Salad Days

The Upper Room sits above the Entrance. Ever seen a Dvane before?

So many of the women that staggered through the portal of the Alfred Dvane Bell Library and climbed the stairs to the Upper Room for Hands On Color: Fiber Salad this past weekend were coming off a particularly bad week. At least half the class had had trial after trial. But as soon as they set up their wheels and started spinning with like-minded women, the Be-Here-Now-ness of the moment took hold and all that hectic started to melt away. Gandhi was on to something and we all knew it. Everyone went home with new or resurrected skills. I love to hear "I thought I couldn't do that but I can." We had poets, alpaca owners, dog lovers, teachers, family members, birthday girls, two Janets and a Jan, and two Marys (almost had three) and a playwright come comedienne. It was a great mix, funny, comfortable.

Food on Friday evening, originally started as "light fare" and turned into a sumptuous repast thanks to Darlene's legendary Rhubarb Orange tart coupled with Christina's Kalamata Olive dip, Jan's jalapeno cornbread, an array of homemade pimento cheeses, homemade goats cheese, focaccia, fresh veggies and Bonnie's Sangria, we were stuffed and happily so. Someone opened Chocolate Lovers Wine for dessert, shortcut to red wine and chocolate layer cake. And there was amazing Chocolate Chip Biscotti, just in case there wasn't enough chocolate.

On Saturday we all set to work with enthusiasm. After lunch we had awesome cake to celebrate Janet K's birthday. And kept spinning and spinning. Most of us threw caution to the winds and ate more carbs in two days than we do all year. But sometimes you just have to do it.

my workstation...a little of everything

So thanks to everyone who came to join in the fun and thanks especially to Jan Q for her marvelous assistance, both organizing and during the event. Special thanks to Darlene and Christina for helping clean up after the fact. Now that's dedication.

For more photos of the event, go to my Facebook Gallery. 

Pat's skein with squares cut from felted knitting

Bonnie's stash

Sharon's Buddha Batt skein