OFFF 2008, Day 1 - Good Grief, Things Sure Have Changed Since Last Year!
Ohhhhh, man. Where do I start? Aside from the fact that I'll never remember it all in order, so will no doubt mix up things between Saturday and Sunday. Ah, well. Just get started, huh? With one preliminary note: I'll put everyone's Ravelry name in parens after their real name. If there's a link for 'em, that'll be to their blog. If they don't have a name in parens after their regular name, I'm just using their Ravelry name. Confused yet? ;)
Note: Picture-heavy! 26 of 'em.
So Judy (JudyBecker) kindly offered me a ride again this year, and we were both ready and eager for two whole days of wallowing in fiber and friends and ghu knows what else, whee! Not only that, but the PDX Knit Bloggers (hereinafter referred to as PDXKB, as if you had doubts) were going to have a booth this year - or at least an awning - and an official picnic table, instead of one we'd just taken over by force majeure last year. And I do mean that phrase in the "unexpected or uncontrollable event" way. I don't think they ever saw it coming...
Naturally, this meant I was running around in circles at the last minute, meeping somewhat uselessly. Hey; I had started doing stuff and getting things together and organized days before, I swear, Girl Sprout honor, but c'mon; this is me. It's my karma. Fortunately, my karma seemed to have rubbed off on Judy, as she called about the time my head was close to exploding, informed me she was running a little late herself, and I could stop panicking and breathe. Which I did, after thanking her. The Xanax hadn't kicked in yet, heh.
Fairly shortly later, we were exchanging hugs, I was piling stuff into her car, and we were off to OFFF...keeping an eye out for coffee. Alas, none but Starbucks - not Judy's flavor - were to be seen along the way. Yes, the day was dark and lowering indeed (ok, moderately overcast), but soon the sun shone brightly as we entered the hallowed grounds of OFFF, for there, but a short distance from our comrades' pavilion, lo! There appeared a coffee truck!
Ok, and the sun had come out by then, too.
Judy was saved. Me, I brought Classic Coke.
The pavilion bit was also literal. As in we had a booth this year. Ok, a roof, no sides - apparently you're really a pro when you get a booth with sides - but we had a defined space and a table behind us with stuff on it, and a little table out in front with stuff on it, and a professionally-made sign - you'll see a shot of the sign tomorrow - and wowsa, we looked like something real! Bobbie (tiggywinkleknits) and Cindy (maxfun), and Tool Man (Bobbie's husband, and no, that is not his name on Ravelry ) had done a lovely set-up. There were hugs, and exclamations, and the first of much laughter while we all said hi and Judy and I set up our camp chairs.
Plus donned our buttons. I was clanking, I swear. Admittedly, I didn't have some of these until the second day, but just take a look:
L-R: Blue Moon Fiber Arts swatch button; the big buttons we wore encouraging people to ask for help; next one's fairly obvious; our PDX Knit Blogger button, with "Stalk My Blog" under the sheep (it's my new one, I left it blank for the pic); and the button Judy came up with on a Ravelry forum, while trying to explain our gang's lack of rules for joining said gang's mailing list. (Never let it be said that the PDX Knit Bloggers group isn't flexible about the qualifications for belonging to our crazy bunch. )
This does not include the Inexplicable Knitting Behavior pin I got from Blue Moon at Stephanie's book tour appearance in April. Clank? I felt like I was at a con again! Next year: ribbon to pin all those buttons on.
Though we'd gotten there shortly after the opening time of 9am, there was already a decent crowd. Which was only a foretaste of the rest of the day. The place was packed Saturday! Made me glad I was with a bunch of friends. I didn't manage to get shots of the general area, because I'm still having walking troubles (yeah, still Madrona fall after-effects)...but here's a clue, just in the area by us.
A shot semi-behind and to the left of us; we were at the head of the first row of outdoor booths on the section of the green closest to the gate.
View to our left, vendor booths at the heads of the rows on the green
I barely got in the two buildings this year, but they were packed too.
