Silly Things I Think

First off, Happy 2014 everyone!  Hope your holidays were great!

When I was little, I would get birthday and Christmas cards from my grandmother, which always depicted a cozy little scene of some woodland creature family staying warm in their hollow tree home.  Usually there was a fireplace, a quilt and a pot of tea.  So, now that we have a bit of snow, we always joke about how all the trees are filled with these little woodland creature families by the fire with their tea and quilts.  Never mind that having a fireplace in a tree is a serious fire hazard.  But it's still a cute, silly image.

I love the Yarn Harlot's story where she passes people's homes and imagines what they're doing inside.  Because I do exactly that.  Every morning, as we drive down 202 to the train station, we pass a string of homes.  Some are dark, some have their lights on. On a cold, dreary winter morning, these homes look so warm and cozy.  The people in there must be waking up at their leisure,  having a nice cup of coffee and some breakfast, maybe even reading the paper.  They wouldn't possibly be racing around, putting their shoe on with one hand while brushing their teeth with the other, finally running out of the house with wet hair because there's no time to use a hair dryer. They certainly aren't performing these antics as their penance for those two extra minutes of sleep while still getting to the train on time.  These people are relaxed, without a care.

And as if these images in my head weren't ridiculous enough, add in the chimney.  If the house has a chimney billowing smoke, I imagine the same family sitting by the fireplace next to a crackling fire, sipping tea, reading or knitting, or doing one of many enjoyable, stress-free activities. It's not like that billowing smoke is from their heating system, or that they actually have to go to work to earn money and pay bills.  They must own their homes outright - lovely fireplaces and all.

These Disney-esque images seem so ridiculous.  Why wouldn't these people be racing about to get ready for work like I had just done?  Why do they get to stay home while I have to go to work?  It just doesn't seem right.  That's because it's just silly.  Silly as trees filled with tea-sipping, pyromaniac squirrels, mice and bunnies.

But it was this morning that the silliness became crystal clear, when Scott pointed to a chimney billowing smoke and said "Imagine how nice it would be to be those people!"  And then he laughed at me.  Because it was our chimney.  That picture above is of our house.  The smoke was from our heating system, not a fireplace.  We were outside shoveling snow, not inside sipping tea and reading or knitting under quilts.  It's amazing how far imagination can be from reality sometimes.  Or is it?

Why I Like 2013 Again - Part 2

One of the things I had the opportunity to do this year was to become part of a fleece to shawl team.  These teams are usually five people - four spinners and a weaver - who enter competitions where they start with a fleece which they card, spin and weave into a shawl in a limited amount of time - usually 3 hours.

I had thought about doing this a few years ago and mentioned it to some of the Spin City folks.  One of the girls said she went and watched a bit of the competition at Rhinebeck.  Her basic review was "Those people didn't look like they were having any fun", so I was no longer interested.  I pretty much don't like doing anything unless it's fun or I can make it fun.  Oh well.  On to other things.

Every December we have our annual holiday party at Galway Pub.  Last year's party ended with Christina yelling "SHEEP TO SHAWL!  SHEEP TO SHAWL!"  So I guess we're forming a team.  With this crowd, at least I wouldn't have any question if it would be any fun.

I took a road trip in January with Jenny to pick up the loom she was buying to use for the competitions.  It was only fair, since she took me to pick up my loom in November.  Hers was smaller and folded up nicely to fit in the car.  A definite plus!

One of the first things we did was comb and spin warp.  We each dyed our handspun warp a different color, so we could decide whose looked best and try to replicate it.  Which explains the color scheme of our first shawl.

So I missed the first actual practice at Jenny's house.  But I heard about it.  I heard it took 9 hours to make the shawl.  I saw the pictures of it, which had been appropriately nicknamed The Mexican Placemat.  Ay Carumba!

With those results, I didn't see how we would ever compete at Rhinebeck, which was the goal.  But we continued to practice once a month.  We'd either do demos, or we'd just meet at Jenny's place and do a run-through as if it was the competition.  I attended the demo at Philipsburg Manor.  It was a lot of fun, but very cold.  I managed to sprain my ankle right before we started the demo.  So I did most of the carding that afternoon.

I missed the next one which was at Queens Farm because I was in Maryland that weekend.  But I attended every one after that.  Most of them were at Jenny's place, and people would bring food - Lesia would always bring these AMAZING goat cheese stuffed peppers.  For a while I refused to spin unless there were peppers.

