They thought and thought, and decided on many things that were important to them. And their starlit wedding reflected all those things that made them very special.
And so Friday night, an honored group of us got to attend this beautiful wedding in a chapel among the trees. Rita and Lawrence finally became man and wife.
And they were very happy.
I had to show you her hand-knit veil made of some lovely silky yummy yarn. Isn't it exquisite? She made it herself. We have been delighted to watch this fairy tale unfold over many years, as their relationship grew and matured. Most good fairy tales take a long, long time to get to the happily ever after part. Happy sigh...
But the weekend was young, and GrandmaTutu and I had to jump into the Extended Cab Chariot of Fun and head to Tyler, for the Wildflower Fiber retreat that very night. We got to Tyler very late and checked into the Palace of Holiday Inn Express. This is a huge departure from every other time I've been to this retreat, as I usually rough it in a cabin on a bunk bed. But I decided to embrace my elder status and cushion the accommodations a bit.
For me, the most magical thing about this year's retreat was that I had very little responsibility, and I tried very hard to do some relaxing with my fiber peeps. So in my sans souci state of mind, I did a crummy job of documenting all the wonder and awe of the whole thing. I rested, and only got a few photos of our fun...
Tri-loom weaving was a big hit this time - here Lisa shows us how it's done. Love those little looms. We have a tri-loom class coming up here at the farm in a few weeks--would you like to learn how?
Dori needle-felted little sheep on the table decorations this year, highlighting the special breeds we would be learning more about: Shetlands and Jacobs.
Joyce Terrell spoke about her love of Shetland sheep, and told about how to best use their wool. I got the opportunity to share about Jacobs, and we all got to play with some freshly washed fiber from the two breeds. Midge talked about silk and we got some very nice samples of that fiber to play with, as well.
The atmosphere was very casual and laid back this year. We enjoyed the usual great food, show and tell time, and a riotous evening of door prize giveaways, but the schedule was loose and flexible and allowed for lots of restful time in the vendor hall, or wandering outside among the pine trees in the fresh air.
The theme revolved around fairy tales and Renaissance-style spinning, so some folks worked on spinning linen yarn with custom-made distaffs, dressed with flax stricks. (Don't you love the crazy spinning lingo?) The finished yarns looked so beautiful...
Go Christine! You can tell she's done this before.
We drove out of the pine forest, waving goodbye for another year, but the farewells are only temporary. Heck, these are some of my favorite folks and I'm blessed to hang out with them lots! The DFW Fiber Fest is just two weeks away, so there's lots more fiber fun in the offing, very soon.
Before you know it, we'll add our alpaca fiber to the harvest haul... What amazing adventure will we have next?
