Spinners Day Out!

This report is also somewhat overdue, but hey, better late than never, right? Last weekend, 7 brave souls set out on a three hour tour, a three hour tour... Ok, so it was really only 2 1/2, but who's counting? We went to visit with Ella, a lovely woman, fantastic spinner, and awesome cook! You see, Ella used to have a Fiber business for various spinning fibers, from washed, uncombed naturals all the way up to Quiviet combed top!

Ella graciously opened her beautiful home to us (Look at the living room lamp!! - and it even turns!), preparing a lovely (and completely South Beach friendly!) lunch of various finger foods, dessert, and WIDE array of beverages ;) It was nearly 1pm when we arrived, and after a brief visit to the restrooms (we stopped at a "gas station" in Bartow...oooh, SCARY place!), and an ever so quick glance around at the piles of fiber so lovingly laid out, we sat down to lunch. Candace shared stories of her experiences with Hurricane Katrina animal rescue, and we all shared other stories and got to know each other.

Once the food was sufficiently demolished, and we'd all had a few bites of Ella's lovely (healthy!) dessert, we attacked the fiber! I wish I'd taken pictures before we hit it, as it really was a lovely sight - boxes full of beautiful fibers... Instead all I can offer is these photos of what it looked like after we were through... Needless to say, the prices were excellent, and we can all feel good about helping Ella to clean out some of her overflowing closets! Now WE'RE the ones with the overflowing closets! I have had three bags of fiber (one for me, one for SOS, and one for Melody who was unable to join us) in the back seat of my car all week. I delivered Melody's yesterday, and today brought mine and the guilds fiber into the apartment...trying to find space was really quite frightening!

After we made our purchases, we were able to find a few minutes to break out the wheels and spin. Candace got to try out Ella's Electric Spinner, and was so inspired that she immediately came home and started planning how to make her own! We'll all look forward to hearing how her creativity turns out. Ella surprised us all a bit by standing up at her wheel! (She usually does sit down, though at the electic spinner, she uses the entire living room!!) Ella also shared with us how she does hand spun BEADED yarns! We suggested she come up to the Fiber In and give a demo, but in reality it might not be until next year. What a lovely person!

Ellen spent some time playing with her new drop spindle!

Nancy showed us all how to Navajo ply on a drop spindle - definitely a good person and great technique to know!

As we were wrapping things up, Ella brought out a bag of vegetable scraps from lunch, for us to go "feed the animals" Huh? Yep, it seems that her neighbors have their own little mini-zoo of sorts (animal rescue I believe), including two deer, a goat, and an emu! Ella warned us before we went out to beware of the emu, since he just sorta bites at anything in reach. I should have listened better - he was trying to get me and my camera while I was taking these!