# Reporting live from Olds Fibre Week (Alberta)



## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Hello fibre fans, this is Frazzlehead, reporting live from Olds Fibre Week, on the beautiful campus of Olds College in south central Alberta.

Yes, folks, it is a lovely place - yesterday afternoon there was a wedding party taking pictures in the beautiful gardens.










Just another benefit of housing your fibre convention at a school that teaches horticulture and turf management!

Fibre events kicked off last night with a welcome social - though your friendly reporter was busy having dinner with her sister (the recipient of the Sylvi coat) and brother-in-law, so missed out on the speeches. We did, however, wander over to check out the merchant mall later in the evening - there are tables of raw fleeces (there is a fleece show, and there's actually a course where the fleece judge teaches people how to judge wool and alpaca and cashmere, then the judged fleeces are sold in a silent auction). The marvellous vendors are here as well - beautiful, beautiful fibre, lovely patterns and kits, tools of all descriptions. My LYS (well, it's an hour away from where I live, but that's considered local in my world) is here, and there are vendors from BC as well as other places.

The FrazzleMobile is parked in the RV lot (a regular parking lot that has electrical plug ins - guys, this is Canada, you have to plug in your car in the winter or it won't start) ... but a nice bonus is that the lot is right across from the fields where the horses are, so looking out my window I see several beautiful brown horses, possibly racehorses as there is a jockey training program here as well as a farrier program.

I'm awake way too early as it started to rain last night and the temperature dropped considerably (it's about 8 degrees C outside at the moment, and raining) ... though I have a heater and lots of blankets, the chill coming off the window glass beside the bed was annoying. Eventually I got up and rigged a wool blanket curtain (love natural fibres!) and it's much warmer now ... that I'm completely awake.

Today's class is "Coils with a Twist":
_Explore your creative spinning side by learning the techniques involved in designing and spinning beehive/seashell coil-style novelty art yarns including thick-and-thin spinning, choosing and dying appropriate fibres, and fibre blending techniques. You will improve your overall spinning and fibre handling technique repertoire, while blending in a good dose of fun, imagination, and originality! Suitable for intermediate spinners who have basic spinning skills including spinning singles and plying. Knowledge of basic principles of twist and balance in yarns would be helpful. _

Apparently we're going to learn to make this kind of yarn! Should be fun. This is a class for the Babe wheel, for sure.

Anyone who lives out this way or travels this direction once in awhile should give some real thought to coming to Fibre Week. I know it's smaller than some of the big US festivals, but there are a lot of really awesome classes and the atmosphere is so friendly and relaxed (we're Canadian, after all, of course we're friendly! and polite, too!). It's held the last week of June, generally, so plan to come!

More updates later ... time to refill the coffee cup!


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Oh, what fun! 

I will be staying tuned to the Frazzlehead Channel and awaiting more updates.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Add me to that, Me Too! Frazzle you have us on the edge of our seats. Looks like you are having some good weather at least the sun is shining in that picture.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

I learned to make Coils! More updates tomorrow - it's way easier than you'd think and it looks SO awesome.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

It's 'tomorrow'!

The FrazzleHead channel isn't coming in too clear in the States ... I'll check in later!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Her brain is probably a little fuzzy :hysterical:


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

that yarn is amazing! Hope she unfuzzes soon!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Yes, Marchie, my brain is fuzzy - I must switch to worsted spinning and get rid of all that fuzz! 

Okay gang, here is today's update!

Fibre Week is way lots of fun. 

Yesterday's class was "Coils with a Twist" - we spun thick-and-thin yarns (which is what we all do by accident when we start spinning, and then have trouble learning to do on purpose later) and then plyed it with commercial knitting cotton to make really interesting art yarn with bumps and seashells and coils in it. It really does neat things with super (insanely) bright dyed rovings! The instructor had a shawl knit in garter stitch on huge needles (20 mm I think she said) which worked beautifully with the art yarn.

Today I was in day 1 of my "Design your Yarn" class. I rarely spin coloured batts, as I am usually working with my own wool (intermiddlingly processed by me, and if I dye, I usually do it after spinning) so this was a huge treat - we played with batts that were different colours and blended them ourselves to see what happened; then we took batts that were prepped and spun them in different ways to see what the various kinds of coloured batts looked like spun up.