As you can see here, it wasn't long at all before some fascinated fiberistas were listening and watching intently as Barbara from AZ (diJeannene), our wonderful member who is, indeed, from Arizona (long story; suffice to say she's One Of Us, no matter where she is) explain her Journey wheel.
Barb showing the Journey wheel. Naturally, I didn't get a pic of the wheel itself. What, you want me to be efficient? I was gathering strength. Yeah, that's it. Heck, I didn't manage to get a look at it myself, which I just realized. Duh.
That wheel was absolutely fascinating to any number of people the whole weekend. Especially little kids. Especially little boys. And the big boys. ;) Barbara turned it into a Transformer wheel for them, and they loved it. I wish I'd managed to get some pictures of their faces when she was folding and unfolding it! Just imagine a lot of cute little faces with their mouths in big, round surprised O's. Yeah, even I got gooey over that.
And see that booth in the background of the above pic? Oh, my. Dangerous spot for us to be next to. See all those drop spindles dangling from the roof? Yeah. Two spindle-makers, no less (plus nostespinnes, orifice hooks, fiber, and a bunch of other stuff), and of course, I was looking for a smaller spindle than my big beauty I got at OFFF last year. So much for, you know, a little shopping around. After I was semi-organized, I gave into Tool Man's insistence I go check them out - not like I was fighting, you understand - and caved almost as soon as I got inside. This little charmer called to me.
Top-whorl spindle made by Carl Herndon, herndoncarl@gmail.com - only $22!
2.5" diameter spindle; Red heart whorl, Maple shaft, 8". Super lightweight, and spins beautifully. That's a quarter for scale, btw; couldn't find a dime. ;)
So easy to spin fine on! That's some vintage 50/50 Merino/Tencel handpainted roving I'm spinning with it, about 20 years old. The tag is still on the roving, and when I saw the price, I nearly died laughing. Four ounces for only $9.00! Boy, we didn't know how lucky we had it! 'Course, we didn't have nearly the selection back then, either.
In case you're wondering, that's going to be 3-ply sock yarn.
And then something exciting; I met orcoastknitter from the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group group on Ravelry! We'd talked about meeting up at OFFF, and luckily our booth was easy to find, being smack dab up in front like it was. And we were both wearing Ravelry tees, too!
That's me on the left, orcoastknitter on the right. My tee is "I swatched Ravelry"; hers is, well, obvious to any Raveler. ;) (Yeah, as usual, despite my saying I look terrible in short hair - well, look at that double chin. I swear, I don't have that much chin in RL! - I had my hair up in a clip. It was getting hot already.)
We had a lovely talk, and Jodi came back by a couple of times as she criss-crossed the vendors, and we talked some more. It was so great to meet another CPaAGer! I was excited as all get-out. Glad you could make it, Jodi, and enjoyed talking to you! Hope you can make it back next year; bring a chair with you and sit with us a while if you can, ok?
By then the crowd was getting even larger, and I was hearing something that surprised me; people were saying that OFFF was, vendorwise at least, bigger than the Black Sheep Gathering now. BSG's been running since the 70's - I remember reading about it in a couple of the rare spinning books back then, and I'd always been wistful about never managing to get down there. Apparently it still has more fiber animals, but for starting up much later, OFFF is now a worthy contender for being among the biggest fiber festivals in Oregon. Hurray! 'Cause it's a lot easier for me to get to OFF. ;)
Somewhere in there I did wander across the green to the food vendors back by the barn. I'd seen the cinnamon rolls people were bringing back from a new vendor they were raving about, and I needed breakfast. Hoooooboy, were they right! This woman had done all the baking, and holy cow did she have luscious stuff. And tons of it! The wonderful cinnamon rolls with big chunks of walnut were the least of it. Cookies and utterly decadent cakes (fellow CPaAG members, take note. You might wanna make it out here next year, just for the cake. ) and pies and umpteen different scones and small pies and meat pies and quiche and-- Unreal. She wasn't there Sunday - everyone figured she must have sold out, darn it - and we were all really regretting it, because we hadn't tried out nearly enough of what she had. Everything people got tasted even better than it looked. We're all hoping she comes back next year, and manages to be there both days. If she's there, I have a feeling we'll all be stocking up plenty on Saturday morning, just in case!
