I went along to the Tennessee Valley Handspinners Guild monthly meeting yesterday (https://tnvalleyhandspinners.org/) in Knoxville. I followed the normal routine: leave home, drop by the Cleveland Panera for coffee and a bagel (I suspect this really is a routine as one employee now goes straight to the espresso machine to make my double latte even as I wait in line!), then hit the I-75 north for the hour trip from there. Generally traffic is light at 8:30 in the morning so it is an ideal cruise listening to the NPR Saturday morning radio shows (I don’t have much choice as my truck doesn’t have a CD player, Sirius Radio or an external input – unlike the PT Cruiser).
I arrived in plenty of time to help set up the chairs and tables and start spinning. I took some wool roving I had purchased quite a while back with the intention of producing yarn to weave cloth for a driving cap. The wool is from Mangham Manor Wool & Mohair in Charlottesville, VA. (www.wool.us). Anne and I visited on one of our VA tours.
The wool roving is naturally colored, the locks are not! I’ll spin each color with flecks of the different colored locks and then weave the cloth as twill with warp an weft using the different shades.
Evidently I was talking more than spinning as this is all I managed to get spun. Normally I can finish a whole bobbin during the meeting.
I have also signed up to volunteer at the Tennessee Valley Fair (Knoxville) in early September. They have spinners from the guild in the sheep and goat pavilion. This will be the first time for me, but the guild has been providing this service for a few years.