This year was my third year of traveling in the Autumn months to stores to teach color classes and have yarn tastings or yarn feasts. Often what folks want from me is to hear the story of how Curious Creek Fibers was started and how I continue to be creative and develop new colorways. We also play with yarn and show samples in trunk shows.
Before I left this year, it was as frantic as it always is trying to get everything prepared and shipped in time, and to be out of my busy studio for more than a weekend. The orders in house must be shipped, my traveling valise must have all of my goodies and I always feel the need to clean the house before I go.
The family around me continued to do what they do and here are some photos:
Cosworth teaches young Value about eating the prey one catches. This is a small mouse and Cos' mom (me) was very proud of him!
The kits for the yarn feast at
The Web*sters in Ashland, OR are almost finished! Each kit includes two colorways of six yarns, allowing for great color and texture combinations.
Our pet garden spider came to live near our front door sometime in late August or early September. We named her Bella because my friend and neighbor Lainie and I were reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and the spider always came out at Twilight. Bella ate well here on Palm Street on her own, but she was helped along by Steven and the children, and as they fed her moths and other live bugs they caught, she just got bigger and bigger and bigger. Isn't she pretty?
We had an impromptu Palm Street backyard party the Sunday before I left, and the kids put on a play. The small pile of what looks like clothing on the left side of the photo is actually Melia who crumpled to the ground giggling when everyone was bowing for their audience. It was adorable!
Kadie, Melia and Shawna like my Honda Night Hawk and pretend they are going with me
to Oregon.
When I arrived in Ashland, I had not gone to bed the night before because I had to be ready for this four day trip, as well as the next trip with Phil for another week in the Seattle area. There was plenty to do. I was pleasantly surprised to find I was going to be staying at a little farm where Romney sheep are kept and bred. I was shown to my sweet little guest house and promptly slept until six pm.
This is the first sunset I saw in Ashland, and it was beautiful!
This is the first morning after I awoke and felt revived! What a gorgeous town and surrounding area. I am only sorry I didn't have time to go see a play since this is the place of the Shakespearean Festival.
I walked around the farm in the early evening to do some sight seeing. It isn't very often you are a guest on a farm that has a flock of Romney Sheep!
This is a photo up the trunk of a beautiful tree in royal Autumnal color. I used the flash and it didn't look special.
Here is the same tree at the exact same time of the evening with no flash. I held the camera against the trunk to steady. The tree trunk in darkness, coupled with the orange leaves against the blue sky with the yellowish green tree in the background is just gorgeous. Oh the Autumnal color!
A few yards along, I came across what I was searching for, the Romney Ladies. There are about thirty of them here, some have black faces others white, but they all have white wool . Romney is bred for meat and wool.
This photo was taken only a few moments after the two tree photos above. This one with the flash cracks me up because all you can really see is their scaredy-sheep eyes looking at me. They were pretty much chickens, again, anything that whirred or made noise scared them because machines are bad news to a sheep...vaccinations, etc.
Here are the Ladies again with no flash, camera being held steady against the fence post which was greyed from weather and time and had the prettiest colors of lichen growing upon it, but I couldn't get a good shot so you'll have to imagine greens, orange and yellowish gold against grey. Mmmm.
Here is the lone Romney Dude. Those are his Ladies!
A lovely shot of some of the Romney sheep in their lovely field.
Solo - the boy who keeps them all safe. He is not a great Pyrennes, but now I can't remember the breed! He is named Solo because he was an only child which is rare in his breed. He is very sweet. When I first tried to take his photo, he shied away from me because things that make noise usually mean vaccinations! He was a lovely dog.
The wool barn at sunset...look at those colors! I want to paint some fabric in those exact colors with yarn and threads to match...can you imagine how gorgeous a fiber piece would be using this as inspiration? Oi!
The creek in Ashland looks really pleasant, and for the most part it is, but there are photos around town of a flood that took place sometime in the 1980s that shows it raging out of its confines. My store owner and her husband were flooded and the stories I heard were harrowing!
A cool site in Ashland, a fellow out for a ride on his motorcycle with his doggie in the side car. Pretty cute!
Katie the Cutie, one of the wonderful staff members. What a gorgeous store. Dona Zimmerman, the owner, is an amazing force. She knows how to make people feel like they are important. The customer service in this store is top notch and she only carries quality products and art to wear. I am just thrilled to have my Curious Creek Fibers represented in her store.
