The Gang Goes to Cache Creek


I looked in the mirror the other day & wondered how I got to be 58. It all happened so fast. So before I died of old age, I gave myself a birthday present & ran off to Cache Creek for the weekend in the middle of TAX SEASON! My Techie bud came & fed the cat & scooped the litter box a couple times a day while I laid about, got fed three times a day & did nothing but be totally immersed in fibre. Gail drove while Karen & I got to knit, nap or watch the scenery! We stopped along the way to have a bag lunch at a picnic spot in the Canyon & they surprised me with a felted Denise needle bag, a bottle of wine for my collection & a muffin with a candle that refused to stay lit!!! Did I say it was WINDY out there??? Not bad eh?? We laughed & laughed till the wind blew us back into the truck & out of there.

Karen & I got to room together again & Gail was off with Lynne, our travelling Socklady who comes in from the back of beyond just to spin & hang out. Although the wind was still blowing, the weather was bright & sunny which gave us a wonderful view of the bluffs on the southeast side of the big meeting room. With warm days & cold nights, we were content to stay indoors & some people were spinning in pyjamas shortly after supper. I didn't even get dressed till noon on Sunday!!!

I managed to finish spinning the superwash sock roving I bought over a year ago! And I also spun up quite a bit of the bossy neon pink roving that I bought to go with it. Although I spun that neon pink finely, it was not fine enough to use it with the pink/blue/purple sock roving. When I twist the two together, the bossy neon pink takes over. Since I have a lot of it, I'm going to try spinning it a lot finer & see if it makes a difference. If it still takes over, it will be combined with something else that needs some brightening - who knows, it may wind up with some Romney roving I have tucked away in a box.

And what did I buy?? Well, not much really. I had most of the books that were on sale & none of the ones I wanted to see were there. Since I couldn't remember which one I ordered with my credit from Amazon, I was afraid to buy anything in case I was buying the same book again - I'm sure it goes with being 58 . . . . . but I did buy a package of Black Rainbow Glitter from Aurelia. It's so lovely in the sample - totally black with just a shimmer of acid green, yellow, turquoise or silver in there. The glitter they now use is very soft & pliable, thank gawd. I remember some wonderful fibre I bought several years ago with that awful stiff & nasty glitter that has to be picked out!!! I got a small package of Wisteria to try - it's another shade of purple with blue in it that I thought might go with something else I had.


Show & Tell was great fun! We saw a lot of lace shawls & scarves - lace is really popular!! Wild socks & Tushie Cushies also made an appearance. And tons of funky yarns - our old pal Guddie is always FUNKY!! Not only did she wear a vest of ZIPPERS but she spun up other scrap yarns & fabric into thicker yarn for knitting & weaving. I dragged in my Danish Working Shawl that I made last year. That rotten Socklady gave me the gears about Arvik which is still only HALF finished & I had to confess to everyone!! Bill & Vivienne made it even though Vivienne was very ill. Bill still managed to check out the wheels while Viv was able to spin for a few hours. She was wearing the neatest sweater & I had to go over & check it out. Vivienne knit a simple cardigan out of multicolored handspun in blobs of color but the sleeves were knit in the round in stripes of the same colors. The ribbing was all in striped colors to match. Vivienne reported she still has 4 chemo sessions to go & hopes to continue spinning & knitting thru them all. One of our hostesses, Sheila Kirk, gifted our travelling SockLady Lynne with one of her handspun shawls. I believe it was silk & alpaca - a lot of people knew but kept the secret rather well, I think!

We all got doorprizes of a sheep keychain with wild eyes - I think HE was into the Bailey's - in a keepsake tin! And I got a nice wooly Aries Ram in the Door Prize draw.

Had a good time - the girls report I'm more fun these days now that my stress levels are down. I really don't know what they're talking about!! Even I've noticed that I'm a lot happier these days but I thought that was just MY personal opinion. Apparently I've been rather sour & contankerous for some time! I had no idea that losing 240 pounds of expensive fat would make that much of a difference . . . .