The Sun Was Shining

Open House Saturday dawned dreary and rainy.  Not an auspicious beginning to the weekend but nothing we could do about it anyway.   We finally raised the lowered tents back up to their full heights about 8:30 with hopeful thoughts.  The tents are 10 by 20 and 10 by 10 so there is plenty of room under them but if it gets too rainy then 10 feet is not really wide enough to stay out of windy rain.

Ruth arrived early to help with set up as Jim went off to pick up ice and the balloons.  I was my normal nervous wreck before an event.  Once an event starts and I feel things are set up then I immediately calm down but until then........

Malinda from Rome came with her hubby and Papillon dog. I find it very exciting to finally meet virtual friends in real time.  Her delightful DH could teach many other husbands patience and her dog is too cute.
  Malinda is the test knitter for Goddess Knits. She brought the Spring shawl she knit out of my hand dyed sport weight yarn and she was the very first knitter to see the new lace weight yarn for Shawl # 13.

The day got brighter as it went on. Such a relief. Knitters and spinners came at their leisure, although many who came also signed up for the Dyeing Workshop.

The workshop started with an overview of what we would be doing, then we put our skeins into the solution. While they were soaking we took a little Spinning Bunny tour--Gumdrop and Keeper were first on the list as most people want to see angora bunnies and ours are so pretty. Sometimes they can be entertaining too. Then we had a Pat Green Supercarder demo where I carded up Ruth A's High Fiber Dessert for this month. Folks were drooling over this month's chocolate bundt cake with strawberries and chocolate sauce done in chocolate baby alpaca, hand dyed strawberry merino and commercially dyed dark chocolate merino.
Next we did a Dye Studio demo and finally folks got to the crux of the workshop --putting dye on their very own skeins. I explained a bit about colors and dyeing then they each got to dye,cook their own and wait for them to cool. Once they were cooled we went back down to the Dye Studio to rinse them out.

Each person put their skein into a baggie to take home to re rinse and dry.

S is the youngest member of our Knit Night and Knitting/Crocheting for the Community. She knits and finger knits with us.  And now she dyes yarn too.

Each person got to choose colors they liked so the results are really quite wonderful. This is Brenda's Tomato ripening in the sun before being transformed into socks.

Meanwhile, others were spinning and chatting, nibbling and knitting. Carol tried out the used Pipi and just could not go home without it.

Ruth is a wonderful teacher. She got several people spindling on one of Jim's spindles.

while Basel lent moral support. 

(See all that purple by Malinda?  Must be why I liked her even before we actually met.)

The Universe literally shined on us as the rain held off each day until after the Open House.

Thanks to everyone who came and played with us.