I began to prepare for SOAR all the way back in January. That's when I got the email saying my proposal had been selected. After I took a moment trying to believe it was true then I began doing calculations about how much wool would be needed for the classes I had proposed. Then i talked to Carol about possibly working one day a week to help me wash the wool because it seemed an overwhelming thing...especially since I had been asked to also supply wool for Deb Robson's classes.
There is a three day class and we were going to cover 17 breeds. There are 16 students in the 3 day. that is more than 16 pounds clean right there (that would be about 24 pounds of unwashed fleece). There were also the retreat sessions. Each class had 18 students and there were 4 of those so 74 students and 4 breeds. That's another almost 20 pounds of clean fleece.
There was the washing and the packaging and the labeling oh my! And then it was time to leave and I was a bit nervous.
The great thing was that as soon as I got there and saw that the 4 boxes I had shipped had arrived safely and I could set up my classroom I felt a lot better.
I have no photos of my classes. I'm not good at that. When I begin to teach, that is my focus and I forget about the fact that I have a blog. I did get some pictures from the Workshop Review which is always fun. It's when we get the opportunity to see what all of the other classes were working on. So here are some photos of friends that were the least blurry since I was laughing and couldn't manage to keep the camera still.
Amy King and Evil Michelle!
Evil again and my favorite Bug Girl and some nutty person.
Richard Ashford with Michelle Boyd spinning on the 30" Elizabeth.
Dave Van Stralen from Louet
Jonathan Bosworth talking about his Chinese style reproduction wheel.
Kelly Rota spinning two threads at the same time on that wheel.
Barry Schacht checking out a Sidekick in the Spunky Eclectic booth.
Barry and Dave Paul from the Merlin Tree who is a fantastic wheel builder and the man I send all the people to when they need repairs or a new flyer or a reproduction Canadian Production wheel.
After all of these photos I was back to work singing lovely things about hand combing and longwools and so the picture taking stopped.
It was a fantastic time and though a little bit of nervous is a good thing I think, I was happy with how everything went and I hope that all of the people in my classes were happy and learned something new and maybe will begin to branch out in the types of wools they choose for projects.
Saturday night I missed the spin in because I accidentally fell asleep and didn't wake up until it was over. Also, Saturday afternoon a reptile show was moving into the hotel. There were plenty of aquariums with snakes and lizards and turtles. I couldn't check out fast enough on Sunday. I had a lot of terrible visions of snakes loose and lost in the hotel.
On Sunday I got in a car with Linda Ligon and Anita Osterhaug to take a drive to Connecticut for a meeting with the Andean Textile Arts Board. which happened all day Monday. We ate a lot of delicious food in Connecticut including some really really good pizza. Tuesday back to New Hampshire and flying home.
This church is in New Haven Connecticut on the edge of the Yale Campus. I dream of someday living in a beautiful church like this. Someday I'll tell you about it.
Anyway, on Wednesday I did nothing. On Thursday I went to the shop and did almost nothing. I feel like I'm still trying to recover! But it was a wonderful time and I would definitely do it again and again.
6 comments:
How is the review on the sidekick ?
I am very interested but would have to make payments on one. I really want a Matchless but if the sidekick is comparable I will purchse it instead for portabilty
You should come in and try them out side by side. And we should talk about which wheel would suit your needs best. See you soon. I hope.
You were a wonderful teacher at SOAR - so organized! And so cute! Also, I, um, er, may have given your name to a Gotland breeder at Rhinebeck. And somebody has Black Welsh Mountain there, too. And Leicester Longwools. And Wensleydales. And guess what? I bought a Romney fleece. Isn't that a surprise!
I too have always wanted to live in an old church or an old country school house! Some day.
I was just working on a SOAR blogpost. You are always so ahead of me.
ps. i had the best roommate ever.
I didn't see a single mention of the fact that I brought you some hot-plucked possum!
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