finally home

Hi... got home from Olds on Wednesday about 8 pm... left here in the early hours on Thursday, had a good drive over, it is a long drive by oneself, but i listened to a book on tape and sung along with Don Williams, Willy Nelson and Abba..alternately between them... get tired listening to the book, and then get tired singing...anyway arrived safe and sound Thursday nite... i had forgotten just how beautiful the Rockies are... they are so huge compared to ours, and then heading out into the foothills..the sky is so huge out there... i am so used to have a mountain in view..the foothills were beautiful and green this time of year...I got into a Condo the last week before i left, and i was very happy that i did, I ended up with some awesome room mates, and we just hit it off really well...Barb from Cold Lake, and Caroline from Calgary, both were real characters, Barb is a designer of patterns designed for hand spun stuff, and Caroline was a student at Uof C, and a fantastic Spindlier... she taught a day class on spindling... very talent the pair of them... then the 4th roommate showed up on Sunday nite, Christie from Camrose, also a very talented spinner...My first class was spinning Stripes, the kind you make socks out of, it was a little difficult figuring it out, but i finally got IT...and then the 2nd one was Colour Blending which i really enjoyed... both were taught by Linda Shelhammer of Billings, Montana... the 3rd class was a 2 day course on Spinning silk...we had a wonderful teacher, Kim Mckenna from Langley... lucky for me, we were neighbours in the condos, so we spent quite a bit of time together, and as she didn't have a car, i took her down to the vendor mall and introduced her to the Roommates.. and of course we all hit it off ... I learned so much from Kim, even learned how to spin right off a cocoon, and then every single bit of silk they make.. one of my class mates and i bought a "Blue faced Leicester" fleece and split it, so we each got almost two pounds of wonderful fleece... i think i will wash it up and blend it with some silk oblong that i bought on Salt spring a couple of years ago... I had a great time there, and hope to go back next year, if they have courses that i would like to take, Kim is thinking of doing a 3 day dyeing workshop... would love to take that one... she is a very knowledgeable lady...and i was very pleased to met her....
While i was gone, Larry had 4 more lambs, one young ewe didn't want her baby, so he had to make her stand still so it could feed, isn't it amazing how men can do these things when we are not around... I called him every night, and i was amazed on how long he talked..usually it used to be 2 minutes, we are not into talking to each other every hour, being married 40 years, we don't need to check in with each other all the time.. I didn't buy much stuff, but what i did buy was worth a small fortune..i bought myself a "JOY".. i know i didn't need it, but i find my Traveller is showing travel wear..i also bought a pound of Finn, and a pound of Merino, alpaca mix, and 4 oz of Bamboo, and a shawl pin, that also does double duty as a cable needles... and two patterns from Sivia Harding.. and two skeins of wool/mohair for socks for me... roommate Caroline has a computer program that figures out what stitches you need for the size of your foot..and she is sending me a pattern just to fit me... so i will try socks again.... better go and put my chicken on the Barby.... hugs sheila