Livin' & learnin' people who are famous and little ole' me!

I have to say that I LOVE my life! I don't mean to brag or anything I just kind of can't believe the exposure I've had to talent & fun recently and I MUST share! Unfortunately I was so excited much of the time I didn't take pictures so you will just have to try to believe this is true!

First- Workshop in Spinning Textured (formerly known as Art Yarns) Yarns with Jacey Boggs.

I had the honor of hosting Jacey at my home during this workshop. She is an awesome inspiring woman and she brought along her film crew of 2 Chris & Julie who were equally as awesome. The first day they were here I wanted to show them some of the area. We drove home along the coast because the ocean is worth the detour. We had a spectacular lunch at Real Food Daily in Santa Monica and then we went hiking up here near my house. This is one thing I am most sorry to have no picture of...we saw a rattle snake! Jacey took pictures and I hope to see them on her blog eventually, maybe. I have never seen a rattle snake on the trail before, it even rattled at us. When we were coming back around the trail loop to the end I was thinking to myself, well I've never seen a rattler before surely I won't see one again for a long time- I was hoping to see a deer instead- when low and behold there was a 2nd rattler. Crazy huh?

Then the workshop was great, I learned a lot of tricks that I had missed from the dvd. There is nothing like learning something in person. And let me tell you if you have a chance to take this class you must do it! Jacey is an excellent, patient and thoughtful teacher. Even if you think you know everything you will learn something new or at least have a ball.

I snagged a few workshop pictures from Ercil...I hope she forgives me. And I even am putting in a picture where I look terrible just to show you I was there!

The following weekend I went to Cairo Caravan on the Queen Mary and danced with my troupes She'enedra & Tandava also wicked fun! I will post a video of the dance this week. It is my choreography inspired by the book the Red Tent.

I was home for one day after Cairo Caravan and I jumped into my car and drove up to my friend Carolena Nerrichio's house (if you are a belly dancer you know who she is). And then we went on a pilgrimage to take a cotton spinning class with Stephanie Gastaud at her home in the mountains. Stephanie is also an amazing and patient teacher, I love the way she listens to people and then just says the right thing so you understand. Just unbelieveable! We of course got to meet her husband Alden Amos as well, they are so super cute! And Carolena kept calling their home & property fairy land, and it was. We were in total spinning heaven. Wheels & books & plants...lovely, I want to move there and be their neighbor. I hope they like me ; )

Once again I learned lots of great tips and improvements on my cotton spinning. Don't squish your cotton! wow all this time I've been compacting the stuff!

Back on my whirlwind to San Francisco, stayed the night at Carolena's...6-7 hours drive home ugh!

I did remember my camera...

Then I thought it was all over and I would just sit quietly and read and reflect and practice my spinning but I had one more little thing happen. My guild received the gift of several amazing alpaca fleeces and I got one for myself and one I am spinning up that will be made into a gift for the lady who donated these fleeces to us-she is very ill and we hope that the shawl will bring her some comfort. Anyway this is the cleanest fleece I have ever seen! Just flick and spin amazing!

I am grateful.

The ongoing cotton project

Still catching up on the last 2 months of stuff...

These pictures are of our cotton tree...yes I said TREE! I was given the seeds for this tree by another member of my spinning and weaving guild a couple of years ago and I finally got around to planting them. She got them at a demonstration that our guild does annually in the herb garden at the Huntington Library where the parent tree lives. When I was at SOAR I met Phreadde Davis who recently wrote an article on growing cotton in the Spin Off Fall 2009 issue on natural fibers. She told me that these seeds are very special and were saved from extinction by a lady (who's name I wish I could remember) that did a lot of work to preserve cotton varieties. Phreadde (pronounced Fred) gave me some seeds for naturally green colored cotton that I plan to plant on the opposite side of my house so they don't affect each other with any cross pollination. Phreadde also taught me how to spin cotton straight off the seed. It's such a great thing to learn, now I don't have to sit around picking seeds out of the cotton balls. I plan to post video of how to do this soon!

In an earlier blog I posted pictures of the cotton bolls before they opened. Now they have!

We picked as much as we could before the rain this weekend. It's mostly mine & Riley's project but we have had to enlist Robert's help because the tree is so high we can't reach the topmost branches. When Robert helps us with the picking Riley and I run back and forth in the garden with baskets catching the cotton he throws over his shoulder! I wish I had pictures but then it would require enlisting another person in our project.

See how big our developed cotton balls are?

Here are pics of Riley & I carding cotton (before we learned the new way of spinning straight off the cotton balls), and spinning on a takhli.


I'm just now teaching Riley how to spin, pretty good for a 6 year old I'd say!