Spinzilla

I spent a lot of time on Ravelry last week chatting and posting photos because that's where the action was for Spinzilla, a week-long spinning contest that is a fund raiser for the Needle Arts Mentoring Program for TNNA.  I hosted Team Meridian Jacobs and there were spinners here almost every day for a week. My team filled with 25 spinners so, although I was captain, I didn't do any spinning. I knew that I needed to keep working on pieces for my upcoming show at the Artery. Here are some photos from the week. Rusty also wrote a blog post about his part in the activities. Look at the gorgeous yarn being spun.      

There were prizes everyday. These are special fiber jars donated by Dona.At the end of the week everyone measured their yarn and submitted the totals along with photos to Spinzilla. We don't know the results yet, but all of our returning members exceeded their totals from last year. We spent a little time in the barn taking photos to share with others and to enter in the photo contest to be judged this week. 

We heard that some teams required a commitment of a certain amount of yards spun, but for our team the whole thing is about Fun. I look forward to spinning on the team next year.

At theAththe end of the week

Meet the Sheep

Our annual spring open house on Saturday was a huge success. This event couldn't happen without the help of Farm Club members and, this year, the Davis Spinners' Guild (DSG). Farm Club members were here on Friday for set-up and showed up early Saturday for last minute touches.  There are a variety of sheep related displays.But the biggest attractions are the animals and the demos. Julie's 3-week old Angora bunnies were very popular... 

…as were the lambs. FC member, Mary held lambs for people all day (and suggested that next year we use smaller lambs!).

Jazz, mom of the triplets that were out for people to pet, made herself just as popular, calling to people to come back and continue petting.

As popular as the animals, were the demonstrations scheduled throughout the day.This is Farm Club (and DSG) member, Alison, showing her passion for...cleaning fleece with a fermented suint vat.   Vera, of the Davis Spinners' Guild, demonstrated use of the blending board...

...and spindle spinning. 

Kathleen, FC and DSC member wove with an audience all day.Many people brought their wheels and spent the day spinning.

FC member, Lisa, always has a carrot for Amaryllis.    She and Dona (who took some of these photos) demonstrated needle felting.

Dona, Jackie,and Colleen offered items for sale.   

Of course my shop was open and there were even sheep inside! 

There was much more going on and many more people helping then I have in photos here. Thanks to all of them. There are no photos of Rusty in this post but he wrote his own and you can find out what he thought of the day here.

Marilyn's Fleece

Marilyn is one of seven lambs that I kept from the 2013 lambing season.Here she is with her mom, Hot Lips. Marilyn was my choice to take to Black Sheep Gathering last year where she won her class. (Hot Lips was Champion Jacob Ewe at BSG when I took her there!)Here she is at 9 months old last fall. When Farm Club members chose their fleeces "on the hoof" I put my name on Marilyn's.Shearing Day. Marilyn's fleece looks brown, but those are sunbleached tips. This is what her fleece looks like from the cut side. Isn't it gorgeous? Detail of the staples. Last week I carded Marilyn's fleece on my Clemes & Clemes electric drum carder.   Here are the batts ready to spin. Hopefully there will be a post before too long in which I'll have photos of finished yarn and a project. To be continued...