Carolina Fiber Frolic

Photo heavy post ahead....
 
I spent the past few days in the mountains of NC with 40 or so people who are as fascinated and obsessed as I am with fiber, yarn, spinning, knitting and just about anything else you can do with string.  My friend Michiele and I drove up on Thursday, but our friend Roxie who normally goes with us couldn't make it, so Rosie the Sock Monkey was her stand in for the weekend and she had a lot of fun!

Here's Rosie hanging out in my bag of stuff the night before because she's ready to go!

 Thursday

Rosie got an early start Thursday morning because she had to make a couple of stops along the way.

Rosie had a quick visit with Mom & Dad in Greensboro.

Rosie also saw Carey Statesville,and got to check out the barn where she's getting married in October.

Rosie, Michiele and I took a selfie when we arrived at our destination.

Rosie relaxed with a glass of wine at dinner Thursday night.

After a long day on the road, Rosie was ready for bed.

Friday

Rosie started off the morning hanging with her friend Peggy.

We were in a class on making rolags, and these were my first few pitiful attempts using hand carders.  Rosie was too ashamed of these to be in the picture.

Our wonderful instructor Kristen showing us how to do it, while "princess" Ann looks on.

Eventually I produced some rolags that Rosie wasn't ashamed to be seen with.

This was a spinning wheel someone had for display.  Made by a custom motorcycle guy.  A little too fancy for me and Rosie, but pretty cool looking anyway.

Rosie met Mel from Singlehandedknits who was quite a hoot!  Rosie will definitely be listening to her podcasts in the future.

Rosie is hanging with the yarn and fiber dyed in my afternoon dyeing class.  There was too much dye flying around for pictures during class, but she's very proud of my pretty blue yarn!

The knitting contest Friday night was a lot of fun.  Sarah, Priscilla, Burgl, Renata, Sharon & Sharon are concentrating hard. We all loooooved knitting with Homespun on size 19 needles.

All the spinners competing to spin the longest strand in a limited time.

Kathy, Anne, Sharon & Fran are flying. There were some really fast spinners, but Rosie and I are pretty new, so we just watched this part.

After all the competitions, Rosie gave her friend Blue a little hug before heading to bed.

Saturday

Rosie must have snuck out of the room Friday night, because somewhere she found a new boyfriend. I believe he hitched a ride up from Myrtle Beach with Peggy, she's always picking up strange men. Meet Swatch, the sock bunny.  I found them hanging out by the fireplace Saturday morning.  It was rainy and dreary outside, so I didn't blame them.

Inside, Barton was flying a kite. 

Out in the lobby Michiele was spinning, while Nora looked on.

Saturday night dinner was tasty, and rather well endowed, although it was modest enough to wear a bay leaf.  No my mind is not in the gutter, what ever do you mean?

After a long day, Rosie and Swatch hit the bed.  Yes, they're living in sin, I'm so ashamed.  I think they saw too many carrots at dinner.

Sunday

Everyone was looking happy in Mel's sweater class.  Too bad they hadn't finished those sweaters yet, because it was a little cold!

Janis, Mel, and Kathy smile for the camera.  Peggy is concentrating on her knitting.

Nora, Leslie, and Karen were getting ready to make magic happen in Vicki's Nuno felting class.

Just before leaving, Rosie & Swatch took a quick swim in all the gorgeous yarn from The Copper Corgi that I wouldn't let them bring home.  Can you believe the restraint I showed?

It was a wonderful long weekend, and I can't wait to go back next year!

Twisted Mix Tape Tuesday - Got You Covered

This week's Twisted Mix Tape theme is cover songs.  I had to do a little googling to fill out my list for this one, mainly because I don't always know when something is a cover.

So here, in no particular order are some of my favorite songs that are covers...

Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band

I had no idea until Google told me that this song was originally written and sung by Bruce Springsteen.  I like Bruce Springsteen, but this version is definitely better in my opinion.
  

I Love Rock and Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Another one that I never realized was a cover.  This was apparently originally done by a British band called Arrows.  Their version isn't bad, but it isn't Joan Jett.

Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin

I think somewhere in the back of my mind I knew Kris Kristofferson had done this song first, but Google reminded me.  I love a lot of things Kris has done, but Janis just does this better.

Wagon Wheel - Darius Rucker

This song, originally done by Old Crow Medicine Show, has been covered by several artists, but Darius Rucker's voice just adds something to it that makes this the best version in my opinion.  I think I've used this one before, but it's one of the first songs that comes to my mind when I think cover song.