Christina decided to pursue an amazing career opportunity in North Carolina.  Sure - get us all riled up and then run!  I can't blame her.  It's not like any one of us wouldn't do the same.  I was happy for her, but sad because I would miss her smiling face and her infectious energy.  We did a conference call to discuss our plans - weave patterns, dye, costumes, etc.  It was really the only way to get all of us together until
Rhinebeck.

Our time got better.  The shawls got better. We decided to ply - it would even out the yarn and it would get us our length faster.  Jenny tried different weaving patterns.  My favorite was the diamond, but it was a HUGE PITA.  Not suitable for speed.

I had a couple spin-ins at the house over the summer.  Lynn played with some indigo out in the yard.  I combed and combed and combed for warp.  The white cheviot was a joy to comb!  The grey was uber messy.  It was like I was combing a pile of hay that happened to have some wool in it.  I combed the grey outdoors, sometimes until it got dark.  I've gotten pretty good at combing.  A lot of the Spin City members helped out by combing and spinning warp, which Lynn then dyed for our actual competition shawl.

In August, we entered our first actual competition in the Ulster County Fair.  It was a lot of fun and everyone was super nice.  We made a futile attempt at bribing the judge with cookies before the competition, and then we were off to the races.  We were definitely the loudest and most giggly team out there - a feature we improved upon at Rhinebeck.  We were having a great time and before we knew it, we were off the loom and twisting fringe.  First ones finished, but we finished fourth out of four teams.  Our shawl - which had measured the correct size when we took it off the loom - had shrunk while waiting for judging.  It was great to have our first ribbon, but we still needed improvement.  At least the judge was able to give us some insight as to what we needed to work on, in addition to adding extra length to account for shrinkage.  In fact, he liked us so much he joined the meetup group that evening!

Two more demos before the big day - one wsa at the Garden State Sheep Breeders Festival.  Dawn bought a couple fleeces for 2014.  We continued improving our time and our skills, while having a damn good time doing it.  The other was at the Kings County Fiber Fair in Brooklyn.  We had a little issue with the warp, so we got a late start, but we finished in a decent amount of time and we had a beautiful shawl in the end.

And before we knew it, Rhinebeck was here.  Like Christmas, you wait anxiously all year for it and then it flies by like a rocket.  I was working at the Loop booth on Saturday, when Christina came running into the booth, sat on my lap and gave me a great big hug.  Nothing brightens your day so much as seeing a long lost friend!

It was Sunday morning.  I hadn't slept much all week because I was staying up late every night putting the team banner together.  It was exciting to finally be there and setting up, trying to make sure every last little thing was in place in time.  I had my four cups of coffee and was ready to go.  0.o  just before 10, we got in our huddle and each said a few words.  Christina told us we were the best bitches ever.  At 10:00 we were off and carding, spinning and weaving, punctuated by cheers of ADVANCE THAT WARP!  We were drawing quite the crowd with our I Love NY tee shirts and our Lady Liberty foam crowns.  Not to mention glitter anywhere we could put it.  Because GLITTER.  I saw so many Spin City faces in the crowd.  It was great to have so much support from our fans.

Dawn and Lynn spun, then handed off to Christina to ply, who then handed the plied bobbin to me so I could wind the weaving bobbin and load the shuttle to hand to Jenny, who would then weave.  When Christina had to go up and give her talk, I jumped in and plied.  Lynn would help Jenny straighten the warp from the opposite side of the loom.  The teamwork was amazing!  I wish every time I had a team project it would go this smoothly.  We were like a well-oiled shawl machine.

Just like at Ulster, we were first off the loom.  But this time we had plenty of extra length.  We were twisting fringe when Red Hook Spinners beat us to the judging table.  We got our shawl to the table shortly after they did.  Now to wait for the third team to finish.   During the competition they had announced that Spin City won the award for Best Use of Natural Dye.  We were the only team that used natural dyes.  One team didn't even use the featured breed.  It seemed so simple to do these things to get the extra points.

When Elmendorph Handspinners got their shawl to the table we paced around nervously while the judges measured and wrote notes on their clipboards.  They finally brought the shawls forward and announced third place - Elmendorph Handspinners.

My heart was racing as they brought the red ribbon out and made what seemed like the slowest announcement ever: "Second Place goes to......................................................the Red Hook Spinners."

