Lavender Festival 2011

A few moments from the 2011 lavender festival in Yamhill.

We visited 4 farms - Wild Rain Farm, Willakenzie Lavender, Red Ridge Farms and Mountainside Lavender Farm. And we also spent most of the morning at the Yamhill Festival shopping at the Plein Air Artisan market.

 

 

My goodies:

Olive oil and Passion fruit vinegar from Red Ridge Farms

Late Harvest Riesling from Sokol Blosser winery

Lavender Honey (can be found at all the farms)

Lavender bunches and a dram of lavender essential oil from Mountainside Lavender Farm

I bought the Blue collage art and turtle print from Magda Moor

I bought another sea turtle print and a mini sunflower oil painting by Megan Turner-Baxter (Art By MTB on Etsy).  Not pictured because she had to send them to me.

Hello Kitty in Real Life!

Last week, the Small Gift Pop-Up Tour stopped in Portland's living room (Pioneer Square). They were promoting Sanrio's 50th Anniversary. There were trucks and trailers wrapped with way cute Hello Kitty and Friends pictures, a pop-up trailer that was selling exclusive anniversary HK merchandice and of course Miss Hello Kitty herself!!

I had heard about this event from 3 different friends, who all know I LOVE Hello Kitty! Well, that day happened to be a rainy,depressing, dragging day for Hazel and me, and I really didn't feel up to driving downtown in the rain to see it. Owen checked it out for me on his way to work, and he didn't think it was much to see. But my friend Tami texted me a few times that afternoon to see if I was going, and she talked me into going even though I resisted. I think she knew I would regret not going and I totally would have!

So, I got myself and Hazel all ready to go downtown. She wore her Hello Kitty top and pink pants and a pink jacket (which she didn't need because the rain had already stopped). I met up with my friend Nancy, who is also a Hello Kitty fan.  It was weird, because we had not discussed meeting up, yet we got there at the same time.



At first, Hazel was curious about Hello Kitty, but as Hello Kitty got closer, Hazel got more wary. She didn't want to stand anywhere near her, and I can understand that since, HK was really tall and Hazel is so short. Well, I knew I wanted a picture with her, so I scooped Hazel up and had my friend take our picture.



I went home with a cute Lunch box, a button set and some stickers. The lady at the counter thought Hazel was super cute and gave me a few extra stickers and some bubbles for Hazel! I love that CBD (Cute Baby Discount).

Happy Halloween!

Hazel definitely had a good Halloween this year! As soon as I saw the Gnome costume at Target (back in August), I bought it.

She had quite the party schedule this week! First there was the harvest party at Gymboree on Thursday. She had so much fun running around in her costume checking out the fun activities and dancing to songs like Monster Mash and Ghostbusters. On Friday she had two friends over to decorate pumpkins and watch "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". On Halloween we took her to the Zoo's Howl-o-ween event. We just went through the whole Great NW Exhibit and to see the penguin's new digs (they moved last week to the Polar Bear's winter habitat). After the zoo we met up with my mom at Bridgeport Village where the stores had trick-or-treating and afterwards we ate at PF Changs. On the way home we stopped at a few friend's houses to trick-or-treat. Phew! And she kept the hat on the whole time!

Past Pumpkin Pickin'

See, we have been going here for 7 years! Check out all these similar pictures:)

I like getting a picture in front of the farm house (except in 07, but I don't know why)


and Owen likes the wheel barrow (except 2005, but it's a long story)

Pumpkin Pickin'

It took me about 2 weeks to accept that fall had arrived. I was just not ready to give up summer, especially since it didn't feel like we had gotten a fair summer. After some Pumpkin Spice Lattes and the leaves changing color, I think I'm ready for it to be fall. Of course, it wouldn't be fall without a trip to the pumpkin patch! We have been going to Lakeview Farms for 7 years. We love it because they have a train that takes you out to the patch and a boat that takes you back to the farmhouse. And now that we have a toddler, we love that they have pony rides and hay mazes!! It will still be a few years before we can appreciate the corn maze though.

Oregon Flock and Fiber 2010

My favorite festival of the year - OFFF! I look forward to it all year long and tout the awesomeness to anyone who will listen! Of course, it didn't beat Sock Summit 09, but I doubt anything could beat that, so this is the next best thing.

Just look at all the animals! Rabbits, sheep, goats, alpacas! And the Sheep (not sheet) cake makes another appearance ;) Hazel had a great time visiting all the animals. I think she was a bit scared of rams though, apparently one came too close to the fence and she backed away.



