Fibre Week 2010 - Day 3

Fell asleep last night to a cow bellowing at the far side of the campus and awoke to the same. Not as lovely as hearing the birds in the wee hours of the morning but when you're at an agriculture college that's what you get (along with the occasional whiff of freshly spread manure).

After yoga class this morning the Land Sciences Building on campus was bustling with spinners going to their first day of the week-long classes (although Level 5 and 6 actually started last Friday), but for the first four levels today was day one. And the other people taking knitting, felting, or the other classes offered were also hustling to their classes. Bags of wool slung on peoples' back, spinning wheels being carried into the classrooms, dye pots, bags and suitcases of supplies being pulled along. The energy is amazing.

Today we spent most of the time talking and experimenting with TPI (twists per inch)...a very important concept for the serious, technical spinner. Knowing TPI one can create the yarn they want instead of just spinning and hoping the result is a usable skein. Here's a pic of some of my experimenting:

Some samples of today's spinning (very rough ones).

The instructor, Michele Boyd, is unbelievable! The knowledge she is sharing is invaluable. I also spun a cable yarn but that's back in the classroom drying. Tomorrow we're going to spin cotton and silk and experiment more with TPI. This level focuses on TPI and other technical aspects of spinning.

After class I walked to the store to get a few groceries and clicked a pic of the college sign:

Then this evening was the Cashmere Spin-In. Teams of spinners were assembled and have four hours to take raw cashmere, card it, spin it, and turn it into a finished product. Here are pics of a few groups:

The competition goes until 10:30 tonight....way past my bedtime and way to much stimuli for me so I just dropped in to check it out. Tomorrow the finished products will be displayed and judged. I'll take pics.

Tomorrow evening is the fashion show which is so awesome. The level of detail that goes into items that people make is unbelievable. I'll take pics.