Derailed!

You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men...

When last I checked in, I was scrambling to prepare for 3 weeks of Master Spinner classes in the American Southwest.  Today, I am stranded in Vancouver, where I have been since Friday evening.

The trip started off well enough.  An uneventful flight from Fort McMurray to Edmonton, renting a car without incident, and a fun night of recording a vocal track for the Odd-Lot Puppetry Company.  Great to see Brendan and Lisa and Troy, and The Water Show (written by Yours Truly) is enjoying a stunning revival.  Gorgeous puppets and a spanky new soundtrack, along with a slight rewrite to emphasize the importance of water conservation.

Lunch with my Mom the next day, then off to Edmonton International Airport again.  Onto a plane for Vancouver...an odd route to my layover in Las Vegas, but one that saved some serious coin for the college when I booked it.  Once again, an uneventful flight, with lots of knitting accomplished.

The changeover from a domestic flight to an international flight is quite a hectic scramble at YVR, but went smoothly, so I was quite calm, though a little winded, by the time I got to US Customs and Immigration.  The young man in the booth asked the purpose of my trip, and when I told him I was going to some spinning classes, he asked whether I was going to learn or to teach.  Armed with supporting paperwork from Olds College, I had no reason to lie, so I told him I was teaching.  He seemed rather flustered and asked for my visa, and when I produced the letter and paperwork from the college, I was sent down the hall for secondary questioning.  No problem, I had been through this before, as have others who work for the Master Spinner Program.

Except, this time, I was denied entry.

The whole episode was rather unpleasant and I will not get into the gory details here, except to say that at one point I was told that it was a waste of time to spend 7 years to learn to spin, and at another point, the legality of making people pay for spinning lessons was questioned.  The worst of it was that the agent who was dealing with me had to go into several back rooms to consult with "experts" on my case, and each time he did, a head popped around a door frame to peer at me as if I were some sort of exotic bug.  The agent in charge would then explain that I teach spinning, "not the bicycle kind" and make an odd, drafting motion with his hands.  Then they would all turn and look at me again.  I really began to feel that spinning was some sort of terrible thing to be doing, since it got these guys so worked up.

It was actually kind of surreal.

In the end, they used a rather arcane loophole to deny my application for entry and sent me on my merry way.  This incident will not affect my future travel into the US or appear anywhere on any sort of record.  I was considered "compliant" and "nice".  ( I can hear some of you laughing at the thought of me being either.  Stop that!)  One guy even apologized.

So.  Here I was in Vancouver for longer than the one-hour layover I had been expecting.

Fortunately for me, two of my lovely children just so happen to live in Vancouver, so I had someplace to go and someone to give me a hug.  I drank a bottle of wine and cried like I have never cried before in my life.

I got up the next morning and the sun was shining and life was going on, so I figured I had survived the whole episode, more or less unscathed.  Sometimes life throws these things at us, for reasons we cannot even begin to fathom, and it is how we cope that shows our true character.  My true character appears to be much calmer than I thought it was, because I have chosen to not panic, not quit teaching forever, and not go on some sort of anti-American rampage.  Stuff happens.  Get over it.

The people I truly feel badly for in this situation are the students in Tucson.  They have been anticipating this class, taking time off work and traveling to attend.  However, an obtuse ruling by a single Customs and Border Patrol agent have denied them the opportunity to have the class run as expected.  This program is unique in the world, and the rules don't seem to apply, or not apply as the case may be.  I genuinely hope that the college and the US organizers can work this out and we can continue with the classes as planned.  I'm standing by...

As for me, I get an unexpected vacation in Sunny Vancouver (which was not an ironic statement until this afternoon when snowflakes the size of small kittens began to fall from a lead grey sky).  I have had the opportunity to hang out with the lovely and talented Miss Lexi, to walk on the beach, and to nom on Solly's bagels.  I have a loving and supporting family.  And I have had the kindness and support of the administration at Olds College, and the support of the US organizers to keep me going.

On Friday, this was the most devastating event of my life.  By yesterday, it was the beginning of a new adventure.  In two weeks, it will be another funny story for the repertoire.

