Madrona

edit:: Pictures have been added!!
Guess what day it was today? Madrona Fiber Arts day! Well, technically it lasts from Thursday thru Sunday, but since I'm too poor to take classes, I decided to just go to the marketplace. And boy, did I have some great fun shopping. But before listening to everything I say about Madrona Fiber Arts Festival, here's an update of my week.

Sunday: leave for Portland, arrive in Portland, basically re-move in to my dorm room.
Monday: Start to feel a little sick. Study for the quiz I'm taking on Wednesday, and catch up with friends.
Tuesday: More catching up with friends. Now I'm definitely starting to feel a cold coming on.
Wednesday: Miserably sick. Take hundreds of mg's of pills that don't help at all. Take quiz. Catch train back to Seattle. Go thru an entire box of kleenex. Cancel all plans for the weekend.
Thursday: So sick I can't get out of bed. Re-affirm to all my friends that I'm definitely not going to be able to see them this week. Can barely move my head. Watch lots of plotless drivel on tv.
Friday: Start to feel a bit better, now I can actually move. It's not just like a really severe cold. Get the meth pills (the cold pills that you can't get unless you give your name, address, drivers license number and signature)
Saturday: Well enough to go to Madrona. Leave at 8 with my mother to go to Tacoma. Arrive in Tacoma, drive right past the street we need. Gas light turns on. Oh crap! Drive hopelessly around Tacoma, frantically searching for a gas station. Nearly lose ourselves in all the fog. Get stuck at every red light. Gas light has now been on for over five minutes. It's close to panic time. Pull over at McDonalds. Ask for directions to nearest gas station. Blindly trust that direction giver knows what she's talking about.

Drive several blocks, praying that we will see the gas station any moment now. Spotting target, let out sigh of relief. Fill gas tank with enough gas to let us drive around without fear of getting stranded. Drive back to off ramp of freeway to see where exactly this so called 'Broadway' street is. Find Broadway, and Tacoma Sheraton. Pull into parking. Oops, wrong parking. Parking garage for overnight parking only. Turn around. Go back out to Broadway and up to first tier of outdoors parking. No spots. No place to turn around. Back out of parking lot into street. Go up to second tier. Parking spots! Park. Realize that this is paid parking, and we don't have small bills. Go inside to get change, then pay for parking. Go back inside and go to marketplace. Drool and pet the pretty yarns and fiber. Take some home.


Mission accomplished! No petty sickness will prevent me from increasing my fiber stash! (insert evil Mu-ah-ha-ha-ha laugh here)

The Madrona Fiber Arts Festival is my first Madrona event, and only my second knitting festival. I went to the Seattle Knitting Expo last year, and was introduced to what is now one of my favorite online sellers: Angora Valley Fibers. Unless I'm totally blanking however, the Seattle Knitting Expo did not carry spinning fibers. And this year, fiber is what it's all about. That was my goal this festival: do not buy any yarn. Gasp! Shocker, I know.

I am a hoarder and a stasher at heart; seriously I think in my past life I was a dragon, I love to stash and hoard things so much there is no other explanation. Knitting and spinning have allowed me to give into those needs. (May I remind you of .... THE STASH? Don't forget this one, or this one, which is just my spinning fiber (see later post for pics of fiber). And this is all my good stuff, all acrylics have been banned to a box in my closet).

But, due to money restraints and ease of buying (I know I've mentioned this before, but keep in mind, even when you see my new loot, I am poor, I just saved a lot of my Winter Break pay check for the festival. And I didn't have enough to both go to the marketplace and the classes.) I decided that pure fiber is all I was going to buy these year. Let me explain. In Seattle, and in Portland as far as I know, there aren't any really good spinning LYS. There's Weaving Works in Seattle (see this post for my rant against them), Acorn Street Shop has a little bit of fiber, but not much, and a few spindles, and then there's one way up in Shoreline that I haven't quite gotten to visiting yet. In Portland, there is Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks, who are only starting to sell spinning supplies and spinning wheels. Never mind the fact that Blue Moon Fibers in based in Scappoose, which is about 40 minutes away from me, because they don't sell out of their warehouse. That's it.

So when I want hand-dyed BFL (which I've found out I've been pronouncing incorrectly this entire time) I would have to buy online. Yarn I can buy elsewhere. Heck, I can buy it at a really good discount because I work PT in a yarn shop. If we don't carry it, I can put an order through to the distributor to get it, and still get it on discount. Not only that, but I'm a much faster knitter than I am a spinner, partly due to my inexperience with the spindle and partly due to the fact that I'm using a spindle and not a wheel. For the same amount of money I could spend on yarn, I could buy fiber that would last me much, much longer. It has a longer entertainment value, and in my cost effective world, that is a great thing. Yarn is so much easier to find and much more quickly completed, although you would never know that from looking at my WIP's.

First of all let me say that I need to become proficient in spinning pencil roving, because I bought several of them. Also, to tempt your imagination, I also bought a new spindle (squee!!) and BFL.
Tomorrow... pictures and more! (I left my camera cord in Portland)