What a great weekend! Every few years my spinning guild organizes a crafting event. This year it was in Lyndon House in Athens. It is a really great venue and the adjoining historic house is a must visit location if you are up in the area.
Traveled up there on Saturday morning ready to start my first class, cotton spinning with Leslie Bronson. Leslie took us through some of the history, resources she uses and items that she has created and then set us up to spin cotton on a spindle. It was very educational but still fun and we all managed to get the knack of it by the end of the class.
After a great lunch and the first day of the raffle where I was lucky enough to win a handmade basket. I moved on to spinning lace with Lois, first she gave us some great tips on adjusting and setting up our machines and then we moved on to the fabulous samples that she had provided. First we started with the superfine merino, then moved on to rose fiber, where we learned to spin from the fold Phew! next cotton, oh my, i am spinning cotton on my wheel now!
We moved on to Alpaca which actually came from one of my boys, Tessaro, and it was great to spin into lace weight just as I would expect from him. Next we tried Flax and at last I found a fiber that I REALLY do not like 🙂 which was interesting as a number of the ladies really liked it. Last but not least I spun some very slick but shiny Tussah silk.
Off to the hotel to check in and then out to dinner with Linda and Mary Jane. In bed by 9 totally worn out.
Next morning I helped to set up and then went to my first class, gradient dyeing with Gale from Gale’s Art . I partnered with a really nice lady who had driven all the way up from Florida for the event. First Gale went through the resources she uses and some good books on the subject and then we went through what gradient dyeing can mean. I could be shades of, or two colors blended in different amounts across the skeins or just 6 analogous colors.
We then got to pick our chosen method and color palette. Each skein went into a ziplock steamer bag and was microwaved . I brought home some sea breeze dye and some super wash yarn so I have enough to weave with,
Off to lunch again and I won three more raffle prizes, unfortunately I did not win the star prize which was a week in John C. Campbell craft college. If anyone thinks I am very lucky, well yes I am but…. I bought a boatload of raffle tickets and whilst most people put their tickets in the star prize jar, I spread mine around 🙂
Last but not least was a plying class with Lori Helmes, We learnt and practiced Andean, Navajo, 2 ply, chain and turkish knot. More importantly we had some great tips on sampling and how to re- energize the yarn.
