Free Range Mama

sock summit

I’m not sure I can adequately describe my weekend at Sock Summit, and unfortunately I was so busy that I didn’t really get enough pictures to tell the story for me, either.

Wednesday

We were originally scheduled to load-in on Wednesday, but then we had the brilliant idea that if we could possibly get away with loading in on Thursday (the show’s opening day) Chris could get in a full day at the office and avoid using up yet another vacation day. So Wednesday was spent at home, packing everything up, prepping the pets, and hoping that the sun would come out long enough to get the last bit of fiber on the racks dry enough to take with us.

This was was all done in the shadow of the fact that my grandmother had passed away the night before, which pretty much sapped me of every ounce of my previous enthusiasm. It was a day I would have gladly spent quietly somewhere, rather than running around like a crazy person, but you can’t really stop a moving train, so I just kind of kept going down the checklist and putting one foot in front of the other.

It bears mentioning here, that my grandma, Mimi, was a wonderful lady with a sharp intellect and a strong personality. She has been a very big influence in my life, is a big part of my childhood memories, and will be terribly missed. Isn’t she lovely?

Also wreaking havoc on my mental state was the strange coincidence of it all. You may recall that we learned of Chris’ grandfather’s death just as we were getting ready to open our booth at the Columbia Gorge Festival back in April, so this kind of brought that back for us as well. I’m afraid that if this trend continues, I may have to give up on shows entirely..

In any case, somehow I managed to get completely packed, only abut 10 minutes behind schedule, and headed over to pick Chris up at his office. We rolled into Portland around 10:30pm – not too bad really, considering the time of day and the traffic and all that.

Thursday

Thursday, bright and early, Chris and I drove into Portland from his parents house (they live about an hour West of the city and were kind enough to watch the kids for us) and prepared to set up our booth. I wasn’t sure how hard it would be to get into the loading dock and all that, but everything went like a dream and we were loaded in and had the booth completely built with quite a bit of time to spare.  We tried some new stuff with the display (namely a whole lot more gridwall) and I really like the result.

I was able to get every bit of fiber I had brought with me out onto that display, which was a huge relief, because choosing which lovelies to hold back would have been agonizing for me.

All day long there was a bit of a buzz going amongst the vendors as people began to notice that the line outside was growing to truly epic proportions. The number of people waiting to get in (for a very short session of shopping) was truly staggering. It didn’t disappoint – as the doors opened, there was a huge wave of people (some running!) and the marketplace was saturated within minutes. There were a few vendors in particular  (like GothSocks) with highly coveted products that were immediately swamped and cleaned out, which definitely added to the air of excitement in the room. I think it was a great day for everyone (vendors and shoppers alike) and definitely had us all looking forward to Friday.

Friday

This was the day for the kids to come to to the show. Z came with us at opening, and Alex came in a bit later with his grandma, and we all left together when the marketplace closed at 6. I won’t say it was a bad idea to bring the kids, because I like them to see the booth and the shows that we do, and I think they do too - but I think it was a mistake to have them there for the entire day. They got pretty bored after a while, and were reluctant just to wander around and look at stuff. They wanted to be with me in the booth, ultimately, but you can only fit so many people in such a tiny space, so I felt like I was constantly chasing them off.

After we left the convention center, Chris dropped me off for the night with a good friend who lives downtown so that we could have some fun and catch up a bit. We had a delicious dinner at Justa Pasta (my favorite lunch spot from back when I lived in Portland), and then hit up some late night bar/restaurant places in Northwest until the wee hours.

Saturday

Saturday morning, I woke up at my friend’s place at 6am. I was a beautiful morning, and I felt fabulous and wide awake, so I got myself dressed and decided to walk to the Convention Center rather than wait around for  Chris to come pick me up. The walk was lovely and I was feeling fairly smug that I had managed not to get a hangover after all the wine I’d had. It was only a bit later that I realized that all of this good feeling had possibly been due to the fact that I was *still drunk* rather than being in such fabulous condition.  After a couple of tylenol and about a gallon of green tea, I was as good as new, though.

Another fun day – I can honestly say a fiber show feels more like a social event than a day of work. It can be tiring, but it is so energizing at the same time to get to hang out with all of these interesting and creative people. I loved seeing all of the fabulous knitwear that walked into the booth, and talking to people about their projects (though it also makes me realize how much I have to learn). I was so glad that many of the participants were wearing nametags, though – there are so many people that I have met in online situations (Ravelry, Etsy) and I have no idea what they look like, and this really helped me identify a lot of people that I might have missed. My husband is awesome sauce and helped enormously by doing a lot of the businessy stuff so that I could do the fun chatty part and walk around a  bit.

