Black Sheep Gathering

Yesterday morning at o'dark-thirty friend Pat and I left for the day to travel a couple hours north to the Black Sheep Gathering. I used to go spend the entire weekend up there in Eugene for it but have gotten away from it for a number of years - I think I've only gone twice for a day trip in the past 6-7 years. It's a great event, but maybe for me it follows to close behind attending the nwrsa conference so I just don't feel like going, at that point I've had my fiber event fill for the month. Anyhow, it was a fun day, got some visiting in with other fiber friends, took a class, but spent very little money.....I just don't need a thing.......

I took a half day bow weaving class from Marilyn Romatka with hopes that it would make a good weaving guild program for this next year. It was fun and Marilyn was a great teacher, very concise and easy to understand.....which comes from teaching middle school age kids. Our bows were made of 4 ft dowels, paper clips and duct tape - ingenious.

Here's my bracelet in progress - it's being woven in an approximately 5/2 cotton yarn using size 6 beads. This was a 4 hour class jammed into 3 hours so we didn't finish our bracelets that wrap around the wrist twice but got close. (all those threads hanging out are where I spliced in new thread, they'll get woven  in once I'm finished) We did get a good tutorial on how to finish and add the findings. I don't know how much of this I'll do but I really enjoyed it and will have fun sharing it with my guild members.

I did very little shopping in the vendor hall - I just don't need a thing. Then friends Linda and Kathie showed me the gradient yarn they bought from Black Trillium for shawls so I had to go back and pick out a pack for myself. It was a really hard decision as there were so many beautiful colors but I went with a dusty plum.

Black sheep, black sheep have you any wool???

Yesterday was a whirlwind day trip 2 hours north to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene with good friend Pat. I haven't been in a few years, sometimes there is fiber overload with so many festivals/conferences within a 2 month period of time. It was fun to visit with fiber friends and browse the booths. I only bought a few things for myself - picked up some things for others, always fun to spend someone else's money. I just don't need much these days - between my own stash and the fibers I sell there's not much out there that tempts me and if there is it can really damage the checkbook like when I bought the Hansen e-spinner at OFFF last fall. We made the required stop at Bronx Bagels in Sutherlin for breakfast on the way, then Trader Joe's to pick up a salad for lunch. Then to BSG - some change in vendors, some great, some just ok. After we had seen as much as we wanted we headed back to Trader Joe's for major shopping and a stop at the big TJ Maxx Home store across the street. Then back home again. It rained off and on all day but the worst rain fell on us driving home - it was horrendous - what's with this rain in June, this is Southern Oregon - it stops raining June through September, rarely a drop. So, was I glad I went this year - yes, it was a fun day.

Black Sheep Gathering

Left last Thursday for Eugene for the Black Sheep Gathering. This year took no classes, just hung out and had fun visiting and watching sheep & goat judging. I did a little spending but very little since I don't need anything. My fun find of the weekend was the water bottle holder out of neoprene with the embroidered spinning wheel on it. I bought some SporFarm shetland/merino in 2 shades of green (sorry she has no website to link to). I have no business buying any fiber but I love her heathery tons and the greens called to me - bought one 8 oz bag of each Friday and had to go back and buy one more of each on Saturday. Bought a shawl pattern, some Barmaids Lo-Lo Bars and forgot to add to the picture one of the Debra's Garden needle gauges that I'm going to make a necklace out of. Oh, and the fun skein of sock yarn was a door prize at the Barmaids booth - whoo-hoo!

Very exciting goings on in the gallery. Fellow guild member, Kathy Coolidge won the Black Sheep Cup for her handspun, handwoven Navaho rug - huge honor! Here's a picture of it - isn't it grand? I don't have pictures of friend Karen's ribbon winning felted items but she's got pix up on her blog - she does incredible needlefelting.

Black Sheep Gathering

I just got back from the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR, just 2 1/2 hours north of here. I had a great long weekend visiting with friends, old & new, and enabling them to buy lots of stash! I get just as much enjoyment spending someone else's money as I do my own. For the first time in a number of years I didn't take any workshops, just hung out visiting, watching demo's, cheering friend Jeanie on in the romney (sheep) judging and spinning. I bought very little stash myself - I just don't need a single thing.......of course, I couldn't get out of there without buying anything! I got a couple of new shawl patterns, a fun small project bag that will be perfect for sock or scarf knitting, some fun gel sheep to put on the window in the studio, more No Crack handcream that is the absolute best, a quiver bag (for carting a drop spindle) and new spindle......like I really needed yet another Forrester spindle. Oh and a great dichroic glass pendent that says spin on it - it's sitting on top of the quiver bag above, here's a close up below. I'll either hang it from a piece of leather or rattail (not a real rat's tail!).

I'm on a fiber diet at the moment - I have more fiber stash than I could ever spin in my lifetime. I was admiring some that fiber pal Janis (Dyelots) was putting out in her booth and she just gave it to me! That was so sweet of her, and so unexpected. It's pictured below - unfortunately the picture doesn't do it justice, it's very sparkley. The quiver bag also came from Janis's booth, a friend of hers makes them, as well as the pendant that another friend makes.