C. Fite and Decorating Gourds

Katherine today.

My house doesn't look at all like C. Fite's house, but her influence is everywhere around here. The outside is peppered with wildflowers I picked up at the Botanical Gardens Sale where we spent a day together each May for years. Our den drips with skeins of yarn I've hung aesthetically that I picked up at the Estes Park Wool Festival where C. and I have taken classes and roamed the yarn barn buying yarn we need because it looks or feels so good. I wouldn't garden without Cindy. I wouldn't knit without Cindy. If I think about this too much, if I start thinking about Cindy, Barb or Bud or Janet or anybody, I get all mushy and my mind wanders off into some odd connection to It's A Wonderful Life where I'm still here, but somebody else has vanished.

This, as usual, is not my point. I'm grateful to all of you who somehow love me and understand that I live in a world of tangents and that I take little bird walks when I talk.

Yesterday C and I went to Estes for our yearly yarn outing. There had been hurdles. We had originally planned to stay in Estes several days and do the whole class/sale thing and our husbands would come and we'd all have a fun time in the mountains. The course selections arrived and there were no real knitting classes for us and we decided to just head up Saturday for the sale. Then C. had to work on Saturday and I suggested we just go up late Friday and crash the sale. This might have worked if C. wasn't a known personality in the knitting world and her clients would be well aware she cheated and that would not be good. It was one of the few pragmatic suggestions I've ever made and C. rejected it--she's the biggest pragmatist I know. Anyway, we decided to take whatever class was still available on Friday and go to the student-only early sale.

After much thought and discussion we opted for "Gourd Fiber Frenzy." It had positives: 1) we thought we wouldn't get addicted; 2) we could probably complete the project and be done with it for the rest of our lives; c) the teacher had gotten positive reviews in the past.; d) the course description was slightly better than the one for crocheting a toilet seat cover. We signed up.

C. has a broader background in offbeat classes. She's already taken the braiding class, knitted a dragon (Esmeralda), and made a small purse from a bouncy ball (she liked that class a lot as I recall). I, however, have been plugging away in knitting classes until now.

Gail, our gourd professional, began by asking us to pick our gourd. I'm very idealistic and trying to select the ideal gourd without knowing what made an ideal gourd was challenging. My first choice was a dark red one with a simple shape (they'd been cleaned, dried and painted before our arrival). I set it down for a second to look at another and a nasty women whisked it away. I regretted that move all day. I ended up with a turquoise one that had swervy edges. Avoid swervy edges--they take more time.

Gail told us we were to somehow stitch fiber to the gourd and go around several times and then we should explode. Really. We were to explode. After about ten minutes of doing nothing and realizing everybody but C. and I were experienced gourders and they were stitching on the gourd and getting ready to explode, I raised my hand and said, "You know, I'm a gourd virgin and I really need to know step one." Teachers need to provide step one if nothing else.

Once I understood the process, I was off and wrapping. Decorating a gourd involves sewing a cord onto the gourd that you then wrap with fibers that please you. Eventually you want your cord to "explode" off the gourd. Gail felt everyone did a good job of exploding, although I purposely avoided exploding and tried desperately to create a restrained gourd. Minimum colors, textures, foo-foo, and beads. Several people said my gourd was "elegant." It did not, however, "explode." I have to say that Cindy's gourd lived up to expectations. She had pearls ands beads and ribbons and glittery spirals and everything else a frenzied gourd should have. She's a good kid.

After class we shopped the yarn barn. This is one of my favorite things in life. The vendors know and remember me. They ask about their yarn and what I've done with it. We discuss the classes and how they went. I told several about our gourd experience.

These folks are artists and their yarn is a pleasure I'm grateful that Jim somehow understands. I have lots of wonderful new silks and wools. It was like Christmas. I just got done going through my stash and marveling at the beautiful stuff I have hanging on walls and settled in baskets around the house that I'll knit up someday.

We drove home after this. It rained some of the time and we chatted happily about the day, about education and politics and our kids. It was nice. We weren't gossipy or anything like that. It was just nice.

That's it for now,
Katherine