Yarn School!

Back in October 2014, two friends of mine from my knitting group and I went to Kansas to attend Yarn School. More specifically The Harveyville Project Yarn School. It is such a neat concept and definitely an interesting experience.

Basically the set up is the weekend event is held at an old high school in Harveyville, Kansas that has been converted to hold all types of creative workshops. Yarn School consisted of learning all about fibers, learning how to use a spinning wheel, learning how to dye fibers in various methods, visiting an alpaca farm and just meeting good people and having a fun weekend.

The school itself had a run down hipster feel to it with all sorts of knickknacks everywhere, old school lockers, and we slept in classrooms next to chalkboards. While I understand this concept is still a work in progress and for the most part manageable, the bathrooms could use a bit of an update.

I was super excited to learn how to dye yarn with Adrian from Hello Yarn. That was one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend and wish we had more time devoted to that lesson. Or more opportunities to do additional dying in the down time.

Spinning is hard work. Finding the right wheel, the right fiber, the right rhythm. It's a lot to think about and figure out how to coordinate all at once. I am not the best learner. I get frustrated quickly if I don't pick something up quickly. So I struggled with this part of the lessons. But I did enjoy it once I got the hang of it and one day hope to buy a spinning wheel to better learn this art.

Another favorite part of the weekend was the visit to the Alpaca farm. I think alpacas are my spirit animals. They love me and I love them back. Some days I daydream about living off the grid and owning a few alpacas.

Additionally, the food was fantastic all weekend long. I really wish they would put out a cookbook because I still think of some of the dishes. It was all made from scratch every day which isn't easy to do for over 20 people at each meal.

The school

Our beds

Lockers!

Beautiful sunrise

Sunrise from the men's bathroom. I liked the windows.

Crockpot dying

Trying to be creative with the dying

Colors!

Look at all the pretty colors drying

Adrian teaching us how to hand dye

Learning how to use a drop spindle

One of the spinning wheels I tried

Spinning in Action

Look, I made yarn!

Not bad yarn for the first time.

Alpacas!

I totally want an angora rabbit now

Look at the cuteness!

These sheep were scaredy cats and preferred hanging out behind the bush

Of course I had to take a picture of my Jayne hat next to Firefly Rd

Kansas was surprisingly pretty

All my finished yarns and fibers

Boneyard Shawl

In the beginning of February, I was going on a trip to Mexico (I will blog about the actual trip separately). I decided I need something easy to knit to bring along on the trip. A project that was easy enough to memorize so I could knit on the plane, in the airport, or anywhere else. After a lot of stash diving, I decided it was appropriate to use yarn that I bought a few years back for my birthday considering the trip to Mexico was a birthday trip for me. The yarn is called Aquarius by Wollmeise. Fitting for a February birthday and a February vacation by the beach, no? It is a gorgeous teal green blue color and knitting it up is so easy. The pattern I picked is Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West. This is a great pattern because although it is a simple pattern, it really allows for the great color saturation to show off and with this specific yarn it is coming out very squishy and comfy. I have quite a bit of yarn, 2 skeins worth of the DK weight, so I plan to make it a large shawl (or until I run out of patience). While I am not done with the shawl yet, I have been Instagramming the progress in various stages and in various settings. So I wanted to show off a bit and let you all know that I am being crafty in 2015, albeit a slow crafter.

Decided to do some knitting by the pool in Mexico while waiting for my room to be ready

Knitting on the beach in Mexico

Knitting is a good waiting room activity

Knitting is also a good coffee shop activity

Some knitting at lunch with a knitter friend

Knitting while binge watching House of Cards

Knitting at my Sunday Morning Knitting Group

Bridge School Benefit

One of the more exciting things I did last Fall was go to Mountain view, CA for the Bridge School Benefit. The benefit is a two day concert hosted by Neil Young to raise funds for Bridge School. Bridge School is a school that focuses on children with various disabilities so the money is going to a good cause. It's all acoustic and had a great line up including Norah Jones, Band of Horses, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Tom Jones, Florence and the Machine, Brian Wilson and Neil Young. This benefit has been going on for over 20 years now and has a huge following, selling out most years. If you get a chance, I highly recommend making the effort to check out at least one of the nights. All the musicians were fantastic but the two that really blew me away were Florence and the Machine and Tom Jones. They both just killed it and the crowd got so into it - so made for a great time.

