Tuesday, March 13, 2012

It is official, I'm facilitating at least one workshop

Plan ahead, spread the word... I'll be facilitating a workshop or two on spinning! Valley EarthFest 2012 will be hosted at The Barns of Rose Hill to benefit the facility's increasing environmental initiatives April 22 11-7pm. The basic description of the workshop is: Come learn a little about the history of spinning and other handcrafts, and learn how to make your own yarn out of natural fibers. Learn how handcrafts can become part of your entertainment, self-care and all while being practical and Earth-friendly. Participants will be able to keep the yarn they spin and have an opportunity to purchase handmade drop spindles at the end of the workshop.

Wow!!

Ok, absolutely SQUEAK!! For those who don't know me, this is the best way to exhibit my excitement and trepidation. I have been invited to do a workshop for a local EarthFest and I have to admit to be very excited and a bit intimidated! I truly believe the following statements I made in an email inquiry made earlier this year... To some extent, the concept of handspinning (using spindles) falls into several areas of life in the following ways: Entertainment- spinning, knitting and crocheting are all portable crafts that can be used to fill small bits of time while people wait, it can ease conversations by giving it a starter Self-care- in the form of a meditative and relaxing craft, which also produces items that can be worn, used, or given to others Earth-friendly- natural fibers (wool, silk, alpaca, llama, cotton) are a renewable resource, by spinning your own yarn, you know what is in it and can avoid manmade fibers Spinning, knitting and crocheting are skills that should be promoted and supported, they are an excellent way for people to gain a sense of accomplishment in their own skills. Now I have to figure out how to flesh this out and explain it in an entire workshop. I suppose the first step is to write back and accept the job...

Friday, March 9, 2012

The Open House

So I braved the risk and invited some of my friends to attend an open house for Spindles and More at my home. I had three visitors and sold three spindles. That's a 1 to 1 ratio of visitors to sales!! It was a lot of work, mainly because I baked the cookies from scratch, made three kinds, hung up the scarves and blouses hand-painted by the kids at TC in Bolivia, hung the crocheted and knit things, organized the hand spun yarn and organized the spindles. I'm really proud of myself for making this work and when I do it again, I'll allow more time to plan, I only invited people the week before I held it. I had four or five people say they wanted to come but had already planned things to do. I've sent two registration fees in to two shows and I'll see how it turns out. I'm waiting for a response from another show that is supposed to send me a form to fill out as well. I feel motivated to keep trying and see how it all turns out.