That’s Anna Grace speak for "Mommy’s in Tacoma". 

I have been at Madrona Fiber Festival this weekend in Tacoma.  I didn’t stay at the hotel, I just drove back and forth.  Dana stayed home with AG and when I returned home on Friday night Anna Grace pointed at me at shouted "Mommy’s in coma".  Throughout the day Dana had been telling her "Mommy is in Tacoma" and she was very proud of the fact that she could tell me where I had been (well, sorta tell me).

I had a great time at Madrona.  Thursday Lorette  and I had dinner in Tacoma and then headed over to hear Stephanie speak.  (We ran into Marti while we were there.  Hi, Marti!). Oh, little bonus…. we sat at Stephanie’s table while we ate dinner.  It was a big long table, I was at the end but I DON’T CARE…. we sat at Stephanie’s table.  We got to chat a little bit with the Yarn Harlot and had a great meal.  Here’s a photo.  It’s a bad photo but a photo none the less of Stephanie.

Friday I took a wonderful class from Jill Laski.  It was called Blending Fibers for Effect.  We were taught to use a drum carder and we blended fibers by color, by content, you name it.  I had a ball and came home with a car load of fiber.

This is just a portion of the batts that I made up during the class.  Some are merino, others are merino and silk, merino and angora, etc.  I had a great time.  So much so that now I am stalking drum carders.  (Poor, Dana!) And…. BONUS… Jessica was in the class as well. 

Via Jessica I got to meet a few other bloggers (Wahoo!).  I met Dorothy and her friend Nancy.  The four of us had lunch together on Friday and that was great fun.  Then Jessica knew I wanted to meet Ryan so on Saturday she tracked me down and introduced me.  (Happy, happy, joy, joy).  I also got a chance on Saturday  to sit and knit with Lorette  and Saralyn .  We also learned Saralyn is a genius.  She managed to use shopping for a child’s birthday party as an excuse to go to a fiber festival. Brilliant!

My knitting time and getting to meet Ryan were the highlights for Saturday because my class was, um, not what I had envisioned.  (Was that delicate enough?)  I took a class called "Spinning Silks".  Why?  because in my attempts to spin silk all I have acheived is knotted up, cork-screw-ish, wirey trash.  So I saw the following description (am I going to get kicked out of all future Madronas for posting this????):

Spinning Silks: Delve into the world of silk and learn to spin all types of silk fiber on a wheel.

To me, the idea of their being "technique" or the "teaching" of "technique" involved seems to be implied.  Not so.  The instructor read us a spiel (off of index cards) about silk, silk worms, silk industry, etc and then proceeded to pass out small samples of various kinds of silk and tell us to spin them.  I attempted to ask questions.  Questions were met with a statement like "you can do what you want", "it depends on what you like".  I "want" to "learn" how to "spin" silks.  Not just sample them.    So… Saturday’s class was a bit of a bust but  I still had a great time.  All was not lost, I did sit by a lady from Idaho who seemed like she had been spinning since Eisenhower’s administration and she would occasionally give me a tip or two.  So, I did actually learn the "technique" of spinning silk but I learned it from my classmate, not my instructor.

I also did a smidge of shopping.  I bought a book on dyeing fibers and then I bought some fiber as well. It was, afterall, a fiber festival.  So I got festive. 

Camel and silk roving, 2 skeins of STR and a skein of merino and mohair sock yarn.

So, had a great time and now I better get busy with the knitting and the spinning.