SOAR - The Rest of the Week

After the first 3 days of the Cellulosics Workshop, it was time to move on to the Retreat session, which includes 1/2 day Retreat sessions on various topics, evening activities, and the Market. I was a little exhausted from the Workshop, even though I did not have homework for my class. Thursday is a low-key day, other than the Market opening, there are no activities until late afternoon, when everyone gets together, and registration for the Retreat sessions takes place. It's an organized free-for-all, which is a tradition at SOAR. After doing lots of spinning during the Workshop, I decided to take other things during the retreat, with mentors (SOAR-speak for teachers) that I know and are good teachers as well as experts in their fields.

The other activity on Thursday evening is the guest speaker, and this year it was Stephanie, our favorite Yarn Harlot. Some of the non-knitting spinners wondered a little at the choice, but were quickly laughing themselves into tears during her talk. The Harlot-

And on the right is Stephanie is modeling her Wedding Shawl- which is amazingly beautiful, though of course in a crowd of spinners, one question asked was if she had spun the yarn for it.




I signed up for 4 classes, and started out Friday morning with Deb Menz, dyeing handpainted yarns. Deb opened with some helpful technical info,
but we soon got our hands on the dyes, and then the fun began .






I was happy with the baby skeins and sock blanks (using the Nancy Roberts dyeing and re-knitting techniques in the fall issue of Spin-Off) that I dyed in the class. I'll be beginning the socks at the Knitters Review Retreat next weekend.

I am happy to say that I have finally had the "aha" moment in cardweaving, thanks to the amazing Sara Lamb. I have about 3 feet of a beautiful strap that I will finish and show when it's off the cards. Here's Sara demonstrating a warping of the cards-
mine didn't look quite this nice and organized.





Alden Amos did a great session on the evolution of spinning equipment, using a giant wheel/flyer arrangement.

The last thing I did was taking a basket-weaving class with Stephanie Gaustad, and I actually finished my woolgatherer's basket.

And so, another SOAR is over, and I'm already looking forward to next year. It is always inspiring.