This was the third year I attended the awesome Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. I went with my awesome neighbor Tracy and her friend Kathy the day after we got back from our trip. It’s my big stock up day for the year basically (although I did sign up for the Hello Yarn Fiber Club… could not resist). The festival is not even an hour away and it was a beautiful day to go. I had some side pain so I couldn’t go see the animals, but I did get the important shopping done first, thank goodness!
This is all of our stuff… NOT JUST MINE. 🙂 But a lot of it is mine. I felt better once I had a little fiber in my bag, the place was crowded. Of course as Tracy said I "could part the red sea with my belly" too true! I use my belly, I admit it. Here is some of my fibery goodness. 
It’s all up individually by colorway on my flickr page. I did want to get more fiber in each color way instead of my usual crazy "oooh this looks pretty I"ll take a little of this little of that" shopping that I do there. I went right away to find the awesome one pound bumps that I got last year. I snagged one:
When I picked it up the woman at the booth said, "oh that must be one of the last ones my mom dyed." I asked her if her mom had stopped dying and she said she passed away in March. So now I’m thinking I must do justice to this fiber, I’m going to think of something epic for it. Her daughter will still carry on the business, but just had solid/semi solids dyed up this year. It’s weird I didn’t get much green this year, even Tracy commented on it. I was really drawn to warm colors.
And I can’t wait to see how they spin up. Though I haven’t forgotten that if I want a maternity sweater before I have the baby I need to finish spinning up the other big batch of fiber. I can’t believe I’m going into the last trimester, WHAT? But more on that later. I have been knitting some of my handspun. I gave the socks another go, messed with the numbers and tried to tap into some knitter intuition, which I’m not sure I have a lot of. Either way they are going to fit:
But tightly. I maybe should have listened to the master numbers a little bit more, but I think they’ll work.
I just have to do the cuffs (I think a simple rib) and then I’ll need a new project for the chair:
Grandpa just called to check on me since I haven’t been in today. I’m a bit under the weather and Bj has our car so I’m not going to visit him until this evening. He said okay, "he just wanted to make sure I was alright." And then left me with a "love ya darling." awe….
Celebrating crafts, kids and the everyday through photographs.
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11 comments on The OFFF re-cap
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Yes, I’m alive! I made it back form Learnfest, which was awesome. Unfortunately when you come home, often you have to get back into real life and that’s exactly what happened, and that real life happened to be a my-side-hurts-grandpa-doing-bad-remodel-drama mess. I can’t possibly do all that in one post anyway, so I’ll start with the awesomeness. And that was my trip. It was exactly what Bj and I need, to get away. Super fantastic bonus? I learned lots and lots and lots. And I’m so excited to get my photography business really going. If I could just put everything else on hold I would, but this growing bump pushing my stomach through my throat is telling me that soon life will not be just up to me. And other stuff, but back to dreamland where I slept, ate, and breathed photography. The place was beautiful, and Bj got to relax and golf while I took classes. They were mostly business focused with some hands on shooting stuff which was fun:
these two are from my first shoot. There were 16 other photographers shadowing the awesome Tamara Lackey, so it was a bit crowded. But so fun to see how she works.
For the other hands on shoot we went out to the beach, it was super windy, but the light was perfect:
Beautiful. The little blond boy was oh so cute.
I couldn’t believe how well he handled all these women shooting him, he was great. And mom’s in for a treat because the awesome Audrey Woulard taught this class.So Learnfest was great. I’m so glad I went. I have to admit that before I went I figured, at least I’d be getting away. I just did not feel prepared for it after spending a week and a half with grandpa at the hospital and trying to get the remodel started, my plate was feeling really full. But it was more than a getaway. And traveling for the most part was good. Actually the plane was not even bad because we used Bj’s frequent flier miles to go first class. I looooove first class, and so did baby who kicked and wiggled almost the whole flight, so hard that Bj felt it easily. I got up and moved a bunch (per midwife’s instructions), and drank a bunch of water so I think that helped. The hardest thing for me was still driving, as we actually stayed in four different places on this trip. It’s such a bummer because you know I love road trips, but I think I’m done until after the baby comes. I can’t get comfortable and the rib thing gets unbearable.
