Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Artsyfish is Hung Again

For many years I have been taking art classes through the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (CACV). My favorite and most persistent has been Landscape on Location with Suzanne Stevens. Over this time I have evolved from a very tight pastel artist to a rather loose watercolorist. Suzanne called yesterday to invite me to put one of my favorite pictures into the Student Gallery in December. Last night I finally decided to name it "Cypress Spirit".


I was thinking of having it framed just because I like it, but now I have an excuse to spend the money!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Back to the Mountains

This past weekend three of us trekked back to the mountains of Virginia. Yes, I do know that these are hills compared to the real mountains out West! But to those of us that live at or below sea level, these are very nice, easy to get to mountains.

The reason was
KnitXperience put on by Carodan Farms. For us it was a major yarn crawl with food thrown in! First stop was the Knitting Sisters in Williamsburg.


We all managed to purchase yarn, then retired to the deli nearby for lunch.

Next we drove across the state to Carodan Farm with the help of Kathy's
TommiTom, arriving before the bus from Graves Mountain.

We scoped out the little shop, got Noro and Fiesta yarns,


a basket and patterns.


Then it was time for a tour of the farm. They raise sheep and keep lamas as guards for the sheep. It reminded me of home with the baaing and smell (a neighbor keeps some sheep).


Following that was a terrifying ride to Graves Mountain Lodge following their bus driver. We arrived safely and after an overwhelming dinner were treated to some Celtic singing by our instructor of the weekend, Melissa Weaver Dunning. I ended up spinning with my Golding during the performance. Two nurses from Winston-Salem saw me and wanted to learn to spin (later in the weekend they did!). We knitted in Wallis' room until about 11:30, then were off to bed.

In the morning it was another monster meal and Cable Class. It was raining hard so we sat through it. Late in the morning I was distracted by the report there were bags of fiber sitting on the porch. I snuck out and sure enough Pat and Steve Harder from
Kid Hollow Farm had shown up with bags and bags of fiber along with their yarns.


After lunch we shopped again and had chair massages.


I was restrained and only bought 1 1/2 ponds of the Mohair/Border Leicester roving. Class was interrupted that afternoon buy the appearance of a gorgeous double rainbow when the sun came out.


After dinner was a visit from Linda and Emily Krag of Denise Interchangeable Needles. It was fun hearing the story of a product I had purchased years ago.

I also taught the two nurses to spin with some of the fiber they bought, and my Golding Tsunami. I may have broken them by teaching on a 1/2 ounce spindle! They did great, though, and I really enjoyed it!

Sunday we learned new cast ons (after MORE food) and headed back to the ocean side of VA. On the way we picked up some appley goodness to take back from the mountains!


P.S. My handspun in the LYS SOLD. It's a good thing after this weekend - I over spent a little!