Roc Day 2013

I think Chris is improving every day.  It’s amazing the difference in his demeanor since he stopped taking Risperdal.  We have been struggling with multiple phone calls crying and begging.  I’ve looked at so many puppy dog tears that just broke my heart that I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through this.  He’s like a different person!  He talks to me a few minutes on the phone and then he’s ready to go back to what he was doing.  I hope this lasts.  He so much needs to be happy where he is.

Other than the medical emergency, Roc day was fabulous!  There was no planned program with the exception of a few announcements and some show-n-tell.  Everyone pretty much just sat around and worked on projects and visited.  I walked around with my camera and watched several different people working.  It was so much fun.  I wish I had taken the pieces Chris made so he could show them but he said he didn’t want to.

People brought portable looms and spinning wheels.  I had no idea there were so many different kinds of spinning wheels or ways to spin fiber into yarn!  I was fascinated with the drop spindles.  I’m sure it’s not as easy as it looks but I think I could do that!

Turkish Drop Spindle

I was especially interested in the Turkish Drop Spindle.  It has pieces that the spun yarn is wrapped around and when you’re finished, those pieces come out and you have a ball of yarn.

Then, there was this spinner made in India that’s called a Charkha.  It was fascinating to watch this young lady work.  She grows her own cotton in her back yard for weaving and also grows banana trees to use the inside for fiber.

She spun her own fibers and then spun them to make her scarf.  The blue is the only dyed fiber.  She used Indigo to dye the blue part.  It’s amazingly soft.

Oops!  I need to change my copyright stamp.  I’ve got one ready for this year but forgot about it.

Here are some pictures of different ladies spinning….all with different kinds of spinning wheels.

And a weaver having fun. I wish I had observed her working more.

Shoppers enjoying the gorgeous fibers at one of the vendor booths.

I absolutely fell in love with the hand crafted shuttles made from woods imported from all over the world.  This nice gentleman’s son makes these beautiful pieces.  Cheryl Dunworth helped me choose a nice shuttle to get started with.  I’ve got to get some bobbins to go in it.

See those funny looking things at the bottom of the picture?  Those are wing-nut keys.  You slip it onto the wing nut and you can easily turn the wing to open or close it.  They’re super duper, handy, dandy.

There are tiny magnets holding the bobbin pin in place. You just pick it up, put your bobbin on and lay it back in the slot.

Here’s Faith and Chris working with our home-crafted loom.   Faith is only 11.  She’ll turn 12 next month.  There were several people who wanted to see how we had made it.

Faith won a really nice doorprize.  It was 2 bags of wool (I think the word is “rovings”???).  She gave it to Chris and then decided she’d like to learn how to spin, so we’re going to share it.  Don’t you just love it when young people get excited about cool stuff?  I’m going to see about getting 4 drop spindles so we can all learn together.  Then  if we enjoy it, we’ll look into getting a spinning wheel of some type.

These colors are pretty true. Gorgeous!

I saw someone I knew from a quilting guild I used to belong with.  I didn’t realize she’s a weaver.  She brought these Temari balls she’s been making to show.  They are beautiful.

Temari Balls

These little stuffed animals are made of Alpaca.  This is the softest stuff you will ever hold in your hands.  It makes me want to add a few Alpaca’s to my mini herd of goats.  Faith fell in love with them.  At the price, it just wasn’t in her future….not that they’re not worth the price.  It just wasn’t in our budget.

And finally, a few pictures taken from the balcony of the yacht club.  It was a lovely place to have an event like this.

 

Thank you Dyed in the Wool Weavers for allowing us to share your day!

 

 

 

 

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Posted by Quilting Tizzy on January 8, 2013

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