My eyes got wider.  I didn't want to scream just yet, because I thought it would be rude, but all I could think was HOLY SHIT WE WON!!!!WE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNN!!!!!  When they finally announced "In First Place - Spin City!"  I let loose.  The cheers were so loud I'm sure people in the city could hear us.  I think we had the larger fan base than the crowd was expecting.  The next half hour or so was all hugging and crying and lots of picture-taking.  It was such an amazing feeling to work toward something for so long, and win first place as first-timers in the competition.

I had entered yarns in the skein and garment competition at Rhinebeck for years, and had won lots of ribbons, but never a blue one.  Now I'm glad.  It was way more special winning my first blue ribbon at Rhinebeck with friends than it ever could have been doing it alone.  I am so proud to be part of a team of such amazing, talented and fun people!

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go comb some shetland.  Rhinebeck 2014 will be here before you know it.

Why I Like 2013 Again - Part 1

Wow.  It's almost November and this is my first post of the year.  Let me get you up to speed.

 

Got laid off in January.  Spent most of my days working on the house and searching the web for jobs.  It was nice having the time off, but the no $$ part suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.  I had no job, but it wasn't for lack of trying.  I sent out hundreds of resumes, went on dozens of interviews - nuthin'.  Nada.  I felt like such a loser.

 

Then in July, I got an email from a former boss asking if I was available to do some freelance work. I asked how soon and he said "at once".  So the next day I was working again.  Part time - just a few days a week, but it was $$.  He also set me up with a few days a week at another division of the company.  I also got some other freelance work at a few different companies, so I was able to keep up a steady five day work week for about a month and a half. 

 

Then I got an offer for a temp-to-perm freelance assignment.  It was a great company, nice people to work with, but every week when it came time to make me an offer, they'd say they needed another week.  Finally, they fessed up that they had no intention of hiring someone permanently and that it would be freelance only.  And since I needed the $$, I continued working there with the understanding that if I received a full time offer from another company I was free to go.

 

A few weeks later I was nearing that offer.  I had a great interview with a company that wanted to hire me, but they knew the owner of the company where I was freelancing and didn't want to step on any toes, so they just wanted to call the other owner.  When I finally got the phone call that I thought would be the offer, instead I heard "We were going to offer you the job, but I called Company A and they said they were going to make you an offer." Wait, WHAT??  The same company where I've worked for weeks and heard repeatedly that they were most certainly NOT making me an offer? I suddenly felt like the toy on the playground that just sat there and nobody played with it.  Until the first kid picked it up.  Then immediately, there was another kid  yelling "MINE!"

 

And then came the rest of the kids.  While I was trying to straighten out the mess between the first two jobs, I got an email from my former boss  (the same one who set me up with the initial freelance work) telling me he appreciated the freelance work I did over the summer and wanted to know if I'd be interested in working there full time.  Well, at least if the two companies who were arguing over me both dropped their offers, I'd have something.

 

So the nexy day, I was freelancing at the other division of former boss's company when I got a call from HR.  I thought it was going to be the offer from former boss, but instead it was about an offer in yet another division of the same company.

 

And thenn I got a call from another company.  With another offer.  For a total of five.

 

So, long story less long (well, it's beyond short now, isn't it?), The offer I really wanted came through, I told the other four "thanks, but no thanks" and I started my new full time job.

 

 It was so exciting!  Great company, great products, great people to work with.  And then I got an email from an agent who had placed me at Former Boss's company nine years ago.  She said she had sent my resume to a company and they wanted to meet me.  I replied thankyou, but I jad already started my new job.  When she replied with how much the job paid, I decided it was a good idea to keep my options open.  "I'll be there tomorrow" I said.

 

I went in thinking they wouldn't be interested in me.  They were nice and the company was great, but I didn't think they'd call me back.

 

They called me back.  I went for a second interview.  I was sitting in the interview thinking "Don't offer me the job.  I don't want to have a difficult decision."  They offered me the job.

 

I thought about it all weekend before I made a decision to take the offer.  I loved the company where I was working, although I hsad only been there a week.  But the $$ was a lot more, and I would be doing more patternmaking- something I love, but haven't done in years.

 

I was sad to leave those nice people, but I had to do what was best for me.  I'm almost finished with my first two weeks at the new place and I love it!  I'm picking up the pattermaking software very quickly.  The people I work with are really nice - and I'm usually out the door by 5:15 - something extremely rare in the fashion industry.  And the woman running the department right now is great - she does her best to make everyone's time at work a fun experience,

 

So, all those times this year I thought woe is me and my life sucks, I now see were things I had to do to get where I am.  And I'm grateful for the learning experience.

