Good things: SOAR 3

Yesterday, I shopped. The SOAR market is always a good one, although quite small. This year, it seems larger, with some vendors new to me as well as old favourites. I stuck to my plan to buy larger quantities for more "serious" projects, and thus far have some utterly delicious merino/silk in a green they call "Spinach"; some mauve, lilac, purple stuff; and - some cormo! (Blue-greens) The very pleasant vendor not only is happy to ship internationally, but takes Paypal, so I now have a supply lined up. I am happy.....

We also each bought two huge pottery mugs decorated with a sheep and a spindle. Even the DSM, who does not understand my crockery obsession, agreed that they were too good to miss. No photos as yet - I will do a big catch-up at some point.

Today, I had my first class, and what a humdinger it was. I own and really like the dvd by Jacey Boggs; now I have done my first class with her, I am totally a fan. She is an excellent teacher, explains things very concisely and clearly, and as many times as you need. Then she leaves you to do whatever it is whilst she moves around the room checking on progress and being very encouraging. We are lucky to have such wonderful young teachers coming up - and, she is likely to appear in the UK some time, so rush to sign up when she does.

When she has time, she tells stories. Not necessarily for those of a nervous disposition! Seems she was teaching in Amsterdam. Seven months preganant and accompanied by her mother, she decided to visit a live sex show. She gave enough of a description to make the thing seem vivid....and as she herself said, weird The things you learn at SOAR!

After that, things went downhill a little. Lunch was more of a disaster than usual, as he person serving soup admitted that it was made with a chicken stock. And whilst I have no problem with a cheese roll from time to time, every day gets, shall we say, monotonous. Even the carnivores are getting disgruntled with the same lunch every single day. There are no vegetarian entrees, except for pasta with a tomato sauce that has appeared twice. I would say that I am amazed that a place considered fairly upmarket could have so little understanding of special dietary requirements, but I know that the origin of the problem almost certainly lies elsewhere. But we don't want to miss meal times because the company is so good!

The other downer was, as expected, the Open Studio. Although it is possible that things might pick up, as the DSM stayed on when I bailed, and has not yet returned. But it was basically a spin in, for which we paid a retreat class price. The lack of interest was obvious - only around half of the possible number actually attended.

Ah, well - I have cochineal dyeing tomorrow. When I get around to posting pics, there will hopefully be one of the gorgeous little rug we bought from the mentor. The results from the workshop were spectacular, but they were using alum at 20% as mordant, which is double what I use. But then, the goods have to survive in the Mexican sun, rather than the West Yorkshir Pennines!