When I stumbled into a spinning lesson in November, I was told about a Spin-In gathering being held in Destin come January. It’s today, tomorrow, and Saturday.
The Spin-In was interesting, and I got some answers to my wheel questions. I should’ve brought my camera in – I will tomorrow.
Unfortunately the quality of the vendors was not what I had hoped for. I had wanted to see more wooden accessories – I’d like to get a spinning gauge, and maybe a lazy kate. Also I wanted to buy some flax stricks to spin. Nada.
However, there were two good vendors who were very helpful. One is an alpaca farm, Charmed Alpacas, just north of Pensacola, from whom I bought a pound of uncarded espresso-brown roving. 35 bucks!, discounted from $45 because Midnight decided to roll in the hay before being sheared. This is definitely a cheaper way to indulge my yarn habit. A pound of roving is supposedly enough for a sweater – and you can’t touch enough yarn for an alpaca sweater for less than $50. Certainly not able to choose your gauge, as you can when you spin the yarn yourself. I may get more of the espresso – it’s such a lovely color.
Nancy and Jodie had lots of other colors (must take photos) and two different types of animals, Suri and Huyacaya. They said they’d love visitors at the farm, and Nancy expressed an interest in bringing an alpaca to a medieval day appearance for Public Petting.
The other good vendor was a general-selection vendor who had a double-drive wheel like mine, though larger, and it solved my question of what goes in the missing hole. A distaff, for hanging flax stricks on, in a splayed state. I got advice on how to fashion one, and perhaps someday I will make a woodworking friend and get a really good one. I also found out what the big hole in the middle of the wheel is – it’s a cupholder for water, since smooth and shiny linen thread is spun with wet fingers. Apparently these cups have a certain appearance – I’ll have to keep my eyes open for: glazed inside, raw terracotta outside for security, the size of a teabag dish, but deep enough to not spill when place on a 30-degree angle.
This woman said she’d seen another wheel that looked like mine, which was a family antique from Romania. Isn’t that a great coincidence?! (For the geographically challenged: Romania was part of medieval Hungary, where Greet is from.) I’m tempted to show up Saturday in garb, and see what that elucidates out of people.
She also said that she’d tried flax retting, and it really smells. For some reason (ahem – remember the landfill behind our Marietta house, O Family Members?) this doesn’t put me off at all. Of course, the $40/pound price of unspun flax stricks may have something to do with this. I still want to try it, as Rita Buchanan is very supportive of the idea of homestead-grown flax, and she’s my Current Idol.
I didn’t get a chance in my two hours to ask about natural dyes yet, and more vendors may show up later in the weekend, so I’m going again tomorrow for a little bit, and for longer on Saturday morning.
Turns out there’s a local spinner’s guild (every second Saturday) and a weaver’s guild (much membership the same as the spinners), and I expect to go check them out, after chatting with some members today.
More later, as I get it!