Sometimes, life throws these things at us.  Deal with it.  Make it an adventure.

I have.

Messin' With Ur Space/Time Continium

There is nothing wrong with my life that couldn't be fixed by a clone and a wormhole.  It's that simple.  If there were 2 of me and we could both bend space and time, everything would be peachy...

(Please note that the misspelling of "continuum" in the post title is the lol cat's, not mine!)
I've whined before about the lack of time in any given day, and I shall whine again.  I occasionally always bite off more than I can chew.  This time around it is 3 Master Spinners classes in 3 cities in 3 weeks.  Which means I am prepping for 3 full weeks of travel, organizing 3 separate classes, in 3 different (and unknown) venues, working with 3 different coordinators. I'm sourcing and shipping materials and rounding up resources and equipment.  And packing, packing, packing.  (That's 3 weeks worth of packing.  Get it?!? Hah!)

On top of that, I am finalizing contracts and workshop information with 2 other festivals and negotiating a couple of local natural dye workshops.  My inbox resembles Grand Central Station right now.

Add to that the addition of my new exercise regimen, intended to help my knee heal without surgical intervention, and all of the day-to-day joys of domestic living, and the day is over before it starts.

One thing that I promised myself I would do in 2011, though, is find time to spin.  Every day.  And, no matter what else is going on, that time is found.  Every day.

Unfortunately, I have not seen the fruits of this dedicated effort until this week...

...which, I suppose is what I deserve for starting the year off with 1300 yards (1188m) of laceweight worsted 2-ply.  For those of you into stats, that is 175 g, 12 tpi, with a Count of 12s, 147RTex/2, 36 wraps per inch.   For those of you not into stats, that is lots and lots of fairly fine yarn.

It is, as my friend Marg says, a skein of great beauty.  The fibre is from Kimber Baldwin at Fiber Optic, 80% Merino/20% silk, gradation dyed from deep indigo to gold...

...with the colors blending brilliantly in between.

And what do I see when I look at this cake of yarn?  A swirling vortex...or...A WORMHOLE.

I have cast on and am now knitting Queen Anne's Lace from MMarioKknits (Rav link) to play up the swirl of colors from dark to light, and if I may say so, the yarn is brilliant.

So, I am well on my way to having that wormhole I need.  Now to work on the clone...

Vegas, Baby!

The Prodigal Blogger returns!

Briefly.

I had the greatest of intentions to post weekly this year, even scheduling a time every week to blog.  And I did it for two weeks.  Sorta.

Then I took a vacation...

Vegas, Baby!

I travel a lot.  I love to travel, see new things, meet new people.  I think there may be a wee drop of Gypsy blood somewhere in my background.  But in the past couple of years, every trip I have taken has had a work component.  I was beginning to suspect that I was afraid to take a vacation and relax.

And I took another vacation-phobe with me...

...the lovely and talented Miss Lexi.

We went to Las Vegas.  Sin City.  What happens there, stays there.  And what did we do?
We slept.  And walked.  We saw some shows.  We ate. 

We did not get drunk and stay that way (in spite of the yard-long Bellinis in so many of our pictures).  We did not hire escorts.  We did not steal tigers.  We spent a lovely five days resting, strolling, shopping, and reconnecting.  We were there for 4 days before we realized we hadn't even strayed outside of a three-hotel radius.

It was amazing.

The excuse reason for the trip was to see Cher in her final performances at Caesar's Palace.  I've been a fan forever and had been trying for the last three years to see this show while on a teaching junket, but always missed it by a week or two.  When I heard these were the final shows, I just said "f*** it"  and booked a trip...

 ...and I saw Cher, amazing costumes and all.  The show was pure Vegas, and may I just say that Cher can still bring it.

We also went and saw Cirque du Soleil's Beatles Love, which was awesome, as all of Cirque's shows are.  The combination of the almost overwhelming imagery and the music of the Fab Four was more than words can describe.  We ventured out of our little safety zone to see The Lion King at the Mandalay Bay, as well.  I've seen the show before, and it never fails to move me to tears.  A remarkable piece of theatre,  any way you look at it.