Hurt - Johnny Cash

I never cared much for Nine Inch Nails, but I kind of liked this song.  However, in my opinion, the original of this song is lacking something. Johnny Cash's deeper voice adds a richness that makes it so much better.

No Journey song this week, but that's because I don't think they've ever done a cover.  If I'm wrong, please let me know. 

  

Twisted Mix Tape Tuesday - It's My Life

So I'm back with another Twisted Mix Tape, and this week's theme is the soundtrack of your life.

I think this can be interpreted two ways...it can mean songs whose titles and words describe your life & it's events, feelings, etc., or it can just be songs that were significant at some point in your life.

I decided to take the easier route on this and just pick songs that stand out from various points in my life, and because I tend to define the first half of my life in terms of what educational level I was in, I've narrowed it even further to those.  And to make it even easier on myself, rather than try to figure out if a song "defined" that part of my life, I've just picked the first song (or in some instances band) that popped to mind for that period of my life.

So here goes....

Delta Dawn - Tanya Tucker

The only reason I can think of that this was the first song to come to mind when I think of my elementary school years is that we used to sing this song on long car rides, so I have memories of singing this with my whole family.  It's one of the few songs (besides "Found a Peanut") I can remember my father ever singing.

Mountain Music - Alabama

I'm not sure if I was in 7th or 8th grade when this album came out, but my best friend and I loved this song in particular and played it over and over.

Troubled Child - Journey

Of course any mix tape of mine has to contain a Journey song, and this is the album that came out during my high school years.  As is common for me, my favorite song on an album is often not one that is regularly played on the radio, and this is one of my favorites from this one.  The entire album of course was played until the cassette tape (yes we still used those then) was stretched.

Only the Good Die Young - Billy Joel

This was pretty much the theme song for my college years.  We thought we were wild and crazy and breaking all the rules...we weren't...but it felt like it right?  I can't hear this song without thinking of my college roommate and some great memories.

Let Her Cry - Hootie and the Blowfish

Back when I was in law school, Hootie and the Blowfish was still a bar band.  My boyfriend at the time lived in Columbia, SC and was friends with the band, so we traveled all over North and South Carolina, and sometimes Virginia and Georgia too, on weekends following them from bar to bar.  We never had to pay a cover charge because we were always on the guest list, and often crashed wherever they did for the night.  Maybe I'll tell some of my more humorous (and a few embarrassing) Hootie stories someday....or maybe not.

So there you have it...the soundtrack of my life, at least until age 24 or so.      

A Little Bit of Everything

I keep trying to get better at coming up with things to write about here, but I always seem to realize too late that what I'm doing at the time is something I could write about and I should have been taking a few pictures to illustrate and then I also put off writing about whatever it is, and then the events just don't seem current enough to recap, especially without a bunch of pictures.

Case in point...I went with Rob to the Dixie Deer Classic on Saturday.  His friend bailed on him, and I didn't have any big plans for the day, so I went to keep him company.  I took a knitting project that was simple and that doesn't require my to look at it, and basically walked around with him, knitting, while he looked at hunting stuff and talked to outfitters.  It wasn't until we'd been there a couple of hours and I was sitting in the stands at Dorton Arena knitting while he was in a lecture on trapping coyotes (yeah, I skipped THAT) that it occurred to me I should have been taking a few pictures to illustrate the day.

So I took a picture of my knitting.....

And then I went and took a picture of the cool eagle they had at the raptor rescue display....

I meant to go and also take a picture of the wolves, but Rob got out of his class and I forgot.  I did however get a picture of this....

I liked how they at least gave the mounted deer some context, instead of just a plain deer head.  Rob says if he ever gets a "trophy buck" it's getting mounted and displayed in our living room.  I'll agree to one on display, but I want it mounted something like this, with some added decoration, so it's not just a partial deer coming out of the wall.


In other news, we had snow a couple of weeks ago.  At first it was just a little snow....

And then it was A LOT of snow....well a lot of snow for us...this is central NC you know.

We had a good 6-7 inches here, which is a ton of snow at one time for us.  And it was very cold, and I didn't go to work for 3 days, so I decided I needed a very warm cowl and I made this....

Which can also double as a ninja mask if you want to go play in the snow.

We had sleet and freezing rain again today, but it didn't really start until late afternoon.  The roads will probably be ice in the morning, so I'll probably go into work a little late.  It's supposed to get down to 18 degrees tonight too, so maybe I'll be a ninja in the morning.