Two chances to win!

Pssst....

Two contests are underway.

One on Clear Creek Lavender's Facebook page and the other on the Lost City Knits blog.

Get creative and have some fun!

Introducing - a new line of yarn!

I'm pleased (and a bit nervous) to offer our new line of hand dyed yarns.

The holiday selection features 100% silk in two colorways, Pink Champagne and Silver Bells, and two skein sizes approx 1000yds/90grams and approx 500yds/45grams.

Perfect soft shading designed to show off intricate stitches.

Limited availability.

Click Clear Creek Lavender to purchase.

Next month's fiber selection will feature alpaca - because everyone deserves to start the year with a little halo.

cross posted on Lost City Knits

Coming Soon -

My first offerings of the hand-dyed yarn have been successful at the last two events

and more hand-dyed lace weight will be ready soon.

Within the next few weeks the first online purchasing will be available here.

But for now... teasers.

Each skein unique, but all are rinsed in a gentle bath of lavender.

Silk, merino, alpaca...

  Now don't you want to knit something?

Back in Tulsa!

After a wonderful week of vacation fun in New York, we're back on the farm.  For a bit anyway. There are a few photos of our trip on my knitting blog if you want to see what we look like when we're stoked up on Magnolia Bakery cupcakes.

Tomorrow begins the Garden Deva Open House in Tulsa.  The studio is easy to find on Trenton between 3rd & 4th and I highly recommend everyone coming out to spend an hour (or two or three) perusing the art, crafts, and delicious food available.  This is the last event for us in Tulsa so be sure to pick up those lavender holiday gifts!  We'll have Handmade Naked Lavender Soap, Soap in Sachets, Shea Butter, and several options of gift combos.

The music at the Garden Deva is always outstanding.  Especially fun is the final hour of the event on Saturday when the djembe drummers from the Tulsa area show up in great numbers and really get the crowd's mojo working.

Don't miss it!

Edited to add:
Sadly the djembe drummers did not make it the Deva this year - but there were fire dancers!!

War Eagle Weekend

We're home again after the four day weekend that is War Eagle Crafts Fair.  It always takes a few days to recover after a long stint of festival fun and talking lavender non-stop.

War Eagle 2009 was a bit slower than years past due (I believe) the big Arkansas football game at Florida. (It was a heartbreaking loss for the Razorbacks.) The mornings were cold but without fail there were shoppers lined up at the front gate waiting for entry and the shopping frenzy to begin.  While we sell at other events that are as big as War Eagle, there are unique traditions at this long time festival.

For instance, the costumes.  Not the vendors (thank goodness!) but the shoppers show up in funky and fun Halloween hats, shirts, and vests.  My guess is the tradition began with groups of women who wanted to be able to locate each other in the crowds.  Obviously this was before you could stand at one end of Tent 2 and call your shopping partner , who had gone on to Tent 4, on her cell phone to come back and taste the salsa or give her opinion on the jewelry that you think is destined to return home with you.

This year we went armed with a camera to catch some of the War Eagle fun and preserve it for all eternity.  (Or until we're bribed to take down photos that are evidence of non-sanctioned shopping sprees.)

As you can see War Eagle is not just about shopping.

It's about fun, family, and friendship.  The revelry crosses all generations.

I love when women show their witchy side!

Celebrating forty years of friendship!

It's been decades since Carol and I rode around on our bikes singing Moonshadow.

What say we meet on Aspen Drive and do it one more time?

Eastbound and down...

We're loaded up and truckin'....

Well, enough of Jerry Reed's classic song.  It's War Eagle Weekend in Northwest Arkansas and Chris and I have loaded the van with a bevy of lavender products to sell.

If you're heading to the many craft fairs planned for this weekend in the War Eagle area be sure to stop by and say hello.  We'll be found in Tent Two, Side One, Booth Six.

Personally I'll be stocking up on Jalapeno Jelly from WHH Ranch, candles from RC, and woven towels.  Maybe a new broom from the Grassy Creek men.  There's also a yarn barn that I've been coveting from the potter Kevin Byrnes. Who knows!

4x4 Required

As forecasted the rain began yesterday.

And continued.

It may sound a bit strange (but if you know me you're used to me being strange - yes?) but I absolutely love heavy rains.  Yes they make for a mess and can be dangerous.  I love the deafening sounds of heavy rain.  I love the roaring of an overflowing creek.  I even love the feeling of isolation.

