Crafty Adventures

We have a running joke in our house about the types of adventures that we often find ourselves going on. We do some "normal" adventures like camping and mountain biking - even seeing historical places; however, I also love to do crafty adventures, too!

We did the Cowboy Yarn Crawl two years in a row. The first year we started out with my mom and my kid in tow. It was the end of COVID, and we were excited to go on a little road trip. We visited some historical places in Wyoming including Independence Rock, the Oregon Trail Ruts, Register Cliff, and the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. Unfortunately, my husband got COVID, and we had to turn around and go back home. I got lots of good yarn and about three stamps on that tour. Not to mention an entire history lesson, too.

The second year we tried the Cowboy Yarn Crawl, we took a full week and drove all around Wyoming to Jackson, Gillette, and Sheridan, and we still didn't get all of the places in time to finish. Our favorite spot is Buffalo because Meadow Mountain Wool Mill is there, and we love the sheep and the tours. The hardest one to get to for us is Rock Springs, which is on the Western side of the state. If you don't know Wyoming, take out a map and look. There's not much between all the cities. It was disappointing because that was our last attempt.

We've also driven up to the mountains for Plein Air watercolor painting lessons with Sarah Uhl. She guides a hike up the mountain (sometimes straight up), and we find a place to sit and paint for a couple of hours. Sometimes there's other activities like meditations, food, hot springs, and reflections. These are usually pretty low key, and it inspired and sparked my interest in watercolor.

My most recent Crafty Adventure was with Cosecha Textiles. Claire is the owner, and she offers sewing classes of all sorts. She opens up her studio to students, and we can reupholster a chair or make box cushions. On our most recent visit, we made bike frame bags. We all did it together as a family.

Brad with his super cool bag

MJ was a master of colors! She nailed it!

I played around with pockets and patches.

While I have been sewing for most of my life, I learned a lot about sewing on an industrial machine. The thread needs to be threaded in a certain way. I had no idea. Left to right or front to back. We made our own patterns, and we picked out our fabric from remnants. Industrial machines can sew through some tough fabric, and we found that Brad's waxed canvas held up much better than some of the fabric that MJ and I had chosen. Overall, we were so happy with version 1, and we can't wait to take our bags out for an epic gravel ride.

Me sewing on an industrial machine.

It was a full day, and we didn't just sew that weekend, either. We went to the hot springs, ate some yummy food, went to the Botany Houseplant Shop, and we enjoyed time in Carbondale. I highly recommend finding a Crafty Adventure near you!