...just for fun, a quick workshop in yarn painting with Sara Lamb and Deb Menz. Deb shared with us a few tips on mixing colors...
...and painting Merino skeins.
Deb ran the steamers, serving as "short-order dye cook"...
...while Sara provided inspiration and support for those who needed color advice and cleverly evaded my camera. The class was fast and furious, a true study in organized chaos! And by the time the steam had cleared, I walked away with two lovely skeins...
Friday morning dawned bright and crisp...
...and I went off to my first actual retreat session. Cochineal Dying with Demetrio Bautista Lazo from Oaxaca, Mexico. Demetrio gave us a crash course in preparing and dying with cochineal...
...using lime juice and baking soda to change the pH of the dyebath for a wide range of colors...
I barely had time to catch my breath and grab lunch before it was time for retreat session number 2, Spinning Fine Fibres on a Takli with Stephenie Gaustad, who was a gentle yet enthusiastic teacher who was gracious enough to even crawl under tables to help students out...
Stephenie had us spinning Merino and silk on takli spindles, which are usually used for cotton and other short fibres, which was a bit of a challenge. She also gave us spoons to use as spindle bowls, which proved equally challenging. Those suckers slipped and slid, and there was no way to hold them in your lap. Until one clever girl unvented...
...the strap-on spindle bowl! Tucking the spoon into my knee-brace was actually a stroke of genius, and from that point on, spinning longer fibres was a breeze!
Supper, wine, and sleep, then up and at 'em on Saturday morning for the Open Studio. I'm not too sure what the organizers had intended this to be, but this particular session was really just a spin-in where you could mix and mingle with some of the instructors, though there was a rather interesting little panel-style discussion between Margaret Stove and Judith McKenzie on body mechanics. It was a good way to regroup after the mad pace of the last couple of days, and it did give me an opportunity to chat with some of the greats in our wee community for a few minutes, but there was not a lot of new information.
This turned out to be a good thing, though, because after lunch, my last session was with Margaret Stove. Margaret turned out to be a gentle, but thorough, instructor who put us through the paces of washing Merino locks...
prepping them for spinning...
and spinning super-fine cobweb yarns in a very short 2 1/2 hours! I like to make fine yarns, but, holy cow!! Margaret shared some of her work with us, and told us the stories of the design process, as well...
...and just totally rocked my socks.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, concluded the learning portion of my SOAR. I am still processing and sorting information. I can't say that I learned anything that I didn't already know, but I did take a fresh look at information and techniques that had gotten a little stale. There was a lot of "Oh, yeah, I never thought of it that way" going on in my mind, and I was clever enough to take copious notes, so I can make sense of what I did, eventually. I hope.
You may have noticed that I have written very little about the people I met, the things I did outside of class, and the infamous social events that happen at SOAR...
You know what they say: "What happens at SOAR..."
I was waiting for you to post about soar. Did you see the picture of you in the Spin-Off newsletter?
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