Today it is miserable.
Freezing rain and sleet coating everything and now we are getting a layer of snow on top of this.
Lovely isn’t it…if I didn’t have to go out in it! This stuff started yesterday and I had to pick up the dogs because this past weekend I had a brush with royalty and a lesson in how to properly use my drum carder.
Abby Franquemont returned to The Spinning Loft to give several workshops. I took the two offered that were about making blended batts.
Abby just finished a big project so was in fine form. Here she is with Faina comparing the cops on their spindles.
The royalty I speak of is the Tsarina of Tsocks herself, Lisa Grossman. Yes the designer responsible for my latest obsession, knitting little grape leaves in lovely fall colors. The only picture I got of her didn’t show her face so I’m stealing one from Abby.
Here she is next to one of Beth’s wheels. That appears to be the look of concentration on her face. She’s only been spinning a short while and took the opportunity to spin on a number of different wheels while at Beth’s shop and house.
Speaking of Beth…no she is not taming lions, she is moving things around her little shop to accommodate all of us. She told me to not bring so much stuff…so I didn’t! Seriously! I thought she was going to slug me. I honestly didn’t bring but one wheel and really cut down on a bunch of other stuff, but she didn’t believe me. See that pile of wool, that’s organic wool. Some seriously nice stuff.
Abby was able to multi-task successfully. Here she is whisking yet another batt off a carder equivalent to mine while listening to questions thrown at her. She was able to spot a few things I was doing wrong and I was able to pick up some stuff that I had missed in my reading and watching of Deb Menz’s videos. It was great to try other carders as well. I bought mine over 10 years ago sight unseen but went on the recommendations of my guild members and purchased a Fricke Fine (the carder line was sold to Strauch). I tried an Ashford, the new Louet carder that is coming out early next year, Fancy Kitty and newer Strauch carders. I was delighted to leave Beth’s shop without a longing for a new drum carder. Turns out there are things about my carder I would dearly miss if I got a different one.
Of course we trashed Beth’s shop! Thank you for asking.
Here Beth is checking out Abby’s Foggy Foggy Dew Shawl. Abby really wanted people to nit-pick the shawl and find all its faults. I refused to do that. First of all it’s not my project, second there is an insane number of beads on it and third I’m not that much of a perfectionist with other peoples projects. Written directions, yes, my own projects, yes, but not other people’s.
I didn’t escape with out a few purchases. Here Faina is spinning on a Tibetan spindle. One of those followed me home as well as a Greensleeves Ethan Jacob.
Oh I can’t forget!
From this room I purchased a woven band from CTTC that was unfinished. Beth also has chullos, dolls and other weaving available. She recently got some very cool rovings and some of those followed me home, including some oatmeal colored Blueface Leicester. Also got to sample a couple painted rovings from dyers I hadn’t had a chance to try out before.
After the workshops and the goodbyes I joined my husband for a bit of geocaching in and around the Howell area. In fact, he accidentally found the hotel where we stayed for the 2005 CPE Agility Nationals when it was in nearby Fowlerville. He had gone out with DarrylW4 and Bill TeamLegend4 the previous day caching down in Ann Arbor. In the end we found 15 together and we each reached our 1100 milestone over the weekend.
It seems strange to travel so far to take workshops, but Beth has got the right idea. Next year she’s bringing in some really good people so keep your eye out on her website for the details.