We went up the Eiffel Tower at the Paris...

...which is only half the height of the real thing, but still plenty high enough for me.  We ventured into the Fashion Show Mall and stayed for a whole day.  We meandered down to the Wynne under an almost full moon...

...and we watch the Sirens of Treasure Island, which left us somewhat unimpressed...

I believe the exact comment was "Well.  That was informative and educational."  We did, however, enjoy the running commentary of three fellow Canadians who referred to the boatload of shirtless pirates as "Shippendale's"  along with a few less PG-rated comments.

We hung out admiring the animals in The Secret Garden of Sigfried and Roy...

... and ate some of the most wonderful meals ever.  However, we also visited Hot Dog on a Stick far too frequently...

...and indulged in a few frozen hot chocolates from Serendipity 3.

All in all, a wonderful vacation.

I was clever enough to book myself a couple of days on either side of Vegas in Vancouver, where I got to hang out not only with Miss Lexi but with Number One Son Brendan as well.  There were long, philosophical discussions on art...

...along with some less intellectual activity.

I had such a great time, I think I may even try this vacation thing again sometime...but not too soon.  It seems the downside of taking a vacation is that you have to come back to reality eventually.  Though I'm still resisting...

There has been spinning and knitting galore going on since I got home, though.   A good rest was apparently all I needed to get over that post-holiday slump my work was in. 

It's good to be back behind the wheel.

Well, Jane, it just goes to show you.  It's always somethin'.
                                    
                                                              ~Roseanne Roseannadanna

Here we are, already ankle-deep in a brand new year.  Resolutions have been made, and broken.  Hopes for a better year than the last still linger in the air, though, like the smoke from New Years Eve fireworks.

Here I am, unadorned.  This is me, facing another trip around the sun...

...the real me,  just a middle-aged woman, facing an uncertain future after a tough year, with hope and optimism.  And I'm okay with that.

As it was for so many around me, 2010 was a brutal year in the Boyd Homestead.  We have had deaths in the family, dire medical issues, and financial turmoil.  Friends have been through marital strife, serious accidents, and job loss.  A couple we have known for years lost their 16-year-old son in a car crash three days before Christmas.  There has been fire, flood, and pestilence.  Brutal, indeed.

And after such a year, the new year always gives us hope that it will be better.  It will.  And it won't.  Because with all joy comes sorrow.  And with all sorrow comes joy.  The trick is not letting the sorrow seem heavier than the joy.

For all of the loss, pain, and stress 2010 brought me, it also brought great personal joys.  I got to teach more than 100 people to spin, and travel to places I had never seen in the process.  I was awarded a SOAR scholarship.  I met wonderful new people who have opened my eyes to possibilities I had never before dreamed.  I welcomed the grandbabies of friends into this world.  I spent time with my brilliant children, watching them mature into remarkable human beings.

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.

After the highs and lows, the stress and the sorrow, Steve and I chose to spend our Christmas cloistered in our home.  We slept when we were tired, and we ate when we were hungry.  We exchanged gifts that were simple and thoughtful.  We ventured out once or twice in the week between Christmas and New Year, to see friends who had been lost in the chaos of the past several months or to treat ourselves to sushi, but otherwise, we laid very low.

I have often joked that my stress level was the only thing that was keeping me upright.  Sadly, that was closer to the truth, and now that I have released all of that stress, I am finding it difficult to get things going again.

But now there is a fresh calendar on the wall, open to the first page.  And already that calendar is filling up with new adventures, and new challenges.  I am off to Las Vegas next week with the lovely and talented Miss Lexi to fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing Cher perform live.  And in February, I will be going to Arizona to teach another crop of new Master Spinners.  Of course, there are already medical appointments and a surgery marked on that calendar too.  With the good comes the bad.

This will be the year that I turn 50 (It's in July, so you have plenty of time to spin and knit/weave a lovely gift...).  I'm getting too old to sweat the small stuff.  So, at this time of resolutions and plans, hope and reflection, here is my promise to myself:

I am going to live this year, and every other, embracing the joys and the sorrows that come my way.  I will live every day in delight and wonder, and face the challenges that cross my path with as much courage and grace as I can muster.

