Rock Day!

Yesterday was the Tulsa Handspinners' Guild annual Rock Day celebration.
Rock Day was traditionally the last hurrah before the spinners went back to work (a day ahead of the weavers) after the Christmas celebration.

For our Rock Day celebration we played lots of games and had good food.
Here's what I came home with (as far as stuff done in contests):

The pink and purple fiber that's on the crown is the stuff I won a Kromski niddy noddy for -- I got the longest length of fiber spun using a paper clip. Not a wheel, not a drop spindle, but a partially-unbent paper clip.

Moving clockwise, the bunch of easter grass and tinsel was horrible to spin, but at least now I can say I've done it. I ended up with about 10" of "yarn" and now I never have to do it again. LOL!

The black yarn at the bottom is made from a man's tie! I cut strips about 3/4" wide in a spiral going from the outside in. It actually makes a kind of neat yarn.

The next one, the cream with pink, teal, and violet bits, was the second contest I won. We were given a baggie of thrums, which are the parts cut off a loom after the weaving is finished. I chopped them up a bit and caught them in between two plies of wool to make an eyelash-type yarn. It really should be cabled to make it more secure as the thrums just pull out if you're not really really gentle, but it was fun to make!

In the center, the cream yarn is stuff we were given 30 minutes to spin. It wasn't prepped other than washed, and so I just kind of fluffed and shredded it with my fingers, then spun from a hand full.

The white stuff is a used dyer sheet. It was not terribly pleasant to spin, but between this and the tie I'm now convinced that I can spin just about anything. I was joking around that if the apocalypse comes, at least my family will be clothed. LOL!

I got this as a door prize:


It's 7.25 ounces of Ashland Bay Merino roving in the colorway English Garden. (The color isn't quite right in the picture.)

There were a bunch of vendors there, too, and I picked up a few things:

That's some merino in Sandalwood, from Ashland Bay. I got 8 ounces.

Up next is more Ashland Bay stuff, this time 80% Merino 20% Tussah silk:


I got these locks from Kate at Lowder Colours Farm, one of my good friends:

I can't remember exactly how much I got, but I'll weigh it again at some point.


Now onto the grab bags of fiber. Everyone got one of these for participating in the various contests.

This one is wool (of some kind), and has been washed and carded:


This is the first bag of three that I think is mohair, and it's quite...odoriferous. It's also full of VM and possibly dandruff.


Bag #2:

Bag #3:


I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, other than wash it a few times.

I got two bags of this wool:


I'm quite pleased with these two little bags of mohair locks, which seem clean and nice:


I managed to finish the shawl that I made for the Rock Day Challenge in time, which took about two weeks from starting to spin the fiber to blocking the shawl (although it would've been easier had I started a week or two earlier!!!). I got first place in the contest, which absolutely thrilled me. Here's the shawl:

And a gratuitous artsy shot:


I had a great time at Rock Day, although it kind of wore me out. LOL! I'm already looking forward to next year.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr day, so the kids are out of school. It's a good thing since Gillian was up until midnight at the Girl Scout sleepover at the Oklahoma Aquarium last night.

I hope all of you have had a great weekend!