Spinning and Knitting Along

Like I mentioned before, attending BSG really intensified my desire to spin. So I started spinning bits of things, just to get a feel for different fiber and methods. This is 2 full hanks of cormo/merino type stuff, 2 plied.Some 2 ply brown merino cross, it spun way nicer than I expected.
This is a hank of Romney single ply, I was practicing woolen style spinning.Later I dyed it, now it looks like this;Dyed some wool at the same time; Fluffys Garden was showing me vat dying.Carded some of the wool into batts; this started as dark gray wool.And practiced spinning alpaca, here's a little bit of black 2 plyAnd some rather coarse brown 2 ply
And I've finally been making some progress on my Summer Waistcoat. A group of us were at Petco Park to promote Stitch N Pitch next Sunday.
The socks are nearly done, almost time to start the ribbing. Haven't done a darn thing with the Muir Shawl.

BSG 2009

And now, finally, some pictures from the Black Sheep Gathering. For those so inclined, there is a place right next door to the fairgrounds that makes a nice tent campground. The RV campers have another place nearby that is just as nice.

Home, sweet home. All that soft grass made a nice bed.

The Ravlery camp spinning circle.

There are vendors selling everything from raw fiber, to roving and batts to already spun yarn. Vendors selling spinning wheels and spindles and needles and hooks and drum carders. Vendors selling jewelery and bags and notions and potions and knick knacks and whatnots. And because this is and started off as an event for shepherds, there are vendors selling hand and electric shears and fence panels and other things a shepherd might want.

The BSG Spinning Circle

There are sheep, of course, and this year angora goats. I fell in love with Shetland sheep and brought home a fleece. I think it would've been to hard to bring a sheep on the train.

Shetland sheep lambs

Shetland ram

There was sheep judging, with emphasis on wool quality.

A black sheep, getting prettied up for judging.

The high drama event is the wool judging. BSG is all about wool for spinning, and the fleeces are judged with hand spinning in mind. All types of fleeces are entered, and I'm sure there must be something for everyone. The judging takes about one and one half days.

Tables and tables of fleece for judging.

Even before the final judging is complete, potential buyers start lining up for the viewing and sale. When the judging is over, there are 30 minutes for viewing all the judged fleeces. Smart shoppers leave someone outside to hold a place in line for when the sale starts. Between viewing and the start of the sale, all the not-for-sale fleeces are removed.

Shopping the fleeces, things were going fast!

Next year I plan on spending more time, and maybe taking part in some of the workshops.

Part 2 of Traveling to BSG

I'm a scenery watcher, and I especially enjoy seeing new scenery. One of the best parts about riding on the train is that the train tracks often follow a different path than the highway, meaning I get to see areas I haven't seen before. The rails hug the shoreline north of Gaviota and travel through Vandenburg Airforce Base, both areas with little public access. It also cuts through the Elkhorn Slough, north of Salinas, and I swear I saw a sea otter floating on its back in one of the waterways. I didn't get any good pictures (or bad for that matter) of that area northbound, but I do have some I'll share later in a southbound post. In fact I have very few pictures of the rest of the northbound journey. Partly because somewhere between Salinas and Oakland it got dark. Its hard enough to take pictures on a moving train during daylight. I didn't even try in the dark.

Just north of Pismo Beach the route leaves the coast and heads more directly north, heading through cattle country, oil country and crop growing country, then to Salinas, where it gets closer to the coast, you can get off the train in Salinas to catch a bus to Monterey. But it never really runs along the shoreline again. After the stop in Oakland, the train tends eastward to Sacramento and from there heads right up the valley to tree country.

Cattle country, north of Paso Robles. I love oak savannas.

Oil Country

Northern California tree country. Early.

Oregon tree country. The trees keep getting in the way of the view. :-)

On the northbound train I worked on my Summer Waistcoat, starting with a provisional cast on at the shoulders and working down the back towards the bottom of the armholes. I wasn't sure how deep I wanted the armholes, and didn't feel like figuring it out, so I switched and started my traveling socks and worked on them until I felt like going to sleep.

Most of the night the seat next to me was empty, my seat mate had de-trained in Paso Robles. I was able to use both seats and get sideways some and get comfy enough to sleep, sort of. I didn't really expect to sleep well, so I didn't mind too much. But a one point, after I had returned to single seat postion, I woke with a start to realize I gained a new seat mate. I think I grunted and rolled over and went back to sleep. I was more polite once the sun was up. During the night the train made up most of the time lost the day before, so I arrived in Eugene only 5 or 10 minutes late.

The view from my friend Dusty's place.

Turns out the shearer was on his way over that evening, so this was the before dinner entertainment. These are the neighbor's sheep, pre-shearing. They're not raised for wool, but still need shearing.

Post shearing.

The fleece pile.

Traveling to Black Sheep Gathering, part 1

According to the AAA TripTik Travel Planner, one can drive from my hometown in north coastal San Diego County to Eugene, Oregon, site of the Black Sheep Gathering, in under 14 hours. Of course that's non-stop driving, no potty breaks, food stops, gas fill ups or sleeping. And averaging about 65 miles an hour. Its around 950 miles. Well, I wouldn't normally travel like that anyway, that's just silly. I'd stop someplace like Redding to stay the night and then finish the trip in the morning. That's alot of sitting on my fanny not knitting. And going up California's Central Valley where the scenery is rather repetative for most of the drive. Sigh.

