Small Farmer's Journal Auction/ Swap Meet

Yay!  We made it!

Ok, so it has taken me a while to post about this.  It's not because it we didn't have a good time (we had a GREAT time!) or because there aren't any photos (I remembered to take some!!) or anything like that.

What happened, as happens so often to all of us, is that life got in the way!

First, I only had one week home before we took off on our next adventure (Wyoming, with our horses. and yes I will post about that one next!) During this week I had to catch up on work from the previous week and then get things wrangled for the next week when I would be gone.  And throw into the mix that my boss of 7 years suddenly decided to throw in the towel and pursue a different career...(meaning I had to move my whole office space on top of getting used to the change).  Well time just slipped away.

So back to the story: 
We brought our horse trailer to sleep in and the puppies slept in it too!

Comfy nest, no? 

Although Willow really doesn't have any problems sleeping, anywhere...

Pooped pup

And we actually didn't sleep in the straw nest, we slept up front.  On a mattress.  I know, spoiled...

L.O.V.E. this trailer!!!

And the days were filled with this:

and this:

and this:

Lots of cool vehicles for sale there.

This was my favorite

Look at the bunks inside!!

and tack.

and mowers

even a windmill!

Some assembly required...

This beautiful team of paints were for sale.

(they did not come home with us)

and there was a sheep dog presentation.  It was super interesting to watch, but this is the only photo that I took that is any good (it's kind of hard to capture the sheep dog action...)

We ate.

Brian talking to the bears in front of the Black Bear Diner!

I spun.

This one got sick :( 

(and costs us a bunch of $$$ for "dietary indiscretion" - stinker)

Doesn't he look sad? He is all better now!

and this was the find of the auction!!! (yes Brian was the successful bidder)

Cool, vintage barbed wire.  Stuff we have never seen before!!!

I went to an educational seminar by the cheese makers at Cada Dia Cheese and bought some of their yummy feta and cheddar.  I crocheted a bunch while watching the auction.  All in all we had a super trip!

Well that's the story!  Hope you enjoyed it (and the photos).

Aren't we cute?  We've been thinking about a mini van, but maybe a Prairie Schooner would be better???

Soap curing

Freed from their molds! I think the kitties are my favorite.

Yay! Last weekend I finally finished unmolding all the wonderful soap we made.  Now it will sit and cure for 4-6 weeks and then be ready for sudsy goodness.  Aren't they gorgeous?

Here's some more:

Horses and trees

Paw Prints! too cute.

When I first starting making soap, I always just cut bars- functional but not terribly exciting. Now that I have discovered the world of soap molds, I can barely contain myself.

Here are some with the lavender buds- unfortunately they did not react favorably with the soap making ingredients.  They turned kind of an icky brown...

Alright, yes, we did make bars too.

As you can see, the lavender buds did not stay the beautiful purple they started.  Calendula petals have always retained their color... interesting.

Table full of soapy goodness

So that is what ten pounds of homemade soap looks like.  I am sorely tempted to make another 10 pounds, just so I can use my new molds...

It is also good to have a Soap Guard Dog:

What's that?

NO, only mom can come up!

I have also been finishing some of my hand spun.  Here is a skein of Lorelei mixed with Greenwood Fiberworks' "Calypso".

Art Yarn!

Well enough with crafts, someone is hungry...

Come on already, mom. This soap guarding duty makes me hungry!!

Have a fantastic weekend!  Spring is inching our way...

Bear Paw Spin In

Yay!

Ok, so the spin-in was almost 3 weeks ago.  What can I say?  I've been busy enjoying this beautiful fall weather.

For those who don't know, a "spin-in" is not like a "sit-in" or anything.  It is an opportunity to spend time with a bunch of other fiber fanatics doing whatever fiber activity you were able to cram into the car that brought you there.  Depending on the size of your vehicle, this ranges from knitting (you can even bring this on your bike!) to needle felting (also highly portable) to weaving (definitely need something a little bigger than a bike...) to the main featured activity at this event: spinning! Yay!

This is Kristie weaving on painted warp

Look at all the different kinds of wheels!

Oh yeah, shopping opportunities as well!

This yearly spinner's retreat is organized by the Pend Oreille Fiberarts Guild of Newport, WA.  It is super fun and is held at a camp (I told you I was going to summer camp!) right on the Pend Oreille river.  The setting is simply fantastic and you don't have to actually camp, there are cabins and dorms with bunk beds.  

You can stay for the whole weekend for $50!  This includes meals from Friday dinner (potluck) through Sunday brunch.  Yes, truly a screaming deal and sooooo worth it.  You do need to bring your own sleeping paraphernalia (I brought my summer weight sleeping bag and favorite pillow- worked perfectly) and the bathrooms are campground bathrooms (yes, hot showers!!) meaning communal. To clarify, the bathrooms are communal, not the actual showers.  Unless you want to share, but we don't need to talk about that here...

This particular spinning event also promised something mysterious:

PICKER THROW DOWN ON SATURDAY

with equally mysterious instructions:

SILVER, WHITE, AND PURPLE OR TWO SHADES OF BLUE-NO GLITTER

I had no idea what any of it meant, but imagine how delighted I was to find out it meant this:

silver, white and purple...

two shades of blue...

fluffing the fiber- I helped at this table for a couple hours and it was so delightful.

Isn't it lovely?

and finally- the picker!

 I found out the way the throw down works is you bring CLEAN, ready to spin fiber which gets weighed and added to the appropriate pile (purple/white/silver or blues).  Then the big piles are fluffed some more and the picker is used to gently blend them all together!

One of the many boxes filled between picker and scale.

Then everyone who put in some fiber, gets the same weight of mix back to spin.  Luckily, I had some freshly washed and picked white fleece from Snowball, so I was able to participate.  I have started to spin my take and it looks great (even if I do say so myself...)  I would show you a photo, but I forgot to take one (yeah, I know -BIG surprise)

I am not positive this is Snowflake (photo was taken at Skylines), but she looks just like this.  But dirtier now.

 All in all, it was a great weekend and I met lots of friendly and interesting women.  I would highly recommend this for anyone who has even the slightest interest in spinning or knitting or felting.  I am definitely going back next year!!

Skirting a Fleece!

I am a member of the Sandpoint Fiberarts Guild, but I rarely go to the meetings, since it is almost an hour there and an hour back. but tonight, one of the members is going to demonstrate how to skirt a fleece! Yippee! The timing couldn't be better, as we are now the proud owners of 4 wooly wonders (sheep, in case you didn't get it...) and I am hoping to shear them myself this spring. Here is the description from the guild website:

Emily Faulkner will bring a freshly sheared, unskirted fleece for a skirting demonstration. Skirting is the process of determining which parts of a fleece to keep and which to discard, depending on intended use.

Well, I can't wait to learn about fleeces. I will try and take some photos to post tomorrow!

I feel like I should learn how to spin, since I love to weave and now we have sheep, but it has never really appealed to me. I did see this cool operation while scouting the web today. A foot powered spindle- it looks fun! it might make me want to spin it up.

Happy weaving!