The Spinning Bee

I went to the Spinning Bee at the Altamont Fair today. It was so fun to see the spinners, both with wheels and drop spindles. I'm in dire need of learning the drop spindle and practicing spinning on a wheel. As many of you know, this was not an area I was well versed in when I took over the store. And I'm still not, but I'm getting there. Once the Knitting Olympics are over, I will be trying to spend more time practicing my spinning.

Here is Diane, who won the spinning wheel category (with me handing her the prize - fiber of course!):

And here she is spinning away:

And this is Christine, who won the drop spindle category:

And here she is spinning away:

She had the most interesting (to me) technique of spinning her drop spindle with it resting inside this small laundry-basket looking container. That's Debb (one of our sock teachers!) next to her, who came in second!

And here is Yvette, who didn't want to be in the competition, but saw it as an opportunity to practice her spinning for at least a 1/2 hour! :

Last but not least, here is Deb Anderson, who I have heard so much about and finally got a chance to meet when she came into the store yesterday. She is so nice and did a great job of commentating during the Spinning Bee. I must give a thanks to her for encouraging everyone there to come see my shop!:

So, while I was away at the Spinning Bee, Paul minded the shop. No one came in. In fact, no customers all day! Until 5 minutes until closing time. It is such a beautiful day today and I think everyone was at the fair or somewhere else just enjoying it. It has been raining so much lately. It gave me a little time to knit, but because I'm so worried I'll get interrupted, I didn't work on my olympics shawl. I worked on my Logan River Wrap instead. Now THAT I'm making progress on...

This picture is a little light - if you tilt your monitor back, it gets a little darker and you can see it better. I really like how it is coming out and I love the Royal Llama Silk.

An update on the article for which they came to take pictures.... There is a front page article in The Businss Review this week on my landlord, Jeff Thomas. Big headline: "One-man show: builder puts stamp on home village". It talks about Jeff's various development projects and the care he took to restore the building the shop is in to maintain the old feel. AND, it mentions me and the shop by name! Since I couldn't figure out how to scan the article and put it in here, I'll tell you what it says. It talks about how quaint the town of Altamont is and Jeff's efforts to restore the building that is now Park House Apartments. It goes on to say "Liz Cassidy owns The Spinning Room [in bold type!], a yarn shop attached to the apartments. She bought the business three months ago and said it has been busy with people who come for supplies and to knit together. Sleigh bells jingle when the door opens." Nice!