The past few weeks has been a whirlwind of activity here chez beebonnet (that's bee-bon-nay)! First up was the annual gathering of the black sheep here in Eugene. This is the festival that first brought me to Eugene and made me fall so hard in love with this town that now I live here. So it has a very special spot amongst the cockles of my heart.
This year I was in charge of the info booth with my partner in crime, April. Whew! it was fun but TIRING! I got a little bit addicted to the announcer microphone (and caffeine). I didn't buy much this year because I was busy every moment, but I did get a chance to visit the Hansen booth and buy some more bobbins for my mini spinner, along with a quill attachment. Yay!
I did run around and take a few select photos, including this fiber that, I swear, was dyed by magical elves in the Chameleon Colorworks booth. I'm a little bit smitten with this fiber, and if you're taking my spinning class at sock summit, you might end up a little bit smitten too... just saying...
After Black Sheep Gathering, my friend Kathy stayed for several days and we drove all over the north western quadrant of Oregon and even made a brief foray into Washington. We visited the coast where we had to stop for crab burgers of course. We spent the night at the Spirit Mountain Casino, which has lovely hotel rooms where we each lost $5, and had a nice crab dinner (did I mention that we like crab?), then the next day it was on to the Columbia Gorge, lots of falls and the Pendleton Woolen Mill outlet store in Washougal, WA. I had never been to the Vista House before, it was built about 1918 I think, and the view from there of the Columbia River gorge is spectacular. I can practically see the Lewis and Clark party sailing down the river on their way to the Pacific! I particularly liked the docent's uniform which was true to period for a tourist at the time the Vista House was built. He looked a little like Teddy Roosevelt and he was so sweet and cheerful in his linen knee breeches. That was loads of fun, too bad it was a little cloudy and rainy. Wouldn't you know the minute Kathy left Oregon, it got sunny and beautiful. Still we had lots of fun and I came home with a Pendleton camp blanket for my home to boot. If you're coming to Portland for Sock Summit, consider a side trip to the Columbia River gorge, you won't be sorry!
Amongst all the fun, summer finally hit here and my little umm... farm (ha ha - if you can call 4 pots on a balcony a farm) has started to produce. Check it out! I have ripening strawberries and even tomatoes on the vine! Yum! can't wait to actually eat some of these. I hope birdies don't discover them first. The best thing about balcony gardening is no pesky slugs! But I do have an infestation of rather gigantic ladybugs... haha
And lest you think I've quit knitting altogether, the answer to that would be no. Remember the qiviut cloud I was working on? It's become a beautiful little cowl. Pattern is being written as we speak. The yarn was such a joy to work with, I actually bought another little skein. I can't wait to knit another exquisite cloud. I've also done quite a bit of secret knitting which will all be revealed in due time.
Kathy here (that's my back you see in front the waterfall in one of the photos above). Janel's a wonderful hostess, even with her all-consuming duties on the Black Sheep Info Desk for a few days, and we had a great time. See you soon, Janel!
KathyH
Posted by: KathyH | July 07, 2011 at 10:00 AM