Meet Me at Madrona? - 83,850 stitches.

Isn't that cool!  (My friend Myra was having a little too much fun with her new Ipad - stay tuned, we are just getting started!)

I had such a great time at the Madrona Winter Retreat! If you have never gone, I would encourage you to find a way to get there. You will meet some of the most amazing fiber artists, be inspired by great teachers, and make a difference in the community. 

This year, we raised over $14,000 for the various charities supported by the Teacher Talent Show for Charity. I wish I could tell you more about it, but if you want to experience it, you have to be there.

I spent the first three days of the retreat doing demos in the Rotunda. 
The rotunda is the gathering space, where people tend to hang out and knit, spin, weave, crochet, eat lunch, re-connect with friends, and get new ideas.

As you can see, I did make some progress on the socks, but I spent a lot of time answering questions and demoing on the great wheel.

 You may notice that in this photo I'm wearing the Tuesday socks from the Week's Worth of Socks project. I also happen to have made the shirt I'm wearing in this photo.
 






Remember my friend Myra from the Vashon Pharmacy?
You should have seen her standing on the chair for this photo:

 I think some people were afraid she was going to fall off, but she was quite agile.
Apparently she doesn't get off the island that often and when she does, she really lets her hair down.

She was having a good time, and I was happy to be her muse, but then things got a little wacky....

 

So I wanted you all to see the great wheel as well.  My friend (okay maybe I'm name dropping here, but I consider her a friend) Stephanie Pearl-McPhee took some photos of me working at the great wheel. She also tried it, but we didn't get any photos of that.

 

This is my wheel, it is a reproduction wheel made in 1986 by Brother Albert Rudloph.

It's based on a Pennsylvania Dutch wheel from 1861. As you can see, it's a spindle wheel, if you are famliar with the Sleeping Beauty story...this is what she pricked her finger on.

When you spin on a wheel like this, one hand operates the wheel (instead of a foot pedal) and the other hand controls the fiber. When the wheel spins, the fiber bounces off the end of the spindle which puts the twist in, and makes the yarn. As the yarn is made, you draw the fiber out by walking backward, and once you have created a length of yarn, you wind it back on the the spindle walking back to the front of the wheel. That's why they call it a walking wheel!

I was spinning Alpaca on it, and I will be using it to make a shawl pattern I'm working on.

I thought I'd also show you what I was busy working on at the sewing studio this week.

I had 2 wonderful women that commissioned me to make gowns for them to wear at the Miss Washington Plus Pageant.

 

The lovely lady in blue was a contestant, she was first runner up, Miss Congeniality, and the winner of the Director's award! The stunning lady in the black gown is the reigning Miss Plus America, and I am so pleased to have the opportunity to work with her.

I'm sure you wonder how I'm able to do that and still find time to work on the socks.

Well...take a look below and you'll see that sometimes I get a couple extra hands.

 

Hope you all have a great week!  See you soon.