 

 

 

 

 

A Christmas Visitor

The holidays always bring up this memory, from many years ago, before I was a spinner (if you can imagine such a time existed).  

It was Christmas Eve and  I had just gotten up and was getting ready to make coffee and get on the road to my Mom's house in PA for the holidays.  I went into the kitchen and opened the blinds to see the birds at the feeder, when I jumped back and screamed "OH MY GOD!"

From the other room I heard a half-asleep "'Oh my God' what?"

As I started to answer, I knew what I was saying, but had no idea how crazy it would sound until the words had escaped and it was too late to pull them back,

"There's a SHEEP eating from the bird feeder!"

I heard the footsteps as Scott came out of the other room into the kitchen to see for himself.  Sure enough, there was a sheep happily munching up all the bird seed that was in the little wooden feeder.

Where did it come from?  This area was definitely suburban and there were no farms for many miles.  Scott said "Maybe it wandered out of one of those live nativity scenes."  I looked over the top of my glasses at him and said "I'm the only shickse in the neighborhood, so no."  I figured it came from somewhere, and there must be somebody wondering where their sheep is.  So I called the police.

Actually, Scott called the police.  I heard him saying "Can you please send somebody to pick up the sheep, and not to pick me up in a straightjacket?  I swear there's really a sheep here!"  A little while later, the police showed up with a lasso.  After several unsuccessful attempts to catch the sheep, it took off into the woods and they said we should call them again if it came back,  I said I definitely would, since someone must be missing it.  "Oh, someone is missing it" the officer said "but not for the reasons you're thinking."  0,o  What did he mean?  Were these people going to kill it and eat it?  I certainly didn't want it returned to them if that was the case,

The sheep returned a few hours later, so I called PETA who put me in touch with Farm Sanctuary in upstate NY - an organization that rescues farm animals.  They had sent two women down a few days later, who were also unsuccessful at catching the sheep.  But they did give me some useful information.  They recognized the breed as a Barbados Blackbelly, because of its ability to jump high and far - when the cops were chasing it, it jumped clear across an 8 foot wide garden with no effort.  They also said it was a ewe due to its lack of horns.  So I affectionately named her "Sheepy".

I know it's a tiny picture, but we could never get very close to Sheepy, since she spooked so easily and would take off.  But she would always return later,  I guess she figured out we were nice people who wouldn't hurt her.  It also helped that Scott went out and bought a bag of Purina Sheep Chow, and we would leave a Yankees popcorn bucket full of it, along with another bucket of water, for her every day.  we also hung a tarp over the swing set so she would have a sheltered area to lay in when it snowed. Never did I think when I moved from Pennsylvania to work in New York City that I would have to come home and feed the sheep!

Sheepy hung around for about a month and then one day she didn't return.  I hope she found a nice home somewhere where she is loved and well cared for.  We've since moved to another town as well, where we have many strange animals wandering through the yard.  But none were as unusual nor as memorable as my first sheep.

Rhinebeck 2012

Rhinebeck is something I look forward to every year, pretty much like a little kid looks forward to Christmas.  You make your wish list, you count down the days until the actual event, and then *poof!*
Just like that, it's over and you have to wait until next year.

Since I only live a little over an hour from Rhinebeck, I stay at home and drive up each day.  This year I took a workshop - All Spindles All Day with Abby Franquemont.  Although I've been spinning for a number of years now, I wanted to get a different perspective from the master spindler herself.  It was a very interesting class and I did come away with different opinions than the ones with which I had started the day.  Particularly, low-whorl spindles without hooks.

Since the first spindle I learned on was a high-whorl, I had subconsciously made them my preferred spindle of choice.  I could spin on a low-whorl, but would always switch back to the familiar.  In this class, we practiced both.  And I discovered that you could get a lot of spin out of a low whorl by rolling the shaft on your leg.

We also used a spindle with a hook and one without.  I had always been of the opinion OMG I NEED A HOOK!  But I found that tying a couple of half-hitches isn't so bad, and the yarn doesn't jump off as it sometimes does with a hook.

So, on Saturday while I was shopping with limited funds (made a mental note to speak to the organizers of Maryland Sheep and Wool and Rhinebeck about scheduling these festivals to coordinate with my bi-weekly paychecks), I found a big, clunky low whorl spindle for $12.  I also found some amazingly soft Border Leicester roving (purple, of course) and I started spinning it on my new spindle on the car ride home (don't worry - I wasn't driving!).  It's not quite the size of a Navajo spindle, but it will hold a lot of yarn.

