A fiberful, colorful Saturday

Naturally dyed yarn from the Local Color Fiber Studio
on Bainbridge Island, WA.

Today was gray and rainy, but my friend Joyce and I were surrounded by color at the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat at the Hotel Murano in Tacoma. We spent the afternoon feasting our eyes on a rainbow of colors and feeling wonderfully soft, airy knitted shawls and scarves.

We spent quite awhile at the Local Color Fiber Studio booth, localcolorfiberstudio.com, where all the yarns were dyed with plants grown on the studio's farm. Each skein had a card attached telling what plant was used. The studio is on Bainbridge Island, not far from here. There were even photos of some of the pet bunnies and sheep who contribute to the yarn.

Another vendor, Woolgatherings, from Duvall, WA, woolgatherings.com, had vibrant hand-painted yarn:

Island Fibers, on Lopez Island, WA, islandfibers.com, had some beautifully soft yarns that are hand dyed and hand spun:

I didn't get the name of this next booth, but the colors caught my eye:

The Hotel Murano is filled with colorful glass (and other) art, making it a great stop any day. Here is a glass canoe suspended from the ceiling:

The lobby has walls of blue-green glass that look like water, which is appropriate given Tacoma's location on the water. The lobby was filled with retreaters wearing hand-knitted scarves, shawls, sweaters and hats. Many of them -- including quite a few men -- were knitting. I saw a lot of socks in progress on tiny needles with skinny yarn.

After coffee and tea in the hotel's restaurant, it was back out into the rain for us.

Have a colorful day