Oh, and I'm going to spin.

You bet your a** I'm going to spin.

Spinny Tour 2010, Part Three:Sedalia Master Spinner Class

It's been a long cold month since I came home from my last spinning tour, but the warm memories still linger.  And some of the best memories are those from Sedalia, Missouri.

I went there the first week of November to teach Level One of the Master Spinner Program for Olds College.  I thought I was pretty well prepared, but there were a lot of wild cards in the mix.  New material to teach (I'd never taught Level One before), unknown surroundings (a church basement in a city I'd never been to), and mystery supplies ( I had ordered fleeces from a MSP student in the area, but not seen them yet).
And I had a co-teacher, the lovely and talented Coleen Nimetz, which was new for me, too.  AND I was staying in a haunted hotel!

The beautiful and historic Hotel Bothwell is located in downtown Sedalia, and is on National Geographic's list of the 10 most haunted hotels in America.  I checked in on Halloween, and the desk clerk, Donna, was only too happy to regale me with ghost stories as she took me up to my room in the old, original elevator...

The room was lovely, with a great big bed and a bathtub that looked about as old as the hotel.  Even after watching The Walking Dead and hearing the stories of the hotel ghost, I slept like a baby.

The next morning, I was up and off to work.  Level One, for those of you who are not familiar with the Master Spinner Program, is fairly basic.  We work with wool, starting with the fleece, sorting, washing, and prepping.  Then we move on to the differences between woollen and worsted spinning.  Throw in a little spinning wheel mechanics,  some nature dying, and an introduction to blending with silk and there you have it.

The 16 students were from all over the US, including Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio, and Texas.  They were split nicely into two classes of 8, with Coleen teaching upstairs and me and my rowdy bunch in the basement.

We started out Monday morning with sorting fleeces.  Time to find out what I had bought.  It turned out I had ordered...

...magnificent fleeces like this Romney, supplied by Lorry McDonald at BlackWater Treasures.

My class could hardly wait to get their hands on it either...

... sorting the fleece into 6 sections and grabbing samples to use in their homework.

We also sorted a gorgeous Merino and an equally lovely Icelandic fleece.  Then we did a little spindle spinning and washed some fleece to work with the next day.

Tuesday morning, we carded for worsted and woollen spinning, then started to spin...

...with everyone making a lovely, balanced skein on their very first try!

We continued on spinning through until Wednesday, when we began to prepare for our natural dye day.  We tied and labelled skeins, prepared our alum mordant, and soaked a few of the dyestuffs that needed to be prepared in advance and left our skeins to do their thing while we went home to rest up.

And that was the night I was visited by the ghost.  I had gone to sleep with my iPod plugged into my ears, as I do when I travel, and was sound asleep when my TV went on.  There was nothing on the TV but snow, even when I changed the channel.  I  thought that I had maybe hit the remote in my sleep, so I turned it off, then on again.  The channel I had been watching before I went to bed came on, even though I had been changing the channels on the remote, which seemed odd to me.  I'm afraid that I was a little skeptical that this event had been caused by a ghost, and laughing at myself for even thinking it, I turned off the TV and plugged my earbuds back in and snuggled into bed.

The damn TV turned back on.  To snow.

I sat up and said, "Thank you for visiting, but I have a big day tomorrow and need my sleep."

And the TV turned off.

Honestly.

When I told Donna the story the next morning, she told me that that was one of the ghost's favorite tricks, and that she must have liked me to turn the TV off, because she is known to keep turning it on all night.

(Insert Twilight Zone theme here...)

Ghost or no ghost, there was a natural dye day to run.  Coleen and I had decided that I would run the group, with her floating and troubleshooting, so I started barking instructions and got the group going.  We created pairs, one from each class, and assigned them a dye material.  In all, we had 8 teams and we managed to dye and modify 32 skeins per student, for a total of 512 skeins.  The colors were amazing...