Yesterday evening Chris checked the rain gauge between our house and the red barn - it held three and a half inches of water.  This morning I checked it again - another two and a half inches had fallen.  After coffee and a bagel we put on wellies, jackets, and hats and walked down to the lower pasture where the creek was over flowing.  It is at least twice as wide now and the large boulders that lined the crossing are no longer visible.

Still curious - we walked down the lane to the dirt road and further to the blacktop where there is a low-water bridge about a mile away.  Actually it isn't as bad as expected but still overflowing with water.  Last year they cleaned the "whistles" or pipes that run beneath the cement and allow water to pass under the bridge.  Because Clear Creek is lined with gravel the whistles can easily be clogged when heavy rains erode the floor and banks of the creek.

If necessary we could possibly cross in our truck which has 4x4 or maybe use the big tractor to cross (which poses the question of what to do then?).  It's not necessary as far as I'm concerned.  I enjoy a little isolation.

For an update on knitting - while going to and from, and staying in, Memphis last week I finished four of the five repeats of Chart A on the Icarus Shawl in llama yarn.  It's going to be great!

Chris and I went to the Tulsa State Fair to see the knitting displays.  I won a blue ribbon for the Blue Silk Aeolian.  Sorry no photos - but we'll take some nice ones when I get it back home next week.

On the way to Memphis I was knitting away when Chris pulled over the van.

"Get out" he said.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"Just get out."

So - being the sort of trusting type I hopped out.  He didn't appear angry so I only worried a mild amount that I was being deposited on the side of a highway for knitting and not carrying my side of the conversation.

I love this guy!  He'd found a sign for me!

cross posted on lostcityknits.blogspot.com

Heading South

Clear Creek Lavender is once again headed south to Memphis and the Pink Palace Festival.

Earlier this evening I reread a blog post from my personal blog written while we were in Memphis last year.  While I haven't practiced or perfected my southern drawl in the past year I am delighted to be going back to Memphis where being polite is natural and even the barbs are sugar-coated.

I asked Christopher tonight at dinner where we'd had the great ribs and since his memory for names is much better than mine he immediately said "Corky's".

MMmmm Corky's dry rub bar-b-que!

If you too are attending the Pink Palace Festival, be sure to stop by and say hello!

Vodka tonic anyone?

Fall Festival kick off at Winfield!

Autumn is in the air here on the farm. The past week has been foggy, rainy, and mild in temperature. The second round of coreopsis is blooming as is the Munstead. Combine the changes in weather with the flurry of activity in the studio and surely you will know it's time for the Fall Season to begin!

First show up is the Walnut Valley Festival or as everyone refers to it "Winfield". Winfield is a festival like none other we attend. First - there's the camping. Land Rush was on September 10th but people began lining up for the land rush on August 20th. Yes - really! We know people who have been attending Winfield for twenty plus years, each year camping with the same crowd of twenty-thirty-forty families under a huge lighted peace sign.  There'll be jamming and laughing into the wee hours.

Then there's the music - six official stages, plus a few more will give any attendee a chance to see and hear the music they enjoy. Small groups or duos traveling and singing on tour, big names that you recognize and of course the contests for flatpicking, dulcimer, fiddle and a few more. The next rising star may be competing. Heck Allison Krauss won in 1984!

And of course, there's the tie-dye. I've never seen more tie-dye in one place than Winfield, Kansas in September! It's crazy good! There are oodles of tie-dye vendors, along with the traditional crafts of jewelry, pottery, and you guessed it - lavender soap and sundries! You'll find us in the pavilion. Or most probably you'll find one of us in the pavilion and the other in the crowds enjoying some of the fantastic music Winfield has to offer this year. Come and say hello!

It's what's for lunch!

I love when the Armenian cucumbers show up at the farmers market. For a few short weeks each summer we have Chilled Cucumber Lavender Soup for lunch. It's the perfect cool lunch on a hot day and it's easily made ahead - even for several days worth.

You can click on the sidebar for more recipes using our culinary lavender products!

Chilled Cucumber Soup with Lavender

1 Armenian Cucumber, cubed
½ cup Plain Yogurt (unflavored)
1 + Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ Tablespoon Clear Creek Lavender Salt

Cube cucumber and put in blender with olive oil and yogurt. Blend until smooth, add lavender salt and pulse briefly. Pour into small bowls and chill several hours. Just before dining swirl a teaspoon of olive oil or yogurt in the center of each serving.

Woody Fest weekend!

While the MTV generation was zoned out on what was happening in LA yesterday, I was thinking about good music – music with integrity.

