Spin Span Spun

Hellooooo!

I'm so bad about updating. I'm pretty busy at work; we've just moved offices, and we're putting on a conference in Missouri that starts this weekend, so I've been pretty swamped. But I've got a couple of minutes, so here goes nuttin'. :)

This past weekend, as I mentioned before, a couple of Stitch'n'Bitch friends went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Fiber Festival and Wisconsin Spin In. I spent half the week preparing, that is when I wasn't either in the emergency room for my eye, or at the doctor's office, again for my eye. I got a spiffy new back pack, and some camp dishes and a waterjug, but best of all was the camping friendly margarita glasses, which made awesome presents. I gathered all of my gear and things together on Thursday night and set out to packing. That was when I started to freak out a bit. Me? Going camping? Surely you jest. (And don't call me Shirley.) So I packed everything up and took a couple of deep breaths. I went to work on Friday, and left early. R picked me up from work, and we zoomed up towards my neighborhood where we did some serious grocery shopping. We hit three of the four grocery stores in my 'hood. It was intense. ;o)

We got the car loaded up, waited for J, and then once J got there, we were off! We got up to the campsite with little difficulty, and got some fire wood, then set up camp. It was great! We got the fire burning, and the camp chairs set up and just hung out around the fire for the rest of the evening. I can't convey how incredibly awesome it way. (In case I haven't mentioned, this was my first time camping, ever.)

Saturday morning, we got up, found the showers and got cleaned up, then headed over to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds for the Festival. Jefferson was really nice. It's the Gemütlichkeit City! So. We got to the fairgrounds and headed in. And naturally made a beeline for the "Country Store" vendor area. All three of us are rabid knitters, and J spins. We looked all through the first building, and drooled all over everything. There were such incredible fibers, handpainted roving, handpainted handspun yarn, alpaca, wool, llama, angora rabbits to take home, you name it, it was there. I really wanted to take a bun-bun home with me, but the cats would absolutely terrorize it.

Now, for the real reason I wanted to go to the Festival. I wanted to learn how to spin. And there was a particular wheel which, if I could manage spinning, that I wanted to buy. And by sheer luck, they were holding a free class at their booth/area in the Country Store. So, we found our way to Babe's Fiber Garden's booth, and I inquired about the two o'clock class. There was 1 opening left! It was like fate! R and J went off to shop and see the lambykins and things, and I learned how to spin!



The class lasted for about an hour, and it was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. It's almost as if I already knew how to spin and someone had to remind me to remember how. It was so awesome! So I bought a wheel. (and I've been obsessively spinning since. Knitting? What's knitting?)

After we left the festival, with gobs of fiber and yarn and a wheel and a drop spindle for R, we stopped at a grocery store to get some more ice for our cooler and some soda and then J had the most brilliant idea of getting a fireplace starter log. Because she rules. We hadn't had trouble getting the fire started on Friday, mind, it just took a long time due to the lack of kindling. And this fire? This was a serious fire. We burned through 4 cords of wood over the course of the evening. The ashes in the morning were still warm.




While R and J sat around the fire knitting, I (you guessed it) set up my new wheel and spun for awhile.



After it got dark, we roasted hot dogs and sausages and then made smores! It was so much fun. Then we all sat around and shot the poo for awhile. J was tired, so she went to bed and R and I stayed up til some ungodly hour talking. It was great.

The next morning we hung around the campsite for awhile, then R and I checked out one of the trails. This park is ginormous! We headed back, and knit some and I spun some and R tried her drop spindle for awhile until she got frustrated with it. Then we broke camp and headed back into the city.

It was a really incredible weekend!