Sunday

Sunday was another busy day – the marketplace was humming once again, and everyone (including me) was zeroing in on those last minute purchases. You know, the ones you have been thinking about all weekend and now need to make a final decision about, lest you be kicking yourself on Monday that you don’t have it? I didn’t go too crazy – the main thing I wanted had already been secured – the elusive Jennie the Potter Sock Summit Coffee Mug.  I already have one of her mugs and it is just the most perfect mug shape ever created, so how could I resist this?

Did I mention this show was super fun? I hope so, because the next part is going to sound really grim. I’m not sure where we got the idea that we could pull this off. Running the booth until 4pm, packing it all up, driving an hour west of town to pick up the kids and the dog (and get them packed) followed by a five hour drive home.

The saving grace was that the trailer was way less full on the way home, so it wasn’t quite as challenging to fit everything in as it had been on the way down. We also sent a box of rovings to Linda at Northwest Wools so that she could re-stock her shelves, further lightening our load.  We pulled into the driveway just shy of 1am.

dye party

Monday night, we had Z’s friends over to dye their own yarn for a weaving project they are working on. I decided to go with kool-aid dyeing just for the fruity-smelling, non-toxic fun of it.  I had a heck of a time finding all the appropriate colors, and never did manage to find a store that stocked the blue stuff, so I used regular food coloring as an add-in.  It was pretty amusing, actually - buying that much kool-aid at a store invites some suspicion… none of the checkers failed to ask me what I could possibly want with that much of the stuff.

The girls had a good time, and made some lovely yarns, that I hope they will be happy with.

If you’ve never dyed with Kool-aid, the procedure is very fun and simple, and a great project for kids.

Supplies:

• Undyed yarn (must be a protein fiber, like wool, but not cotton) in loosely-tied skeins.
• Kool-Aid packets (those little $.25 sleeves of color and flavoring). Food coloring and Easter egg dye will also work.
• Cups ( I used basic plastic ones)
• Water
• Plastic Wrap
• Vinegar (the regular white stuff)
• Dish Soap or something to wash it with.

 Instructions:

Pre-soak the yarn in plain water until it is fully saturated (at least 30 minutes)

Lay out a piece of plastic wrap on the table and then take some yarn from the pre-soak. Squeeze out the excess water, and then arrange it however you like on the plastic wrap, leaving some room around it on all sides.

For each color you want to use, partially fill a cup with warm water and empty the contents of the appropriate kool-aid packet into the cup. More dye = darker color, and more water = lighter color, so add powder or water as needed, and mix and blend as much as you like. When the color looks good, pour it directly on the yarn wherever you would like it to stay, trying to add just enough to soak through, but not create a puddle.

When you are happy with the yarn, dribble vinegar all over it, or spray it all over with a  spray bottle until you have a nice coating of acid all over the yarn, but again, not a puddle.

Lay another piece of plastic wrap over the top of the yarn and  fold the edges all around to get a nice, sealed packet. Steam the packet on the stove in a veggie steamer or something like it for at least 30 minutes or so, and then let it cool completely.  Wash it in the sink with a little soap and water, and then hang it up to dry. Easy peasy.

Yes, sometimes it comes in handy to have a dye kitchen in one’s house, though I did have to clean up every scrap of my regular dye stuff to make the space available. Usually all the surfaces are covered with gross stuff and debris from my work. Look mom (!), I even put my fibers away (sort of).

I didn’t tidy up Z’s workspace, as she’s such a prolific crafter that I can’t really stay ahead of her. I’m showing it anyway, since we’re touring the workroom. Cute new desk, no?

my weekend at bsg

Saturday morning, WAAAY too early, I took the train down to Portland to meet up with Sandy for our annual trip to the Black Sheep Gathering.

We drove from Portland, and pulled up in time to get a get in a complete survey of the marketplace and the livestock (check out the Chinchilla with Donna Nelson of The Spinner’s Wheel – I want one!!)…

… before heading over to Ocean Sky (a Chinese Restaurant) for dinner. I highly recommend this place if you are ever in Eugene, by the way, the food is amazing. It was nice to see some old friends and do some catching up, and we topped it off with a little spin-in back at the hotel.

Day 2 was more shopping, but a bit more serious this time. I wasn’t buying much fiber because I have tons of it at home, but I couldn’t resist a little of this raw alpaca:

I also picked up a book, and a gorgeous Ken Ledbetter (KCL Woods) niddy-noddy. It is purple heart wood with inlaid stones on the pegs.

In the afternoon, we drove back to Sandy’s.

Monday morning, my mom picked me up and drove me into Portland where we met up with my brother and sister for a lovely Thai lunch, and then hung out for a while until it was time to catch the train back to Seattle. Taking the train is a bit of a novelty for me – usually I drive between Portland and Seattle – and it was long, but quite pleasant. I got a ton of knitting done!

high fiber weekend

Had a great weekend. MIL was here from Oregon, which is always a good time. Saturday she and I picked up a friend and went down to Tacoma to check out the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. No classes or anything, just shopping in the marketplace for glorious yarns and fibers.

