a Rippin day out

As some of you may know, there was a little road trip yesterday to visit the divine Helen Rippin in the country. Round up the usual suspects (georgie, neet, Taph, joods, kms, Rachel, Kai, Hannah, and a gorgeous lady who is making a baby who's name i just didnt seem to catch, sorry)

Taph, monkey and i went up together. We may have been a little late because i foolishly said "ooh look Westies" and Taph was forced by DNA to launch herself at them. The dogs clearly knew what was what and promptly ignored the little kids who were playing with them to jump about impatiently til Taph got there. They were bloody adoreable... and we managed to leave without them.. just.

We met up with the rest of the crew in town and then headed to Chez Helen. It is...
Well.It's heaven. basically.
There was knitting and some drop spindle lessons (think i missed snapping those. needless to say we have some converts in our midst. You can see a few ladies spindling - the giveaway is having a hand up in the air)

There was a colour sampling demo. (Please note Jood's wee-wee jiggle. there was excitement and a half!) I was deeply satisfied to discover that even Helen gets dye on herself occasionally.

We each ended up with a set of colour sample cards. This was so exciting!

There was a delicious lunch care of used-to-chef-Helen. There was cake for kms's bday care of georgie. there was a run to town for the atm care of Taph (yes, we all brought cash to start with...). There was severe fibre whoredom.

A joyful and educational day was had by all. i sure know what i want to do for my birthday ^_^

Thankyou Helen, for your generosity with your time and materials. Those of you wishing to enquire about fibre you left behind, or other converts from the pics of her in-house yarn store can contact her at hrippinATbigpondDOTnetDOTau. but perhaps give her a few days to recover (a phew days even?)

Peace out
Ms Spider xo

PS apologies if i havent linked you to your blog or written your name properly or remembered your name at all.. feel free to comment and i'll edit this post to fix everything.