Monday, September 24, 2012

Flock & Flea.....


Spiral Nuno Felted Scarf
  ...or more commonly known as Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, aka, OFFF. That's where I spent a long weekend. A fiber friend and I head north up near Portland last Thursday morning for the weekend.

We started out our trip as any trip heading north on I5 starts - breakfast at Bronx Bagels in Sutherlin - the New Yorker was the bagel of choice for both of us. Then a stop in Eugene to shop at Home Goods and Trader Joe's. Then on to the hotel in Wilsonville. Fiber friends from the coast arrived right after us so we all went to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant I found - incredible food and the owners were so fun, on the list of places to eat in the future when up in the area.

Friday morning brought classes for both of us while coast friends went up to the quilt show in Portland for the day. I took a spiral nuno-felted scarf class with my buddy Loyce Ericson. I'm really not a wet felter but thought this would be fun....I wasn't disappointed. My photo really doesn't do this scarf justice, the sheen of the merino/tencel is incredible and the blue is really almost black. Loyce's method of nuno felting requires no effort, it's like rocking a baby (as she said) and took just minutes to accomplish this felting. She is such a fun person and teacher. I won't be mass producing these but I will make more. The afternoon was a fun shopping trip to Fabric Depot in Portland where we ran into other fiber friends. Dinner, as always for Friday night of the OFFF trip at Sushi Track - there were 10 of us.

Saturday morning I had a soft goat cheese class with Tammi Paul. She was a great teacher. We learned about how to make ricotta, chevre & feta - definitely adding this to my cooking repertoire. Knowledge gained not only included how to make the cheeses but what to look for in buying goats milk - eye opening for me and am so glad I learned it before finding a farm to buy my goats milk from. Afternoon was browsing the vendor booths, buying very little since I don't need a thing. Dinner mexican for 16 - lots of empty margarita glasses on the tables as we left....although not one in front of me since I was driving.
Sunday morning brought more hanging out at OFFF, then we headed home making the regular stop at Trader Joe's in Eugene on the way. Next month marks the opening of a Trader Joe's in our area so I won't have to stop when on road trips to stock up - I'm so excited.

Today was back to where I left off last week, weighing out pounds and pounds of roving that needed to be bagged, tagged, put into inventory and relisted in the etsy shop - thank goodness I finished up that job today so I can get back to playing - hoping to weave this week and maybe finally getting to painting warps....in-between the other mundane chores that need to be done.....






7 comments:

  1. I was envying your weekend and then saw that you get a TJ close to you. Now I'm am filled with envy in a very jealous way.

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    1. Well the TJ's isn't in my town, it's in Medford but that's only 40 minutes away compared to 2 hours away - doing the happy dance!

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  2. sounds like a wonderful time! im jealous of your new trader joes! i cant wait to hear about your goat cheese making adventures :) last year i made cows milk ricotta with some success and this summer i attempted mozzarella (tasted good but the texture is not right)a friend of my family has goats and she makes goats milk soap that is fabulous :) cant wait so see the eye candy coming out of your latest dye pots :)

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    1. We didn't make mozzarella but the teacher did comment that it's not hard but there's only a 2 degree tolerance in the heating of the milk which is why it doesn't always turn out as wanted - the feta, ricotta and chevre are much more forgiving.

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  3. Cindie, what a neat scarf! Sounds like a perfect get-away too. I really need to get to this one of these days!

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    1. Yes, you need to plan on it one of these times Theresa. It's got a different atmosphere than Black Sheep - I like them both but I think I like OFFF better only because it has a nice feel with all the spinning circles and booths out in the lawn in addition to the buildings.

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  4. Mundane tasks - yes indeed - always there. I'd like more play, less tasks. Maybe I need to redefine play??

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