...clear and bright. (Except for some rather disappointing Brazilwood liquor that had gone over)  The students all worked together...

...so it hardly felt like I was working at all.

Everybody went home tired and they managed to drag back in on Friday morning for one more day of spinning and blending.  And then, it was over.  Just like that.

Group photos were taken.  Email addresses were exchanged.  There were hugs, and tears.  And a new crop of Master Spinners have started their homework.

I enjoy every classs that I teach, but the enthusiasm of this particular group was absolutely infectious!  I, of course, conducted myself with my ususal dignity, and commanded the respect of each and every student...

Coleen and I treated ourselves to a lovely dinner in the Hotel Bothwell, in the very restaurant where Harry Truman was convinced to run for President, and a good night's sleep before we were shuttled off to Kansas City for more adventures.

By the way, Jacey has been blogging about her experience here.  She was in Coleen's class, but the two classes pretty much did the same things, and we came together for dye day.  Those are her arms above, modelling the lovely colors, and here she is, respecting my authority as her teacher...

...Yeah.  Just you wait.  I may just be teaching you someday.

Procrastination At Its Finest

So...I've sat down to blog the rest of Spinny Tour 2010 a couple of times, but I appear to have the attention span of a dyslexic bonobo on meth right now.  I am finishing and sending out proposals for 2011 teaching gigs, I am wrapping up Fibre Week work for 2011 and laying groundwork for 2012, I am baking cookies and making gifts for an event that is still 2 weeks away.  In short, I am living in the future in my brain, making it hard to focus in the present.

Today is the day I try and bring myself back to reality.  So far, not working.  I wrote all morning, then, somehow, deleted the whole thing.  Nothing wrong with the post, just gone.  Poof!

I thought I could remedy this situation as my cookies baked this afternoon, but that is not working out for me either.  Can't sit still long enough to see a thought through to the end.  Because the oven timer keeps buzzing, no doubt.  I am sure it has nothing to do with the sugar rush brought on by my enthusiastic sampling. (A good cook ALWAYS tastes everything before feeding it to others.  I'm just  doing my job.)

Still, I feel the need to blog.  So I'm stealing this meme thingy that seems to be making the rounds again amongst many of the blogs I read.  It's supposed to be all revealing and stuff, but really, this is the internetz, people!  I'm not about to go into really creepy detail.  Besides, my Mom reads this blog.

101 Things You May Not Know About Me

1.  I have a really high I.Q.  Like Mensa, creepy nerd high.

2.  I secretly like math.

3.  And I'm pretty good at it.

4.  Ditto physics.

5. Using these two disciplines, I have been working to expand time so that there are enough hours in a day to get everything done and still get a good night's sleep.

6.  I am failing miserably at this task so far.

7.  I am remarkably stubborn and not easily discouraged.

8.  I often fail to recognize a lost cause.  (See #7)

9.  I almost never make snap decisions, even when it looks like I do.

10.  I also believe that decisions have to be made.  Debating your options can only go on so long.  More that two shakes and it's playing with yourself, so to speak.

11.  I have a very juvenile sense of humor.  Talking about shafts and orifices, butts and tips,  or saying puni all make me go tee-hee-hee inside.

12.  I swear a lot when I spin and knit.

13.  I swear more when I weave.

14.  When my kids were little, I tried to teach myself not to swear because I did not want to be a bad influence.  I substituted words that started with the same sound, like sugar, and mother...fathersisterbrother!

15.  Some of those substitutions still slip out today, even though my kids swear more that I do now.

16.  I admire my kids.  A lot.  They are, each in their own way, all remarkable human beings.

17.  I take full credit for the fact that my kids are, each in their own way, all remarkable human beings.

18.  I love being a mom, even though my kids are all adults, or close enough to count.

19.  It's harder being a mom when your kids are all adults, or close enough to count.

20. My children made me who I am today, and I know that is a better person.

21.  I could still be a better person than I am.

22.  I try very hard not to be judgemental, no matter how awful someone seems at first glance.

23.  Having said that, I must confess that a fashion Nazi lives in my head and makes comments about people and their fashion choices.

