Spinners Day on the Farm

Who knew there was such a thing as Spinner's Day or that this was the 15th Annual gathering of hand spinners, knitters, fiber producers, and vendors in the greater Bay Area. I guess I'm glad I finally got a clue. Wow! June 9 was the best day in recent memory. The event was sponsored by Sonoma County Fibertrails and vendors at Westside Farms in Healdsburg. Google Maps was a little deceptive about the journey that we would have to make in order to reach bucolic Westside Farm, but we persevered, and arrived to find the parking lot was already pretty close to full. Rather than wait for the next hay ride, we chose to walk.

Gathered under a grove of oaks beyond the vineyard, were the vendors with bags of fleece: dyed, washed, or recently shorn from their sheep; or purveyors of spinning wheels, supported spindles, hand carding equipment, books, videos, and all other nick-nacs so essential to fiber enthusiasts. There were fiber mavens who had carded and dyed fleece into top or spun it into yarn that was ready to knit or crochet. It seemed everyone there was smiling while greeting friends or being kind to newcomers (like me and my husband). 

People set their dishes on the picnic tables for the pot-luck lunch, and then hurried off to join spinning circles. And more spinners kept arriving with their wheels atop a tractor-pulled trailer with hay bales. Soon the quiet, shady grove was a center of bustling activity with half-a-dozen large and small circles of spinners treadling and chatting over the whir of their wheels.

My husband and I picked up my hand carders and small bag of Romney fleece and headed out. Hopefully, the event will happen again next year and, maybe by then, I'll have the courage and know-how to get an entire fleece to wash and process!