Alpaca Acres is hosting a breast cancer fundraiser Aug 8th 1-4 pm rain date Aug 15.

Come and sit ‘n’ knit – click your sticks – spin your wheel – or be a happy hooker – with the alpacas in the pasture.  Come and join the fun for a great cause.

$15.00 admission will be charged and ALL proceeds go to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
Bring your own lawn chair, water bottles and a must, your camera.
Enter our name — the — cria contest. Prize awarded for the best name.
For more info go to  www.alpacaacres.ca

Contact:

Ann Clayburn
Alpaca Acres
3979 Road 108 Stratford, ON
519-625-1064

A shot of the front of the shop:

Some spinners spinning away

Heidi and Sandy

More of the girls

One of the contests that Laurie had planned was to see who could spin the finest thread …and then we broke it up between wheel spinners and spindle spinners.

Congratulations Rochelle for winning the wheel contest and Suzie on the spindle!

Although Laurie can be extremely elusive to photograph, we did capture a shot of her Majacraft Little Gem with the sheepie hanging off of it!

And here we have Mathieu of http://www.manspun.com spinning away.

A shot of the setup:

Some of the gang:

Also, one of the lovely thing about The Black Lamb is the garden, or gardens rather. A lot of us, in our fiber shopping frenzies may have not ventured out into the gardens but they are so beautiful. Here are a few shots of some lovely blooms:

More details to come soon as well as information on the Worldwide Spin in Public Day at the Black Lamb and a recap of all scheduled events for WWSIP Day 2009  – remember, it’s September 19th!!

The first of what will be many Spin in Public hosted spin days happened last Sunday at The Black Lamb in Port Hope. We had a wonderful turn-out with about 30 spinners, a couple of newspapers to report things, and lots of fun games, contests and giveaways! It was a wonderful day and we got to meet so many new friends and visit with some old ones. Over the coming days, we share some photos from the event.

Here are a few of the spinners, spinning away and making beautiful yarns!

And, here is one of my bobbin shots:

Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver
Hosted by: Chrissy
Location: Kits Beach – grassy area at the foot of Yew Street
Time: 10:30am
Date: Saturday July 19, 2009

Those who come to the Kits Beach World Wide Knit In Public Day will be familiar with this location – we’re meeting in the same area.

How to get there:
We will be congregating on the grassy area at the foot of Yew Street at Kits Beach. This area is west of the main parking lot at Cornwall and Arbutus.

Please bring:
Join us for a celebration of spinning and all things fiber! Don’t forget a chair or towel to sit on, as well as a snack, water, and your sunscreen…oh yes, and your spinning!  Don’t spin?  That’s alright.  We’ll have drop spindles to teach you on, and even supplies to make your own drop spindle.  We’ll also have some practice wool to get you going.

Even if you don’t spin and aren’t interested in learning how to – please come on down and bring your knitting and/or crochet project, and have some fibery fun on the beach with us.

The backup plan is:
Rain plan is TBA.  Fingers crossed for sunshine.

This SIP is not spinning exclusive
There are free bathrooms available nearby.

Amber Peterson was kind enough to share with us some of her photos of Beduoins spinning in Oman. You can find more of her brilliant photos on Flickr here.

Traveling in Oman, my guide took me up in the mountains to view a canyon. The canyon was a bit disappointing but the Beduoins living there were quite interesting. A trio of two women and one man were by the roadside selling their crafts. The women would make bracelets and such out of the yarn that the man would spin on his drop spindle. While the women declined to be photographed and hid behind their tent poles, the man was quite willing to demonstrate his drop spindle for me and show his skill in making that spindle dance to his efforts. he showed me the entire process from start to finish and it appeared effortless for him to produce the yarn. I purchased some brightly colored bookmarks made from his yarn. As we were leaving the area, they headed for home, and he continued using his spindle as he walked down the road. truly a craftsman.

This week we were notified of two great events that take place on or around Worldwide Spin in Public Day! They are both in Frederick, Maryland. As many of you know, Maryland hosts the largest fiber festival in North America every year – Maryland Sheep and Wool – so there is a lot of fiber art to be found in Maryland.

Here are the event details:

Schifferstadt Architectural Museum in Frederick, MD has agreed to sponsor the WWSIP for Frederick area spinners.  The theme for the weekend will be needle arts from Colonial Times to the present.  The organizer, Mia Valcarcel,  will be posting details about the event at a blog created for events happening at Schifferstadt. You can find Mia at http://knitplaywithfire.wordpress.com as well.
They  will be spinning both Saturday and Sunday (19th/20th September)

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