Writing by Pam Salisbury ~ Photo's by Rene Courtney
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Please
click the pictures below to go to the different slide shows
of this great week-end! |
The
26th Annual Stehekin Spinning Rendezvous was held June 20 –
23 with a total of 24 spinners in 
attendance.
15 spinners stayed at the Ranch with the usual suspects arriving
early on Wednesday. This year the Rendezvous welcomed three brand
new spinners into the fold, two from King County and one from Portland.
The website served as the stimulus for two of the new spinners and
the third spinner, a veteran of the Vashon Camp Burton spinning
retreat, just couldn’t stay away after hearing about the Stehekin
experience while at Vashon.
The
weather this year was on the cooler side with wind and intermittent
showers, which kept the spinners on the move between the deck outside
and the warmth of the fireplace inside. Samantha 
Courtney’s
multi-talented hands provided upper body massage for spinners throughout
the weekend. Ahhhhhhhhh, wonderful. In addition to abundant relaxation,
Spinners were able to keep their strength up thanks to the wonderful
meals prepared by the Ranch cooks. And of course, we wouldn’t
want to forget the wonderful warm cookies that were the perfect
accompaniment to that mid-morning cup of cowboy coffee. We won’t
even start to describe the pie, oh my…..
On Saturday afternoon Samantha took a time out from performing massages and led the group in a book-binding project. Spinners brought fabric of their choice while glue sticks, needles, wax linen and paper were provided. All the participants completed their own hand-bound journal for knitting/spinning notes or whatever else they wished to “journal”. Despite the presence of sharp pointed awls, there were no injuries and Samantha patiently and skillfully guided us through the project. The wonderful little books were as varied as the members of our group; some contained graph paper while others sported brightly colored papers interspersed with white pages.
The
door prize drawings were held partly on Saturday but mostly on Sunday
morning just prior to Show and Tell. There was a wonderful array
of prizes and everyone went home with some item of their choice.
As always the Show and Tells were spectacular. One particular felted
purse was the result of the cooperative efforts of three (!) people.
Inspiration and creativity filled the room when all the Show and
Tells were displayed on the table. Sweaters, shawls, scarves, afghans,
felted items and lots more were represented. This year was no different;
we were again treated to breathtaking displays of talent and imagination
during Show and Tell.
We
all gathered Sunday evening to view a Power Point presentation prepared
by Rene Courtney. Rene put together a wonderful montage of photos
for a nostalgic look back at past Rendezvous’. Dolores Wagner
then led a candle light memorial for Rendezvous co-founder Roberta
Pitts, who perished in a plane accident in May. We were able to
come away with the comforting assurance that Roberta’s love
of Rendezvous will remain in our hearts always and be there to see
us through each
coming year. Thank you, Roberta Pitts, for your wonderful vision
of Spinning Rendezvous.
The time for going home came all too soon, as it does every year, and the Monday morning bus bound for the landing was full of spinners and their gear. Can’t wait ‘till next year!