SOAR

SOAR was a total blast. My brain is still staggering under the weight of information received. I met SO many cool people. More info here.

SOAR

Originally published at WormSpit. You can comment here or there.

The Spin Off Annual Retreat was a blast. I had an amazing time, learned a LOT, met fantastic people… and took only a tiny number of photos. It was like going to the yarn store, and pulling a couple dozen of the best books and putting them into a basket… and they magically turn into the charming authors. Meeting all these fiber luminaries was overwhelming. Some of the people I got to meet that you might know: Judith MacKenzie McCuin, Abby Franquemont, Nancy Bush, Deb Menz, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Patsy Zawistoski, Sara Lamb, Robin Russo, Amy Clarke Moore, Linda Ligon, Phreadde, Jan Louet, and the other Jan from Louet, Mr. and Mrs. Strauch… and many more that are slipping my mind. I was in total overload mode.

Me and Patsy Z

Me and Patsy Z

I traveled on Thursday. The plane flights were uneventful if a bit crowded, and I got to the Allentown Airport in good time. I got to ride to the site with Elizabeth, who was excellent company and helped to soothe my newbie nerves. The country was hilly and beautiful. We got there just in time to run around and meet some people before dinner. I set up my kit in a lounge, and did some silk reeling on Thursday evening. If anybody has any photos of me, I’d love to get some… I was too busy reeling and talking, to make people use my camera.

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Wild Kingdom

We had feral cat kittens last year. We did all the Right Things – we handled the kittens, we took the mommas to KittiCo to get fixed, we placed ten of the eleven kittens, and we kept one. We started leaving food out on the back porch for the momma kitties – because it didn’t seem right to make them starve. We’ve had the occasional neighborhood tom show up and steal some, but mostly it’s worked out.

Or so we thought. We’ve seen this guy once before, but last night we got a good picture of him:

Didelphis virginiana, the Virginia Opossum. America’s only marsupial.

He sat there quite unconcerned, drinking his fill while we watched, and then waddled off into the night.

Then, this morning when Chis got up at 5:30, we saw this:

Proycon lotor, the American Raccoon.

You can’t see the water dish, because he’s leaning over it – he would go back and forth, washing each piece of cat food.

We don’t live in the country, y’all.

Finish Things

This is a bit of an in-joke… there are a few people who will understand it.  I made this as a gift for one of my online mentors.

I based the graph on a photo of a red salamander that I found on Dartfrog.

The ribbon is woven of 50-weight sewing thread; I bought it in black and white.  The black is as I got it, the blue I dyed with acid dyes. The red is all silk that I made from cocoons and dyed.