About this time - and we hadn't even been there more than a few hours yet! - things started blurring in my mind. ;) Barbara, as usual, had brought a ton of lovely things with her. She showed us an utterly gorgeous handspun lace shawl she'd made:
She taken a bunch of fiber samples; silk, cashmere, this, that and the other thing, I can't remember it all; and carded them together to make a super-soft, luscious laceweight yarn. I swear, it felt like silky whipped cream. (See why we love Barbara so much, aside from good laughs, all the teaching she does, and simply being great fun to be around? She brings so many wonderful things to look at!)
There was also a fantastic handspun wrap she'd woven, a beautiful deep rose color, with an occasional stripe of multi-colored silk, which we were all oohing over. Didn't manage to get a pic of that, alas; but oh, it was beautiful work! I haven't woven for quite a while, but still appreciate the work, and this was a thing of beauty.
She'd also ordered some custom spindles from a woodworker I can't remember, made from koa wood she got in Hawaii. She'd given the guy the wood, and he made her several spindles, which she picked up this year. Here she is showing the spindles to several of us:
L-R: Kathleen; Barbara; Tami (pnwbookgirl); Bobbie, behind one of the awning supports
Tool Man, being a woodworker himself, of course had to get a good look at the spindles.
Tool Man, Barbara, Bobbie, discussing spindles
Tool Man himself had brought some lovelies to show and sell. I've enjoyed the few times I've had a chance to talk to Tool Man; Dad was a woodworker too, and made the first spindles Mom and I used, plus a spinning wheel for each of us. (As well as a couple of houses - partly just for fun, you understand - lots of furniture, and umpteen other things. I grew up learning to take my naps despite the sound of a table saw running in the basement. ) So I enjoy talking wood with Tool Man, even though I don't know nearly as much as he does.
Well, he does beautiful work, and I fell hard for one of several beautiful shawl pins he'd brought. After dithering and reminding myself I couldn't get all of them, I bought this pretty one.
Shawl pin by Tool Man; cocobolo rosewood, 6-5/16" long
The photo doesn't do it justice; you can't see the beautiful grain. Even better, due to the nature of the cocobolo, the other side is a couple of shades darker; it's like having two pins in one. I rarely wear shawls, but it's very popular now to use shawl pins to close a cardigan; and I just happen to be planning to start a cardigan this pin will be perfect for. ;) Thank you, Tool Man! I love it! Plus it'll even match my big drop spindle I got at OFFF last year, which is also cocobolo. And isn't that just a beautiful shape? Reminds me of an Art Nouveau piece, which is a style I love. You can be sure I'll cherish it!
Bobbie's trying to get Tool Man to open an Etsy shop. He's also made some Lazy Kates, one of which he sold at OFFF (all but two of his shawl pins were grabbed, too), and various pieces of spinning equipment for Bobbie. We PDXKBers are very lucky! But we'd love to see him open a shop, too, even though that means we'd have to share. Keep your fingers crossed. Maybe it'll happen and you, too, can buy something lovely from him.
Meanwhile, all sorts of people were stopping by, and more PDXKBers were arriving and settling in. I was busy being distracted by something, and didn't catch the names of two women who joined us and grabbed some ground close to me and Judy; until one of them pulled up a pants leg and said, "...yes, this is the sock and shoe in my Ravatar; it's Fire on the Mountain..." At which I lost it and interrupted everyone by yelling, "JEN!" at the top of my lungs. (Yeah, when safely surrounded by friends in a large, crowded situation, even with the agoraphobia, I loosen up considerably and act more like I do online. ) The yelling was unnecessary, as she was all of about three feet from me, but I was excited. It was JustJen from Ravelry!
