During the day, numerous workshops were offered such as carding, color blending, spinning, rug braiding, and natural dyes. I took the all day workshop offered by Letty Klein on rug braiding with roving.

I began working on a small rug. A friend of mine had given me the book on rug braiding written by Letty a couple of years ago but I have never done anything with it. After taking her class, I can’t wait to get more roving dyed and to start braiding.

I also took a class on spinning funky yarn with mohair. We experimented with many different types of mohair. My favorite was the dyed locks. Now I just need to find a knitting pattern to showoff my novelty mohair yarn.

The hotel lobby buzzed with activity in the evenings. Chairs were rearranged as woman sat around the large central stone fire place to spin and knit. Most evenings, it was well past 10:00pm before the lobby cleared. I must say that the outdoor heated pool was my family’s favorite night spot. Though the night air dipped well below freezing, the pool water felt like bath water. Steam rose above the surface of the water from the warm water. I must admit that the entire time I swam in the pool, I thought about all the wasted heat and the amount of money it must take to keep a large pool at that bath tub temperature through a Vermont winter. The resort seemed to be energy and environment conscious as signs in their rooms encouraged us to recycle and reuse. Having an outdoor heated pool in November just seemed to go against what their desire to be a “green” resort.

It was difficult to pack the car and come home on Sunday. The weekend had been just too perfect and I found it hard to leave this gathering of fiber folk.