Spinning at SRF

I have had a whirlwind week, but it was great fun. I left last Tuesday morning to drive to Spokane, stopping at the small quilt store there to drop off two pairs of pants—one Jalie Renee and one New Look 6689—and talk to the owner about next month’s pants class. I visited one of the three Joann Fabrics stores. (Eh.) I checked out three Walmart remnant racks. One had been eliminated completely since my visit in August. Another had been scaled back to half the size. The third one was still there but didn’t have much inventory. I picked up a salad for dinner at Fred Meyer and checked into my hotel.

Early Wednesday morning, I headed for Seattle. The town of Moses Lake sits about halfway between Spokane and Seattle and is a good place to stop and stretch my legs. Moses Lake also has a Walmart and Joann Fabrics close to each other. I found two remnants at Walmart—a double-brushed poly and a rayon spandex—and spent an hour wandering Joanns. That location has only been open for about six or seven years. Their remnant rack is always full to bursting. Their clearance rack is well stocked, too. I scored some microfleece—I need some for my serger sock class next week and every store in Missoula, Kalispell, and Spokane is out—and got three cuts of Christmas fabric at 40% off. I also found some of the rayon sweatshirt fabric from two years ago. That was a really nice fabric—muddy earth tones notwithstanding—and I couldn’t figure out why they didn’t continue to carry it.

[Who am I kidding? No one is making rational decisions at that company.]

I continued on to Seattle, arriving in enough time to visit the mall where DD#2 worked when she first moved there. I needed new shoes and was able to find two pair at Nordstrom. I checked in at Half-Price Books and found a blacksmithing book for the husband. (We established early on in our relationship that I am good at hunting down reading material for him, so I make a point of checking bookstores when I travel.) I visited the Joann Fabrics nearby and was shocked to see a large selection of new fall apparel fabrics. Granted, most of it was in muddy earth tones again (sigh), but I did find a beautiful bolt of ponte in a blue Delft pattern. That is destined to become a dress.

I am unreasonably annoyed by the fact that our Joanns has nothing. Either our store is no longer getting shipments of fabric or there are boxes upon boxes of new stock languishing in the back room, sitting unopened due to lack of staff. Either way, it irritates me. Our store might as well just shut down.

I had dinner with DD#2, then spent the night at another hotel—I love reward points—and flew to Nashville Thursday morning. I arrived around 4:30 pm and was met by my ride to the little town of Camden, Tennessee.

This is why I went to Tennessee:

Nicole Sauce, whose Living Free in Tennessee podcast I have listened to for eight years, co-hosts the Self-Reliance Festival twice a year with John and Amanda Willis, who own Special Operations Equipment in Camden. I attended Nicole’s Spring Workshop in April, and we arranged that I would come back to do spinning demonstrations at the fall Self-Reliance Festival.

SRF is held on the grounds of Special Operations Equipment. SOE is a sewing factory. Can you imagine????? I visited with John about the industrial machines—over 50 of them—and looked at a Red Eye (Singer 66) treadle that Amanda recently purchased at auction.

The tag line for SRF is “Find Your Tribe.” Oh, these people are my tribe and then some. My friend from high school—Bob—and his girlfriend, Deana, drove over from their home on the east side of Tennessee to attend SRF, too. Deana had a vendor booth selling her handmade aprons and shawls and bowl cozies:

Nicole brought her Ashford Traditional spinning wheel along for me to demo on. A few people took me up on my offer to try spinning. I find that it works best if I do the treadling for them. A newbie spinner has enough to worry about just getting his or her hands organized.

The highlight of the fall SRF was a keynote presentation and chicken processing workshop by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. The husband and I have been fans of his for many years, so getting to meet him in person was truly amazing.

If his keynote address gets posted on YouTube, I’ll make sure to link to it. The chicken workshop was Monday and I flew home Monday morning, but I am sure that those who attended got a lot of value from it.

I arrived back in Seattle around noon local time on Monday, picked up my luggage and the car, and drove back to Spokane. I spent the night in Yet Another Hotel—a theme for this trip—and drove home yesterday morning. I’ve got a podcast to knock out today and some paperwork to clear off my desk. I’ve also got to get back on a decent eating plan. I did fine at SRF because we had lots of keto/carnivore options, but I wasn’t so disciplined on the trip home and I am feeling it. I’ll show off my fabric purchases in tomorrow’s post.