I thought I would live and die in Los Angeles. I never thought I would move back to the Midwest after college.

I thought I wanted an MBA and yet I learned I’d rather run things behind the scenes than right up front.

I did tons of musical theatre in high school and sang in vocal groups in high school and college. Today the thought of getting up in front of people and performing makes the bottom drop out of my stomach.

I never thought I’d find so much fulfillment in crafting and making beautiful things, learning new knitting and spinning techniques, or in selling things that I made with my own two hands.

I guess what I’m saying is that I’m starting to understand that life is a series of wholly unexpected events and I’m just trying to find the beauty in them.

Like after torrential rains, our creek babbles and I can hear frogs in it late at night. How did I get to live here?

Or after an unexpected day of snow in early May, a week later the yard is full of flowers and dandelions:

And another something I finished this week for a friend:

The yarn is some luscious BFL/Silk fiber that I spun up as singles a while ago.

I used the Liquid Amber pattern by Stacey Simpson Duke and voila!

I give you Presidents with boob faces.

A little Adams with boob jowls?

Tippecanoe and Tyler’s boobs too?

A must for every art collection, non?

1. Two bumps (8 ounces) of Southern Cross Fibre’s Polwarth/Cashmere/Silk in the colorway Storm’s Edge

2. Spins up into about 550 yards of yummy nummy DK weight:

3. Knit into a Stockholm Scarf:

Not a good color representation, but I like it modeled:

Basically this was a big slumber party for knitters and spinners out at the old schoolhouse in Harveyville complete with sheep, chickens, visits to an alpaca farm, dyeing fiber, wheel spinning, carding batts, eating delicious food, staying up late spinning and knitting, and shopping. Did I miss anything? I don’t think so!

I headed out to Harveyville on Thursday afternoon and we all gathered in the gym in a big circle for a reception and spinning.

Friday it was down to business. In the morning I played with the drum carders and learned how to hand card fiber.

Then it was off to lunch at Alpacas of Wildcat Hollow.  The Alpacas were fun and friendly and the soup that owner Ed Howe made was delicious and perfect for the cold, rainy day.  A little discussion about the animals, some lunch and shopping underway we were ready to head back. First we made a brief detour at Jepson Studios Pottery where Mr. Jepson is retiring! There’s nothing like the threat of scarcity to induce shopping. I got a beautiful yarn bowl and a serving platter.

Then it was back to the school for dye lab. We spent approximately 4 hours learning how to dye in crock pots and by painting fiber taught by none other than Adrian of Hello Yarn!  I dyed one pound of Falkland in the crock pot hoping for enough for a sweater. I wanted teals, violets, grays and a burgundy. I don’t think I quite got there, but I’m still happy with what I got:

Then I tried my hand at painting the fiber. I wanted VIBRANT emerald and pops of fuchsia. I don’t think I used enough citric acid to set the dyes so it didn’t come out as intensely as I wanted, but I do like this one. I call it Lily Pad. It’s on Portuguese Merino so when spun it should be lofty and poofy.

Dyeing takes a long time and a lot of concentration. At this point I was out of creative ideas so I decided to try my hand at a gradient in a colorway I wouldn’t normally choose. I picked Chestnut and mixed up a fairly dark solution. My plan was to layer the fiber in a dish and repeatedly pour half the dye mixture on the fiber, refill with water, and repeat, gradually diluting the dye.  I think it came out ok.

At this point, even though I had a little fiber left over, I decided to stop dyeing because I was out of inspiration. Little did I know that this would be a lucky decision.

Saturday was for spinning. We got demonstrations of several techniques and just enjoyed hanging out. Mid-afternoon some of the other attendees announced that they had recently been to a natural dyeing workshop and had a vat of indigo dye if anyone was interested. Remember that unused fiber? I was interested!  Indigo dyeing was interesting because its actually the oxidation that causes the color. So you dip your fiber in a vat of greenish liquid and as you squeeze the excess liquid out of the fiber, the color oxidizes into a dark blue.

I tried my hand at it and I love the blue denim color I got:

The rest of Saturday and Sunday were spinning and chatting and eating yummy food. Then it was time to pack up the car and head home. I wasn’t ready to go back to the real world.

I also managed to not take a single photo of myself or people at Yarn School. I’m borrowing a few photos from a friend. These were my roommates Corrie and Sherry:

And one of me spinning:

Video generously sent to me by my dad.

I suppose I can put this under the category of “be sure you put away anything questionable before you go on camera for an interview.”

One might wonder why one would keep one of those on top of the refrigerator in the first place. Apparently it’s only natural to put it up there after you take it out of the dishwasher, or so says Twitter.

When I started blogging, just over 8 years ago, it was the new thing. I wrote short witty posts.  I used this blog as a place for my rants, open letters to people who were bothering me.  I posted strange pictures and links to articles (most of which have probably disappeared by now) and wrote almost every day.  I dreamed of becoming a widely read blog, a la Dooce or Pioneer Woman.

Over time, social media has changed. Now I mostly post a series of photos of my crafty efforts that most likely bore the snot out of most of you, but allow me to document what I’m spending my time doing. My witticisms are constantly edited and re-edited to fit the 140-character space of Twitter, and links to nifty things are immediately posted to Facebook. Cool pictures are “pinned” on Pinterest.

I email less these days as well. I usually text short messages or leave a comment on someone’s Facebook wall. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a letter.

I haven’t had a land line in years and my cell, outside of my wedding ring, is the thing I feel most naked without on the days I’m distracted enough to leave it at home. I don’t remember what it’s like to not have a smart phone and have the internet at my fingertips 24/7.

I don’t really have a point to this post except to point out how much things have changed in the 8 years since I’ve started this blog, or rather the first incarnation of it. I’ll continue to post here in fits and spurts, in an effort to memorialize or journal what I find important, amusing or fulfilling as life whirls by.  And I’ll be interested to see what comes next.

So if you were looking to purchase some handspun or a handwoven scarf and make a donation at the same time, please consider visiting my shop!