spinning summit 4000 feet

most of you fiber folks out there know that the big "sock summit" happened this past weekend in portland, oregon. there was a lot of jealousy going around these parts-pertaining to not being able to attend the summit. my buddy birdsong got the fabulous idea of hosting a spinning summit at her mountain house in forest city . forest city is a historic ghost town that is inhabited by very few. check my old post on "sunflowers and art" there are some great photos of the museum in the old dance hall.

as seen in my previous post-i packed up "jimmy" on friday and headed up to forest city-a bit over 4000 elevation feet i believe. i was the first to arrive. here's birdsong's most wonderful house built in 1864.

it is an amazing walk back in time-almost kind a sorta like time travel being there. we quickly set up my tent after unloading all my immense provisions-food, fiber and beer! spinning and knitting chairs-and of course my wheel.

we were soon joined by barbara sue(damn i forgot to have her sing "oklahoma" in hebrew for us-it's totally amazing), rowen and maizie(her delightful 4 year old girl), claudia and a bit later luci arrived. unfortunately she got an unplanned tour of the whole area-as the road sign does not exsist anymore and she continued up 49(instead of taking a very crucial right hand turn) ending up at the north fork of the yuba! after realizing she'd gone too far turned around found the right road but missed the forest city turn off and ended up in allegany. they don't take too kindly to strangers there. but she made it!!!!!

above is rowen and maizie. wish i got photos of everyone but i was having way too much fun to remember to shoot away. below claudia is knitting a pair of socks-

unfortunately she is not making them for herself.

i know what to make claud for solstice!!!!!!!! she made an awesome needle felted finger puppet to help teach her waldorf inspired kindergarden class. we all coveted spider woman!

liam loves forest city-he especially loves birdsong's old truck-which we adorned with a bag and t.p. for the gals that chose woods over the outhouse.

i must admit the outhouse was quite comfortable for those "special" times.

we stayed up late eating, spinning, knitting and laughing our butts off! when we retired i was the only one camping-everyone else was in the house. i was doing okay listening to the animals scurrying about-thought once or twice about attracting bear as i was on my period and bear poop did abound. i usually have my whole family in the tent with me and i was having a bit of trouble falling asleep. soon i heard off in the distance dirt bikes approaching. the buzzing got louder and louder till they were zooming right by birdsong's house. now, it was well after 1:00am and we are in the middle of nowhere. i have an intense overactive imagination and i saw way too many horror films in high school-they never leave your psyche. i saw them all-friday the 13th, nightmare on elm street, texas chain saw massacre etc. the reoccurring setting in most of these movies-----can you say "RURAL"- middle of nowhere places. you get my drift-i was imagining the drivers of these bikes wearing hockey masks, brandishing chain saws and ice picks- i tried to remain calm and talk myself down but when the bikes stopped instead of driving away in the distance-i grabbed my sleeping bag and pillows and ran tripping and stumbling into the house and slept on couch. the house folks never heard a thing!

on to calmer, sedate and nicer things-this is the awesome stove we cooked on all weekend-it wasn't hot enough to use the solar oven-although birdsong tried! check out the authentic 1930's wallpaper!! many different spinning wheels came and went thru out the weekend as not everyone could stay the whole time.


rhodie and mary lou joined us on saturday bringing yet more food and beer and the much needed toilet paper! cheryl joined us, sunflowers in tow for evening laughter (she is 1 of the 3 year round residents.) i slept inside again :)

sunday morning we took a nice hike and found the new mountain bike bridge-i love rock work!! what a beautiful bridge-want to come back and walk the dragon here.

remember my lisa souza roving? i finished it on sunday. i was thrilled.

there is another skein as well! i was also able to start my crosspatch creations-in the wolf creek(thanks b. sue) color way.


i also started my box car willie socks-my best imaginary friend soxchic sent me this sock blank she hand dyed-i'm using toothpicks to knit the damn things(size 0)and they are still coming out big- dear luci helped me to adjust the pattern-i hate being such a loose gurl-i just can't help myself!!!

sunday brought jan and angela venturing up to spinning summit-

no, jan is not trying out a new yoga position or checking to see if her deodorant is working-she is spinning on her drop spindle and angela (pink shirt) is knitting an amazing fitted jacket. rhodie-periwinkle dress-kintting lace hat. a fine photo of the back of mary lou's head-she is working away on a ultra soft tam, claudia still isn't knitting socks for herself and birdsong seems to be looking at something in her lap? a bobbin perhaps?

the weekend was fabulous and i want to thank birdsong for being a most marvelous host!!!! check out her blog for more photos and stories.