One of our favorite Oklahoma summer events happens this weekend. Woody Fest!
Folkies and music lovers in general from across the country descend on the little town of Okemah, Oklahoma to celebrate the life and music of Woody Guthrie on the weekend near his birthday. Woody wrote and sang songs of the working-man, the common folk.

I’m not going to go into the tragic details of Woody’s final battle with disease. You can get that elsewhere online or in books. You can read Woody’s words, you can sing the songs and feel a little camaraderie with your fellow humans and the plight of the average Joe.

Each year there are favorite performers that we look forward to seeing again. And as always we anticipate the joy of finding a new “favorite” to add to the list. Such acts as Monica Taylor, Barton & Sweeny, John Fullbright, The Red Dirt Rangers, The Burns Sisters, Randy Crouch, Buffalo Fitz, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, and Don Conoscenti just to name a few. (Don’t expect any of these people to wear a sequin glove or do the moonwalk.) For links to the performers check the WoodyFest site on the 2009 Entertainers Page.

And it’s not just the performers we look forward to seeing. It’s the people. I’m horrible at names, faces I’m pretty good at though, and the first glimpse of some of those faces brings joy to my spirit. The young hippie couple from Krebs, she is from the Lovera family and they have a new baby that we’ll see for the first time. Mary Ann and her sister from back East, Sam from Tulsa who we’ve watched grow into his teens, the fellow vendors like Dana, Diane, Charley and Chance. The Sisters of the Purple Veil will no doubt be there too.

I think we've even figured out how to keep the shea butter fresh and will be bringing that along this year. So if you're planning on coming to Woody Fest - come say hello!

This is going to be a great weekend!!!

crossposted on lostcityknits.blogspot.com

Color me happy!

Early July means crazy-making in the studio. Soap takes six weeks to cure, so I'm preparing for the fall shows. The bars I cut this morning are just so scrumptious that I had to show them off a little. The green might lighten up a little as it cures. Although I hope not much. This color without synthetics - only natural beauty - herbs and plants.

Here are Lavender Chamomile and Lavender Lemongrass...

Midmorning break from soapmaking...

The Soap Box

It’s summer and it’s really hot in Oklahoma. The triple digits and high humidity busted our schedule a few weeks early this year. Usually it’s around the first of July before we begin to melt while working out in the field, but not this year.

Summer is a tough time to sell one of our most loved products, the Lavender Shea Butter. I purposefully do not put a huge amount of beeswax in our shea tins, I know that creamy silkiness is why we (our customers and ourselves) love it. When the temps hit 90 degrees plus – the good stuff melts. That’s just the way it is. If you have a tin – don’t leave it in your car, or in your purse for that matter. Many of us ladies have had that nasty experience of leaving a tube of lipstick in the bottom of our purse on a hot summer day, reached in and drew our hand out coated with red/pink/peach goo. Not so pretty. You can put your shea in the refrigerator to re-solidify it if needed.

In less than two weeks we’ll be missing from the CSFM as we make our annual trek to Woody Fest. It’s a fun-filled free concert weekend of folk music honoring the great Woody Guthrie in his hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. If you’re one of our regular Woody Fest friends, or if you’re new to Woody Fest, please be sure to stop by the booth while you’re enjoying the Pastures of Plenty and the great music. If it’s hot again, and it’s sure to be, we’ll be handing out those Iced Lavender Towels that help keep us refreshed and smelling pretty.

Because of the heat we won’t be taking Lavender Shea Butter to Woody Fest, but we will be bringing something new – our Soap Sampler Gift Box! This winter Chris and I thought we’d try a little something new – little being the appropriate word. Our regular soap weighs about five ounces – it’s a hefty bath bar, we love it and hope you do too. Chris made a few new additional soap molds for me and I’ve created a smaller bar – the Square Deal Soap – just for fun. After a little searching we also found the perfect size box to hold six Square Deals. It’s a great way to sample our different bars of soap. Ever wondered if you’d like the Lavender Cedar bar? Always bought just the Lavender Bud bar? Need a gift for yourself or a friend? Now you can have a small box of five our favorites (two Lavender Buds are included – because who doesn’t love that bar?) I’ve also whipped up a new blend of soap – Lavender Lemongrass. It’s quite yummy and can only be found in the Soap Sampler this summer. (I hope to make it in the large size for the fall shows.)

Here’s a peek at the Soap Sampler Gift Box – the price is good – six bars of handcrafted soap featuring our organic lavender buds for only $16. How can you beat that?