"The Delights" got back together and we have a new member! Kathy bought a spindle on Saturday and we were teaching her how to use it.

Hazel Rose was reunited with Hazel of Hazel Rose Looms and even modeled a toddler dress designed for HRLs.

The PDXKnitbloggers and the Portland Spinnerati had premium tent space on the lawn, to hang out, chat and knit/spin while we enjoyed all that OFFF had to Offfer!




I went a little overboard on the fiber from Knitted Wit! I couldn't help it! 50% off and "make a deal" are hard to resist - 3 merino bumps, 1 bfl, 1 m/t and 1 m/b. I also came home with some Pico Accuardi dyed falkland and a 4oz fiber exploration kit. Adult Mohair locks from Willow Creek Farm, some Angelina and dyed Tussah from a booth in the 4h building, a doffer from Duncan Carders, and 2oz Baby Camel/Silk, Firestar and silk noil from Hokulani Farms. I found the cutest "got wool" pin from woodland woolworks too!  Did I mention it was my birthday weekend?

Oops! I didn't even mention the goat cheese making class that I took Saturday morning!  The class was taught by Tammy S. Paul of Two Track Farm We learned how to make fresh Ricotta, Chevre and Feta!  It was all really delicious, and seemed simple to make, so I just need a couple of supplies and I'll be off and running!  I think everyone in my knitting/spinning groups are anxiously awaiting to taste the cheese I make and possibly learn to make it too!  I promise that will happen, but I want to try it first and see if it's as good as the instructor's!

Lavender Festival

It was that time of year again to trek out to Yamhill for the Lavender Festival. This was Hazel's 2nd Lavender festival (Pix from last year) and she had a blast! She got to ride a pony named Belle. She had practice riding and holding onto a saddle from the carousel for her birthday, and those playground animal things on a spring. She knew to hold on, but when she came around the loop to where my mom and I were standing, she would take one hand off and wave at us, then go back to holding on. Owen was there just in case she fell off, but he really wasn't needed! We visited the two farms we like Willakenzie and Wild Rain. At Willakenzie they have the Alpacas which are always fun to see. In their gift shop they added skeins of alpaca yarn and patterns too. The man I met 2 years ago here was again spinning on his Lendrum, and it was neat to chat with him, now that I have more spinning experience. At Wild Rain farm we picked a bundle of lavender and walked across their farm to the rivers edge and I re-taught my mom and her friend how to make lavender wands. It was so relaxing to sit in the shade and drink lavender lemonade and craft. It would have also been the perfect place to spin if I had brought my wheel.

Black Sheep Gathering!

As you may remember, I was in labor last year during the BSG and did not get to attend. I think I made up for it this year though! Check out all the fiber I got!


1 Jenkins Kuchulu spindle in borneo rosewood with a redheart shaft
1 (huge) Alpaca/Wool batt from Superior Fibers
1 mystery batt from Fantasy Fibers
2 bags of assorted Wolf Creek Wools fiber from Sweet Grass Wool
1 handpainted roving from StitchJones (that I actually bought before the show, but I’m counting it anyway)
a goody bag from the Knitmore Girls podcast


Before we even got through the parking lot, I ran into my friends Jamie and Blas who own Urban Fauna Studio They drove up from San Fran for a speaking engagement, and made a side trip to BSG.

Once inside, I headed straight to Stitch Jones' booth to say hi to my friend Sharon. Then the shopping began! My mom and I each got a bottle of hand lotion at Lost Valley Alpacas in Sweet Peaches. At Fantasy Fibers, I snatched up one of the last mystery batts they had in stock. Across the way at Crown Mtn Fibers there was a Knitmore Girls podcast meetup. I have been friends with Jasmin and Gigi since Stitches West last year and they love seeing Hazel!

After the first hour (which seemed like 10 minutes to me) my mom, Owen and Hazel took off to find lunch, leaving me to shop. I met up with Cindy, and she and I enabled each other into getting the mini Jenkens spindles and then she enabled me into getting some fiber from the Sweet Grass Wool.

Again I time warped another hour and the four of us found a park in Eugene to have our TJ's picnic lunch.

Then it was back to the BSG, but this time we focused on meeting the animals. Ohh, was Hazel enjoying this. She got a kiss from a Shetland Sheep, and she got to see cute Pygoras, BFLs and Romneys. Not to mention the Alpacas in the the Alpaca barn! She used her new walking skills to lead us from stall to stall. On the way to the Alpacas we ran into Lisa (slumpyfumbler on Ravelry) and she enabled me to get the HUGE batt from Superior Fibers.

