Friday, February 22, 2008

Recovering from Madrona

Or, "how I spent my week off".
But first, Madrona loot and a quick recap.
I went down to Seattle on Thursday afternoon and met up with Holly who very kindly took me shopping. We bought a few things including a burner phone which has since been dubbed Lara's Crack phone. If you want to know why, you have to watch The Wire.
It's a cheap, anonymous cell that I can use in the states without racking up enormous bills. Very handy.
We went to Tacoma that evening and had dinner with some of the Blue Moon bunch.
Friday I spent with Janet in Seattle getting a colour not known to nature streaked through my hair. Then it was back to Tacoma for dinner with the Blue Moon bunch again.
Saturday was fibre shopping in the Madrona market, lunch with Jean, and dinner with friends.
Sunday I headed back home with Angela and Doug. We spent a good portion of the trip trying to come up with book titles. Lucky Golden Knitting Book was the best that came up (it was Doug's). So as you can tell, we didn't have a lot of luck. A lot of fun and goofing around, but no real book title. Gonna keep working on that one.
I had Kerry as a roomie this year which was a lot of fun, but we didn't get to see much of each other. We were both pretty busy. I think we need to arrange a visit that's just for visiting.
On to the fibre portion of the show:


There's some Crown mountain superwash, some Skacel, mixed batts and some alpaca that Jacqui processed for me. There's quite a bit more of that last one, but you get the idea. The skein is a laceweight I spun from some other batts that Jacqui gave me.
Now for some yarn and such:


Some of this I bought and some was gifted me from Kerry and Denise. The grey skein with the green tag is from Denise. She spun it and it's truly spectacular. The machine knit swatches are actually sock blanks. You knit socks from them by unraveling them as you go. I got some undyed to try as well.
And then there were some spindles:


Another glass one from Sheila, a Spindlewood and a Grafton.
I had to promise Sheila that I would spin with the Do Not Drop spindle. I'm afraid I'll break it, so I'm going to pad up an area before I use it.
I'm home now, but the fibre just keeps coming. In my defense, I bought these fleeces last year and only now am I getting them back from the mill. Lynne was nice enough to bring them by yesterday. She obviously hadn't touched the merino, or I never would have seen it again!


The black and smaller grey are romney x's and the large grey is merino. The merino is soft enough to make underwear out of. I'm pretty happy with it. I think it's destined to become a sport/dk weight 3 ply and then a soft, light cabley sweater. I really want to spin it right now.
But it has to wait because I still have tons of homework to do and I just started this:


Mystery beast millends from a mill in Ontario. I've got about 200g of it, so it's destined to be 2 ply laceweight.
I'm taking lots of breaks while I spin it because I managed to bugger up my knee when I spun the other stuff earlier in the week. Between all the spinning and the three times a week running, I have to take it a little easier.
Still hating the running. Next week we're up to 5k. yippee.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow........... I live vicariously through you. :-)

Jacqui said...

aha! i found the batt info...

SWEET SIMPLICITY (from Loop)- Mint Merino, Yearling Mohair, Corriedale Drum Carded Batts (3 oz.)
"These batts consist of three subtle but distinct layers- a light layer of soft carded corriedale in charcoal grey, a layer of the same corriedale in a beautiful silver, and a final layer of super soft merino top in a lovely minty green."

it turned out beautifully! i hope you enjoyed spinning it up.

it was just wonderful to get to visit in person! we definitely need to do this again, without the pesky bother of show and classes. :)

the Romneys are just delicious. congrats!

Anonymous said...

pictures! pictures of the hair, c'mon! (please?) (Janet)

Angela said...

Mmmmmmmmerino. :)

Denise said...

I'm really glad you liked the yarn. I'm always a bit unsure about gifting my handspun, especially to other spinners (more especially to another spinner who are practically getting a master's degree in spinning!).

Madrona was great fun, too bad it's a whole year before we can go again.

Fun Knits said...

Sorry I missed seeing you at madrona. Way too busy. I sure had fun. Come and see me at the Fibrefest in Abbotsford. I will have a booth
Shelley

Anonymous said...

It was SO lovely to see you at Madrona...getting in a quality visit or two...or three ;)
Thanks so much for the wonderful bottle that kept me well and feeling good all through Madrona and Stitches West!! Much Appreciated as everyone around fell to the bugs....
Thanks for being the Wonderful Lady that you are!!!
Big Hugs....&...have you worked your spindle yet ;)

Anonymous said...

give gir a hug from me today dad