Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat, Part 2

Wow - I had such a fantastic time and learned so much in just a couple of days! I am definitely planning to go back to Madrona next year, and I think I'll a book a room so Phil and I can stay down there together for a little romantic weekend and I won't have drive back and forth to Tacoma. I'm a little euphoric after Saturday - bear with me, there a lot to tell!

I left at 7am again to get down to the Hotel Murano by 8:30 so I could visit the market before my class. The hotel was filled with breathtaking glass art though it was undergoing construction so I assume there will be more to see in the future - here's a pic of a stained glass boat hanging from the ceiling: I had seen some yummy fiber at The Dizzy Ewe booth on Thursday and hoped it wasn't all gone... If you want to get a gal to buy some merino wool (like a gal like me needs an excuse,) divide it up, blend some of it with silk and tencel, dye it all with gorgeous coordinating colors and then package it like cotton candy. The one on the left is called "Blue Skies" - I just love that old song by Irving Berlin, don't you? The one on the right is called "Green Pastures". The woman at the booth (I should have asked her if she was the owner) was selling them for $15 for a 5oz package. I thought that was very reasonable and the thought of spinning them up just makes me giddy. :)

Speaking of that, spinning is what I did for much of the day. I took a class on Spinning Camelids: Camel, Llama, and Alpaca that went from 9am to 12 noon, and then from 1:30 to 4:30pm. I spun up 36 samples total of some of the loveliest fibers I have ever touched... It held my attention in such a way that my friends from the Monroe B&B stood at the door for about 5 minutes, waving and saying "psst" before Betty next to me had to tap me on the shoulder and point to get me to look up! (Sorry Ladies, I was genuinely enthralled - so glad I got to have lunch with you!) Our instructor was Paula Shull; another down-to-earth woman who was extremely knowledgable and generously provided the samples out of her own stash. The camel fiber that hadn't been dehaired was scratchier than the ramie fiber I spun last month - ick! After being dehaired and carded though, it was quite soft. What is left is the down; a fluffy mass of short fibers. One of the most important things I learned from this class was how to spin long-draw - this is very useful for spinning short fibers and has opened all sorts of doors for me. I now feel confident enough to spin up that quiviut that my sister, Jackie bought me last year - so exciting! The samples we spun were from Bactrian camels (2 humps) as opposed to the Dromedary (1 hump) camels that yield very little fiber. Here's a close-up of some of the camel fibers:Next up was llama. This was smoother to spin than the camel, and there were many different sample fibers to try. To give you an idea of how thorough this class was, here are some of the titles I wrote on the labels:

* Unwashed llama combings

* Washed first clip llama blanket (back fiber)

* Washed Suri llama neck fiber (apron)

* Washed rooed (shed) llama undercoat

* Washed first clip carded llama roving

* Unwashed and carded adult llama roving

* Llama combed top

* Blend: 80% adult llama/20% superfine Merino wool

And the list went on and on. Here's a close-up of the llama fibers:I was exhausted by the time we came to the alpaca fibers, but it was well worth the wait... My favorite was the suri alpaca; so soft, beautiful bright white, and it spun up like a dream! I also liked the Huacaya (pronounced whukaya) baby alpaca carded fibers - they were lovely. I suppose I should give you a close-up of the alpaca too:Paula saved us a treat for last - she had acquired some Guanaco fiber from a friend who had found it at a garage sale (how people can be that lucky is anyone's guess...) Guanaco is an animal similar to a llama with down softer than alpaca that lives high in the Andes of S. America. The fiber is government regulated and is not allowed to be exported... therefore when it does sell, it is bought for somewhere around $250 an ounce. Yep, and I got to spin some:Very luxurious - I had to dash outside the classroom where I could see some of my friends sitting and make them feel it. It's heavenly!

After class, I had more time to wander the vendor booths. I have not seen so much quality fiber and yarn in one place selling for such amazingly luring prices. I stood and chatted with a friendly woman from Butternut Woolens and almost walked on to the next booth before I saw a gorgeous superwash merino/alpaca blend, 4 oz of roving selling for $6. There were 3 left, and I bought them all...What you see at the bottom of that pic are two rovings I picked up at the Tactile Fiber Arts booth: An alpaca/silk blend on the left the color I can only describe as "moth", and a pewter-colored carbonized bamboo on the right. It's difficult to explain to non-spinners and non-knitters how pleasing it is for us fiber addicts to touch these temptingly prepared raw materials. That I can take this luscious stuff and enjoy the entire process of turning it into a beautiful garment of some sort is, well... let's just say it floats my boat on many different levels. It's absolutely captivating.

There was also a booth of intricate shawls called Just Our Yarn selling 100% tencel laceweight. I bought a skein of that as well as a Socks That Rock pattern from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

After shopping and getting my books signed by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (she remembered me this time!) I sat with the Eastside Spinners at the salmon dinner banquet. It's awesome to sit in a room with so much talent...

Most people were wearing something they had made including Laura and Nancy in their matching sea silk stoles!

(Next year I'll know to be prepared.) After dinner we heard Judith MacKenzie give a fascinating talk about bison - I took four pages of notes on that, so I'll save some of that info for another blog post. By the time the banquet was over, it was 9:30pm and it was time to drive home. Phil took my picture when I walked in the door laden with my wheel (on which I had affixed a guitar strap for hauling it around,) my spoils, spent energy and excitement, and all that new knowledge...It's Monday, and I'm still in a whirl from it all. Between loads of laundry, naps and giving my kids bits of my attention today this post has taken hours to write! I think I should go outside with them and enjoy the sunshine, no matter how cold the temperature may be. :)