Before we knew it, it was time for the market to close and for us to head home. I am beat!

Tulip Festival and Natural Dyeing

All of these photos were taken today at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. Yeah, it was overcast and yeah, it rained, but ya know what? It wasn't crowded! Which is how it usually is if the weather is nice. And our family doesn't do crowds terribly well, so having it basically to ourselves was nice.

Hazel had lots of fun having her picture taken. She especially loved being in the large wooden shoe. She could reach down and pick up the sawdust shavings on the ground and try to put them in her mouth (ugh). It was a little cold for her, so we warmed up in their gift shop. So many cutesy things, but none went home with me. I did buy a couple bunches of cut tulips and a pot of "rip van winkle" narcissus. On the round about way home, we stopped at my mom's so that Hazel could crawl around and I left her a bunch of the tulips I bought. She is flying home tonight from Hawaii and I think she will be delighted that we thought of her. Of course she may be a little annoyed that we stopped by when she wasn't home, but oh well...

Oh, I should talk about yesterday too! I had originally planned to go out to Woodland Woolworks to try out the double treadle Lendrum that I am lusting after, but got a notice on Facebook that Pico Accuardi Dyeworks was having an event this weekend in their workshop. I thought that the natural dyeing lesson sounded cool, so I nixed the WW plan and invited Tami to go with me to PAD instead. We dyed up some mini skeins of sock yarn and a mini skein of Columbia wool from Imperial Stock Ranch. Who would have thought that yellow onion skins would dye wool green, or that a baking soda spritz would turn a burgundy to purple??? I also am intrigued by indigo, when you dip your fiber in, it turns green, but once the chemcial in the indigo hits the oxygen in the air, it turns blue. I had no idea that natural dyeing could be so much fun!

Here's some pictures of what I dyed up:


This one had an unfortunate "spaghetti incident" so I only have pics of it reskeined.
There is cochineal, logwood, logwood spritzed with baking soda, and indigo.




madder/black walnut mix, cochineal, black walnut, and indigo, then the whole thing went into the indigo pot (by accident of course, but I like how it turned out.






Indigo, walnut, madder, yellow onion skin, and again the whole skein went into the indigo pot.

Oregon Heritage Farms

The weather has done a 180 here, from inches of rain yesterday to blue sky and sun today! We made use of the clear weather to head out to our favorite Apple farm - Oregon Heritage Farm . When Hazel is a little older, she can jump in the inflated apple and go on hay rides, but this year we just posed on the trailer.








No trip is complete without a caramel apple, buying some honey crisps and 2 gallons of their fabulous cider!

Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch

Hazel had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch. It was pretty cold and windy and I think she braved it very well!! Better than her dad! It was so fun posing her with the pumpkins.


We even found a Hazel-sized pumpkin :)

Oregon Flock and Fiber 09 - Day 2

Day two was much more laid back. Hazel finally made an appearance and had a great time. We took her to see the animals. She loved the Alpacas best :) and the angoras, but not the chinchillas so much. We met the people of Hazel Rose Looms, they are sisters and Hazel's husband makes the looms!

Hazel loved taking a break on Owen's camp chair, she gazed up at the oak tree and listened to the background music and she fell asleep.

I resisted the fleeces in the parking lot sale! Go me! Mostly because I already have one alpaca fleece that I haven't started prepping yet. I also resisted going into Blue Moon for more sock yarn. And I did not bring home a bunny this year, even though this male called Buster Brown was totally wanting me to take him home.

Had to leave a lot earlier than I intended to because I wasn't feeling well. I don't know if it's the flu shot from Wednesday, allergies or someone's germs.




Chinchilla pile-up


Duck herding

Hazel Rose Looms

How cool is it, that there is a company out there with the same name as my baby girl?? I first found out about Hazel Rose Looms back in March when I was at Camp Pluckyfluff. Urban Fauna Studio carried them in their store and I knew I had to have one. During Sock Summit I purchaced the 4" multi loom and I've had fun making coasters with my handspun left overs. I gave those to my friend as a housewarming present. I was delighted to find out from my friend Kathy that Hazel Rose Looms would be at OFFF. Of course, I had to take my Hazel Rose to meet them.


This is Hazel, Hazel Rose and Rose.


Checking out the looms


Look at all the shapes!!


I did add to my collection and bought a 2" multi Loom and a small pick for straightening the wefts. ( I also bought 2 oz of Border Leicester locks dyed blue and purple from Baabaara's Handspun a table I found out in the sheep barn)

alpacas!