Further in and higher up

No, I'm not going to bleat about altitude again. Well, not much, anyway. It has been a great relief to me, trundling around the blogosphere as I have been, to read the complaints of other flatlanders who were at SOAR. We do suffer, you know. I can only suppose that the Interweave people, living as they do up in the higher reaches, simply do not realise what a sacrifice we make to attend - must be somewhat akin to walking backwards in bare feet up stony mountain pathways in Ireland, or something. Il faut souffrir pour etre in the company of fibre people......

It was good to be back at SOAR. It was good to be back at Granlibakken. There were changes at both, a new management at the latter, and probably simply the passage of time with the former. Not a diminution of standards at Granlibakken, certainly, but somehow differences, and it has got even more expensive. I suspect that one way or another we shall not be there again.

In part because of the cost, I gather, there were quite a few old-timers missing, and that makes a difference, too. Not that I didn't enjoy meeting and talking with quite a few first-timers who hopefully will have become old friends by next time, so do not get me wrong there. Oh, I dunno, quite hard to put a finger on whatever, so I will quit with the rambling.

The DSM's workshop was apparently excellent, and he certainly has a bagful of samples to back that assertion up. Mine was....well, probably what I had thought it might be. I did get a certain amount out of it, and found the mentor friendly, attentive, responsive......I just didn't feel that the content was quite there yet. Definitely not a total bust, though.



This is our array at the Wednesday night review, that I had not a thing to do with as I totally and genuinely forgot all about it when I left the final class session rather early. Oops.

The Gallery was excellent this year. It is always good and interesting to see, but whoever set it up this year.....kudos. Beautifully arranged. A few pieces:





(No attribution, sorry.)



Bag by Sara Lamb (inexplicably christened "freakin'" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) No, there is not a moth-chew at the bottom - that is some deficiency of my camera-work.

Speaking of the Yarn Harlot. This was my first opportunity to hear her speak. And I really wasn't sure what to expect or if it was going to be my thing. In the event, - she was hilarious. She has the gift of comic timing - her material is funny enough, but not especially hilarious, witty, outrageous or whatever. But it is all in the way she tells it. Genius. And by the way, in the blog entry linked to above, please delete "pine-henge". It is "conehenge", cone to rhyme with Stone, you know, geddit?



Her is another incarnation. I know who two of the participants in the game were, but no more (I merely lurked and carried the odd pine cone to the great detriment of my fingers. Sticky things!)

One more photo, and then I'll end this.



I saw quite a few of these bumper stickers (top rightish in the image) around at both SOAR and elsewhere, and felt they deserved a mention. It's not a concept one can argue with, really.

Tomorrow, I'm off to AH to notionally "teach". They have been warned that I may not be entirely on the planet - well, less than usual even. I went to see a friend about 40 minutes away today, lured by the offer of free yarn (of which more later, maybe) and found that the jet lag hadn't passed quite as much as I had hoped, felt quite knackerated when I got back. Though, maybe that was an excess of kitten-lust. This was the friend with the Snowshoes from some many posts ago, and she has kept one boy for herself and he is utterly....bad. Gorgeous. Wicked. Horrible.

You get the picture.