Two busy weekends

I spent the last two days in Placerville teaching Weave a V-Shawl to the Hangtown Fiber Guild. Here are the results:

Ladies,  please turn around.

These are the warps for shawls not quite finished:

Quite a variety of shawls!

Last weekend was Lambtown in Dixon, CA. The fiber building was so busy that I barely got outside to snap a few photos. The sheep-to-shawl contest was one of the most popular events. Teams come with looms already warped and they need to prepare and spin the yarn and weave the shawls during the contest. This year the fiber for the weft was Jacob wool from my flock. It got great reviews from the spinners.  Here is the winning shawl woven by the Silverado Guild from Napa:

And a close-up:

The Del Oro Guild got second place:

I didn't get photos of the other shawls, but I did get one of Hangtown Guild's portrayal of their theme of  "Au Naturel":

There is a new use for all that roving that you don't have time to spin! Hangtown always does it with a sense of humor!

One last photo taken at Lambtown:

Do I want to swap out my sheep for a flock of these  cuties? Hmmm...what is a group of chincillas called? Covey--no, that's quail. Warren--isn't that where rabbits live? Crowd? How about Cloud?

St. Fleecia Day Celebration

I belong to the Spindles & Flyers in Berkeley. I don't get there very often because it means LEAVING HOME and going to THE CITY. But I did make it to the annual holiday celebration on Sunday. This is the day that the group honors the great Saint Fleecia, a spinning saint (sprung from the creative mind of a past president of the group) who brings fresh fleece to diligent spinners, but leaves sheep droppings in the shoes of negligent spinners. As is the tradition at the St. Fleecia Day celebration, the legend of St. Fleecia is read, eggnog is consumed (except by designated drivers), and wonderful food is shared. There is also a challenge. This year it was to make a fiber avatar using the fiber it represents.

These are some of the entries. In the back is a handspun, knitted llama. There is a pair of felted bunnies and a knitted bunny, all of Angora. The pair of bunnies was 3rd place.

This opossum is felted from wool and opossum. (This is fiber from the Australian version, which is different from that found in the U.S.)  I love the babies hanging from the tail. This was 2nd place.

First place was inspired by the recent program by Linda Cortwright of Wild Fibers. This is a yak diorama with an actual (well, sort of) yak in the foreground.

Can you understand why I like the people in this group?