24.  I like nice clothes.

25.  I chose clothes based on fibre content, comfort, style, and price.  In that order.  (Except for the notorious yellow sweater.)

26.  I am frequently annoyed by how little most knitters and weavers know about string.

27.  I often suspect that Ravelry is a tool for evil.

28.  I often feel the same way about the whole interwebz.

29.  I sometimes long for a simpler time, with no TV, no computers, no cell phones.

30.  I know that I would not adjust well to that lifestyle.

31.  I sometimes turn everything off and light some candles and spin and pretend that I have adjusted to that lifestyle.

32.  I would go crazy without music.

33.  Music today is not any better or worse that it was when I was a teenager.  There was crappy music then and there is crappy music now.  Likewise, there was awesome music then and there is awesome music now.

34.  I like rap.  Not hip-hop.  Rap.

35.  I love opera. 

36.  I miss grunge.

37.  I consider Leonard Cohen a minor deity.

38.  Christmas carols often make me cry.  Not sure why, they just do.

39.  I love Christmas for the lights, the pine trees, the cookies, the knitting, the coziness.

40.  I hate Christmas for the pressure to socialize with people you do not see any other time of the year and the whole "perfect present" syndrome.

41.  I make most of my Christmas gifts.

42.  I will not go into a store or mall on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday in December.

43.  I don't like stores or malls much, anyway.  They are full of stuff that people don't need and usually can't afford.

44.  I suspect a rabid Marxist lurks not far beneath my small-l liberal surface.

45.  I believe in moderation in all things, therefore do not allow any portion of my personality to become rabid. 



47.  I like the path of least resistance.  That doesn't always mean I take it.

48.  I am basically very lazy.  I will spend hours trying to find the easiest way to do something.

49.  I am very patient with others, except for the idiots that always seem to get into the self-checkout line right ahead of me..

50.  I am very impatient with myself.

51  I love to cook.  And I'm pretty good at it.

52.  Baking calms me down and focuses me.  You can tell I've had a bad day if there are suddenly a lot of muffins around.

53.  I don't really like muffins all that much.

54. I do like cupcakes.  Cupcakes make everyday a party!

55.  I think everyday should be a party.  I always find some little thing to celebrate, even if it is just getting through the day alive.

56.  I intend to live to 103.  I do not know why I chose that age, I just did.  It seems like a good age to live to.

57.  I do not intend to ever grow old.  I may, however, become decrepit.

58.  I do not trust modern medicine.

59.  I have had 6 surgeries and 11 broken bones (mostly fingers and toes, 3 of those at Fibre Week!).

60.  I need to have surgery on my knee and probably would have had it by now if I trusted modern medicine.

61.  I don't really trust any institutional system.  It is my humble opinion that they are designed to be non-functional in order to keep the  management busy and employed.

62.  If I ruled the world, systems would be efficient.  I cannot stand waste, duplication and redundancy.

63.  Also, if I ruled the world, the people who do the actual work would get paid more than the management.  Teachers, nurses, and day-care providers would be the most highly-paid professionals on the planet.  Next to plumbers.

64.  I appreciate plumbers more than anyone else on the planet.  I have spent a lot of time with them lately.

65.  I have lost any respect I may have once had for roofers, though, now that I know that they shove their garbage down people's sewer vents.  And that some of them pee there, too.  Ewww!

66.  Witnessing bad parenting makes me sad.  We all have our different styles, but whacking your kid or calling them names in a supermarket is not a style choice.  It is bad parenting.  Actually, it's bad parenting where ever you do it.

67.  I do not believe there is ever an excuse for cruelty.  It is not funny.  It is not taking control.  It is not cool.  Be excellent to one another.

68.  I also do not appreciate holier-than-thouness.  Especially when it is founded in false beliefs and bad information.  I'm looking at you, PETA.

69.  I do not understand reality television.  Why is it entertaining to watch people behave badly because they think it will make them famous?

70.  I do not understand why people think being famous is a reason to behave badly.  I miss positive roll models.

71.  I love clothes, but I hate the way the fashion industry treats women.  Any industry that consistently tells you how inadequate you are to sell you shoddy, overpriced merchandise has got a few issues to work through.

