Fiber Collective
CogKNITive Fiber Retreat – Afternoon Session
Shari waiting for lunch while I snap a picture...
So after a very good, but very long lunch, we bought fudge…starbucks…and headed back to the retreat. We didn’t get there in time for Mindy’s class, so I brought out the wheel and started spinning my new fiber!
Alexis, Me, Jo and MeiLan doing our thing...
Jasmin...spinning
Look at that new FreckleFaceFiber I am spinning!!!
So I spun and spun until about 6:45 p.m. and then headed for home. I made it home in record time. The 2 1/2 hour trip, according to Mapquest, only took me 1 1/2. I updated my facebook status to warn my husband about how much I was bringing home with me.
This was my backseat right after lunch...
The back of my van before I left.
It’s time for the CogKNITive Fiber Retreat!!
First thing in the morning we got our goodie bags…which made us a little giddy…
We also had a pow-wow by the pool with Dr. Gemma starting off the festivities with a strategy and some raffle prizes.
Mei Lan and Alexis knitting and crocheting
Dr. Gemma and Alexis
Raffle time and surprises!
They had some really awesome raffle prizes, including beautiful spindles (the one above donated by Yorkie Slave on etsy.com) and gorgeous fiber (from FreckleFaceFibers and Red Fish Dyeworks). As a surprise, Jasmin and Gigi of The Knitmore Girls!!
Then the festivities began….shopping, shopping and more shopping!
Vendors!
They had some really awesome vendors. Above there is (from left to right) the folks from Unwind (my LYS), BeeMiceElf, Wolfe Farms and Red Fish Dyeworks.
After shopping there were classes. Jo was teaching drop spindle in the hallway (as we had a hard time finding a large enough space to accommodate everyone). It was great to see so many people wanting to learn to spin! There were so many people there that Alexis, Tika (from the “Gives Good Knit” podcast), and myself offered up help when folks needed it.
Look at all those spinners!
More spinners!
I even did some spinning on my new spindle.
And this all happened before lunch!
This place had the best turkey, bacon, apple sandwich.
Time for the Retreat!
It’s Friday night and I am here. Woohoo!!
I am here in Tehachapi eagerly anticipating CogKNITive’s First Annual Fiber Retreat. I am in my room. I have gotten all the tubs of stuff out of the back of the van (I am hauling merchandise for Unwind) and I am ready to go. I haven’t heard from anyone I know yet, so I am not sure who is here.
I did meet nice woman downstairs (Kathy), her husband, and their cutieboo 150 lb. dog. I also saw a woman hauling in tubs of yarn while I was unloading the van. I am guessing she is a vendor.
Don’t get me wrong…I am hardly bored while waiting. I have my trusty macbook and a boatload of projects.
Nuzzling some of my own dyed-by-me roving I am donating as a raffle prize
Carbonized "Han Solo" Bamboo that I am still spinning (from Stitches West)
Arm Warmers and my Vaya Shrug aka "The Boobie Holder"
Not to mention I also have my spinning wheel and some cash in my pocket for shopping tomorrow. Hopefully I can get something done!
For now I am gonna knit and goof around on Facebook!
Labor Day Par-tay!
Is there anything better than getting a project done? Heck no! My desire to get stuff done has gone into overdrive and I spent my holiday weekend making stuff. Yay! Of course it helps to get together with a bunch of other folks who like to get stuff done too!
Knitters' Gone Wild...Sunday Morning Version.
Patty plays bartender...
I made my yummy breakfast casserole….and there were so many goodies to eat!
I started the spinning right away.
Spinning, in a chair way too short for me...
Ok, so in the “do as I say and not as I do” files…please don’t send me notes about my poor spinning habits and/or posture. I know, I know….I did get a better chair later.
I got a boatload of spinning done. Would you believe I had 1lb. of fiber completely spun by the end of the weekend? I did. I didn’t get it all plied, but I am well on my way to getting a sweater started. I also have a couple of projects on the needles…just little ones though.
I had also heard that Dr. Gemma of the CogKNITive podcast was going to be headed to the shop so I decided to hang out until the shop closed. Dr. Gemma and Limejuicy of the Fiber Collective came to visit and meet up with Red Queen of Here’s to Ewe! All of them are super cool to hang out with and we all talked about our excitement for the upcoming CogKNITive Fiber Retreat and there was a little bit of Sock Summit gossip!