Expensive, but fun. I picked up a couple of skeins of very brightly colored sock yarn and a bunch of lovely undyed rovings of various fibers and combinations.

When we got home, we attended Alex's family Valentine's Day party, which he had been planning for weeks. He passed out invitations a while ago, so when MIL asked if she was going to get one too, he thought about it and then decided that rather than make another one she could "just be mom's guest - everyone is allowed a +1".

The dinner party involved a delicious lasagna, fresh bread, and of course, an ice cream cake:

There was still one piece of it left over on Monday night, so I asked Alex if he would mind if I ate it. He took a long pause, looked very serious and deep in thought, and then very matter-of-factly said:  "It's about love, so... Yes." I split it with him.

Sunday was also a fiber fun day. MIL did some fiber dyeing, which was nothing short of awesome.

I can't wait to spin some of this stuff up!

sticking close to home

Not much new to report here - a pretty uneventful week if you don't count the tween angst brewing in my dear son. He's been having a generally hard time coping with the world and the fact that he can't control every detail of it, so we have been laying low and close to home a lot of the time. I have been doing a lot of cooking - resolving to bake as many varieties of bread as we can eat, and inventing a new flavor of "Indian Spice" yogurt among other highlights. I've also been doing a lot of knitting and spinning, and I finally seem to be creating some fairly consistent sock yarn, which is encouraging. Here's one of my projects of the week... the "Nature Boy" hat for Alex.  it's half Sandy's handspun and half mine:

 

I went to a spin-in yesterday at a local Starbucks, which was quite pleasant. I know it shouldn't surprise me, but I am continually amazed at how much interest a group of women with spinning wheels manages to attract.... people are constantly wandering up and asking questions. I don't mind, of course, but sometimes it feels a bit like we're on display - doing a historical reenactment or something. I am not surprised by the curious children, but you'd be amazed at how many octogenarian types come up to us and ask us what on earth we are doing. It's hard to believe that people of that vintage would not have encountered such a thing at some point in their lives, but I guess it's been a long time since home spinning was commonplace.

Alex has been pretty deeply immersed in Viva Piñata 2 and Lego Batman X-box, and Z has been doing quite a bit of drawing, and that sort of thing.  I finally clued in that her birthday is coming up soon, so I need to devise some sort of plan for celebrating it.

black sheep gathering

I just got back from a 4-day weekend at the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR. So. Much. Fun. I left at about 6:30am on Friday, and arrived at the fair around 1PM. I headed over to our booth (okay, it's not really mine, but MIL was selling her rovings there) and said my hellos to everyone and then spent the rest of the afternoon browsing the booths and trying out spinning wheels. In the evening, we headed over to a Thai restaurant and met up with a bunch of the Twisted Sisters for a nice dinner...

Saturday, I took Jill Laski's all-day color class, which was awesome - we took brightly colored roving and made a multitude of beautiful carded blends to take home...

 

In the evening, we had another big dinner (about 15 people) at Ocean Sky, an amazing chinese restaurant near the fairgrounds. It was delicious, and a nice opportunity to celebrate (Dh's godmother) Jeanne's 80's birthday.

Sunday morning, I wandered the booths again, purchased some beautiful rovings (most of which came from our booth-mate Lori Lawson!), test-drove spinning wheels, and hung out in the spinning circle. In the afternoon, I attended the Natural Dyes Class, which was a lot of fun.

We used Indigo, Cochineal, and Turmeric in various ways to create some beautiful vivid colors.

Natural Dyes are so fascinating, but they may be a bit unpredictable for me to use for more than just playing around. You kind of have to be prepared to be happy with whatever you get, which is exciting, but would make it difficult to get really specific results or to get certain kinds of multicolored blends.

I drove back to Portland on Sunday night, and stopped by for a visit with my brother and sister who were both in town, but were a bit in shock over the recent death of a young friend. I spent a lot of time hanging out with them and chatting, which is always nice, before moving on to MIL's house.

In the morning MIL and Jeanne and I drove into Portland, stopping at Northwest Wools to return (owner) Linda's drum carder that I had borrowed for my class, and then went on to Vancouver to drop Jeanne off at her retirement home, and then took the long drive back home. MIL is spending a few days up here to look at some real estate and visit with the kiddos.

chunky sweater

chunky_sweater, originally uploaded by namztis.

