Spin In

Yesterday was the annual Spin In held by our local spinning guild, the Log Cabin Spinners. I was a member of this group for awhile, but dropped out because I found myself unable to attend the meetings. However, that will change. They now have a meeting on the first Wed of the month in the morning. I can do that. I'm very excited about getting back into the group. They're so much fun.

What is a Spin-In? It's a day when the local spinning group hosts a big get together for other spinning groups to attend, as well as the general public. There's usually vendor booths featuring stuff spinners like, like fleeces, rovings, yarns, dyes, wheels, and whatnot. Everyone brings their wheels, or maybe their knitting, or a weaving loom, and they fellowship, spin, eat lunch, and generally have a great time. It's a LOT of fun!

This was the first time I could spend the whole day at the Spin In. I packed a sack lunch, some knitting, and my wallet, and headed on down around 10:30am. Got to the fairgrounds at 11. Went into building 1 and the place was packed. I've never seen that many people at the Spin In before. There were more vendor booths than I've ever seen too.

I so enjoyed seeing everyone. Susie, Jean, Karen, Jennifer, Sabrina, Jacquetta, to name a few, and of course Cindy and Bill were there with their beads. I've really missed the spinning bunch. We laughed so much. Charles was there, from Sandpoint, too! He's so adorable. I was happy to see him.

I don't spin, but some day I'd like to have a spinning wheel and get into the craft. For now I'm content to knit with them, and they seem to be content to let me do so.

I found some treasures to buy. Fiber Trends has a new felted boot slipper pattern called the Alpine Boot Slipper. It features 2 sizes, short and knee high boot, with fur trim (made with eyelash yarn). It is SO cute. I need to make a new pair of slippers for Gramma. This pattern is perfect. I got some deep purple wool (from Harmony Yarns) for the slippers. I'll dig in my stash for some fur.

I got a new sock pattern with button-up cuffs. The cuffs are open, with button holes and buttons. They are really pretty. I got 2 skeins of sock yarn from the Southwest Trading Company made of superwash wool, soy milk, a bit of cotton, and chitin. They feel SO soft, and the colors are very bright. One skein is purples, pinks, and fuschia. The other is greens, aquas, and yellows.

I also picked up a couple skeins of cotton boucle'. I took some terracotta colored acrylic to make a hat for Knit Wits as my project for the day. I'd also taken a ball of furry yarn that matched it. I'm using the Swirl hat pattern by Ann Norling. Anyway, one of the booths had this very nice boucle' that was multicolored with pastel blue, mint green, lavender, black, and the terracotta. I liked it better than the fur idea, so I got a couple balls. It was on sale for $2 a ball. I'm just about done with the hat. I'll take a photo and post it when it's done.

That was the full extent of my purchases. Didn't find any hand dyes that grabbed me or anything. Paradise fibers wasn't there either, so I couldn't spend money at their booth.

Last night Sarah and Frank came over for dinner. Sarah brought me a present. She found the cutest little mint green lamp work elephant beads on Ebay and bought them for me. She's such a sweetie.