Red Queen and Dr. Gemma!
So, I am super excited for all of that yarn to be finished. I am overdue for a little yarn porn on this blog. Don’t worry…it’ll be coming very, very soon!
Why are these the best socks ever?
Because they are hand knit, and *I* wasn’t the one who knit them!
Best...socks...ever...
I received these as part of the Fiber Collective Swap! Jo (aka Bellatrix on Ravelry) was the kind soul who got my name. She sent me all sorts of fun things over the weeks that we had the swap! Anyone who will gift me teal play doh, chocolate, and a pair of hand knit socks is super awesome in my book! Not only that, but this girl even saw me posting about my super droolfest caused by Simon Pegg in Star Trek and sent me a Scotty action figure!
Stuff!
Now, I got Alexis (Lexicom on Ravelry) in the swap. I am kinda wishing I had taken some pictures of the things I sent her before I sent them. I knit a bookmark and stamped and decorated some notebooks…..and for the reveal meet I carded a boatload of batts for her. Boy, I was sweatin’ it! I bumped into Dr. Gemma on the Friday before the reveal and let it slip I had Lexi and told her all about the batts I carded, to which she replied “Lexi doesn’t spin.” ::GASP:: I almost died right there!
I took this...
...and made this...
and all of this...and *then some*
And in case you’re wondering…Lexi IS spinning now and using my batts! I can’t wait to see how they turn out!!
Summer is coming…
…so why am I looking for alpaca projects? I do live in Southern California after all…
Lots of things happening around here. I wish more were fiber related, but we have been super busy and my folks came out to stay with us for a couple weeks to help celebrate the twins’ fourth birthday. There have been trips all over the place, including Disneyland (which I hear will not allow needles in the park…good thing I didn’t have any down time there)!
So, it started with the Cookie A class I took after meeting her at Unwind. I designed my first pair of socks! Of course I am still test knitting them…so we’ll see how they turn out. Then my folks came bearing gifts from Frankenmuth.
Pictures from my parents trip to Frankenmuth
My folks scored me 2 3/4 pounds of fluff!
1lb. white combed top, 1 lb. white alpaca, 3/4 lb. of dyed alpaca
I am now swimming in alpaca and I have no idea what to make with it. The hot weather is here, but the office has been in deep freeze, so I might have a good reason to make some alpaca garments. I still have the bag of alpaca and bunny that my mom got me on her last trip to the mill. That will be the next thing I spin. I have some yarn on the bobbins right now that has just been chillin’ there. One of the bobbins is a surprise project I can’t write about here….the others have just been waiting for me to get some time to dump my photos onto any random computer I can find so I can make room to take proper, non-mobile phone pictures.
Once the parents left I went a little cuckoos mcgoos. The last two days I have spent dyeing fiber after the kids have gone to bed.
Messin' around with acid dye
I dyed some mills ends wool with some Jacquard acid dyes. I was messing around with dye to try and find my groove. I am new to this.
Then I decided to take that pound of alpaca my folks brought and hit it with some black food coloring. It turned out gorgeous!
Alpaca in purty greens and purples...
Of course, this whirlwind of crazy doesn’t include all the stuff I did last night which included handcarding some other stuff I dyed and making goodies for my Fiber Collective Swap Partner. But those are secret….shhhhh…..
Meeting up with the Fiber Collective…
Time for a little lunchtime blogging. It seems to me I am starting to get in some sort of groove with this lunchtime blogging situation. It helps that the work computers are fast…and quite frankly, as far as our home computers are concerned right now, we are practically off the grid. But that is another story…
So, on 3/29, the ladies of the Fiber Collective (on Ravely) had a meetup up at Edward’s Air Force Base at Stashymama’s place. I convinced Wendy to go up there with me, which took absolutely *zero* armtwisting on my part. We don’t know many folks around these parts that are into spinning, so the idea of getting together with a bunch of spinner’s for the day was incredibly exciting! So we packed up our wheels and some food and headed up there!
We got up there a little late, but we walked in to see this:
A Louet, A Lendrum, a Ladybug
A Mach 1
All sorts of fibery goodness!
I want a drumcarder...I had better start playing the lottery...
Wendy's grey angora with purple mohair
The Alliance Starbird.
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