Tonight we had a 'spin in' sponsored by the Alpaca people and my friends helped me lug my collection of antique wheels over and we showed the world (well, this part of it) that old wheels are beautiful AND still productive! We had lots of people try them out, and adore them (of course), and we did lots of spinning of various kinds of alpaca. Just before I left for the evening, Patsy Zawistowski came by and spun on my Czech Lateral Treadle wheel for awhile, then tried the CPW. It was so cool watching an expert spin on those wheels - she has such lovely smooth technique, and she is just a lovely, charming person to talk to!

So, we are having a great time and I can honestly say "WISH YOU WERE HERE!"


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

I wish I was there too. 

Thanks for the update. You better be getting pics of all these great doings. (It is easy to forget). 

Sounds so fun!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Patsy Z is a wonderful person. I've taken several classes with her. She has the patients of a saint 

Thank you Frazzle for taking the time to post about your adventures. I know what it's like to come out of those lasses with a head full of inspiration and lots of wonderful fuzzy thoughts. It isn't always easy to condense it all into words. At least for me it takes a few days to process everything.

Enjoy your days!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Well, WIHH when you meet Patsy Z again, tell her you know Frazzlehead - whose CPW she spun on at Olds! I agree, she is such a sweet person. 

I am up way too early after not sleeping well but I'm sure a cup of tea and some fibre will restore me. More later!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

I'll add some pictures later but here's another update:

Yesterday I sat in the lobby and knit up the samples I'd spun in my "make interesting yarn class" into a drop stitch scarf. It's quite umm... emphatic, colorwise, but it's an awesome reminder of all I learned and I can look at the different yarns and along with the instructions we got in class, I can reproduce them if I want to. I'll never go look up how I did stuff on little index cards or in a binder but I will look on my scarf and go "oh yeah, thick and thin would be cool with this fibre!" and try that.

I also knit up the coil yarn into a long scarf which I then wrapped around my head to hold my frazzlehead hair out of my face. It is a very sparkly yarn with a silver crochet thread core, so it's quite a bit beyond my normal comfort zone but it sure is fun (and around here nobody thinks that sort of thing is peculiar).

In the afternoon my friend and I went to the library at the college here where they store the binders that people turn in for their big final project (the master spinner is a 6 year program and in year 6 they do like a big research thing). I read about growing and spinning hemp fibre, retting and spinning nettles, spinning luxury fibre on the great wheel, and dyeing with woad. There were more books over there, I might go back today.

Now that I've had my breakfast I think I'll take one of my wheels over to the main building and spin, I'm working on spinning up a bunch of fibre for my brother in law's graduation (which is next year) when *he* gets his masters (I'm gonna be the only one in this family without a masters degree by the looks of things) .. I want to weave him a blanket from handspun. 

Stay tuned for more updates from Fibre Week!


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Great report.

Can't wait to see your creations! 

I would love to be able to look through a MS binder!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Pictures and more details on my classes are posted here!

WIHH, I don't think I'll be pursuing Master Spinner - my friend Flannelberry is, and it's really an excellent program ... just not for me. It does take a lot of time and I'm much more of a free spirit Montessori style learner. Though I think I could benefit from the additional practice and so on, my plan is to do an 'intensive breed study' on the fibres I have ready access to (mostly Icelandic and Down breeds) and see what I can do with what I have readily available. I'm a locaspinner (like there are locavores and so on) ... I want to get good with the products that are local to me (like, in my own pasture!), and mostly that requires a willingness to practice and some experimentation. I'm good with that!


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

frazzlehead said:


> WIHH, I don't think I'll be pursuing Master Spinner - my friend Flannelberry is, and it's really an excellent program ...



Flannelberry?? 

:happy:

I 'know' her from another online forum. I think she's the one that sends me fiber from the Upper Canadian Mill


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Yep - Flannelberry is here and here.

She and another spinning student made Viking Combs outside the motorhome tonight (with nails and wood and my power drill - which I brought for the Lazy Fred). We have way too much fun here!