Notice a color theme here?  I also picked up some Country Classics dyes and some felted friends.  And wine and cheese.  And more wine.  I was also very excited to find the burgundy/grey CVM/Romeldale I had spun last year, but forgotten where I had purchased it.  I found it at Spirit Trail Fiberworks, so I bought some more along with some Targhee/Merino/Dorset/Finn.  Their fibers are amazing and unique - they have a lot of rare breed fibers which are incredibly soft and still have a bit of that wonderful sheepy scent to them.

We had our Spin City- NY meetup around 3:00 on both Saturday and Sunday.  It's fun to get together and check out what everyone bought.  Just before the meetup, I had found a pound of Ramboulliet roving at a ridiculous price so of course I bought it.  We were busy chatting and passing around our purchases, and when I went to leave, my pound o' Rambo was missing!  But being among fiber friends, I didn't panic.  I figured someone had mistakenly put it in their bag and I would see it again.  Sure enough, I got it back the following Monday at our regular meetup.

On Sunday I got to meet Richard Ashford and try out the new Ashford Country Spinner 2 at Loop's booth. Steph Gorin helped to develop this wheel, which is great for spinning big, chunky art yarns!  It is amazingly smooth and easy to use once you get used to its appetite for fiber.  Check out Steph's tutorial videos on the Ashford website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Mu84kn5Sg&noredirect=1

So, another Rhinebeck has come and gone, having enhanced my spinning knowledge as well as my stash.  Good classes, good friends, good fiber, good times.  Only 160 days until the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  Is it too early to start my wish list?

Fibre Fallout 2012

A little over four years ago, I was on one of the Ravelry forums when someone posted a link to Fibre Fallout.  I clicked on the link and thought it sounded interesting - an all-inclusive weekend of spinning and classes, and it wasn't expensive or far away, so I signed up.

I only knew one other person there, but I made many friends and learned a lot.  I took a Natural Dye class with Rita Schwab where we actually cooked plants to extract the dyes, then on Sunday I learned how to choose and skirt a fleece with Nelda Davis.  It was such a great weekend, I raved about it to all my Spin City-NY friends and in 2010 there were five of us who went.  I took classes in Wheel Mechanics and Sock Yarn Spinning with Judith Mackenzie, and Spinning Fine Fibers with Patsy Zawistoski.  They had expanded the weekend to include Friday afternoon classes as well.

This past weekend, Spin City-NY was represented at Fibre Fallout by 14 people (a few of whom are not pictured here)!  We had such an incredible time!

Having spent all week staying up late making flyers, prepping for the Campaign for Wool event, and working late, I had slept about 12 hours in three days.  But the excitement of the weekend had me up early finishing the laundry and shopping before heading off to New Jersey.

The most difficult part of this event is choosing which classes to take when you send in your registration.  They are all so good I wouldn't be disappointed with any of them!  I started the weekend with Judith Mackenzie's Boucles, Bangles and Beads class, where we learned different techniques for making fun, textured yarns.

My favorite was this one, which was made by pulling wisps of mohair locks between two silk threads.  The grey yarn at the end of the bobbin is my coreless corespun alpaca/silk blend.

I'm planning to make a lot more of this mohair yarn!  The class was so much fun, it was quarter to six before I remembered to look at the time.

After class, Lynn, Lisa, Melissa and I went for a hike through the camp's trails to see the labyrinth, which we then walked through.  Must put this on the to-do list for FF 2014, but with a drop spindle this time.

Saturday's class was a full day dye class with Kathleen Taylor - we did spiral dyeing on superwash merino sock yarn in the morning, and dyeing on sock blanks in the afternoon.

I loved the Country Classics dyes we used in this class!  The colors are so true to what the swatches look like and very, very little color rinses out.  And so vibrant!  The colors I chose for the above yarn were the Wild Iris, Mountain Aqua, Key Lime and Very Hot Pink.  Then I finished it with small dots of Raven randomly placed throughout the skein. This was my first time dyeing dry yarn - usually I wet it first - so there was less color bleed than I am used to.  I was disappointed at first that I had brought the wrong brushes.  I know there is a pack of chiseled foam brushes somewhere in the house, because I kept seeing it for the past few weeks.  Of course, when I went to pack for the weekend, they were nowhere to be found, so I ended up packing round stencil brushes.  They actually ended up working out better than the chiseled ones because they made a more defined edge.  So much better, that Kathleen said she was going to start using them herself.

