Lots To Talk About

So let's get started. I have an FO* - a cotton scarf made with Schaefer Yarn's 'Laurel' (100% Pima cotton) in the most gorgeous colorway - but I forgot to take a picture of it before handing it over for the Guild's conference booth. I'm happy with how the scarf turned out (the pattern is an EP original) and really bummed that I forgot the photo.

Yesterday's Wonders of Wool workshop with Gwen Powell was a "wow". We started with fleece - both well skirted and 'yucky' non-skirted. Gwen talked about how to separate the sections, what to look for in a good fleece (and when to cut your losses and toss a fleece in the compost pile), how to wash wool - including a great demo of lock-by-lock washing with hand soap (beautiful results!) - and on to prepping with handcarders, the differences in spinning woolen and worsted - and when to use each method - and how to figure out what a 'mystery fleece' might be. The volume of information was almost overwhelming. Gwen lives about 45 minutes from me (or 2 hours, depending on how the 405 is feeling that day) and offers classes in her home. Including how to design crocheted sweaters that fit. I want that class!

The very best part of the day was the woodturning ideas I came home with for Dick. Gwen is a woodturner (among her many, many talents) and had some thoughts on what Dick could make for our new business. One idea (I'm not telling the others. I'll show you though when they're done . . .) is an orifice extender for the new Victoria wheel. The opening in the 'stock' orifice is too small for the type of yarn Gwen makes and teaches in her workshop. She's sending me the dimensions and we're going to see if Dick can make more. This one was made by Gwen with tulipwood. I also took the prototype crochet hooks Dick made to get some feedback from Gwen, Susie and others; feedback was positive! In fact, if I'd had a dozen hooks I probably could have sold all of them to my classmates. Very positive reception to Dick's beautiful work.

Remember the fiber I spun in Saturday's workshop? The fuzzy parts are 'boufles', pieces of dyed mohair Navajo-plied into the yarn. I made it into a skein tonight and it's soaking right now. Hopefully, it will dry overnight because I'm itching to make it into something - like a 12" crocheted block. I'm planning to use my past and future class/experiment spinning to make individual squares that I'll sew together in an afghan. It should be really, really colorful.

Marie has condensed her jobs from three to just one. She's working full-time as manager of my favorite scrapbooking store, Scrapbookers Villa in Ventura. She decided to go with that job because she can set her own hours and work around her college classes. One of the benefits is that she got to go to Anaheim for CHA - the "World's Fair" for the craft and hobby industry! 3,500 booths... 20,000 visitors... 46 nations... one shared passion. Can you tell I'm envious? Marie and Debra took lots of classes and looked at tons of new products. Most of which will arrive over the next 3 months. The good news about Marie working there? I get to hear about and see all the new products first! The bad news? I want to BUY all the new products first!

This is one of the classes Marie took. Marie is a talented artist; this class taught her some great new techniques. Isn't it gorgeous? This is the Bob Ross Wet-On-Wet painting technique. Pretty cool, huh?

*Finished Object