Jiggety jog

It worked. We got home without incident to an airport stuffed to the gunnels with sleepy passengers, too few customs officials and negligible quarantine bastards. It took well over an hour to escape to The outside. 

Now we are home. But tomorrow Jo flys off to Malaysia and Japan. I am staying put until we go to Falls Creek to ski at the end of the month.

Aborted flight

We got out onto the runway where we sat for ages while they sorted out a woman who didn't have the right papers to get into Australia. By the time we were back at the gate it was too late for the pilots to have the right amount of rest during the flight so we were shuffled into hotels with a $7 voucher for dinner! And another for lunch and breakfast today. Don't know where the execs eat but it can't be anywhere fancy.

We are feeling as though we only had three hours sleep. I think we got four!

When we booked i today, they had Jo in cattle class and me in Business. As you can imagine, he did not accept that. After a long time on the phone, the lady changed it so that he had a business class seat but on a different plane from me that would arrive half an hour later in Sydney. So we would have travelled like royals.

He wanted to talk "to the supervisor" about the mix up and the bad information given to customers last night (we were told that we would have the same seats on Thursday that we had on Wednesday, for example. The supervisor took it all on board and went off with out tickets to see what she could do. So now we are sitting together, in business class at last.

So far. . . . 

CWS done

It was exhausting and exciting. My brain has been stuffed with both complex and simple weaves.

At the Complexity exhibition. This one looks more complicated than it is because she has used painted paper rolls to create the gold zig zag within the loose twill vocen silk.

Woven on 2 shafts with an ondule reed which is a reed with very crooked teeth.

What Bonnie is doing now. She weaves multiple tie downs in a fancy network draft while a few pattern warps weave another complex pattern. The really nice thing about these is that you can see individual threads.

The shaping of this garment was woven in with the crinkled structure a la Diane Totten.

And the sun came out and the cloud moved away from Mt Rainer so it could peek over our hill.

Tacoma

A couple of days to explore Tacoma before the seminars starts.

 Sally, Geoff and Jo

our hotel is the block beside the dome.

The Art Glass Museum has an artist in residence program which invites 40 art glass artist to work with their team each year. Fascinating to watch even though they often create "installations" which need reams of explanations rather than being beautiful objects merely.

Some Chihuly glass from inside the Union Station.

And I finished another toeless sock.

I'm in

Got the good news yesterday was that I have a place at the Complex Weavers Seminars. Talk about a last minute cancellation opportunity! I chose my seminars randomly so goodness knows what I will learn. It is bound to be inspiring.

So we celebrated with French champagne, local salmon and too much wine. 

Today's weeding was a good head clearer. I even found some tiny blackberries in the mown meadow. I was looking for a fawn but the thought of deer ticks put me off.

We went to Bellingham and I spotted:

It is a spinning, weaving and knitting store on two floors. What bliss. I was dragged off with a bundle of Corridale roving in many colours (the woman said "are you making Dr Who socks?" -- he must have lurid taste) because even they didn't have a sock yarn that will give me half inch colour changes. I will have to spin it myself.

Their weaving yarn wall.

Blaine

Here we are in the cool North West enjoying Geoff's hospitality.

At Semiamoo

The view from the back patio, complete with coyotes in the meadow.

The big house.

A new to me artist

Jo's conference is finished so we did the riverboat tour followed by a bus to the Marian McNay modern art museum which is in the house she built in the 20s. She was lucky enough to be the only child of a doctor who discovered oil on his farm. She was an artist, patron and collector. The collection is very nice and even though the rooms of her mansion are air conditioned to freezing, it was a pleasure to see lots of old friends on the walls and make new ones like Ben Nicholson, a British painter whom I hadn't ever heard of. His painting there is great. Perhaps after seeing their temporary exhibition of contemporary baroque works (they were busy and loud) his work which is minimal/abstract/cubist was a relief.

The gardens are nice, too.

Back on the bus for lunch downtown, then some soccer/knitting and I have "finished" the toeless socks and started the new yarn.

The only non painted toenails in SA

The new yarn is not as nice as it is superwash merino with 25% nylon -- good for socks that will grow. The yarn just makes it around one row sometimes, or three at other times. I can't see the repeat yet. 

There may be another ball in my future.