I first must thank my Husband for being amazing, without all of the effort he put in for me I wouldn't have been able to attend this wonderful event. (He and his friend C. carried my wheel, chair, and bags and delivered lunch both days to myself and a friend who joined us)My hip is still not functioning properly, so I wasn't able to spin much, and lucky for my pocketbook...unable to go through the vendor area much, but i managed to learn a LOT and picked up a few beautiful things...And the bonus was that my best friend from highschool and 'my other mom' made the drive over for a day to join us :-) I loved that, as her Mom inspired me so much in my formative years...hell, she still does! And I got to spin with my girlfriend, it was the first time for that as I learned to spin After she showed me her wheel 2 years ago. If the Jensen Tina wheels weren't out of my price range i'd want one.(her wheel is Gorgeous!)
You can read bout the event at the event's website so you can make plans to go next year!
http://www.whidbeyweaversguild.org/spinin.html
I forgot to take pictures on day one...but this was the spinning area on day two, which had a smaller attendance than day one.
here is the fiber provided for the class on color blending for your project
here are my samples of the rovings provided(a pre-blend control group)
I found it fascinating...i had never thought about the fact you can spin a section ...say 10 inches long, then allow it to ply against itself to have test samples of how the yarn will two ply up. Seems simple, but it never crossed my mind, i'd just sit and spin full bobbins Then ply and see. Needless to say, this will be one technique i shall use regularly from here on out. THe idea of creating my own color blends was Fantastic as well....i would just search through rovings in stores to find colors i like, but now that i also have a drumcarder, it should make it that much easier, but the handblending worked great as well!
I must say, Jill Laski was a FANTASTIC speaker and teacher, and hew work is amazing...and i've been purchasing her fibers for some time as well, so it was cool to meet her!
here is the fiber(besides that class fiber) i brought home....it was Hard to not spend more, but with all the time i've had off work...i didn't have more to spend!! :-) From the left, the grey fiber a Lincon Romney batt(8 ounces) i won as a door prize !!! the BFL is soooo soft, and the price couldn't be beat so i bought a pound ....for my koolaide dying experiments! and the wonderful braid, 8 ounces of sheer goodness there...i ADORE the color transitions in that, and see some winter wear for myself to be knitted before next winter(i hope!) The cool thing is my girlfriend from highschool that met up with me there bought a braid of it as well...can't wait to see what she does with hers!
here we have the little bits that came home with me...
The sock keychain was too tempting:-) and with my newfound love of knitting i really needed a needle sizer(sorry, but all of those sock DPNs look like they're the same size!) and...hell, it's a sheep, you couldn't get much cuter than that!
The adorable little knit sheep and llama pins, bought my step daughter a sheep, and a local friend and new sock knitter a llama since she couldn't be with us(i understand though...Mexico is awesome as well!)
The three pottery pieces are buttons. Now if you know me at all you know my first real craft/fiber love/Obsession was Tatting. I simply ADORE lace, and those three buttons have simple little tatted motifs embedded in there. How simply wonderful is that?!
I don't currently have plans for projects that will use the buttons, but i will have the buttons when the time comes, and goodness it made me happy to see the tatting, as without that first craft i wouldn't be doing what i'm doing now. I'd likely not be around at all....doing my arts and crafts truely kept me out of harms way as a teen and young adult.(i'm not trying to sound melodramatic, but it's the simple truth. all of my spare time and money went toward furthering my knowledge and abilities in lacemaking, and i wan't computer literate at the time it wasn't until i was well into my twenties that i found the original pink pig tat-chat mailing list and then my world exploded with tatting information and techniques! Then it went further...bobbinlace, then beading as i found myself in bead stores looking for pretty beads to spangle bobbins, so bead weaving came next...then wire wrapping, my Mother showed me chain Maille working, i dove in..it's all so beautiful! Then this blog was created about the time i needed to learn to spin due to the operation on my left hand which left me craftless...so i started spinning, and realized i had to learn to do more than knit dishcloths and crochet granny squares!
So here i am today, just as in love with all of these craft forms...i believe weaving will come next, as i've dabbled in it in my youth(did some card weaving and a bit of work on my 4 harness tabletop loom) but know i would want technical information first now.
Ah, how i digress....
Back to fiber for a moment though, the Corriedale i bought raw from Crossfire Hill Corriedales (gotta plug Karen, without her inviting me to the spin-in i wouldn't be posting this Huge blog today!)
I washed half of the corriedale locks as clean as i dared(I'm afraid of felting and ruining it!) I was bummed to see the tips still looked dirty, and there's a lot of lanolin left on the fiber, but when i flicked the ends the dirt came off! So i didn't take a pic yet, but i spun up a wee sample then koolaide dyed it with tropical punch! it turned out lovely and Soft!!!Not sure what this lot will be dyed as yet after i spin it, but i can't wait!
The fun part about the weekend was my parents, without them i couldn't have afforded a hotel stay, nor could my girlfriend that went with us work that in her budget as well(i have pics, but since i haven't asked her...i try to respect privacy :-)And a friend of my Husbands wanted to hang out with him as well, so my Super-cool folks let the four of us decend upon them and stay at their place! It was a riot, everyone spent a Lot of time laughing, and a very good time was had by all.
My dear sister house-sat for me so poor Normal wasn't home alone all weekend...but he certainly missed us and told us so when we got home. Here he is claiming his roving-
This was a long blog, and i appologize if it ran on too long, but it was an eventful weekend!
Here is one last pic of Normal, just before bed.
love to all,
jen
