I had a great time at BSG this year; this was my 2nd year attending and 2nd time camping at the fairgrounds.
All three of my classes were excellent. I had heard such good things about Judith MacKenzie-McCuin’s Popular Weel Mechanics workshop that I was wondering if it could possibly live up to expectations. It did. One of the most useful things she did was line up several of the spinning wheels in attendance and use them to demonstrate the evolution of wheels. I also now understand what is going on with “slow” vs. “fast” pulleys (whorls) and how it changes what is happening when you spin. One thing she did that was so simple but really informative was to demonstrate step-by-step what happened the the yarn produced when she loosened the tension gradually on each sized pulley going from the largest pulley to the smallest. Since taking the class, I’ve been exploring all the different possible combinations on my wheel (Schacht Ladybug) to get the yarn I want. I am much more confident about how my wheel works and what I can do to adjust it.
The thing that impressed me most about Lace Knitting: Beginnings and Endings taught by Cynthia Heeren was how organized the instructor was. That doesn’t sound like a big deal but I walked away with more usable information and hands-on knowledge than I ever have from a 3-hour knitting class because of the way she prepared. Her handouts were well done, and came in a folder, in the right order, and 3-hole-punched to put into a binder. She had the class materials put together in ziplock bags, even the little balls of lace knitting yarn were lined up in the bag in the order that you would be using them. This made it possible for her to cover a lot of information and have time for practicing the techniques. I was particularly interested in how to finish (weave in ends, block, etc.) lace projects and she gave me exactly the information I needed.
On Sunday I took Natural Dyes Are Not Dull! taught by Laura Cunningham. This class is best described by showing the sample yarns we dyed in class. From left to right are: indigo, osage orange overdyed with indigo, osage orange, osage orange overdyed with cochineal, cochineal, indigo overdyed with cochineal, lacmadder, and quebracho green. I had read a lot about natural dying before; but now, after this class, I don’t have any doubts that I could do it myself. I would highly recommend it to someone who wants to get started doing natural dying.
I enjoyed getting to hang out with everyone at the BSG, playing Blacksheep Bingo, and shopping. My big purchase was a woolee winder for the my Ladybug. Nathan was extremely helpful about getting the woolee winder working for me.
I am looking forward to Blacksheep 2010.
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