Monday, July 28, 2008

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Oh I had just the best time at the Fiber Christmas in July thing! Got to see people I haven't seen since spring and meet new folks too. AND, I actually got to spin (badly but still) on two different wheels!

A lady had a Babe for sale (and I even could afford it) but she didn't really know much about it, so she took it and Kerri, Bruce and I to a vendor. The one this lady had was a single treadle and I just sucked. I was kinda scared because I thought I couldn't even do this. It wasn't the spinning...I expected that to suck. I just was so uncomfortable with the treadle. So she let us try a double treadle. Yayyyyy that was so much better for me. We played a bit there and went on to gawk at other things. Bruce was a real help. He asked a lot of umm.. mechanical type questions that I didn't even know. So we wandered around some more and then later on, I introduced Kerri to my friend Gwen. Gwen is an amazing spinner and we told her our tale of the Babe. She invited us to spin on her wheel but explained that she had purchased it for convenience of travel and didn't recommend it to a beginner because it was rather tempermental. (LOL I wrote down Gwen's Wheel but didn't write down it's name duh) I don't think Kerri enjoyed it much, but I sat down and just was immediately comfortable with it. Spinning still sucked but the treadling was great!
I was in love! She told us to try lots of wheels before choosing one and now we know of a vendor of various wheels in our area and she said we could come and play. Now...all I need is money!

It's awkward since there are things I NEED that require money and I feel somewhat guilty for even thinking of spending big bucks on a wheel. But, who knows, maybe someone will upgrade and decide to sell their used wheel.

At one point, I was sitting on the floor (all the vendors were INSIDE in an airconditioned building on the fairgrounds!) looking at a Schact Ladybug. Just kind of touching it and I noticed this woman kept giving me these 'looks'. Turns out she was in the process of buying it. Sorry! But it was a really cute wheel and I like that style rather than the more traditional looking ones.

I came home with a couple of brochures so I can gaze longingly :-) And I came home with this.




More fiber that I can't spin but gosh it's so beautiful. I had to just have a bit of it for inspiration!

It was all quite fun and maybe the best part was just enjoying being with Kerri and Bruce. What a fun couple! Kerri is a beginning knitter now thanks to the trip up and back and has plans for a baby blanket! It will probably be gorgeous. She catches on to everything so fast. Sucks that she's already spun and plied two skeins of yarn from her drop spindle :-0 !

So it was a day of lots of fiber, lots of fun, lots of giggles and grins. Can't beat it!

4 comments:

KatyaR said...

Sounds like you had a really good time! I'm glad you got to sit down with a good wheel--it can make a world of difference.

BumbleVee said...

What an exciting time you all had. Glad to hear it was fun.

the wool is pretty.... I wonder what it would look like after spinning...so hard to know isn't it? Or do you get sort of a "feel" or special eye for that after a while?

Devorah said...

What a great day! You can spin more on a spindle then a wheel ... 'cause you can easily take a spindle with you ...

HUGS!

Anonymous said...

Would you like to borrow my Kromski? Seriously! If it doesn't cost to much to ship I would gladly let you borrow it.

Hugs!!!!