Our last day at Learnfest the weather took a turn, and by the time we got to Wrightsville beach this was outside our hotel:
Yes, the local news station was broadcasting weather at the beach outside the hotel. It was so windy. I’m sure it’s nothing as it was only 35 sustained, and gust up to 65, but to us it was crazy. I wanted to get more pictures but I could only stay out for two seconds before everything was drenched, the rain was coming every which way. We did have a bright spot on that day though, the best lunch ever!
I know what you’re thinking, "Amber you hate Italian food." Technically that is true, it’s my least favorite ethnic food group, but I do love sausage. And sweet things, and Sciarrino. Wait? Sciarrino? Yes, her super nice and funny uncle owns this deli and it is soooo yummy. I’m not just saying that because he stuffed us with lunch as well as a couple of insanely good Italian desserts. If you live near here at all (Wilmington, NC), you must check it out. The place was packed (and the weather was so nasty I couldn’t believe anyone was out), so I know I’m not alone here. It’s also laid out really cool inside with a big wall of imported Italian things. All the cans and packages have fabulous labels and if I lived near there I might have had to stock up to try making something Italian.After our night there we drove to Raleigh to catch our first leg of our flight home. It wasn’t bad. Then we had a longish layover in Atlanta, but that wasn’t bad because we got to go into the Delta lounge, so it was fairly quite and relaxing. The last leg to Portland was too long for me and I sort of started to loose it. I didn’t want to walk around and I could not get comfortable. My side was just screaming at me. It was so nice to get home and sleep in our (displaced) bed. Bj’s mom had stayed at our house over the week, but spent her days at the hospital, so it was super clean and tidy. She laid down all the paper for the construction works and covered our couches. But we did realize right away we were into remodel chaos. There was a fine layer of dust over everything, and we had no electricity in half the house. But more on that later.
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Tomorrow I start my actual classes, but I thought since I had a moment I would give you an update on the trip. First up we flew first class. Thank you Bj for being a frequent flier! I was very comfortable and got to move around a lot (per the midwife’s orders). The first night we spent in Raleigh because we got in pretty late. I was so surprise to see these on the counter of our hotel:
My all time favorite smell in the whole world is this lotion, and I thought it was no longer made! I’m going to track down the big bottles, yum. I knew we were off to a good start. And there’s nothing like a little road trippin’ to put Bj and I in a good mood. I mean the sights are always amazing:
Karen that is for you.We got to our hotel in the evening before the sun had set (which does not happen on the beach here… werid) so we took a walk. We went along the beach and out on the pier where people were fishing. And saw a shark! An honest to god shark. I could not believe it. But even after checking with the guide person it was still a shark. I think it was eating the throw back fish. I don’t know, but crazy. It was wonderful to hear the sounds of the ocean while we slept.
We got up early (still getting uesd to the time change) and drove down past Willmington to catch the ferry over to Bald Head Island. We’re right on the beach here too. Have you ever seen cockroaches in the wild (like garages and driveways)? They have them here and they are big and freaky. I think I’ll survive though. My classes start early tomorrow.In real life news our house should be getting started while we’re gone, things look to be on track. If nothing else we’ll have a big pile of supplies and lumber in our yard upon our return. Grandpa has refused his feeding tube, and is living off of thicken milk and Boost. We’ve talked to him on the phone, hopefully he will continue to try eating the things he’s allowed. He’s on morphine again, which we don’t like. It makes him forgetful and seems to slow down his mental processes all together. I know that he is getting great care. I was telling Bj though that guilt has to be the worst emotion. I want to enjoy this vacation but our minds keep going back to grandpa.
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