Part the First

So this past weekend was very fun and exciting!

Friday, I took the day off work (and who doesn't love that?) and went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI. It's about an hour and a half from my house, by Madison. The drive was BEAUTIFUL! Southern Wisconsin was so much like Northeast Ohio - it actually looked like I-77 to Cleveland, or the Turnpike up north, by the valleys next to the Cuyahoga River. If you've ever been on those roads, you know what I mean. Hilly, trees...I love the Midwest! I thought about it - I'm quite comfortable in flat yet I think hills are pretty. I don't know that I could live in the mountains. How strange it would be to not be able to see miles and miles around!

Did I take pictures, though? No, I didn't. Instead, I offer you this picture taken from entirely the wrong angle:

The better view is from on TOP of the road, looking down into the Valley. Can you imagine how cool in the fall that looked? Wow, I've driven that particular stretch of road a lot. Kent State was at the east end of the state, while Toledo was at the west end. The connector? The best kept road in Ohio, the Turnpike. If you are ever stuck driving in the Snow Belt (which I have been - many, many times), the road you want to be on is the Ohio Turnpike. It's impeccable, even if you can't see out your windshield.

Anyway, I'm excited that I have a spot near-ish me to be a leafer in Wisconsin. I bet I'm the first one to ever think of that. I bet I am!

Neat as it is, the Ohio Turnpike has nothing to do with fiber. On to the excitement of the Sheep and Wool Festival. I was signed up for two classes. The first was Friday morning from 9-12. This meant I had to leave no later than seven-thirty am. ON A DAY OFF! Only for fiber would I do this. I was, however, late. No big surprise to most of you, I'm sure.

The class was about hand spindles, and the girl who taught it - Andrea Mielke - is absolutely amazing. Her hands worked the fiber effortlessly. She didn't really look - she demonstrated while looking at us, and yet every inch of her hand spinning was even. These are basically sticks with knobs at the top, middle or bottom, people. Once of the oldest tools, next to the knife, the arrow and the toaster oven.

Just watching her hands was a learning experience. We did get a chance to play with the 80 bazillion spindles she brought. I'm going to give a plug to their online store - Mielke's Fiber Arts. The booth at the festival was quite hopping, too.

I was taken aback a bit, though, at the beginning. (espescially because I was late and I had to grab a noisy metal chair in a concrete building. Not a graceful entrance). At first, when I saw Andrea, I thought Amish and quickly changed it to Mennonite when I noticed she was wearing Birks. Then I noticed that she had an email and a website. So I thought, well, maybe artsy and some sort of back to basics thing? I honestly couldn't figure it out. When I got home Friday afternoon, I looked at the entire website. The answer is D - None of the Above. Why I was so fascinated, I don't know, but it was some interesting reading. I left the family page and looked at the online catalog. The prices are incredibly reasonable, Andrea's knowledge and patience were beyond outstanding and she improved my spindle spinning in about 30 seconds to the point where my yarn is even. Mostly.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The difference is amazing, at least to me. Seriously, she spent hardly any time (basically told me to relax and that plus watching her hands made all the difference in the world).

I also learned about supported spindles. Andrea showed us a bead whorl spindle with a little cup. I was fascinated with how it worked (I haven't entirely figured it out yet, but it's sitting in my brain waiting for the a-ha moment). Then, she blew me away by saying that she made it with a bamboo skewer and a bead with a large hole. I tried spinning with it (it's most often used for cotton and silk, so it's commonly used in India). At first, it was awkward - just getting the spinning part right without having the spindle fly across the table was a challenge. But I did eventually get it. And I loved it! I loved the feel of the cotton roving (it's called top I believe, but don't quote me just yet). So soft! Plus, I can make really fine thread/yarn with it. And I know a few people in my life who need non-wool stuff. (Gretchen - the vision in my head is pretty amazing. All I can say is that next time you are in Friendship, look for very thin knitting pins and a silk ribbon you really like that's about an inch wide and about a yard and a half long.) I dream so big.

So, anywho, of course I went home, looked online, and found a big auction of prepared cotton top on ebay and bought it. I also bought some Sculpey (which I have never used before) and made some beads to put on bamboo skewers. I did, in fact, make one, but I can't get the spinning right, again. I shall have to take classes specific to it, but boy, it's cool when it works!

An interesting side note about my blogging process. I have difficulty putting in pictures, sometimes. I have learned that if I load the pictures and then do something else for five minutes, the pictures will magically show up. If I'm actually looking at what I've been typing, then it won't show. The Watched Pot, I guess. The main reason I bring this up is because this isn't the picture I wanted right now, but after about 10 (no lie) failed attempts, I thought I'd try another image, plus the whole patience thing. This pic shows the beads on the bamboo skewer plus a bowl I bought on Saturday. (I wasn't going to talk about Saturday yet, but that's the picture that came up. This bowl, by the way, since it's right there for you to see, is hand thrown. It's incredibly balanced, and of course it has the blue I love so much :) Very very nice! The beads close up are supposed to show what they are - an ice capped globe and a color matched bead.

With that, I have to get the dogs ready to go to the groomers. Despite the date on this blog, I'm actually putting it up a week after the fact. I haven't figured out how to fix the dates. Maybe another time.

Ciao!