And the Fling was Flung

This past weekend I had the first opportunity to really embrace my status as Minion for indigodragonfly at the Haliburton Highlands Fling. The Fling is an annual gathering for fans of Kim's yarn and a chance to enjoy the company of other fiber fans.

On Friday, Carla and I arrived to help get things set up and got to look in on Meghan Jackson, Butterfly Knits, teaching a class on her "Oh So Quiet" scarf. Everyone seemed to have a great time. After that more knitters showed up and we had a quiet knit night for those who arrived the night before. The actual day of Fling was a blast, I got to meet so many people I know from Rav in person. Also, some local and vacationing knitters heard and dropped in to buy yarn. While I did spend a good part of the day taking peoples money, I did get a chance to spin on some different wheels, including Kim's Ladybug, Sidekick and Matchless and Val's Louet S11 Julia. I may or may not be trying to figure out how to afford a Sidekick, it is an amazing wheel and one day I will be the owner of a Matchless (although not any time soon!). It was amazing I sat down at the wheels and my hands just started making the yarn I wanted them to, rather than fighting me like they do on my Traveller. Also using a wheel with a lower, centered Mother of All felt so much better for me. We also managed to convince Rayna (who just re-started her blog, go check her out) that she does need a spinning wheel, probably a Ladybug.

As well, I introduced a few others to the joys of rigid heddle weaving. We didn't have converts like Rayna, but others will fall to is charms as I have, I'm sure of it.

20120825-100050.jpg

In the end Carla and I ended up back in Parry Sound for bedtime on Saturday night and we managed to get our stuff put away and crashed.  I have spent the better part of a week recovering!

Also, I forgot to mention, Carla and I stopped at the Rosseau Market on the way to the Fling, and we got to see Heather from Pondering Rock Farm and Carla and I both scored lots of locally grown and spun wool.  We did hear the sad news that Heather had lost about 450lbs of her fleece to the Belle Vallee fire this spring.  Belle Vallee, near Temiskaming (Northern Ontario) was an amazing historic spinning mill that Heather used for her yarns.

I managed to score an amazing laceweight wool from her sheep Pic, it was her first cut from a few years back.  I have about 1,300 yds of amazing, sheepy yarn that I need to find a project for.  A first cut is just so special, Carla helped me make sure I didn't pass it up.

So that was the Fling.  I've managed to finish a few projects this week and getting them blocked and photographed is my goal for this weekend so I'm hoping that I will get them up on the blog in the next week or so.