Monday, March 21, 2011

Last Day of the Livestock Show

It is the last day of the livestock show and demos for the guild. It is one of the hardest days to find volunteers--after 20 days of non stop action, it is time to end the event. It's a beautiful spring day. We are packed and ready to take off for the arena. At our previous volunteer day, the draw band broke on the guild wheel, so this day, we decide to take our own wheel.
And to make it easy to bring, it is placed on its own little traveling wheels. There is a short walk from the car park to the tram, which travels to the entrance of the livestock site and then another walk into the center. Of course, the spinners/weavers booth is in hall A, which is at the opposite end of where you enter. We travel with our sun roof open and country music blaring--yew haw!!
Let's meet some of the people who drop by the booth. We were happy to see this young lady, who comes knitting as she enjoys the sights and sounds of the Ag center! And she just learned to knit and she's doing socks!! She told us she recently bought a drop spindle and is looking for a wheel--yippee! We tell her--'next year, you can be on this side of the fence'!
This father and son lingered for several minutes as they inspected the loom and wheels in action.
A crowd gathers around the loom as Kathy takes it through its paces.
Connie, our faithful leader for the day, is spinning away on cotton that she pulled from the cotton bale located down from our booth space.
When she's not on the wheel she demonstrates on the spindle.
She also shows how to card the cotton in preparation for spinning.
One of our volunteers decided to show her talent at needle felting--using these sharp little barbs, she creates some unique characters and designs.
Here she shows her needle felted heart in hand pillow and Santa Claus.
Let's take a look around the booth space to see what woven items gain attention. Some of these items have been designed and woven at this event during years past.
Brightly colored batts await the spinners hand.
Tapestry from the talented hands of Blaine.
Here is a woven coverlet and hand spun knitted scarf.
And of course, we must have our mascots close at hand.
Kathy keeps up the beat even as she converses with the crowd.
It is difficult to calcuate how long the warp should be for these three weeks of weaving. No one wants to warp during the last week. Luckily, the loom is on its last couple of yards. Thank goodness--this calcuation was right on target!
Some of the yardage from last three weeks rest on the split rail fence for the handle of interested parties.
We are happy to show our craft and educate. One of the best parts of being there is the people you meet. Oh, you can guess what they will ask--usually the same question time and a time again; but, it doesn't matter--you always enjoy seeing those light bulbs going off when everything clicks and they get it!!

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