Time Warp: October 10, 2009

It's my birthday! The retreat began with a chat around the pool, as the conference room was full of vendors setting up fibery loveliness. And Good Dr. G got everyone to, well, click below:

The pretty blond at the end of the video was my roomie: CD. She brought me a giftie from Las Vegas: a mug from Cirque du Soleil where she works. (How cool is that?) After we checked in, we each received a more than generous gift bag with yarns and unspun fiber and soap and stitch markers and more. This picture is just a part of the wonderfulness:These whole skeins were in the goodie bag, too!My brain boggles just trying to understand the generosity of the donors! And even more: there was a major drawing! Everyone got something--I'll tell you later what I got.

I took a drop spindling class, borrowing a spindle from Freckle Face Fibers. I really have no idea what I'm doing with that, but I appreciate the effort that JoBaby made. Seems that, when it comes to drop spindling, I'm really good at the drop... but not so much with the spindling.

Here's the idea: you use a bit of fluff, aka raw fiber such as wool (below) or alpaca or silk or whatever you can get your mitts on. (Hmm, I wonder if lint works...)Then you use this disk on a stick combined with gravity to produce yarn. (?) This is my "yarn". And it's not the picture that's fuzzy: it's the yarn. Well, at least I have the idea. I think that if I was determined, I'd get it. Maybe someday. I even took a second class in the afternoon and still... really just the dropping.

And now for the shopping...

While I was browsing, my little hitchhikers asked to have their picture taken. Here they are with some of Freckle Face Fibers. Here's what I bought from the same vendor:

It's sock weight and hand dyed: the colorway is Ruby. Parfait, n'est-ce pas? I also picked up this bit of gorgeousness: The colorway is...wait for it... Cowboy! (True Love Fiber) Can't you just see the denim jeans and the leather boots? I just couldn't resist. We won't be going to the ranch this year, but I can imagine I'm there with this in my saddlebag! And one more thing: the Koigu was on sale. There was no way to walk away from this: it looks like a mermaid's dream.

A total surprise...the mind boggles: I am such a podcast junkie and two more podcasters showed up this morning: Gigi (red shawl) and Jasmin (pink hair) from The Knitmore Girls. I was so thrilled to meet them both!

I had to take a nap after all this excitement and my late night so I missed a couple of classes, but sanity is usually preferred in public. I can't wait to see what happens tonight!

Time Warp: October 9, 2009

As I have been out of town for a few days, I can't update you daily without using a time machine. Luckily, I built one, so I'll go back a few days and you can hear about my amazing adventure in real time. (Kinda)

Today I drove up to Tehachapi, geocaching all the way! I found one in a cemetary at the grave of Wyatt Earp's mama, and one in a business area. I picked up these guys in San Diego and they were game for a long ride. They posed at the first cache: see below.I got there in time to meet Dr. Gemma (the host of CogKNITive Podcast and the organizer of the fiber goodness about to happen), Elle, and Dimples (not their real names) for group geocaching. We piled into Dimples' car and found 5 caches together. One was magnetized to the bottom of a wheelbarrow and one was tucked under a fence cap like this one: so cool!

Then we went to the hotel to check in and clean up: I was a little dirty from our adventure.

Now the real reason I was in Tehachapi (that's kinda central California) was for the CogKnitive Fiber Retreat: one day of amazing fibery goodness that's already started even though it's really scheduled for tomorrow!

Everyone that we could scrounge got together. I met Tikabelle and her wonderful mom, Swooze. Tika hosts a podcast I love called Gives Good Knit. (Lit and knit--what more could a reading yarnie ask for?) Everyone was so interesting and full of funny stories and good information! We bolted our dinners and flew back to the inn. Why? Knitting time! (and crochet and spinning) A large group got together in the conference room and just enjoyed each others' company. I brought a couple of games, but it was just not neccessary. We told jokes: How many knitters does it take to change a lightbulb? None, I'm just doing stockinette... We shared regional stories: did you know you can't buy yarn on St. John?... We watched demonstrations of differing techniques: the Norwegian purl still freaks me out, but my roommate kicks bee-hind with it. Here's a demo.
Later: I couldn't sleep--never can on my first night away--so I went downstairs and found Tika, Meimei, Red, and JoBaby still laughin' and scratchin'. So I joined 'em and cast on my little lacy scarf. Pretty, huh?It was fun, but now I'm so tired. Good night. Or rather, good morning. My birthday is tomorrow.

Off to Tehachapi!

Oh, boy! The Cogknitive Fiber Retreat is tomorrow and I'm driving up today. I'm so looking forward to meeting this diverse group of folks, knitting up a storm, and leaving with some new knitty goodness. Saturday is my birthday and this is my gift to me. Yay!
I'm planning on doing some geocaching on the drive, so it's all good. Happy happy!