Goats & Graphics: rip, rip, rip... (should be done in private ...)

before ripping it out

Rip, rip, rip goes the yarn. Rip, rip, goes the brown and orange and rust yarn. My new shawl project was not working out, the color scheme that I thought would work wasn't and I had a few knitting stitch goofs - even though I was 2 inches from the finish I wasn't happy. So after sleeping on the decision, then doing a few other projects, I decided to rip the whole thing out. The good part was, that from taking that time before ripping, I was able to look at the project with a clear mind. Before ripping, I took a photo of the project to help me remember were the goof with the color was and to not do that again, and the second thing was to rework my written pattern using the 'now large sampler' to write in the fixes. Then I rip rip ripped. The interesting thing was, that my fiber friends were having a tougher time then I was, they tried to get me to stop, and "oh, no one will ever see it, and why do you do this ripping, and how can you do this it is so pretty!" Boy was that hard to go though. I think next time I will rip in private somewhere. I have since started back on the project, and I find I am just as excited to work on it this time, as the first - so I think I will be finished quickly. I am doing the leaf lace pattern from the Lavish Lace book, and I am using three different colors of my dyed Pygora yarn. It is going to be pretty - rip - just kidding...

This past weekend was our Weavers retreat in Cambria Ca, which is about a hour + drive from my house. This is a camp type of retreat. We stay in cabins made of straw-bale construction. The beds are bunk beds which can sleep 10 to a cabin. There is indoor bathrooms/showers and heaters if needed. Each cabin is painted with a theme. I stayed in Marie Curie, I have some photos of the great murals painted on the walls. My roomies were wonderful, Karen and Roberta from my New Mexico trip, Kay, and Patti along with the other two from our local Weaver's guild and Silvia from the Ventura Guild. Our guild invites two other southern California guilds to this as well - which really gets the creative ideas flowing with the more the merrier at this retreat.

My nest (bed)

Roomie Kay

The cabins do stay a comfortable temperature and I don't think heaters have ever been needed in the 4 years I have gone to this retreat. This weekend started out with rain, then a sunny beautiful Saturday followed by rain on Sunday. After arriving Friday afternoon and then adding my stuff (creative tools) to my fiber sisters stuff, we opened some wine and toasted the success of the weekend. I was working on that shawl project that I talked about in the first part of this blog, others where spinning , some were knitting, others were weaving with beads and one was weaving with medal. The dinner bell rang which was great from the on site kitchen and Chef, then back to a lovely fireplace fire and projects, gabbing and sharing the night away.

Meal time

Saturday brought out the sun and some of us took a class from Hebe in leaf printing on tee shirts, using bleach. I did two shirts a green and a brown that I think turned out good. Then I got out my support spindles and spin the rest of the day away - oh - I did spot a huge pod of porpoises traveling south. That was cool, the camp has a great in ground large telescope that is set up for ocean viewing. We all took turns watching the porpoises leaping out of the water as they swam by.

Hebe our instructor

Hebe has us captivated

a bleached leaf

my two shirts, the bleach is drying, then I will rinse, dry, then use a sharpie pen to highlight the leaves.

One of Hebe's finished bags

Below are some sun seekers - 4 spinners and 1 knitter.

Lunch

Roberta & Karen

The dinner bell rang three times on this day with three more great meals from the kitchen - how wonderful to create all day, and have someone else feed and water us and clean the dishes up!

Karen's big project

Comfort workers

Sunday projects

Sunday was a short day, with breakfast, packing up and goodbyes.... This weekend was way to fast and way to fun. Here is a link to photos I took in 2006 - my first year at the Central Coast Weavers retreat. Weavers retreat 2006

Back to Oregon:

I would like to finish my Oregon trip which had one day left of the fiber Festival. I was the Judge for the Pygoras that day. It rained most of the day, so I had the experience of judging wet goats. They are normally puffy and fleecy and this time they were soggy and wet. We were in a covered arena, but the goats had to walk outdoors to get to this arena. But the show must go on, and it did. Elaine took some photos with my camera while I was judging, so I will share those with you here.