St. Distaff's Day, Lake Stevens, WA

Hello:
Today the sun was rising at about 7 am.  There is nothing more beautiful than the sun rising over the Cascades.  Although I can't wait for longer days and more sunshine, I love that I don't have to wake up early to see these beautiful vistas.

I was up and running early today because I went to spin and chat at St. Distaff's day.  This was the NWRSA's (Northwest Regional Spiners' Association) 31st Annual celebration of the Patron Saint of Spinners with a Spin In.  It was up in Lake Stevens at a local high school. 

I looked up Saint Distaff's Day in Wikipedia, and there is no Saint.  The day is named after a tool, the distaff, women used in spinning.  I was wondering who in the heck Saint Distaff was.  The day was the when women went back to work after celebrating Christmas.  So it is kind of a celebration of women who work and traditional womens' work which was mostly fiber related.

I went to Wajio's house early with my wheel.  She helped me oil it, then we loaded up her van with my wheel and 2 wheels from her spinning guild that she was bringing to sell on the Used Goods table.  ReadnitDream joined us for the drive.  We got there at about 9 am and grabbed some chairs in a "Spinning Circle."

By the time we got to spinning, it was pretty full.  We were joined by JitteryKnitter, truespark and Puzan.  Some had come to knit and some to spin.  One of my goals this year is to spin one skein of yarn every month and actually knit/crochet something from my own yarn.

It's only $3 donation for admission and you get a raffle ticket.  You can buy other raffle tickets and put these in buckets for specific prize baskets.

Some of these were full of fiber and some had a mix of fiber and yarn.  I was determined not to buy anything as I am really really trying to use up my stash.  For a very occasional spinner, I have way too much fiber.

I was able to spin about 1/2 - 2/3 of a spool of corriedale that I bought from Paradise Fibers last year.  I was happy to see that I mostly remembered what I was doing, and it felt great to get back to spinning.

I was sitting next to a friend of Wajio's, named Jenniluigi, and the most fun thing happened.  I can't remember exactly what we were talking about, but she stopped and looked at me and asked, "Wait, are you f1bercat?"   When I said yes that's my Rav name, she said, "I read your blog!"  ha ha ha ha ha I almost felt famous! 

We talked a bit about Knitted Knockers.  The Eastside Knitters Guild is going to make these for our Guild Charity of 2015.  The group had a booth at the Spin In, and Jenni bought me a ball of the cotton yarn needed to make my first knocker.  I hope to cast on tonight.

Anyway, I didn't win any of the Raffles, and of course I felt like a 5 year old cheated out of a present.  I always want to win.  Even though I don't need any yarn or fiber.

I did buy myself a new niddy noddy.  That is my Christmas Gift to myself (other than a hot shower).

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a niddy noddy.