First, I survived a windstorm.  A cold windstorm.  A windstorm that was experienced with all of the doors to my house wide open.  Why????  Furniture arrived.  Whoot!  Now, in case you ever wondered…. how can you manage to get multiple branches, leaves and bucket load of dirt in your house with very little effort?  Leave the doors open in a Washington State windstorm.   Jokes on me.  I actually ran around the day before and cleaned all the floors so the movers would be putting the furniture on clean floors.  HAH!

Next up…. my very first fiber festival!!!! 

Friday night I loaded myself into the Lil E and headed for Tacoma.  Alone.  Sans toddler….and sans husband.  Me…alone….with the open (OK not really, there was lots of traffic) road and my Ipod.  *Smile*.  I drove to Tacoma for Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat.  I had a great time driving there but was a bit uneasy the whole time just waiting to hit the notorius Puget Sound traffic, waiting to get lost, waiting to witness a crime in progress (Hey…. I was goin’ to Tacoma… anything could happen).

Anyway… I’m truckin’ along, enjoying the drive, when I come over this hill and I can see the shipyards, the mountains, I can see all of downtown Tacoma, it’s cool.  And my first thought????

I TOTALLY ROCK!  I FOUND MY WAY TO DOWNTOWN TACOMA!

Note to self: everytime you have had one of these prideful outbursts,either internally or out loud, you have paid dearly. If not now, later.

Many things were in store for me on Friday night….all cool.

First, I saw Stephanie speak. (please excuse really, really, bad photo).

So for those of you keeping track:

Florida knitter for 18 months: No Yarn Harlot sightings.

Washington resident knitter for 8 days: Yarn Harlot spotted.

While seeing Stephanie was very cool, even cooler was meeting folks I "knew" via their blog or my blog.  I am just floored that I could actually meet folks that I met through blogging and I so thrilled to have had such a blessing.

This is Betsy who has been reading my blog and giving me much Washington info over these past months.  Betsy is a knitter and a spinner and on Saturday (Yep…. I went back on Saturday) she taught me how to spin a bit on her drop spindles and she let me borrow her spindles for a bit.  I’m enjoying them quite a lot.

Next I met Lorette.

We met and had dinner together along with Marti and then spent some more time together waiting to see Stephanie.  Lorette is a blast and downright hilarious.  I was really blessed to be able to meet her in person.  She is also a treasure of information….whether its about knitting or Washington, Lorette has got the info!

On Saturday, I went back to the festival, along with Dana and Anna Grace.  I had a ball going through the market area, sitting with Lorette and a group of knitters from Seattle, just taking it all in.  What fun!