Sunday evening we got back home from the Estes Park Wool Market, having competed in the Sheep to Shawl contest for the fourth time. We didn't win anything--fourth place out of four. Oh, well. But we were kind of out-on-a-limb for this one, so we weren't really expecting any ribbons this year.
We brought my friend Catriona's vintagte 8-harness Nadeau Hand-Skill loom, a tubular-aluminum beast dating from 1952. It was designed and built by an eccentric weaver in Woonsocket, RI named Elphege Nadeau. It has a number of interesting and nifty features (but speed doesn't seem to be one of them). However, NO one who came by our competition area at the WM had ever seen one, not even the judge, so we got lots of spectators staring and asking, "What's THAT thing?! Did you build that?" I joked that we should have won the "weirdest-equipment" prize.
There's a picture of one on this page that you can see if you scroll down nearly to the bottom. http://possumjimandelizabeth.com/xhtml/looms_table.html
I was carding fleece, Rebecca and JoAnne were spinning, Darla was plying and spinning, and Catriona wove.
Another thing that made the weekend...um, interesting... was that it was pouring rain most of the time and also colder than heck. At one point, JoAnne said to me that she could see her breath! This is in mid-June, mind you. Looks like we had Highland Games weather for Wool Market weekend--hate to imagine what the weather will be like for the Highland Games!
What was really cool was that the team who DID win the StS (from The Recycled Lamb, a fiber/yarn store here in Lakewood) were first-timers! It was their first sheep-to-shawl, and most of the team were beginning spinners! And they beat EVERYBODY -- two guild teams, and us Sheep Thrills folks. Awesome job--and a *gorgeous* shawl!
One footnote -- the bobbin winder we usually use didn't make it out to Colorado with the Iowa half of our team, and so on Friday while I was packing, cooking, etc., my amazing gadget-guy husband Tay *built* us one! He used an ancient hand-cranked wood drill of my uncle Jack's, and cannibalized a paint roller to make the jig that holds the bobbin. Unreal! And it works great -- don't know what we'd have done without it. One spectator remarked, "He's a keeper!" when Catriona told her about the origin of the jury-rigged bobbin winder... (He sure is, lady -- he sure is!).
Another footnote -- I've finally been exposed enough to Catriona's Nadeau that I'm getting to be not scared of the 4-shaft one she has left with me as a long-term loan.
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