She looked up enquiringly at the crazy lady, and I squealed, "It's MonicaPDX!" (I think I even pointed at myself, LOL.) Well, she lit up too, and said, "Monica! I have some Rhinebeck advice for you!" Which she certainly did, being a veteran of Rhinebeck, and most helpful it'll be for a Rhinebeck newbie, you bet. (Must stop at Briar Rose's booth first thing; definitely print out the map they have on the site and mark stuff on it; do make a first runthrough and take notes, then go back to your favorites, or you'll end up spending all your money first thing without finding all the great bargains; and more. Thank you, Jen, and bless you! That'll be a big help!)
It was fantastic. We talked a mile a minute for a while there. It was so great to meet her in RL! Wonderful she's out here in Oregon, where I can hope to see her occasionally.
Of course, we were all talking a mile a minute by then. When Judy and I had first gotten there, near as I remember, aside from Bobbie, Tool Man, Cindy and Barbara, there were Kathleen (kfajardo) and Karen (knitbitten). Gradually we were joined by Melissa (knitfemme) (who gave me something wonderful, bless her, that I'll show you in my next post); Rachel (trtlgrl); Tammy (lavendarknits) (wearing her Lady Grey sweater, and it's gorgeous; we were able to chat for a bit, I was glad we had the chance); Michelle (elvisneedsboats); Duffy (fiberqat); Chelle (knottyknitter); Angela (AngelaMarie); Deb (debacquardi); Gail (gailmowry) dropped by when she could leave Susan's (abstractfiber) booth; Chrispy (rchrispy); Mokihana and her friend - argh, I can't remember if it was Julie or Judy; sorry!; Michele (MicheleLB) (we have a lovely bunch of Michel(l)es); and Kerin (pdxyarnho).
Yeah, we've grown a bit since last year. We have 130 members now! Bobbie had printed up a page with all the blogs listed so far in our Yahoo group (not close to everyone's; we need to have a drive to get people to list their blogs ), and the list takes up both sides of the page, in very small print. Plenty of people were taking copies, too!
I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone, darn it, but I made a fairly good stab at it. It was wonderful to finally see Mokihana; I regret I didn't get a photo of her, she was looking lovely. But I did get a nice big hug! Kerin didn't stay long, alas; her arm was hurting like crazy, poor thing, and she finally gave in and went home. I sure hope she's feeling better. Several of us got more PDXKB buttons from her, which was nice, but it's really too bad she was in so much pain. I've missed seeing her. At least I got to say hi and talk to her just a little, and I hope the trip didn't make things worse.
In addition, before she left AZ, Barbara had been emailed by a fellow Arizonan, Jennifer, who was joining her husband on a business trip to Portland the weekend of OFFF. She'd innocently asked Barb if she knew of any knit gatherings she could drop in on while she was here?
Yeah. Boy, was she surprised. She came both days and fit right in, and despite being signed up for a spinning class on Sunday, asked me Saturday afternoon if I'd give her the basics on spinning. What she got was a rather intense spinning lesson for an hour or so, with me talking at high speed. Despite this, she not only got the basics, but at the end of that time had spun several yards of a great Malabrigo-type single, and - get this! - had not dropped her spindle, due to letting her yarn get too thin and slide apart, even once! I was so proud of her I could've jumped up and down and let out totally undignified squees of joy. She's a natural, and I'm sure she'll be a confident spinner very shortly. (She still wasn't too sure about that after her Sunday class, but I know what I know. ;) She's gonna surprise herself. You hear me, Jennifer? Trust me on this!) She also did something absolutely lovely for me Sunday as a thank-you for the lesson, the sweetheart; but I'll tell that in the Day Two post, when I show you her photo. All I'll say now is that it was a wonderful surprise, and I loved it! It was great fun teaching someone again, especially with her picking it up so fast, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Thanks for letting me teach you, Jennifer! (Yes, she'll be on Ravelry soon. She's already gotten her invite, just needs to answer it. We all urged her to hurry up, so we could stay in touch.)
