Hello! We're Still Here!

Hello Knittah!

Yep, we're still here, freezing in Winnipeg. Despite the cold this past weekend, we did make it out of the house. Saturday was a fun day! First we went to the Manitoba Crafts Museum, which currently has an exhibit on handspinning. The volunteer staffing the museum said it was okay to take photos, so we took a few so you could see some of the exhibit too.

Noricum thought the information in the above article was really neat. She didn't know that Mary Maxim, practically a Canadian icon, started in a small town in Manitoba. (It's now based out of Toronto, and has an American outlet store too, in addition to it's ongoing mail-order business.)


This drawer was really impressive:

There's a contest to see how long a yarn can be spun from 10g of fiber... and the amount is absolutely stunning!!! For all those talking about spinning "frog hair"... have *you* ever spun over 1000 m of yarn from 10 g of fiber? The local best had much less yardage, yet were amazingly thin.

It looks like someone other than Noricum has thought of gathering fiber at the zoo... some ladies actually tried it during the war:


After a fantastic time for a measley $2 donation, we stopped in at Mitchell Fabrics, Noricum's favourite fabric store. *Wow*! That place is *huge*, and has a mind-boggling array of fabrics! We didn't take many photos, because Noricum wasn't sure how the staff would feel about us taking photos, and by the time we asked, it was time to go. However, here's the outside of the store:

One general photo of one part of the inside, which really doesn't do a good job of giving the feel of the place:

And a funny photo that we snuck before we had permission:

That sign says "Oscar de low Rental, anti-fashion fabrics"! Hee!

In honour of Noricum's birthday, and because I'm tired of freezing my fiber off, Noricum and I have decided to hold a (hopefully) fun contest. We'll write it up in our next post.

Hoping you are warmer where you are,
Swatchy

Catching Up - Spinning Class

Dear Knittah,

I suppose I have been bad in my own way, not posting as soon as I should. (Sheesh, I have some *old* photos waiting for posts!) But this is really Noricum's fault too... she doesn't let me use the computer much. I thought I'd show you around the spinning class Noricum took over a week ago now.

Before we get started, I thought I'd let you know that Winter is definitely here.

I'm actually inside in this photo, which is why I'm not wearing my toque and long johns. It did take Noricum a while to dig out her winter coat and boots... she can be a bit slow sometimes.

But back to the class! It was a blast! Look at the concentration everyone has, having so much fun at the wheels, skein winders, and carders:

That gentleman in the last photo isn't a knitter... he wanted to learn to spin (linen, in particular, although that wasn't covered in this class) so that he could weave with it!

Here's some of the other wheels we could try out:

(Noricum stuck to the Lendrum... she meant to try the other wheels, but ran out of time.)

This is some lovely yarn that Penny spun:


And, to get even with Noricum for hogging the computer and forgetting me at home when she went to Rovings, here's her haul from the spinning class:


Love,
Swatchy

PS: I'll try to get those other posts up some day... but for now, Noricum says it's way past time for lunch.

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby!

Dear Knittah,

Noricum and I attended spinning class today. Well, Noricum spun, I just watched, since Noricum didn't want to shell out the class fee for me. Here we are at the end of the class:

(that's Francine from Rovings beside us) and here's what Noricum spun.

The singles were spun from "mystery roving" that gets run through the drum carders between regular batches. It was nice enough stuff... but have you ever felt polwarth fleece? Wow! I wanted to dive right into the bag and never come out! Noricum didn't let me, though. (She didn't think we'd both fit, anyway.) How much polwarth do you think we would need to do so?

Noricum is currently muttering something about "must get wheel" and "how much polwarth for a sweater", and her feet keep moving like they're treadling. Do you think I should be worried?

Love,
Swatchy