After lunch we dyed sock blanks.  For those unfamiliar with them, a sock blank is two strands of sock yarn knitted together in a rectangle that looks like a small scarf.  You paint your dye on the knitted fabric and when it dries, you unravel it and wind the yarn into two separate balls.  When you knit your socks, they come out the same because the yarns were dyed together.

This was the first one I did - Buttercup, Cantaloupe and Butterscotch.  I thought it looked boring - the repeats were too long and I should have used more colors.  I added the Scarlet stripes.  We'll see what it looks like when it re-knit.  I finished less than halfway through class, so I did a second one:

For this one I used Bermuda Sand, Cherry, Lilac, Cornflower Blue and Evergreen.  I was happier with this one, but I still think the repeats are a bit long.  I'll be able to gauge better when I see how they knit up.

 Saturday night after dinner was the participants' fashion show, where I modeled my Strawberry Lace Scarf and a skein of singles yarn I finished from Loop's Purple Rain Clouds.  450 yards!  Still trying to decide what to make out of it.

If you haven't spun something from Loop clouds, well, what are you waiting for?  OMG these are so AWESOME to spin!  So easy to draft because the fibers have so much air in between - that is unless you squish them in a ziplock in your purse.  Ask me how I know.  And the variety of colors and fibers in each one keeps it interesting.

There were so many beautiful projects from everyone in the fashion show!  In addition, each class had a table displaying their work, so attendees could see what the other classes were working on.  The weekend-long weaving class was my second choice, but dye is still my favorite.  The weavers had these amazing projects on these tabletop harness looms.  It looked interesting to learn all the different patterns.  The weaving mentor, Daryl Lancaster, joined the Spin City crowd for dinner Friday and Saturday.  She wore several of her handwoven jackets throughout the weekend and they were absolutely gorgeous!

Saturday night ended up back at the lodge with a game of Wild Wool where you build sheep out of Legos.   Basically, you roll the die and grow wool until Christina steals it.  And then you drink.  I'm pretty sure Christina and Dawn made up that rule.

Sunday's class was my favorite, but it was definitely the messiest!  Gradient Color Band Dyeing with Kathleen Taylor.  You wind your yarn into a tight ball and submerge the ball in your dye bucket (or buckets if you're doing two).  Then you pull a length of the yarn between your fingers to squeeze the dye into the yarn and lay it in the rinse bucket.  You keep pulling lengths of yarn until the entire ball is unwound and in the rinse, and you change colors several times throughout the process.  I started with Wild Iris.  Shocking.

I went from the Wild Iris to Lilac, Raspberry and Magenta.  Once your yarn is all in the rinse bucket, you wind a wet skein  - THIS is the really messy part!  It's pretty much impossible to do this without splashing, so we did it outside.  When I do this at home (which I plan to do a lot!) I think I'll do the whole process outside.  Then I will have the prettiest yard with spots of color everywhere!  After the skein is wound, we use the microwave to heat set the dye.  And here's how it looks:

Again, a learning experience.  I should have done more of the first color before switching.  But I like it anyway.

 It was so hard leaving and going back to work after such a fantastic weekend!  The North Country Spinners do such an amazing job with this event and this year's was no exception.  I'm already looking forward to Fibre Fallout 2014!

Wool Uncovered - Sheep in Bryant Park

When I heard about the Wool Uncovered event in Bryant Park last Thursday, I contacted The Campaign for Wool to see if we could hold a meetup during the event.  After several emails back and forth, we were given the ok to meet at the event.

The Campaign for Wool, created by HRH Prince Charles, is a campaign to promote the use of this wonderful natural fiber.  They hosted this event which included sheep, wool, rugs, chair covers, tree cozies, home insulation, a mattress, knitters and of course, Spin City-NY.

They even emptied the fountain and covered it with wool!

I scheduled the spinning from 12:00 - 3:00, figuring most people would be working during the day, but could come by at lunch.  I was there from 12:00 until almost 2:00 with my Roadbug wheel. It was warm, but I wore my newly finished Strawberry Lace scarf from my own handspun merino.  (So newly finished that I wove the ends in during the taxi ride from my office to the event!)

Scarf is pictured below in progress.

We had a lot of spinners and drew quite the crowd!  There were plenty of questions from spectators and we were interviewed by several publications.

What a great way to spend a lunch hour! Thank you, Campaign for Wool, for hosting this event!