We were really turning out the spinners Saturday! Jennifer wasn't the only one. Cindy's had her Lendrum double treadle wheel for about a year, and still hadn't had a chance to learn to use it. So she finally got going on it...
And yep, before very long she had the hang of it, and was spinning away like she'd been doing it for ages.
ETA: The guy sitting some ways behind Cindy is Owennnn, trtlgrl's husband. He saw my Franklin Habit "Don't Mess With Knitters" knitting bag earlier, and asked if he could take a photo of it. ;) I was happy to oblige.
Speaking of spinners, want to see one of a spinner's favorite things?
Fleece! Three lbs. of a Lincoln/BlueFace/Montadale cross
Duffy's fleece score. She also got a pound of a first cut from a honey-colored cria (baby alpaca) named Opal. I didn't get a good closeup of that, but you can see it in the bag on the left in this picture of a very happy spinner:
Duffy, mighty huntress, scorer of fiber! Left-hand bag has the alpaca; right-hand is the wool. (Her t-shirt says, "Don't you wish your girlfriend could knit like me?" No, dunno where she got that; you'll have to ask her!)
Duffy was in fiber heaven, and no wonder. The wool fleece was beautiful enough, but the alpaca--! Oh my; unbelievably soft! I nearly drooled on it, but fortunately didn't. Duffy would've killed me if I'd contributed to it felting. ;)
It was around mid-day by now, and not only had the general crowd grown, our booth was full of happy knitters and spinners.
L-R: ? didn't catch who this was; Karen, Kathleen
Foreground: Melissa. Background, L-R: Karen and Kathleen again; Duffy; trtlgrl, both of us inadvertently blogging each other (to see a pic of trtlgrl blogging me, check the comments for this post!); Angela, hidden by her hair in this one
The weather was gorgeous; bright and sunny, with an occasional breeze. Getting a little too warm for me - plus I got a bit of a sunburn, nothing serious - but it was perfect weather for a fiber festival. Not that we'd have been stopped by rain or anything. C'mon, it's Oregon. But like last year, the day seemed to have been arranged just for OFFF. The crowd stayed big, and boy did we have people stopping to look at stuff, and talk to us, and ask questions! We were surprised at how popular we were! Last year we'd gotten what we thought was a surprising amount of attention when we'd taken over a picnic table, but we figured people just couldn't figure out what the heck we were: friends, some sort of weird booth, what? ;) That was nothing compared to this year! Except for brief periods, we usually had at least a few people standing around watching us, and frequently we had up to ten or more. Barbara was kept busy showing her Journey wheel, or how to spin, or something she'd made, or giving different lessons to us - she was a one-person show herself! Bobbie and Cindy and several others answered questions and gave demos. Judy and I were sitting a bit to the side of the front of our area, so didn't get that many questions, but we did field a few. What was funny was that not too many people asked about knitting, at least not that I heard. Most were interested in the spinning. ;) Lots of people examined Tool Man's shawl pins intently; when he and Bobbie left that night, he had only two left.
Somewhere in there, who should appear but my darling Roxie! And this time we had a chance to chat for a bit! We hugged each other tight, then sat and caught up for a while, and she showed me her finds - lovely rovings, and some beautiful handspun in the most gorgeous watery colors. It was absolutely wonderful, and so good to see her again! I got this great shot of her; it's hard to get a bad shot of Roxie, and her being a former model doesn't hurt, either. ;)
Roxie, looking mahvellous; note her bag of many fibers!
While we were chatting, MicheleLB got within our reach and we got to admire her February Lady sweater, which she beautifully modeled for us.
She, however, was saying how she was always modeling things for FO pix, but could never get the proper tall, willowy model look. She really wanted to be tall and willowy! Roxie solved that little problem. She sprang up, got Michele's camera, flung herself flat down on the ground and took a photo of Michele from that angle. "Now you're tall and willowy!" Michele and I were giggling, but if you go check out Roxie's blog, you'll see she was right! And I got a shot of Roxie before she got back up. (She kindly waited. )
Roxie, photographer extraordinaire!