72.  I am a feminist. 

73.  And I think that feminism has failed women.  And feminists.

74.  I believe that the traditional gender-based work that women have done for the last 20,000 years is what has led us to civilization, not the wars, machines and get-rich-quick schemes of our male counterparts.

75.  I tend to get really worked up about this topic.  So much for moderation in all things!

76.  I tend to randomly change topics when things start getting intense.  It is my subtle way of heading off ugliness.  Most people do not consider it subtle.

77.  I like to read, but have only read 1 fiction book in the past 5 years.

78.  I do a crossword puzzle every day.

79.  I prefer to do a cryptic crossword puzzle every day, but the Globe and Mail is so damned expensive!  And hard to find.

80.  I love Mexican food.  Real Mexican food.

81.  I also love Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese food.  Asian in general, I suppose.

82.  I could live on nothing but sushi and avocados for the rest of my life.

83.  I would require the occasional medium-rare steak to supplement that diet.  But otherwise, I could do it.

84.  I do not have a favorite color.  I love them all!  (Okay, maybe yellow not so much, but we could still be friends.)

85.  I do not think that It's a Wonderful Life is the greatest Christmas movie ever made.  I try to avoid watching it.

86.  I also do not like the Harry Potter movies.  The books, yes.  The movies, no.

87.  I loooove horror movies.  Even bad ones. 

88.  I enjoy being a woman of a certain age and experience.  I would not go back to 20 again for anything.

89.  Okay, I do miss the knee I had when I was 20. 

90.  I will be 50 in July of 2011.

91.  I intend to celebrate all year long, doing one thing I've always wanted to do each month.

92.  I picked the first thing after a couple of glasses of wine:  January's thing is going to see Cher perform in Vegas.  She is leaving Caesar's Palace after February 5, so this may be my last chance.

93.  I should never do things after a couple of glasses of wine that will cost me $3,000, but I occasionally do.

94. I am still in love with my husband.  He's a nice guy, when he isn't snoring.

95. My life has not been perfect.  I kind of like that.

96.  I am a perfectionist, but I understand that sometimes perfect comes in unexpected forms.

97.  I am grateful for the wonderful people that string has brought into my life.  Some of my best friends are string people.

98. I don't really mind doing the laundry, it just pisses me off that I am the only one who ever does it around here.  C'mon, people!

99.  I used to be afraid of spiders, but now they are my personal totem.  Hey, anybody who spins is okay with me.

100. I have a terrible memory.  I honestly can't remember what I wrote for number 1...

101. ...but I have 8 dozen cookies, 2 pans of squares and a blog post to show for my afternoon! 

Spinny Tour 2010: Part 3, The Faces of SOAR

The best part of any trip for me is the people I meet.  There are always so many wonderful people out there, some of whom pass through my life in a few minutes, some of whom have become life-long friends.  And many of those latter, I have met at fibre gatherings.  SOAR was no exception, so let me introduce you to some of the extraordinary people I met there.

Some of the first souls I met were SOAR veterans Pete and Carol Leonard, who travel each year from Great Britain.  There are quite a few SOAR regulars, all of whom went out of their way to make a newbie like me feel welcome, and soon, I felt quite at home.  So many new faces, and so few photos!

So, who did I get to know?  And who was I clever enough to take pictures of?

There were, of course, the fabulous mentors, some of whom you have already met...

Demetrio Bautista Lazo...

Deb Menz...

Margaret Stove...

and Stephenie Gaustad, here with Jacey Boggs.  (More about Jacey later.)

I spent much of the week with Kathryn Alexander, who posed glamourously for me...

... and who makes remarkable garments from yarn and does unnatural things to fibre with stunning results...

There were my classmates in the workshop, who were all wonderful to hang out with for 18 hours in a dim cavern, doing unnatural things to fibres ourselves...

There were a lot of spinners there, of all levels of experience, and with all sorts of different styles.  We hung out in clumps, under the elk...

and out in the sunshine, when there was some!