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## PKBoo (Apr 10, 2008)

Frazzle - thanks so much for sharing your week with us! The descriptions in your blog (and the pictures!) are awesome! I love being able to live vicariously through this site! :goodjob:

Can't wait to see what the rest of the week brings :bouncy:


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Darn, different Flannelberry


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Frazzle you are so good at all of this, keeping us posted, and generating enthusiasm. Thank you! I too know a Flannelberry and I'm not sure from where. Cyndi maybe you and I know the same one. Wasn't she a member here for a bit? Anyway, that MS program is really excellent but really tough, I've known several people who have either gone through the whole program or attempted and not met the challenge. I think it was the Canadian program, I'm not sure if there is one in America but I bet there is.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Marchie, I know two Master Spinners. I'll ask them next time I see them. Or I'll shot them an email.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Yes, Flannelberry used to be a member here. She had Icelandic sheep - and I now have her flock (she had to let them go for a variety of reasons, and now they live here!) She's also Flannelberry on Rav.

The American program you might be thinking of is the Handspinning Certificate of Excellence - I looked into that one too and pretty much had the same reaction: although I'd love to learn all that cool stuff, I can't afford the time and money, plus, I seem to be doing just fine with my self-directed style ... I keep expecting to show up in class and look like a total dork 'cause I'm doing some really weird wrong thing, but it seems that the old adage of "did you make yarn? did you like it? then you're doing it right!" is really quite true! If you make yarn .. and it holds together and it's useable and you like it ... well, how you got there is "right" (and, coincidentally, you probably 'got there' using one of the fairly tried and true methods, with a few personalizations of course, but you know, there are only so many ways to put twist into fibre, and if you have it working, there's probably some technical name for it ... but do you need to know? I don't!)

For instance, I learned what "double drafting" means: do a long draw and fix the thick spots. Oh. Well, I do that all the time - I thought that was just part of doing long draw if you weren't really good. Turns out, it's just another technique. Cool, eh?


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Ha Frazzle, you sound like me. I don't think I could be a technical spinner or at least not one who is so precise. I'm much more like you a fiber free spirit. I've taken enough technical workshops to know how to do it, "that" way but I'd rather get there my way. And as you have discovered it's all right


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## Katherine in KY (May 11, 2002)

Frazzle, thanks so much for posting your adventures--sounds like you're having a terrific week, one to be envied! The Olds MS program is now offered in the US in several locations I think. It started in Okalahoma, then North Carolina, and someone just posted on another forum about Levels One and Two in Missouri. I'd love to do it for the discipline of learning all kinds of spinning, but I've had enough schooling in my life and don't want to be tied to a set curriculum. Spinning is supposed to be fun and lead you where it may


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Here we go, some pictures!

I took several antique wheels with me to Fibre Week (some of which were being delievered to their real owners, after being fostered here, and some which were looking for new homes - one of which did get rehomed) and of course my Jacqueline the CPW, who needed to come with me to class!

Let's see if these pictures will post...








We have the Czech lateral treadle, being spun on by a lovely 16 year old girl who was a fabulous spinner (her family gave her the week at Olds Fibre Week as her birthday present, and her Dad brought her all the way from Manitoba). Then you see another person on her drop spindle; my friend (whom I met at Fibre Week 2 years ago at the spin in) on the somewhat persnickety metal flyer wheel; Flannelberry on Seamus, her antique castle wheel that was rescued from a bad paint job w(e think he's fairly old and then got lost trying to find himself during the 60's and ended up painted sunshine yellow, poor guy); Jacqueline (waiting for me to sit back down); and the little Hutterite wheel (which now belongs to someone else!). 

Just as we were getting ready to head home for the night, Patsy Z (famous spinning teacher) dropped by and gave the lateral treadle and Jacqueline a test run. Wow, can that lady ever spin - the smoothest long draw I've ever seen! She's also a very, very nice person and really sweet to talk to.










It was a lot of fun, and I highly encourage anyone who spins/knits/weaves and is in this part of the world in late June to check out Olds Fibre Week - you'll be amazed at what you can learn, and just hanging out with all the people who are similarly addicted is so much fun!


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## weever (Oct 1, 2006)

Just checking in late here--sounds like you had a great time!


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