OUR SHOW

Just in case you are wondering ……. Yes I am still winding my very fine warp!!! I have only 1 bout of 100 ends to go, so the end is in sight. Yah
Unfortunately my hairpin lace shawl will not be finished for the show, The joining is just not working out properly and I need more time than I have available to me to get it finished sigh. I had hoped to show off a new technique (well not new, but one that hasn’t seen the light of day around here for a very long time.

I think most of my skeins are ready, I just need to find the fibre samples that I have been throwing into a bag I have hanging in my studio with a swing ticket around it giving the relevant information. At least I hope they are all there. I usually spin up all my fibre and then when the show comes around and I decide which ones I will enter I have no fibre samples! At times I have even been reduced to snipping a bit of yarn and un-plying it and taking the twist out of the singles and fluffing it out to serve as my sample!

Anyway I have several skeins of wool, one of very, very fine cashmere, silk and wool blend, silk, mohair, wool from fleece (as opposed to top).

I learned last Tuesday that our judged section at the show is 40+ entries down on last year, which was also down on the year before. It has been harder and harder to get people to help in the organizing and demo-ing. When Moira used to ride and she would go to Agricultural shows I would always go and have a look at the woolcraft section. Our show is the only one that the woolcraft has it’s own section. Usually it is just part of the home crafts section, it there was any at all. Over the years I have pushed and pushed to keep us going. Our section is staged in the wool and sheep pavilion, there is a stage there where there is constant entertainment and we hold a parade of woolcraft, and down on the main floor we demonstrate, and have activities for the children, whether we are teaching them to knit, weave, or felt. The week before we clean this area, we have glass fronted cabinets for the judged entries, which are cleaned. We decorate the stage and around the lower area. We steward for the judges on Tuesday, stage the judged entries in the display cabinets and tidy everything up, and put in other displays on Wednesday. Thursday to Sat night we are there doing demonstrations and the fashion parade. Some years ago the show went to 4 days to include Sunday, but we decided that we would not be there on Sunday. So all our demonstration stuff has to be cleared away on Sat night, then Sunday about 4pm we have to come back and dismantle the display and organize the entries to be picked up, along with any prizes. We organize our own sponsors for 1st prize. This is a very big undertaking for our guild, and even I am getting tired of it, but I do hope the guild doesn’t decide to disband it.


At the moment I am again spinning silk on my Ashford wheel. I also have silk on my Wind wheel (a folding wheel originally made in Tasmania) and my other wheels (yes plural) have nothing on them, I must do something about that.

Spread your Wings and Soar

Judy