Fiber Fool

In case you missed it, yesterday was summer solstice. Did you do anything special to celebrate midsummer? We got together with our friends Anne and Rod and picked pie cherries at Anne’s mother’s home. We then came home, had some beer (or alcohol of choice), pitted cherries, made, and ate a cherry cobbler. It seemed a great way to mark the official beginning of summer - visiting with friends and eating something made from things we picked. We ended the evening with a small fire in our backyard fire pit (after a good lawn soaking).

The summer solstice also marked the beginning of the summer spinning challenge. I started off kind of weak yesterday, logging in only about 15 minutes of spinning but I had overtrained the day before with about 1.5 hours of spinning. I’m still working on my blue superwash that I brought back from the Brown Sheep road trip.

If you are in the challenge (or would like to sneak in a little late) you need to have your goal set no later than the 28th in order to qualify for the fiber prizes that I’ll draw for from those who stuck with their goal until the autumnal equinox. If you’ve already signed up and didn’t get your Blogger invite to be an author on the blog let me know and I’ll resend. There are several of you signed up who haven’t accepted the invites yet.

Want to see the prizes?

I’ll be drawing for one ~4oz bundle of the roving on the left which is Wildflowers roving from Bountiful. It is a blend and includes a touch of angelina. I’ll also be drawing for two ~4oz bundles of the roving on the right which is some superwash “beast” from Brown Sheep that I got during our March road trip. There may be a prize or two added as the summer passes, we’ll have to see.

Click on “More” if you’d like the cherry cobbler recipe. (Read on …)

I know, you have all been waiting with baited breath to see what I bought. I’m afraid you will likely be quite disappointed. See, the root canal kind of flushed my buying plans right down the toilet. In fact, I almost didn’t go at all. So, the purchasing was kept to a near minimum. It worked out okay though because I had been originally planning for a Magpie Woodworks drop spindle and perhaps one of their larger niddy noddies than what I purchased last year, but due to some circumstances they were not there even though they had been on the vendor list. So that made shopping the market on a budget a bit more bearable. I did bring home three skeins of yarn and three ounces of fiber though.

The first stop when the doors opened was Plain ‘n Fancy Wool (Grayce, please get a web site I can set it up for you). I had lusted after some of her lace weight last year and then was too slow to make up my mind. As of last year I hadn’t knit with lace weight so was reluctant to spend my money on that. By the time I decided to go ahead and buy it the color I wanted was gone. Well, this year the lace weight selection was really slim and not in my colors, but I couldn’t go another year without giving this yarn a try. So, I picked up one 400-yd skein of sport weight singles in the Avacado colorway. My original intent was one of the scaleable shawl/scarves such as flower basket or falling leaves, but it might just grow up to be socks. We’ll have to see after an appropriate marinating period.

Next I slowly meandered to Textiles a Mano. Normally I wouldn’t have bothered since the kind and talented Laura lives practically in my backyard and is open every Wednesday afternoon. However, I got news on the trip up to Estes that this Wednesday is the last one here in Fort Collins. Textiles a Mano will be moving to Missouri in just a few days. So, I had to buy something. It seems a bit odd to have bought something undyed from her when I love her dyeing so well. But, it is summer so cotton made the most sense (and it was 25% off for the show) and the colors I liked in the cotton and cotton blends were down to just one skein. Plus, this cotton looks gorgeous knit up. Now that I got home though I’m kind of thinking I may need to pick up one more skein. These two are 640 yds of worsted weight I believe. I think it may be a tiny bit tight for a tank for me. Thoughts anyone? I’ll have to look through some of my books today before they open and see what I may or may not be able to do with that amount versus 960 yd…

Lastly, after consulting with Carole and Stephanie on their purchases I had to hit Handmade by Stephania and get some natural dyed roving. I remember thinking hard about getting some last year too, but I didn’t. I always have a hard time at this booth because I love her colors. There is just something that really resonates with me about the shades you get with natural dyes. But a lot of her roving is coopworth and I am just not a big fan of it. I find it itchy, scratchy and coarse. But, as luck would have it I found some Indigo dyed CVM. What has me a bit confused is why it is green. I love green and was lamenting last month that I had no green fiber stash so it was a perfect match of one of my favorite fibers and colors. But, is there something that can be added to the indigo baths to prevent it from oxidizing to the blue we usually think of indigo to be? Or was this fleece particularly yellow? I don’t know, but I’m really glad to have this fiber in my stash. It’s three ounces so I’m hoping for a real fine laceweight with it. But, again it will have to marinate in the stash for a bit.

That really is the extent of my market purchases believe it or not, less than $50! That is some major will power if I do say so myself. If you want a bit better review of who was there (including links) I suggest you check out Amanda’s post on the SOAR blog.

Margene put a lot of effort into organizing this past weekend. As part of that she got us reservations into a pair of condos (upstairs and downstairs) right at the end of the downtown district of Estes Park. They were nice condos. They were likely from the 20’s or 30’s but had been kept up very nicely and everything was clean. They were however decorated over the top with the kitschy mountain decor that was a source for constant amusement to many of us.