I met the lovely Linda Ligon, founder of Interweave press and fairy godmother to scholarship recipients such as myself...

I got to sit at breakfasts, lunches, and dinners beside the mentors, all of whom are fabulous people, discussing the weather and craft and survival with Deanna Dailey, cracking cold weather jokes with Bobbi Daniels (who hails from Alaska).  Sharing lunch with the camera-shy Sara Lamb, Deb Menz, Kathryn Alexander, and Gord Lendrum (yes, that Lendrum).  Eating dinner with Jacey Boggs, who shared with me her secret desire to take this interesting little fibre arts college program that they offer in Canada.  Oddly enough, I knew where there was a US off-campus class being offered by that Canadian college, which turned out to be half-an-hour from Jacey's home.  So, with a little contemplation and a great deal of family juggleing, Ms. Jacey was able to join our little Master Spinner class in Sedalia.  All because she sat beside the wrong woman at dinner one evening!

And I made a new BFF, my roommate Sarah Wilson...

The minute we met, literally in our hotel room doorway, we hit it off.  Sarah is, well, relatively extroverted and has a sneaky, though occasionally lowbrow, sense of humor.  She is also in love with color and texture and string.  And she lives somewhere where she would rather not live.  I cannot imagine why we get along, with so little in common...

And just so you know, Sarah is Miss June in the Spin-Off 2011 calendar.  I was in the presence of a calendar girl!

We sat together at meals, and hung out in the evenings, sharing stories of families and exchanging opinions on yarn and the world in general.  I'm so glad we got "stuck" together.  In fact, Interweave book editor Anne Merrow called us "the best SOAR roomie match since Abby and Denny", whose pairing lives on in infamy.
The notoriety of  Michelle and Sarah was confirmed on the last evening of SOAR, at the Farewell Spin-In.

'Twas the night before Halloween, and there was a costume theme in the air.  While many did not dress up. I had taken my felted Medusa costume, and Sarah had made some preparations, too.  When we showed up together for dinner, there were many questions as to our theme.  Since we didn't have one, and both being naturally inclined to make something up on the spot, we came up with...

Prince Charles and Camilla!  (Maybe you had to be there...it was HILARIOUS at the time!)

On top of that silliness, we plunged headlong, so to speak, into the Batts to Hats challenge at the spin-in.  The challenge was to spin and create a wearable hat in one hour.  We had to provide our own fibre, come up with a plan, and a strategy, then make the hat at the spin-in.  There was some highly un-technical spinning...

...along with some frenzied knitting.  Margaret Stove sat beside us and cheered us on, along with many other fans of speedy spinning.  One spinner even lent me her wheel when mine started snagging the fat, furry yarn I was making!  In the end, we had a hat that looked like a pumpkin, which was awarded Most Organic and Most Seasonal.  Our prize, a 2011 Spin-Off calendar, was given to our champion, whose name I'm pretty sure was Elizabeth, for coming to the rescue with her wheel.

There were others who were into the Halloween spirit of the evening, including Sharon Costello...

...in her felted spider web, and Jeannine Glaves...

as St. Distaff.

There was also a coven of witches across the room....

...and a lovely angel who travelled around the room passing out chocolate! 

It was more fun than should be legal.

Those of you who are spinny types may have noticed that there has been a ridiculous amount of name-dropping in this post.  That is the glory of SOAR.  You get to meet all sorts of people, from brand new spinners, to the high priestesses of our craft like Judith McKenzie and Maggie Casey.  They are all there, mixing an mingling with the common folk.  I also met Sheryl, and Toni, and Annette, and Carol, and so very many others, far too numerous to name one by one.  I have heard that SOAR has lost some of the intimacy it once had, because it has grown so popular, but I was very impressed by the sense of comraderie that existed with almost 300 people coming and going.  People brought their babies, sat next to strangers at meals, and chatted with each other when they met in the ladies room.  There were no barriers, and we were all one tribe for those 6 days and nights.

And then it was over.  The next morning was full of tearful goodbyes, and promises to keep in touch.  And I was off on the second leg of my great adventure...