A few pics from NWRSA trip

Just got back last night from the NWRSA annual conference (Northwest Regional Spinner's Association). This year the conference was held at Pinelow Park which is a camp/lodge resort on Loon Lake north of Spokane, WA. What a great time we all had.....the 2 day drive was well worth it.......as always! But I will be very happy next year when it's just 4 hours north of here in Salem. Weird thing though, we were forewarned, no breakfast, we had to bring our own breakfast food which is kind of a pain when traveling a far distance (buffet meals are served in a dining room). It became the joke between us all - no breakfast! We did put together a big raffle basket from our area to donate, sorry there's no picture, lighting in the area with the spinning circles was very poor so the picture isn't very good. Our friend, Janis Thompson, of Dyelots in Eugene, OR won our basket. Spinning circles were very crowded and tough for visiting in other circles but we managed to enjoy ourselves. Congrats to the conference committee for putting on another great event and for all the time spent planning and following through - I'll bet they'll be spending the week recovering.

Yes, this is my merino/tencel handspun handwoven scarf you recently saw me post about as I was weaving it. I won the grand puh-bah prize - Best Use of Handspun which is the top prize of the gallery each year. In the judging I scored 100 points out of 100, I didn't realize that it's a rarity for the judges not to, at the very least, take off one point - I'm honored. I was so surprised, I actually didn't believe it at first when I saw it in the gallery after judging. I know it's a beautiful scarf but there are always such beautiful knit lace pieces I never thought a woven piece would win out - hurray for weaving!  Ok, so the funny thing is that I get this plaque plus another one that I need to go get my name engraved on with the year noted - then I return these next year. Hmm, wonder where to keep this safe until next year..........I did suggest something else to add to this that would be very fun - a tiara - lots of  sparkle & bling with fiber.......who knows, that may happen.

I took 3 fun classes, nothing to do with spinning or knitting and I loved it. I took 2 basket classes with Sharon Gunter: the berry basket and the wool drying basket. She's a great teacher, so well prepared, so patient and very fun. I also took a journal making class with Ruthie Haworth. We made one journal and came away with materials to make another in a different style (hoping to get to it this week). Ruthie was so prepared and had little kits made up for us. I'd take anything Ruthie ever teaches - not only was she a great teacher but she's a really fun gal. 

Here's a picture of my room before my roomie and I destroyed it with our piles of 'stuff'. It was very comfortable for a rustic lodge, we even had our own bathroom and didn't have to walk down the hall to a community bath. Did I mention we got no breakfast...........

Here's the view of the lake from the deck at our lodge. There were a couple lodges, many cabins and even RV and tent camping. This was taken on our first day there - next day it poured!

Here's the little gift I gave to my spinning buddies to hang on their wheels. It's a wrap per inch guide from Karatstix who has an etsy shop. She was so wonderful to make these up for me special since she only had one in her shop when I first looked to buy. Everyone loved it! Check out her shop - she has some very fun accessories for spinners and knitters.

Driving home we stopped at a really nice Comfort Inn for the night in The Dalles, OR along the Columbia River. We got very tickled over the fact that there were phones in the bathrooms. We went for a walk on a bridge to see The Dalles Dam - what a site. We also watched one of the paddle boats head into the lock to get around the dam, unfortunately when in the lock it was out of our sight. Did I mention we DID get breakfast at the Comfort Inn!

I took this picture of a partial rainbow, too bad it's hard to see in this small picture - it was beautiful. This picture was taken from out on the bridge looking back to the shore. I did get an incredible shot of the complete rainbow but the background of hotels wasn't exactly the scenic look I would have liked.

Did we shop???  Well, of course! And we learned how to pack very efficiently. There are four spinning wheels, suitcases, workshop supplies, tons of fiber, etc. in the back of the van plus all we bought on the trip home! An unplanned stop was Fabric Depot in Portland - oh my gosh, an hour there was not nearly enough time but we managed to drop hundreds of dollars between us all. And then, of course, the outlet mall and the mandatory Trader Joe's stop (we made that stop on the way up too to pick up wine & snacks for the conference).

So this is what I've been up to the past week. It's now time to get back to work. I'm dying to get back to the loom but I've got a program/workshop to prepare for on kumihimo that I'll be presenting to a weaving guild on the coast next month. I've also got a display board to put together for the county fair display we put up each year, that needs to be done by August. With the way time is flying both of these will be here before I know it so they've got priority before I get back to weaving.