Ducky Taught Her to Waterski

I spent last weekend at the Spring Fiber Fling in Pickford, Michigan.  This fiber retreat is sponsored by the Country Spinners & Bridge Shuttlers, a guild in Sault Ste Marie.  The weather was shockingly warm….er….hot.  I have a few bug bits.

Despite the temps and bugs, I had a most delightful time.  I taught two workshops:  “Plying for Texture” and “I Heart Duplicate Stitch”.  This was the first time I taught the duplicate stitch class.  I am happy to report that it went swimmingly well.

You might think that duplicate stitch is so simple it wouldn’t fill a 3-hour workshop.  You’d be wrong!  We explored the technique of making tidy looking stitches as well as applications and ideas for incorporating duplicate stitch into knitting projects.  Here are a few pictures I took during the workshop:

Another highlight:  at dinner on Saturday night, I won a door prize.  This crazy quilt pillow was created by Pam Artman, Pam Artman, who taught a workshop at the retreat on crazy quilting.  A very sweet pillow, don't you think?

And.  I bought a fleece (that’s five total for the year … so far).  A wonderful corriedale fleece.  Selden Collins is the shepherd.  She actually lives in Pickford.  Every year I’ve attended The Fling, I’ve wanted to get one of her fleeces.  This year I did.  It’s a fleece from a ewe named “Fran”.  This fleece is actually from the 2011 shearing, but I’m confident it will clean up nicely.  I plan to wash and card or comb this fleece myself.

You’re probably wondering where Ducky comes in to this story.  I think it was at dinner on Saturday (yummy scalloped potatoes, baked chicken, and green beans).  I was chatting with Loreen K and several others.  I believe it was Sid D who piped up and said, “Ducky taught Loreen how to waterski!”

Loreen explained that she’d grown up in the UP and when she was a young girl, the cast from the old TV show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., vacationed at her family’s resort (I think I have that part of the story straight.).  You may remember that Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were the stars of that show.  Anyway, it was David McCallum who taught Loreen how to waterski.  You may also know that David McCallum is currently a cast member of the TV show, N.C.I.S.  He plays Dr. Mallard, aka “Ducky”.

I then had to contribute another Man from U.N.C.L.E. story:  Robert Vaughn’s cousin, Tom Vaughn was a priest at the Episcopal church I attended as a kid in Midland, Michigan.  He was also a very fine jazz pianist.  I recall his playing on the baby grand in our livingroom when I was ever so young.  I always thought Tom Vaughn looked just like Robert Vaughn.

More connections:  when I told the “Vaughn story” at the table, Sid said, “You’re from Midland?  I did my student teaching there, at Northeast Junior High School.”  Wouldn’t you know, that’s where I went to school!  But we were there at different times.

A very memorable dinner table conversation!