No the best picture, but this is the cable-knit sweater I'm working on... I'm almost done with one of the sleeves, as well. I thought maybe that if I posted it to my blog it might motivate me to crank it out before it's too warm to wear it.

black sheep gathering

Wednesday I drove the kids down to the Oregon Coast to my Mom and Stepdad's beach house so that they could spend the weekend swimming, fishing, beachcombing, playing, roasting marshmallows, and generally having a grand old time with their grandparents and cousins. I stayed with them overnight, and then left the following morning to continue my journey on to Eugene, Oregon for the Black Sheep Gathering. The BSG, for the unititiated, is basically a convention dedicated to natural animal fibers... featuring livestock, fiber arts classes and demonstrations, a trade show, and so on. I was invited by my sweet MIL (a spinner and all -around fiber artist)  who has attended for many years. MIL and a few collegues co-sponsored a booth in the trade show featuring a marvelous array of their beautiful fibers:

She and a few of her friends are are often collectively known as the "Twisted Sisters" because of their Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook and their upcoming book The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters: A Knit-to-Fit Workshop . The book is authored by the very talented Lynne Vogel, but MIL has the distinction of having her knitting featured on the cover - a gorgeous sweater that she knit for Zylie. We were promoting the new book at the BSG, and everyone raved about the sweater (you can see it hanging in the photo above) and how cute Zylie is, the only problem being that the girl wearing the sweater in the book is actually a model, not Zylie. I did some shopping and looking around, but most of the weekend I worked the booth and tried my darndest to clear out our inventory. We did pretty well, I think, and had a great time in the process. Working the booth was fun, and I met a LOT of great people. I also brushed up on my spinning a bit, which will give me some encouragement to move forward with it. The gorgeous new fibers I picked up will help with that too.   

On Sunday afternoon, we loaded up the booth, bid a fond farewell to the BSG, and I headed back to the coast to pick up the children. They had a good weekend, despite a few bumps along the way. Z apparently called 911 uneccessarily, and there were a few squabbles among the cousins, but everything worked out. Z told me about fishing.. "Mom! I caught a Salmon! Salmon are also called bait." I stayed over at the beach, and then drove the kids back on Monday morning, including a stopover at 'Dome Central' to pick up FIL who came home with us to visit and help us put up some fencing. So far the fencing project isn't going well - the new auger broke before even one hole was finished, but FIL and Dh are having a good time at the Mariners/ Red Sox game tonight so all is well. The kids and I did the soccer camp thing, followed by about 4 hours of sandcastle building with friends down on the riverfront today, so I am mighty tired (and a little sunburned).

i couldn't sleep last night

I ended up staying up until 4am. On the plus side, I finished "My So-called Scarf" which I recently resurrected from the UFO pile. I love this thing, and I only wish I'd finished it back in November so I could have actually worn it this winter instead of waiting for next winter.

In other news, it was a nice day. My project was to sort through a huge pile of papers, and I pretty much accomplished it, which was cool. House is still pretty trashed, but it's getting there. Z was so sweet, but she just about drove me bonkers today. I love her sweet hugs and kisses and everything, but there comes a point where I just need a little personal space. I felt like I was peeling her off of me all day long, and it made me just want to run and hide for a while. She wasn't just sitting on me, either - she was climbing all over me and that sort of thing - ack!

it's labor day

I went out and did a little labor day sale shopping this morning, mainly picking up 'school' supplies for the kids. Of course anything in the world could fall into the category of school supplies for unschoolers, but what I mean is that I went to the teacher's supply store and stocked up on discounted educational materials. I was there a few weeks ago, but I didn't get to look around much because the kids were in a rush to get out of there, so today I went back all by myself to peruse freely. I got lots of good stuff, including a really cool microscope(!!!). I have been wanting one for a while, so that's awesome. I also picked up a book of Spanish words for Alex, a few books (games/puzzles) some plaster of paris, drawing paper, paint spray bottles, lots of good crafty stuff to keep around the house. I may not do curriculum, but I like to keep lots of random materials laying around the house for the kids to interact with. At the craft store I picked up a stepping stone mold for making mosaic stepping stones, some knitting stitch markers, some fabric for making the kids their own cooking aprons, and some beads. Good times.

I've been crafty lately. I made a bunch of cool notecards from vintage placemats, I've got a cool scarf going,  a sweater in the pipeline, and I've finally started up with my spinning again (and my yarn is actually starting to look like something I'd want to knit with!)  I am getting psyched to start wool dyeing, but I need to wait until Sandy gets back from Greece so I can learn from the master. I just finished a knitted hat that came out a tad too large so I'm considering felting it down a tad - my first (deliberate) felting attempt. It is made with Manos Del Uruguay (mmmmm) so felting should be pretty easy. Anyway Maybe I'll post pictures of some of this stuff later. Right now I need to take Z to the park while Dh and Alex are off playing mini golf and grocery shopping.