2012 Oregon Flock and Fiber Weekend

This year was super fun. The weather was sunny and warm.

Delightful under the trees. There were, I think, 250 vendors

and I did well to support the local economy. In a new sock

book I purchased the author said you can't throw a skein

of yarn without hitting a new hand dyer of artistic sock yarn

in the Portland area! Many were represented and the 

selection of hand dyed rovings, yarn, beautiful combinations

of a variety of wool, alpaca, mohair and angora.Enough to 

delight the finicky spinner or knitter. I went thinking I wouldn't

need to purchase anything (I have quite a stash already) but

I broke down.

Lavender Sheep booth

Lavender sheep with the great book on socks from local dyers

My daughter Tracy truly appreciating the fiber!

Wonderful day for spinning on the grass

New Hue silks

merino silk braids

more wool with silk (lots of silks added! this year)

just one corner of one room (many more rooms + outside canopies)

Diane Cutlers blends of kid mohair/ Cormo

                                      This is where I got my lovely striped rolags.

Cute puppets

Kenleigh Fibers lovely felted creatures (Note border collie, my personal favorite)

Wolf Ridge Icelandic sheep pelts

The pelt I fell for and adopted, it's on my chair! Cushy!!!

                    There were quite a few ladies demonstrating bobbin lace.

The grand champion winner, shawl hand dyed and spun, then knit. Gorgeous

                 John Beard had a fabulous showing of his Ravenstail weavings.
                 My daughter and grandson were mesmerized. The weaving is so
                 intricate and best appreciated by mathematical minds like theirs
.                It was just facinating. I have much more appreciation for
                 Pacific Northwes Native art. It is interesting that the colors to
                 accent were yellow and a beautiful pale turquoise. (no red)

Nice Fleece!!!

No fiber show is finished without a trip to the barns and visiting

the animals.

A little baby bunny

Fleece for sale in the Sunday parking lot sale. Great buys!!!!

Gotland fleece on the hoof (resting!)

Really cool new spinning wheels. My grandson spent a long time spinning. He's hooked!!! He was actually telling the girls how to figure the ratios on the wheels! He is a walking factual repository.

Wolfhound show next door! They all got howling and it was a kick!!!

We ended up the day with a lovely trip home and ate a really nice

 dinner outside at the Terminus on the Willamette River in Corvallis. 

Then home very happy. Wonderful weekend

Total: 1 fleece (lamb Gotland) 1 flick carder, 3 bobbins for my lendrum,
 3 rovings and a great book: "Indie Socks" by Chrissy Gardiner.
Wonderful new patterns for hand dyed yarn.
Oh and 1 skein of "Socks That Rock" (my favorite sock yarn)

Finally Finishes!!!

Wild Apple Bohus, colors are fairly true here!

more of the Bohus Cardigan, the brown is actually more "greyish" in reality

I have finally gotten some items completed. Thank heaven

my arm is pain free and I have been knitting and spinning

a whole bunch this summer and loving /appreciating every

minute of it. First I got the buttons for my completed Bohus, in

Tromsø, as I couldn't find any small enough in Oregon. It is the

Bohus "Wild Apple Cardigan" from Poems of Color by

Wendy Keele done in the original Fairy Hare angora blend

spun at Kimmet Craft Fibers in Wisconsin. I am embarassed to

say how long I had this yarn! I don't think it is still available.

I think these colors are simply fantastic!!! The yarn is 25% angora

and 75% Rambouillet. It is a "cloud" to wear, and very warm.

From left to right you can see the evenness improve. I finally have gotten
the right idea in spinning! It is still not perfect but more so, and much more
enjoyable to spin.The multicolored merino is enough for socks. It was hand
dyed in Washington. Tracy, my daughter gave it to me for my birthday. 
The brown green is 70% merino/ 30% alpaca. I purchased two 8 oz bumps
a few years ago at Canby, the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival,
from Sara Anderson, who dyed it. It is so fluffy and soft from the alpaca.
I spun it in a 3 ply DK for a little vest in Folk Vests. The white is fairly
uneven but close to lace weight for a shawl. It is Falkland wool and
snowy white!!!
I am still working on getting it the right and even size. The pattern I have is
"Fragaria" purchased on Ravelry. (strawberries) It has lovely nupps and
lace. I got the Falkland roving from a local lady in Depoe Bay Oregon.
Falkland sheep are raised on an island with no "bugs" so the sheep don't
have to have chemicals on their wool. It feels heavenly soft and is a really
long fiber- 5" or so. Super easy to spin.
By the way the OFFF is soon, Sept 21-23 and I am going!!!

Tiny Selbu mittens 1 1/4" across

These were just for fun! I want to make more for Christmas ornies.

They were made with fingering wool and size 0 needles.

These mittens are one of the motifs from my new sweater (I am up to
the neck on the body!) They have the shield of Norway just in time to
celebrate the "Grunnlovsjubileet" 2014 in Eidsvoll.
The 200th year of the Norwegian constitution. The sweater is a little
different colors.
This pattern will be published quickly on my website and on Ravelry.
The English version is complete and I am working on the Norwegian translation.
I took a break from my "Norwegian travels" blog but will get back to it soon.
Thank you all for your nice comments on my trip pictures.

Åndalsnes area, Rauma Ullvarefabrikk, Trollstigen, Trollveggen

These 3 places were seen in one day; a gorgeous sunny, and warm day.
I had been really anxious to visit the factory where the lovely
Rauma wool comes from. It is a family run business and thankfully
their son will take over and it will stay so. We had the FULL guided tour.

Factory backyard

Raw wool to finished sweaters, blankets, and yarn. The day after
Christmas last year they had a terrible flood with muddy water
about 2 feet up in the factory.
Quite a lot of yarn was lost then,but it is running full force and clean
as a whistle now. I couldn't believe with all this loose wool there was not even
any lint about.

view of mountains and lupine from inside

Bale of raw wool

wool carder

Spinning

Bobbins of one ply yarn ready to be plied

Plies made into yarn

white wool yarn ready to dye

Purple when it comes out this time

Red yarn skeined and ready to make into balls

One of the owners with my puppet

 I had a really nice visit with her in Norwegian.
 I can't believe she actually understood me. She served us coffee and rolls.

Her husband gave us the tour

He is holding the Marius genser, their famous copyrighted pullover.

The work force is smaller now with many machines but done to great quality.

Another color of the "Marius" being linked together

Glimakra looms in various stages of weaving

finished part of above weaving

Glimakra looms sold here too.

Rauma storefront

All colors of Rauma yarn

One of their finished sweaters

On the way to Trollstigen (The Trolls Ladder)

Narrow small roads but in excellent shape

A very old Troll

Starting the climb up

Clear blue water at the top, just melted ice!

View down from top of mountain

View upward from same place

People hop over the rail and make "troll" cairns

Back down

The first sod roof I saw, a beautiful one too

Base jumping off Trollveggen, very illegal!

 From Trollstigen we drove to Trollveggen. 
 It is strictly forbidden to jump off as many have died here.

Most people never get to see the top, usually it lives in a cloud

Trollveggen, just after the sun went behind it, but it did not set!

 Trollveggen (the Troll wall) is the highest vertical rock face in Europe at 1700m.
 It is in the Romsdalen valley near Åndalsnes.
We packed in a lot for one day!!! Fantastic countryside.