It makes sense to use a mountain wildlife theme, we were in the shadow of Longs and Meeker peaks and nearly at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. But this was a little too much of it. Most of the things wouldn’t have been so bad, but put it all together and it was waaaaay over the top!

Top Ten Ways to NOT Decorate Your Mountain Rentals…

1. Don’t put pine boughs on everything! Especially leave them away from BEHIND THE SINK! Can you imagine how gross those must be by now with people washing greasey dishes in the sink?? GROSS!
2. Don’t hang bears, no matter how cute you might think they are, staring at a bed.
3. Don’t decorate with “mountain” things that just don’t make sense. A totem of a gnawed off tree trunck, a fish, and a pine tree that looks handcarved but is obviously cast and then painted??
4. Limit the moose and elk population to one or two per small condo, not 5 or 6.
5. Skip the antler-made pine trees. Please! Antler chandaliers are one thing and may on occassion have an appropriate location to be in, but pine trees made of antlers will never have a proper home!
6. Stay away from the country kitschy “old fashion” painted signs with mountain wildlife themes to them.
7. Put away all the Christmas trees after Christmas.
8. Don’t clutter all the end tables and the futon extension/coffee table. Don’t keep the futon extension full of so much stuff that there is no place to put it so people can sleep on the actual futon (the foot portion of the futon was unattached to the futon).
9. Don’t use overly pine-scented cleaning products to give it that “nice mountain smell.” Chances are it’ll just make people sick.
10. DRUM ROLL PLEASE…… Do not put a cast iron, velvet-lined, pinecone urn on the end table. We will not be be held responsible for burning something and putting the ashes inside!

Really, despite all the kitsch at the condos it was overall a good place to stay. There were some issues such as the cleaning staff not leaving the key to the downstairs hot tub and there not being enough toilet paper, no waste basket in the bathrooms etc. But I wouldn’t hesitate to book them again for some other event in Estes either.
The view from the balcony and hot tub was excellent once you look over the parking lot below…

I’m soooo tired today! I had an amazing weekend at the Estes Park Wool Market this weekend. I got to stay in a condo up there with a bunch of the Utah contingent - Margene, who brought along Carole and Birdsong, Mim, The Knitty Professor, and Karen. We were also bunking with Stephanie, Jen, Snow, Amanda, and Paper Tiger Knits. Jessamin, Bonnie, and Green-Eyed Grrl also part of the Utah contingent joined us for meals and kicking back much of the time though they were not staying with us.

Friday evening we all walked into downtown Estes and had pizzas, burgers, and salads at Poppy’s. We wandered our way back home slowly via a couple of the candy shops along the way and then it was time to get to bed so we’d all be refreshed for the next day’s shopping expedition and big knit blog meet-up that Margene organized.

The first stop was Plain and Fancy Wool as I had to think about my purchase last year and then Grayce was sold out of my selection. I got a few things that I’ll share with you later in the week, but I was on a tight budget due to the root canal last week (no dental coverage). For someone on a tight budget the biggest excitement was of course the meet-up.

I got to meet Erin and Kara in person, see Wanda and Cyn and Jenifer again. I finally got to meet Lisa in person too! I got to put a few more faces to blogs as well. And Mim introduced me to her friend, Isela. Though I have to confess that I turned into a bit of a wall flower. I had cards with my blog info on them to hand out as I remember the knit-out in Boulder being a bit overwhelming to remember who belonged to what blog. But, I chickened out on handing them out and I didn’t just introduce myself to people either. In fact, while I saw Cyn and got a couple pictures with her in them I don’t think I actually even spoke to her :-( In somewhat slight defense of myself, I was experiencing some killer cramps so I wasn’t quite my usual self (though I do definitely have wall flower tendencies when in larger groups of people). I’m kicking myself for not being more forward now. Perhaps next year? Then I got to enjoy a leisurely lunch with Snow, Jen, Imbrium and her entorage at a nice little hole-in-the-wall cafe with a killer Monte Cristo (sans ham for me).

I was feeling pretty wiped out as were Jen and Snow and Jen still had pies to bake and supper to make to feed an army of us knitters and spinners. So, the three of us retired to the condos after lunch. Snow and I offered to help to Jen, but were never taken up on it. I soaked in the hot tub some to relieve the cramps a bit, took photos of the kitschy decor of the condos and read a little and knit a bunch. In fact, I’ll have an FO for Friday this week! Yeah!

Jen’s Sheperd’s Pie was a great choice to feed a bunch of wool lovers and it was especially good with the mix of meat she used, including some elk (right, Jen?)! And dessert - amazing! She made three strawberry and peach pies that were to die for. I haven’t had a homemade pie crust in a long time. I’ve only made pie crust myself once. Though I should give it a try again sometime. Jen, you worked your butt off and we all really appreciated it!

I got home early yesterday morning, catching a ride with Margene, Carole, and Birdsong to Coyote Ridge where they traded me for Anne. DH picked me up, we came home and had a quick breakfast and went back to bed until nearly 2pm! I’m still tired today!

There will be more tales to share over the course the week. But, now it is time to buckle down to some work!

First tooth, now stomach! Gah!