She had to leave soon after that, but I got another wonderful hug from her first. Roxie's hugs are not to be missed.
Somewhere in there I left to get lunch, and try to track down Lisa Souza's booth; I'd found out from the OFFF group on Ravelry that she was going to be selling at OFFF the first time, and I wanted to say hi. (Yep, even on only one Xanax. Hey, I'd read her posts on Ravelry... I was really doing good this year, it was another only one-Xanax day both days. It sure helps not only being amongst a bunch of friends, but having a ride with one. Thanks again, Judy!)
Well; I say I left to get lunch, but what actually happened was that Gail was there on one of the visits she made to our booth when she was away from the Abstract Fibers booth. I stood up, mentioned the lamb, and was pounced upon. Man, if anyone ever needs an irresistible salesperson? Track down Gail. She had me in tow within seconds, making a beeline for Abstract Fibers; no side trips, no pauses, do not collect $200, Abstract Fibers or bust! She deposited me at the entrance to Susan's booth, rather breathless, and I think headed off to track down fresh meat another hapless prospective customer.
After I caught my breath, Susan and I had a nice chat, and I spent an enjoyable time looking at her fibers and yarn. Not buying, alas; Rhinebeck, you know. I kept having to say that to people. Fortunately, they were quite understanding about it. (Possibly secretly wanting to whack me upside t'haid, but they didn't let a bit of it show, bless 'em.) And boy, let me tell you; I was tempted! She has great prices; if you've never checked out her site before, I'd advise you to head there immediately, especially if you're a spinner. Take a drool bucket and your credit/debit card. It was with great difficulty I tore myself away without spending anything, especially after she gave me a little sample of handpainted roving with her shop tag attached. ::whimper:: I'll show a photo of that in the next post; this one has enough already. ;)
And right by her was Lisa Souza's booth - well, actually, I didn't even get in the booth at all. I found Lisa - and I think her husband? Maybe: I was lousy on the introductions by that point - anyway, I found them by a little stand set in front of the booths, and actually had the gumption to introduce myself. (Again giving the "Rhinebeck - once-in-a-lifetime - saving - sorry-not-buying, wish-I-could" speech. LOL.) We all three spent a little time talking. She was really enjoying it at OFFF, she said; great ambiance, friendly people, the weather was wonderful, and the rates for a smaller vendor were fantastic. I was glad to hear all this; I hope she comes back next year, so I can hit her booth! ;) She's great fun to talk to, so aside from buying her gorgeous yarns and rovings, if you can catch her with a free moment to talk at a fiber fest - do so!
Then I finally got my BBQ lamb sandwich.
The rest of the day was a jumble of all sorts of stuff. Bobbie finally slowed down enough for me to catch her spinning with Melissa.
Foreground, L-R: Bobbie and Melissa. Background, L-R: Kathleen, Duffy (hidden behind Bobbie), trtlgrl, and Angela (without her hair hiding her face this time)
While I'd been wandering around, Mary Mooney of the Oregonian's knitting blog, K2TOG, showed up and interviewed us, as I found out on our mailing list when Duffy mentioned it. It's a great article about OFFF overall - go to the link above and read if you have time - but we sure got a lion's share of mention; woohoo! (I love the bit about us and a desert island.) Another piece of info I found out from that same post by Duffy was that we had Joan Schrouder (schrouderknits) sitting and knitting with us for a while! (I'd seen the woman with the beautiful Kauni sitting by Duffy, but did I go over and admire it close up? Noooo, I was busy dealing with trying to cut up my lamb, I think. Damn!) Joan's promised she'll sing out next year, so we'll know when she shows up, if we don't recognize her by then. I think we will, though; she's changed her Ravatar, so we can get a look at her. Good thing, or I really will have to cast myself on the ground and drum my heels. ;) Thanks, Joan! And Tina from Blue Moon dropped by with a really Funky Sock Monkey - with six limbs. (It's a zombie sock monkey.) We all cracked up. And she surprised the hell outta me by recognizing me - geesh, she's only seen me in the line at the Sock Harlot's last appearance in Portland, far as I know - and gave me such a hug! ::waves happily at Tina, in case she drops by:: I asked her how Scappoose was doing, and she said fine. ;) (For anyone who doesn't know it yet, my family moved from Portland to about seven miles outside Scappoose - yes, where Blue Moon is - when I was 15. I graduated from Scappoose High. And I lived in a little wide spot in the road just off the Vernonia Hwy. called Spitzenberg, all of about five houses...just on the other side of the hill from another wide spot in the road, Chapman. You know the Blue Moon colorway called Chapman Springs? Yeah. That one. )
Ghu knows who else dropped by; I said we were a popular spot!
