Eastside Knitters Guild and Venus

Hello:

I woke up to a sunrise at 6:30 this morning.  Those of you who live in lower latitudes don't really understand how much the times of sunrises and sunsets vary over the year for those of us who live "up North."  Or at least, I didn't really understand it when I lived in Southern California and Texas.  I love the late rising Winter sun because I get to see awesome sunrises in the Winter without waking up early, when I can see the sun, that is.  We are having a few days of no clouds, or very little clouds, and so the sunrise was glorious, and since we have rounded the longest night of the Winter Solstice, the sun is rising earlier and earlier.  Rather than an 8 am sunrise, it is a 6:30 am sunrise.  I am not kidding, that is the difference already.

The Venus part... find the Crescent Moon in the photo (waxing crescent to be precise), and look up and to the right just a bit on the right side of the bit of cloud.  See it?  That is Venus.  Hard to photograph with my little digital Olympus camera from Costco, but it is there.

I've been working two jobs this week, a sub job up in Northgate (about 30 - 45 min drive) and my regular tutoring job at Bellevue College.  The sub job is in the afternoon-evenings, not getting out until 6 every night.  That means I am driving home through Seattle traffic back to the Eastside of Lake Washington.  This didn't keep me from attending the February meeting of the Eastside Knitters Guild, although I was a bit late.

The program featured Kathy Batzelle of Alpacas at Morning Star Ranch.  She had a presentation on raising alpacas, and then on what she is doing with the fiber.  I had just seen the presentation about Imperial Ranch and their sheep/wool on Saturday at Tolt Yarn and Wool.  This is a much much smaller operation, but again, it is somehow so heartwarming to see local fiber in action.  One of the fun things Kathy showed us was what she is doing with her fiber.  She does a lot of felting into shawls and scarves.  She does so spinning, but most of her work is with felting, and dying, and the product is beautiful.

She is passionate about the animals, and the alpaca fiber.  She brought this rug knitted with giant bulky cords of the worst part of the fiber, the "thirds," and I couldn't believe how light it was.  Alpaca fiber is hollow, which makes it super warm yet super light.

The meeting was almost full.  The Guild is has a sign up sheet for members to volunteer in the Guild Booth at Vogue Knitting Live Seattle/Bellevue in March 14 - 16.  Guild members who work a shift will have free entrance to the Market for that day.  We are also taking donations to Raffle Baskets.  We will raffle these off to any people who give us their email contact information in the booth.  You don't have to be present to win. The prizes can be picked up at the March Guild meeting.  We are also taking members' knitted items (to be returned) to be put on display in the booth.  We would like to show off our skills, and also the charities we support (Operation Holiday Stocking, Purple Hats, etc.) 

If you are interested in working a shift, donating yarn/books/knitting tools, or lending a display item, please contact me on Ravelry.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet under a planet