So I decided to do something different, and I took the train. It cost maybe a little less than gas and 2 nights in a hotel (one night each way). It took longer, but maybe not so much longer. A total of 30 hours including layover time in Los Angeles's Union Station. I slept in a large reclining seat (ok, I sorta slept) surrounded by people I didn't know. I couldv'e gone with a Superliner Roomette, but for the price increase for just one person, it would've been cheaper to fly. I sat in the observation lounge and knit and talked to other travelers. I ate in the dining car and talked to more travelers. I saw scenery that can't be seen from the highway. I did alot of knitting.

The dining car food is a little better than coach airplane food. The cafe car food is a notch above vending machine, but you can get alcoholic beverages and fresh made coffee. The other travelers area an interesting slice of life. Some don't care for airplane travel, some are retired and enjoy the scenery, some live far from airports and some enjoy the fact that every so often, the train stops long enough that they can get off and have a cigarette. Maybe its the type of people who choose train travel, or maybe its the fact that were not so crammed together, but the folks I saw traveling seemed more relaxed and interested in talking to their fellow travelers.

My trip started on the Pacific Surfliner, more of a commuter train. The seats are closer together, and at least the morning I was traveling, people weren't very talkative. But it was early on a weekday morning. I couldn't find a window seat with a west (ocean) view and so took an eastside seat. The Surfliner travels right along the beach in the San Clemente area, but after that it's residental, light industrial and retail scenery.

Camp Pendelton in the Morning
In Los Angeles
Historic Union Station in Los Angeles - the ramps to the trains are down the tunnel at the other end.
Ticket Counter - Only for movie sets now
Across a courtyard is the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District Building

At Union Station I waited to change trains and board the Coast Starlight, the train that would take me to Eugene. Traveling by train is full of paradox. For instance, I booked and paid for my trip online, but the boarding pass and seat assignment I received at Union Station was a hand printed strip of paper pulled from a stack of similar strips. There are no bar code readers; a crew member comes by and uses a paper punch on your ticket. At smaller stations the crews use clipboards and hand drawn seating charts to determine where newly boarded passengers might sit.

There isn't much scenery to speak of leaving Union Station, one of the crew members did use a public address system to talk about points of interest in the area. Things get more scenic once the train enters the Semi Valley area, goes through Camarillo and Oxnard and then finally the train runs along the coast again.

Somewhat south of Santa Barbara

Shortly after we left the Santa Barbara station the train stopped, right around El Capitan Beach State Park. It didn't feel like a hard stop, but I could smell the hot metal smell of overworked brakes. Maybe twenty minutes after that, a crew memeber came by and mentioned that we'd hit an animal and the train would continue after an inspection was completed. Five minutes after that, a passenger came by saying the train had hit a person. Everytime someone mentioned it, the story changed; it was a man - it was a woman, a surfer - a hobo, they died - they made it to the hospital alive and were expected to recover. I never did confirm what happened, but we sat there for over an hour and a half.

Things felt a bit surreal after that. No reliable way to confirm what happened. The train was off schedule and no way to change that. My stop was still hours and hours away and there was nothing I personally could do to change that. Couldn't try a differnt route, skip stops, none of the things I would consider trying if I were driving instead of riding. I had access to food, bathrooms and a place to sleep, so I just stopped paying attention to time for a while, worked on my knitting and chatted with the people sitting nearby.

Finally! An Update

What fun is a trip without a brag? Here's the loot I brought home; almost all the goodies,
An 8oz roving of 70% merino wool and 30% seacell from Creatively Dyed Yarn,
A sampling of 1 oz. camel fiber rovings from Tactile Fiber Arts, camel/merino, camel/tussah and baby camel.
A sampling of 1 oz. each baby llama (black), suri alpaca (white), fine alpaca (brown) and baby camel (tan), also from Tactile.
A packet of silk cap.

This clever little Full Circle Niddy-Noddy One Yard Skeiner/Ball winder/inch gauge from The Bellwether. I also purchased some EccoScour WA-305, but I already used it up. I really like it.
And this enormous capacity shoulder bag, which was crutial in getting all my goodies home, especially the one below.
A 4 lb. Shetland Sheep fleece, yum, yum, yummy!
Here is a close up. This is why I used up all the scour.

Well, that was fun!

I am home. It was fun and I want to go again next year. Will post updates and pictures soon.
xoxoxo,
Shelly

Milestones and Getaways

Today my oldest child graduates from high school. Goodness gracious, where does the time go? I guess technically he's not a child any more, he's eighteen and registered with the draft board now, drives and shaves, and most of that grown up stuff. He's a good person and I'm proud of him. I looking forward to seeing how the next stage of his life goes.

After much consideration, decision making, decision reversals and more decisions I am going to the Black Sheep Gathering up in Eugene, Oregon next week. There will be fleece there ya know. I'm taking the train (sooo much knitting time), and arriving a day early to visit with a friend who lives not so far from Eugene. She doesn't knit or spin, but she keeps a few sheep, just not the good woolly kind.

I'm very excited about the entire thing, the train, the knitting time, learning more about wool, the visit, buying fiber and having my own little adventure.