One of us who wasn't there, darn it, was Sharon (stitchjones), who dyes the beautiful Stitchjones yarns and rovings. However, Kathleen had done a fantastic display showing examples of different types of plying, out of yarn she'd handspun using one of Sharon's rovings.
Plying display, showing roving, handspun single, two-ply, crepe ply, Navajo ply...
Lots of people were investigating it, admiring and asking questions. It was on the picnic table we'd been assigned; Bobbie and Cindy had moved that to the back of where we were all sitting, to give us more room for, well, us. ;) Aside from Kathleen's display, we had various other things on show on it; some beautiful felted pieces made by Barbara (thanks for the update, Bobbie!); odds and ends of things we were willing to sell; a jumbo ball winder and swift set up for people to use to wind new yarn acquisitions, for a donation; and a slowly growing collection of larger items from our own stash acquisition shopping, such as Deb's drum carder. (Plus another special item she got, although that has a sad ending.)
Plenty of us were doing a lot of relaxing in between shopping expeditions.
L-F: MicheleLB wearing February Lady sweater; Tammy wearing Lady Grey sweater; Michelle (elvisneedsboats) and Chelle (knottyknitter)
One of the stash enhancements Deb got was a beautiful two-month-old 3/4 German Angora, 1/4 French Angora bunny, probably to be named Liesl.
Liesl
Karen and Liesl
We all cooed over her; she was so beautiful, and such a sweetie... And she got a nice shady spot on the back bench of the table, where she was safe and didn't have so many people close by, and of course had plenty of water and food. So we were shocked to hear from Deb the next day that poor Liesl didn't make it through the night. :( Deb didn't know for sure what went wrong...whether she was sick, or if the show was simply too much stress, or what. Deb got three other bunnies that are doing fine so far, but she's still sad to have lost Liesl. And so are we. ::hugs to Deb::
But that we didn't hear until Sunday. Saturday finally started winding down...I had the fun of giving Jennifer her spinning lesson...and when we stopped, shouting the announcement that we had another spinner now, so everyone could give her a round of applause, and she could show off her yarn. ;) And eventually 5:00 came around, and we all started packing up, saying goodbyes and taking off. Not all of us were coming back for Sunday, but there'd be plenty of us who would, and those who hadn't made it Saturday. Finally Judy and I said goodbye to Cindy and Bobbie and Tool Man, and took off ourselves. We were still excited, and chattered most of the way back to my place - even when going over what Judy dubbed The Scary Bridge in Oregon City.
The Scary Bridge going over the Willamette. Trust me, it looks even more like it's going to fall down when you view it from the streets below. "Decrepit" comes to mind, as well as "scary."
Naturally, it didn't fall down. (Saturday or Sunday.) So we made it safely back to NE Portland, although poor Judy then had to backtrack to get to her place. We were both whacked, although we didn't realize quite how much. However, we couldn't sleep too long that night. There was the second day of OFFF to go to!
Next: OFFF, Day 2 - Why Am I So Sleepy?