2008 CSSW Retreat

The weather was perfect, the company was fine, and the food was yummy. It was the eighth annual retreat of the Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers. I took my little trailer and camped under the pine trees at Davis Creek County Park in beautiful Washoe Valley, NV. Saturday we had a guild meeting, potluck, swap'n'sale, and general get together. We ate yummy Tunis lamb chops donated by Becky (who sadly couldn't be there). I bought hand painted BFL roving and even (imagine that) silk roving from Mim, Dyer Extraordinaire. Then on Sunday I towed the little trailer home and stowed it in the driveway. There it will probably sit until next spring. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

CSSW Retreat at Davis Creek

The Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers held their annual Retreat September 7-9. Davis Creek County Park is a beautiful, piney site along the western side of Washoe Valley, between Reno and Carson City. Every year the Guild rents the group camp site for a weekend in September. Sometimes it is extremely hot and sometimes it snows. This year we had pretty much perfect weather - highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s. At first I was only going to attend the Saturday meeting, but at the last minute I changed my mind and hooked up the little trailer. I went down Friday after work and stayed until Sunday morning. There were only three of us who stayed the nights, but many folks joined us on Saturday.




Linda brought her dyepots, burners, and lots of dye so we spent all afternoon dyeing fiber using the cling-wrap/steaming method. I rainbow dyed a couple of balls of merino roving for eventual sock production. Plus I bought some alpaca roving that is a blend of huacaya and suri, and dyed it a woodsy combination of greens and yellows over tan. Huacaya alpaca produce very soft downy fiber, while suri alpaca produce coarser, drapy fiber. It will be interesting to see how it works up!

As for the camping, my little trailer proved again to be quit cozy.

Such a busy weekend!

So much to tell!
Friday Sharon and I drove up (and down) to Grass Valley, CA for the Nevada County Fair. As members of the Foothill Fibers Guild, we were there to demonstrate handspinning, see the Fair, and most importantly, visit with friends.

The Nevada County Fairgrounds are absolutely beautiful with meandering paths and lots of shady trees. Last year I debuted my painted Kiwi wheel at this fair. This year I had the matching chair and lazy kate. The Foothills folks are amazing artisans, so there were many beautiful items on display. My favorite entry was probably Sue's sweater.




It was especially fun to spend some time with Birdsong, who has become a good friend through blogging.




Some other fair entries of note included the duct tape bathing suit and the alien-looking squash attacking a tractor.









Among the displays of antique engines was a 1957 Airstream "Bubble" Trailer. The owner proudly allowed me to look inside. He has done a great job restoring it and was happy to talk vintage trailer with me.


Saturday was the Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers' August Guild Meeting. This time it was up at Sharon's farm in Red Rock. It was quite the crowd, but lots of fun. There are lots of new members excited about learning to spin. Lots of folks had recent projects to show and tell. I especially love Linda's felted scarf that looks like something alien. Allison has one too, but I didn't get as good a picture of it.

Mim gave a great demonstration of nuno felting.




All this creativity and friendship in 2 days! I'll have to save my latest adventure in car repair for another post.

Spindling

Saturday was meeting day for the Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers. We met in Heidi's shady front yard and had a lovely time chatting, meeting, and chatting some more. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me, so no pictures. The workshop topic was hand spindling and it was great to see all the folks who brought their spindles! I was the workshop speaker, so after lunch we passed out more spindles and lengths of roving. By the end of the workshop everyone was spindling away. Several of the spindleless went ahead and purchased guild spindles, so hopefully I have hooked a few more on the portable magic of handspindles! Now everyone is encouraged to go out and spindle at ArTown events. (Reno holds artsy events all over town every day of the month of July, so there is no end to the venues suitable for spindling.) For the workshop I went through all my bags and bins and collected up all my handspindles to show the variety. The total, including top whorl, bottom whorl and supported spindles, came to 28. Hmmm... could it be an addiction? At least they take up less space than the 4 spinning wheels, 2 charkas and 3 inkle looms. Let's not talk about my wool stash...

Spin-in in Calpine

Once again I must apologize for being slow to post. At this point Sharon, Birdsong and Sara have all blogged about our lovely Dual-Guild Spin-in at Anna Harvey's ranch near Calpine, CA last Saturday. Sharon gets the credit for putting it together and having the stick-to-it-ness to pick a date and make it happen. The Harvey Ranch was around an hour's drive for most folks and well worth it. Beautiful country no matter which road you took. Despite the smoke from multiple wildfires, the views were fantastic. Some of the big open west at its best. There were attendees from both the Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers and the Foothill Fibers Guild (and a few of us who belong to both). It was good to see some folks in person that we mostly talk to online.
For me the best part of a day like this is the total relaxation that comes with sitting under the trees with friends and no expectations whatsoever. We chatted, looked at fleece, talked to the chickens, did a little spinning and chatted some more. Good times!

Retreat to Davis Creek

The 2006 CSSW Spinsters' Retreat was this past weekend. The weather was perfect, the company was fine, the Swap n' Sale shopping was great, but sadly I forgot to put the chip back in my camera when I cleared it out to take with me. Sigh. So there are no pictures. To make it up to you, I humbly submit these two pictures from last year's Retreat.
Each year we hold the Spinsters' Retreat at Davis Creek Park in Washoe Valley. Northern Nevada weather being what it is, sometimes we fry and sometimes we freeze. Occasionally we do both in the same weekend. This year the weather gods smiled upon us and it was just right - warm during the day and cold enough at night to make roasting marshmallows at the campfire a necessity. The only casualty of the weekend was the loss of my telescoping weenie fork, which rolled off a rock and was stepped on in the dark. Ah well, it roasted many a perfect marshmallow while it lasted.
The Retreat is all about unwinding with friends and fibers. This year Becky and her daughter Jerica made it all the way from Battle Mountain and Wayne came all the way from somewhere in the general direction of Yerington. Some folks stayed all weekend and some just for Saturday. Linda gave a workshop on fiber preperation, and we all did some shopping from each others' fiber stashes. Saturday night included exploration of the perfect marshmallow roasting technique, along with how to spindle or knit by only the light of a campfire. Each night concluded with the puzzle of fitting 3 coolers and all other edibles into a single bear safe.

Sunday morning we all concluded that it would be fun to have a spring retreat out Becky's direction. Maybe at Rye Patch State Recreation Area. Stay tuned for details. I promise to double check I have all my camera parts next time!