Fiberly Friends (and a couple of tangents)

I think it was probably 9 years ago that I read a post on some list from someone looking for a couple of Threads magazine issues to complete her collection. It just so happened my collection was complete and I had a couple of duplicates, including the issue she needed, so I wrote her.

When Patti Ferguson wrote back, she told me that I wasn't charging enough and sent me a check for double what I asked for. Then she wrote to tell me that she'd looked at my website and pointed out all the things we had in common - growing up in the Denver area, graduating from Colorado State, and being military brats. Then there was the knitting and sewing. I wasn't really doing much of either at the time - only thinking a lot about it - but reading Patti's emails I was always inspired.

I coined the phrase "fiberly" to describe our knitting and sewing endeavors, and Patti adopted it - referring to all her friends who did anything with yarn, fabric, threads, and fibers as her "Fiberly Friends." A year ago she organized a weekend in Chicago for the Fiberly Friends and after all that time emailing back and forth Patti and I finally met in person. I also had the great pleasure to meet Patti's mother-in-law in from Kansas, her sister and sister-in-law, along with Pam from Indiana and lots of locals, including Joanna and her mother.

Yesterday, Joanna had sent out pictures from another party hosted by Patti, but didn't have a good picture of her host. I did - from last year, so I finally scanned it for posting - the three P's - Pam, Patti, and Patty. Pam was wearing a jacket and slacks of her own making that fit her perfectly. Patti was wearing a pretty drapey dress, and I had on the vest I made for my mother-in-law from my father-in-law's ties.

Recently, Patti has connected several Fiberly Friends through email. Talk about inspiring work! Take a look - Liana has a blog and Kathryn and Pam have photo albums.

70% off!
Now that will get anyone's attention. Mill End, a local fabric store is offering 70% off Vogue Patterns - through next Sunday, April 16. Yesterday, I made my shopping list and headed over. I stuck to my list and came home only with the nine patterns some burgundy silk chiffon (20% off sale) to underline a little black dress for the cruise - Vogue 8182, if you're interested. The clerk pointed out that I did manage to save more than I spent, so it was a good trip.

Acupuncture
The other thing that kept the visit in check was time. I'd dropped Tom off at his first acupuncture appointment and only had an hour in the fabric store. Tom's shoulder has been bothering him for a while, and we now attribute it to the blinding headache he had when we were in San Francisco. He'd probably aggravated the shoulder by schlepping around luggage. A visit to the nurse practitioner confirmed what we believed. A visit to a masseuse helped relieve some of the tension. And at the latter's suggestion he went to a accupunturist yesterday. He said it didn't hurt at all (even tickled - a man who is not ticklish). Time will tell if all this will actually help the circulation in his shoulder to heal it.