Thursday, September 24, 2009

A Good Week

It was a good week, one of those memorable ones: good weather, good company and good times. Take four women, four days, many more than four projects and lots of consumable fuel:
steaks on the grill
These appear to be the World's Biggest Steaks, but really, it is a small grill! Honest!

I think we were somewhat modest in our wine consumption the first night:
wine bottles
but since I forgot to take any other photos of dead soldiers, there is no photographic proof.

We did get a lot done:
project pile

In this pile are some of the projects we worked on or finished: Lindsey spun 4 skeins of Black Coffee yarn, 2 skeins of white "coconut silk", has cashmere/tussah, Crosspatch Creations yarn, and black alpaca on the bobbins, is knitting a lace shawl off the bobbins, Lindsey's ribbon-knitted shawl called Shawl That Jazz is underneath Sue's loom (with cardweaving), with Sue's socks of Noro sock yarn atop, next to my knitted shawl and my bobbins of wool, then there are Sue's skeins of 3 ply wool, and a bag of wolf lichen we collected for dyeing. Dizzy yet?

Here are some details:
Lindsey's yarn
This is some of Lindsey's yarn: black coffee colorway dyed by Kimber Baldwin.

eileen working
This is Eileen weaving, and Sue, um, resting! Eileen is making this scarf:
eileen's scarf
which she finished, and then warped up again for another scarf:
eileen's scarf warp
which she started weaving at the cabin:
eileen's scarf beginning
and finished weaving at home:
eileen's scarf done
This is Cascade 220 sett at 8 epi, and the beads are size 6 pony beads on the fringe.

Sue had a mission:
sue's yarn
She was out to spin up a whole bag of wool, and turn into enough 3-ply for a sweater (she spun it all).

We needed a plan to accomplish all this spinning:
spinning day
This is the line up of spinner's chairs in front of the laptop, with an audio book: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, recommended!, and a full 18 hours long, which kept us in our chairs for several days.

Mornings were chilly, so we worked inside:
worktable
That is my Cricket, with some soumak samples on it; you might notice there were three of us weaving away each on our own little traveling looms this week.

It is wonderful to have the time away, to sit and spin until the wool is gone, to laugh and listen and talk (and take a brief walk or two). The weather was perfect, the company congenial, and the task at hand not onerous at all. There were even s'mores; we toasted the marshmallows at night in the outside fireplace.

Who could ask for more?

And yet, there was more to come:
first book
The First Book arrived when I got home.

This is my one-and-only advance copy, the rest are on that proverbial slow boat from China, to arrive next month. But oh! to see it at last is a joy.

9 Comments:

Blogger Lynn said...

I want a vacation like that...

10:37 AM  
Blogger Flik said...

How'd I miss the part where you were writing a book! Wow, congrats! I can't wait to pick up a copy :)

11:38 AM  
Blogger Freyalyn said...

Nearly as much fun as I had in Cornwall the other week, but with more spinning. I made faience beads as well.

12:17 PM  
Blogger Delighted Hands said...

Congrats on the book being in hand! What a perfect time together-trying hard not to be jealous!!!

6:54 PM  
Blogger Charlene said...

Hey! I'm on your time (and by that I mean Pacific) keeping your hours (and by that I mean 6:13 ayem Pacific Time) in Portland and I was wondering why this isn't your, y'know, seventeenth book. If you write books the way you conduct classes it'll zoom to the top of the [fiber world] best-seller list. Congratulations and see you in a month!

6:16 AM  
Blogger Birdsong said...

Congratulations on the book arriving! Now, it is real:) So glad y'all had such a nice fibery retreat.

9:02 PM  
Blogger judy said...

Congratulations on that book!! Looks like a beauty. Wonderful cover.

The fiber retreat sounds pretty wonderful, too. Will look for that audio book. What a great idea. How did you keep from talking through it? lol.

6:17 AM  
Blogger sheilabythebeach said...

I'm pretty sure I need that book!!! LOL!
Also it would be great to be able to "follow" your blog, until then I'll bookmark you.
What a pleasure to read your adventures!

9:17 AM  
Blogger Sharon said...

That's my idea of the perfect retreat and congratulations on your book!!!!

3:26 PM  

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