And the next..........

I have never not enjoyed SOAR. To spend an entire week with people who do not consider you freakish because you get fired up by fibre, who can spend half an hour discussing the relative merits of one wheel or spindle compared with another, how the lay of a stitch is affected by the way you insert your knitting needle, or how to pronounce "Leicester" or "nupp" - well, what's not to enjoy?

But this year was probably one of the best yet. Many old friends, but a vibrant cast of newcomers, first-timers full of fun and enthusiasm. So many good conversations, quiet times, hilarious times. And that's before you even consider the workshops.

Plus, I was somewhat zapped by a cold (one departing, one arriving) for the entire week, which did rather kind of subdue things a bit. I find that I haven't taken as many photos as usual, and some of those I did take are pretty poor. Ah, well.

My workshop was ...interesting. Abby Franquemont has a vast and fascinating store of personal knowledge about growing up in the rich textile tradition of Chinchero, Peru, and I could listen to her describe it for hours. Hoever, she also comes from a western academic tradition (and nothing whatever wrong with that) which perhaps lay behind her structuring her workshop as rather more of a seminar than a hands-on event, and I guess my preference, at least for a three day class, is for the latter. What the heck, good people, good times.





Retreats - I was all fired up to do certainly three and maybe - for once! - four. But the cold Mark 11 fogged my brain - I did the Wrap & Roll session first, which I finally did get, and which turned out to be fun; then half of Patsy Z's seminar on the new fibres, which was very interesting, but I went loopy part way through and had to leave. Fortunately, the DSM was in the same class and took notes, so I did get the benefit. Saturday morning I had a rush of blood to the head and inflicted myself on poor Sara, herself beginning to succumb to the SOAR lurgy, and painted a knitted silk blank. Each time I do something like this, I get closer to being able to contend with fibre reactive dyes!

And on Saturday afternoon, I rested, hoping to energise myself for the Saturday night Spin-in. Well, kind of. I did get down to it, took a few photographs, but had to give in and revert to pumpkin mode. Still, been there before, will again, and did manage to capture:

A few usual suspects -





A glimpse of The Yarn Harlot -



And to hear Aquilina, from near Chinchero, sing more of her wonderful songs -



And then it was all over for another year.