’t seen since my wedding. It was wonderful to see her and to catch up on each other’s lives. After that I rejoined hubby for dinner, and we played pool for a while before heading to bed.
Sunday was check-out day. Hubby concocted a wild plan to get on his bike first thing in the morning while I took the car to the event. I parked, got my wheel, headed to another spinning class as the Fleece to Foot competition started to gear up. In class Janel Laidman gave us some neat tricks for spinning fine yarns and for working with color. The level of this class was geared a little more for less advanced spinners than the Judith classes had been, but I still loved the variety of fibers we worked with and the different perspective from a new teacher (since before that I’d only ever been in class with Judith!) We took a break at about 10:15 and I rushed over to cheer for my F2F team. I didn’t really bother looking at the other teams, but assured our folks that they were doing great — and they were! Flicking locks and spinning lovely yarns. When class was finished another old college friend rang me up, so I took off to meet her. We had a coffee and a light lunch, then parted ways and I had just a few minutes to head back to the competition. I met Sandi Wiseheart in person and she signed her article in the copy of Spin Off I’d just picked up a few days ago! I again cheered and reassured my team who were well into the knitting portion of the competition. Seeing that they were fully stocked for participants, it was rush rush once more, sprinting over to a lecture from Fiona Ellis on how to practice creativity and find inspiration. It was very interesting and gave me some good ideas as well as a lot of prospects for interesting books to read on the subject.
And with that I was off! Rushing through the convention center, dashing to the car, I peeled out and headed north to find my husband who at that point had already been on his bicycle for six hours. I caught him some 60 miles into Washington (he’d taken winding side roads and had headed part way up Mount Saint Helens before descending again, putting his total mileage around 120). A quick snack and we took off toward our island, battling traffic to walk in the door at 8:30pm to a wonderful chorus of “Mommy! Daddy!” from our sweet little munchkins.
It was a great trip, but way way too hectic. I wish I’d had more time for the Marketplace, for Rav friends, and for IRL friends. I also wish my poor beleaguered husband hadn’t felt so sidelined. But I am glowing with the amazing energy of the whole event, the pleasure of the social interaction and all those neurons firing with new ideas prompted from the knowledge I received over the course of the weekend.
I think I’ll post soon with some of the ideas that are percolating in the aftermath. Prepping, spinning, knitting, and keeping my fiber hobby self-supporting in the process. But now? I return to my home duties and my kids, as well as my spinning and knitting projects already in progress…
But the best coda to the whole weekend was learning that “my” Fleece to Foot team WON the competition! I know I can’t really take any credit, but I do hope that some of my advice and input was helpful, and I am extremely proud that it was my suggestion that made us choose Doctors Without Borders as our charity and thus the recipient of a $300 donation as the team’s prize.
After Happily Ever After 