Fall Fair Weekend

 Last weekend I was one of the hand crafters asked to demonstrate their craft at a local Fall Fair.   On the Saturday I was asked to demonstrate spinning.   This is my display table.  The colour wheel is of nature dyed yarns.  Almost all of them were either harvested locally or grown in my garden, except for the Cochineal reds and a logwood purple.  The rest of the yarns were examples of different yarn structures or different fibres.   Sadly this is the only photo I took.  It was a lot of fun.  I talked with a lot of people and even helped a few gals with some spinning issues they had.  It's amazing how many people see spinning as "keeping a skill alive", and don't realize that there are many modern spinners out there, making miles of yarn.

On Sunday - and I wish I had photos- but I forgot to bring my phone or a camera.  On Sunday, a bunch of us got together to do a Sheep to Shawl demo.   The demo was nice because we didn't have to rush things.  It also allowed us to have a beginner spinner with us, who learned but was under no pressure to produce yards upon yards of consistent yarn.   We had a shawl warp on a table loom and 4 spinning wheels.  I also brought the same table cloth  (which is an old sheet) and the nature dyed colourwheel.  The colour wheel became a good talking point, which lead to the spinning and weaving.   And the loom became a talking point which lead to the wheels and the yarns.  The spinning wheels became a talking point which lead to the dyed yarns and the weaving.   We talked with so many people.  At one point, 4 of the 5 of us were talking with small groups of people.  There weren't many slow times, but mainly steady people through.  

The whole team was comprised of SCA members and we were all dressed in garb; mainly viking.  People commented on how good we looked (yay us!) and how right it looked that we were weaving and spinning.   I had to appreciate that people recognized that the skills were ancient but no one realized that our equipment was thoroughly modern!  Still, a good impression was made and many people were amazed and intrigued by what we did.  And nope, we didn't finish the shawl.  I think we got it half woven.  However we went in with the goal of education, and there was no need to finish.   Regardless, it was an awful lot of fun, with much socializing.  We took lunch breaks and saw some of the fair.  It was a very good day.   I'm a bit sad that I didn't get photos though.