Unfortunately my time in California was short. I flew in on Friday evening and flew out on Monday morning. Since the concerts were both on Saturday and Sunday, most of my time was spent at the Amphitheater. But I did get a chance to see a little of Mountain view. I have decided if I ever have to live in California, it would be in Mountain view and only because I got a job with Google. Google's presence in the town is literally everywhere. And just what little I saw of the office buildings and Google amenities for employees (parks, soccer fields, bicycles to get around, etc), I would love to work there.

If you get some time, check out Shoreline park. It has amazing views of the bay with a lot of great walking trails. Unfortunately it was a bit hard to get to without a car but thank goodness for Uber. The weather was beautiful so it was nice being outside enjoying the fresh air and sunshine for a bit. I could have spent all afternoon there just watching all the birds and ducks in the water.

We had breakfast one morning at Olympus cafe and it was so yummy.  I love a good breakfast and this place really hit the spot after a late night at the concert. Plus they knew how to make a good cup of tea which always adds extra points in my book. The waiters were friendly and while it was busy we managed to get a nice table outside and enjoyed the morning air. I loved the fact that they had a variety of Turkish and Greek pastries. So after breakfast, we got some goodies to munch on while at the concert.

For dinner one night, we stopped at Blue Line Pizza. Pizza is one of my favorite foods and this place was yummy. The bartender allowed up to sample different beers before we picked what we wanted to drink which was awesome. I hate spending money on an unknown beer and then end up hating it. The portions were big and we ended up taking a lot of pizza back to the hotel for a midnight snack later on. We got the caesar salad, cheesebread, barbeque chicken thin crust and make your own veggie thin crust to share.

The famous Google bicycles

I love Japanese Maple trees. Such a pretty red

The crowd from Night 1

Turkish tea and baklava!

 

Shoreline Lake

Ducks!

The view from Shoreline Park of the bay

Another view of the bay

The crowd on night 2

Tome Jones!

Tom Jones was amazing. Really!

Statues and watermelons, oh my!

If you ever want to get out of Houston for a couple hours, I highly recommend taking a trip to Frazier's Ornamental & Architectural Concrete. It's at the corner of 290W (heading to Austin) and Hwy 6 (heading to college station). The place is huge, full of all sorts of statues for your garden.  They seriously have a statue for everything - animals, religious, mythology, fairies, etc. We specifically went to look at bird baths but I couldn't help take pictures of some of the more weird and random options.

The patriotic section

I wonder if the HOA will allow me to put this on our front steps?

Strike a pose!

These remind me of the old school Aunt Jemima syrup bottles

Why would you want a statue of a shoe shine boy?

What the? Very creepy!

Mr. Fox looks stoned

These lamas are very zen

I would be bored too, sitting there all day

I like the look of concern the statue in the background has for Elvis and Mozart

This place totally made me think of weeping angels. Don't blink!

Right down the street is a great farm stand called Dilorio's. They are known in the region for their great local watermelons. Hempstead, TX used to be the top shipper of watermelons to rest of the USA back in the 40s. Dilorio Farms provides all the watermelon snacks for the Watermelon Run for the Fallen in Hempstead, TX. That's where I had my first taste of their delicious watermelon and knew I had to stop by their farm stand since I was in the area.One of my favorite things about living in this region is the great fresh and sweet watermelon.

Lastly, since you will be on 290 heading back to Houston, you may want to make a pit stop at Buc-ee's for a bathroom break. Now, as a Wawa fan, it's just not the same. But Buc-ee's is a Texas favorite with their crazy beaver merchandise, homemade jerky and fudge, and excellent restrooms. The giant Buc-ee's in Waller, TX also has a ton of Texas themed gifts and other merchandise. I've purchased a few things to send to friends up North. But the more I stop at Buc-ee's, the more I miss Wawa - especially the Wawa coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and most of all their hoagies. I'll just have to make another trip back to Philadelphia soon to get my Wawa fix.