This is a shot of the store from the back area, where I was having my trunk show. It does not do the store justice, but I am including it here for sentimental reasons. When I am an old woman with a terrible memory I will appreciate this poorly lit photo, I just know it!
This is the room where my trunk show was set up, it was one of the best spaces I have ever been in. It made me realize I need many more samples but it still looked lovely and was well received by the people who came in to check it out.
The other part of the trunk show room. Look at all those lovely stitching books!
The participants in our wonderful yarn feast. There was lovely food, everyone received one of the kits I made up in the pretty clear plastic egg cartons, and it was really fun answering all of their questions. We were at this long table with me at one end and Dona at the other and if I couldn't answer a question, or Dona had something to add, she did. She is a font of information that lady! It was an awesome event, I had a blast and the ladies were a kick!
Right before I left San Diego, Lainie had been trying to call forth Autumn because the weather in San Diego had been unseasonably hot and dry and we were ready for the cooler temps and possibly some rain. In order to get Autumn to come, she knit a pumpkin in our yarn called Omo that is dyed in a lovely orange color we call Cowardly Lion. She was very kind and let me bring it along for the trunk show. Once I slept and awoke in Ashland, where Autumn was in full swing, I decided that the pumpkin needed a friend, so I knit an eggplant in the same yarn in the colorway called Moon Shine...a deep dark brownish purple.
The vegetables went over very well, and Katie the Cutie at the store suggested that I knit a Warty Gourd. Never having knit a bobble before, I looked it up in one of the myriad books and off I went. I started a Delica Squash but once I left Ashland I never finished it. Maybe one day, but not today.
In order to fly to Ashland, you actually fly into Medford and drive 15 miles south. This is the little tiny plane we flew on. Goodbye Ashland, thanks for the wonderful time. I will be back with my family!
On the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, where we will get picked up by Suzanne Murray, owner of The Twisted Ewe in Port Townsend. This is the third year she has had me come up for events in tandem with the great Fort Worden Knitter's Retreat. Nearly 200 ladies stay in the officer's housing or barracks and they knit, shop, eat, nap and enjoy each other's company. There are no classes, but they do have a fashion show and a yarn trade. I look forward to this event every year. Such fun!
This is a photo from the ferry as we are approaching Bainbridge Island. I had never been there before, so was really happy to get a chance to be there. Curious Creek Fibers is now being stocked at Churchmouse Yarns & Teas in the village and it is an awesome shop! So classy and clean and the teas in the back are an extra added bonus!
Phil installed in his reading chair at Suzanne and Brien Murray's home in Pt. Townsend. This is the first year Phil was able to come along and it was nice. We do so enjoy traveling together.
This is my friend Darin Fisher. I met her my first year in Pt. Townsend and we have stayed in contact. She always comes with her mom who lives down here in S. CA, as well as a few other family friends who are all just wonderful. I honestly don't know Darin's mom's name, I always call her Mom! 
This photo is of the view from our stay on Bainbridge Island which was after the Pt. Townsend events. I showed up on Sunday November 2nd and set up my samples and hung out and talked to folks from noon to five. The shop was very busy as many of the Ft. Worden retreaters were visiting Churchmouse on their way back home. It was really fun to see so many familiar faces, and we sold lots of yarn. 
Phil and I went on to spend two days in Seattle sightseeing. We found a wonderful bookstore called Elliot Bay Books, and a great toy store very near there but I can't remember the name of it. We tried to go up in the Space Needle, but it was really expensive and the restaurant wasn't open which would have made the cost more reasonable, so we just took some photos and ate at a really good dive bar all hours diner not far from there. They were watching Mad Max on the TV with subtitles, it was great!
We also visited our new store called Hilltop Queen Anne. It is situated in an old home, possibly a craftsmen style and it was great. Phil and I met with Jenny, the store buyer and her three year old son. We had coffee and while Jenny and I chatted all things fiber, Phil and her son...I can't remember his name but he was darling...read books, colored and played. It was delightful.
A pretty rug I saw in a gallery window that was closed...note to self, many museums and galleries are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
And finally, on our bus ride up to Queen Anne, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this. Complete irreverance for the political climate. One day before the presidential election. Oh yeah.
