A VERB..............

saturday morning rhodi and i planned to leave the security of our hill and head to oakland. why? you ask why would we leave our nests of comfort and quiet and head to the city despite the snowy weather. well, it's a 5 letter word baby!!! FIBER! seems like the only reason we leave the hill these days.

i get a phone call at 7 am- a very groggy barbara sue says she needs a fiber fix too. so we head to oakland in rhodi's green machine-which by the way is a toyota with 350 thousand miles on it.- that is not a typo- 350 big ones!!!!!

you see one of our favorite fiber companies was having a big grand opening party as they just opened their new store. they used to have a teeny tiny store in bezerkely . if you haven't heard- A Verb for Keeping Warm has moved to oakland! i cannot begin to tell you what a fabulous job they did- the store is beautiful.

all of "verbs" yarn and fiber is naturally dyed. now they carry many other yarn companies which are not not naturally dyed but beautiful as well.

you can also get yarn that has not been dyed-just the natural color of the sheep-gorgeous! as well as locally raised fiber.

making choices was tough! here's another view:

barbara sue won one of the hourly raffle prizes!!!


and yes, there were celebrity sitings as well....WonderMike of the fabulous pod cast "fiber beat" was there. he teaches at the store as well.

the STASH & BURN gurls were there as well as lexi boeger. sorry no photos of these rockstars- didn't want to get too paparazzi-esque. i'm sure many other as well- but with the hermit lifestyle -you know i don't get out much or keep up on such matters.

Best of all, here is the beautiful Kristine-proprietor of this amazing venture-pictured with partner Adrienne-who helps out in so many ways.

it took ALL day to decide on what to get-it was agony. too many choices. i ended up getting 3 skeins and a pattern.

from left to right: think prairie here, a gorgeous golden and yellow 65% falklands wool 35% tussah silk blend-going to make a shawl. the other two are superwash 70% merino 30% silk-sport weight. socks indeed!!! happy socks!!!! the pattern is a coco knits(local designer)design called "sabine"-seamless and top down-my kinda of sweater! the day was made complete by visiting an old friend that i haven't seen in like 20 years!!!! he came to the opening! what a great day!!! the best i've had in along time. still glowing.

well, the bewitching hour was approaching and we needed to head back to the hills before we turned into trolls or possibly worse. we waited for one more raffle and departed at 4. wow! the 3 hour drive turned into a 5 hour escapade- torrential rains, lightening and a pee stop at a starbucks in marysville turned into a car unable to start-wet starter perhaps. to make a long story short which involved barbara sue's adventure with a CHP officer, a tow truck that luckily wasn't needed as we got the green machine started and white out blizzard conditions on scary canyon roads-we did all eventually make it home safe.....all in the name of FIBER.