Oh and be sure to look for Clear Creek Lavender as vendors in the Oklahoma Food Coop!

Bohemia

At a fairly posh event recently, where funky little Clear Creek Lavender was a bit out of place, I was reminded of a Dorothy Parker poem as I sat quietly by myself watching brand conscious consumers check each other out to make sure they were wearing the right brands themselves.

"Bohemia" by Dorothy Parker

Authors and actors and artists and such
Never know nothing, and never know much.
Sculptors and singers and those of their kidney
Tell their affairs from Seattle to Sydney.
Playwrights and poets and such horses' necks
Start off from anywhere, end up at sex.
Diarists, critics, and similar roe
Never say nothing, and never say no.
People Who Do Things exceed my endurance;
God, for a man that solicits insurance!

Second Time Around

Chris and I have moved into our new house on the farm and we're loving it! It's great to finally have everything we own in one place. The backpacks we used weekly for the past how-ever-many years have been put into closets to be used only for "real" travel now.

The new house has a revolving door apparently. It’s funny that we’ve had more visitors in the month that we’ve lived in the new place than any month we lived in Tulsa. First Hillarey and Lance visited for my birthday. We had a great time and I think the kids love the new place as much as we do. Then my sister brought my parents out for a look-see. My mom kept ooohing and ahhing and telling us how much she liked it. It was a family fandango for a while there.

Then we invited our friends Emily and Mike to visit so I could make up for missing Mike’s birthday party. They had seen the house during several of the building stages and were eager to see the finished project.

Chris received an email shortly thereafter from a visitor we didn’t expect or know. Several years ago while bicycling on our tandem we joined a group called Warm Showers, which provides you with a list of names and phone numbers of people who would host touring cyclists in their home for a night – providing a meal and you guessed it – a warm shower. Our first Warm Shower guest was coming through Oklahoma sometime between Saturday and Monday. Emails zipped back and forth and Chris and I got excited about David’s visit.

David Byrne is on his second world bicycle tour. The first was in 1975 shortly after finishing high school. David traveled two and a half years crossing all of the latitudinal lines and visiting 29 countries.

Thirty-four years later David has decided it’s time to undertake another big trip -- he’s recycling the world. This time around he plans to cross all of the longitudinal lines. There are only two points where David’s path will cross the original trek -- his hometown in Minnesota and his birthplace in France where his parents were stationed after WWII.

As it happens Emily and Mike were scheduled to visit the same evening that David was scheduled to arrive. Since Mike and Emily have traveled many of the countries that David has been or will be on this trip we thought it would work out great.

David arrived first and settled into the old farmhouse. A bit later he and Chris were discussing travel options between Oklahoma and Houston, Texas that would provide a shoulder to ride safely out of traffic, offer camping possibilities, and some scenic enjoyment when Emily and Mike arrived.

After a quick tour of the house we all joined around the table and enjoyed a simple meal of quiche, kale, and stuffed mushrooms, with Tiramisu for dessert. Talk flowed freely of travel, movies and the personal histories and stories that make pleasant conversation a memorable experience.

The next morning after breakfast Chris took David next door to see the monastery before David climbed back on the recumbent bike for the day’s journey to Robber’s Cave. Below are a few photos I took of David and his gear. You’ll notice there isn’t much in the way of gear. David is traveling light – really light. One pannier is for clothing the other holds his sleeping bag and hammock, along with a few essentials. There’s one small daypack slung across the bar and secured to the pannier. A small bike bag rests under his seat and a crumpled plastic soda bottle holds and protects extra tire tubes and parts.

The gear is impressive. Or should I say the lack of paraphernalia? A former boss of mine, John, used to tell us how he longed to be able to pack everything he owned into one suitcase. While we just finished building a new house and I continue to buy more yarn than I need, I understand this desire. Mobility is so much simpler when you live lean. A few possessions are easy to pack and go when the urge to travel presses upon you.

David is a retired UPS driver and his wife Julie, is a teacher and also a bicycling enthusiast. Julie, who is taking a two-year sabbatical, will be joining David in Columbia for the rest of the tour.

Yesterday Chris and I went back to work with errands and tasks usual to our life. But for me, and Chris too I think, my mind keeps wandering about skinny spinning wheels and the feel of the road a few inches beneath our pedals. Maybe we’ll tackle the west coast from Seattle to San Francisco on the tandem next….

To quote Chris, “David is taking the trip of a lifetime, for a second time!”









(cross posted from lostcityknits.blogspot.com )