GOLDEN GATE FIBER INSTITUTE

This is going to be a short post as I am packing my van for the trip with Margie and Karen up to San Francisco (Point Bonita) to attend the summer intensive workshops at Golden Gate Fiber Institute. We'll be gone until August 3rd and it should be fun. We're all taking natural dyeing with Darlene Hayes and spinning with Judith MacKenzie McCuin.

Friday night, Paul and I watched Huell Howser's show on San Onofre State Beach -- so close to us -- so we decided to take a walk down there to Trestles yesterday. It was amazing the amount of flora and fauna we took in. Here's the famous trestles of Trestles Beach. We watched several Amtrak and Metrolink trains roll by. The ocean is just to the right.

San Mateo Creek runs down through Trestles in the winter, but in the summer, a sand berm causes the water to back up and make a beautiful marshy area which is rich with fish and wild life. We saw lots of fish and birds. (That's the railroad bridge in the background.)

It's hard to see, but there is a great blue heron in the middle of this picture.

On the walk down to the beach, we saw lots of plants: wild roses, many types of trees, including this blue elder that had pale blue berries and pale yellow flowers.

And in amongst the dry brush, this lovely white flower was blooming. Thanks, Huell, for getting us out to do some exploring of a very close natural area.

And I finished my Morning Surf Scarf yesterday and washed and blocked it. It's quite lovely and the blueface leicester wool is so soft.

And I started a new scarf with some of my handspun. It's extrafine merino wool and bombyx silk (50/50) that I dyed in pale colors of yellow, peach and denim blue. I am using a "tilting block" pattern from the Barbara Walker Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. This pattern is very easy but looks complicated. An easy project to take along up to Golden Gate Fiber Institute this week.

Will report back on our trip up north.