Adventures at the Ren Fest 2019: Final Weekend

And another season comes to a close!

This long weekend, I met:

• A woman who started crying in the booth because the prices were “unreasonable.”
• Another woman who walked by my demo, pointing at me, saying “That is a massive pain in the ass.”
• A man, who came up to the very modern Spinolution Echo spinning wheel, and announced to everyone present that “this is a very old loom.”
• Another woman became very mad at me when I told her we were halfway between two bathrooms and which way was she heading. “I asked you which one was closest!”
• We really disappointed a woman who tried to sell us Great Pyrenees hair to spin.
• Another woman tried to sell us Samoyed hair. When we told her we weren’t interested, so got a little testy with Marci: “You told me it was the best hair to spin!” (She didn’t, in case you were wondering).
• Two teenage boys walked into the booth and watched Marci doing her spinning demo. “It’s a loom,” said one, and without skipping a beat, his friend said “It’s a spinning wheel, idiot.”
• A kid came up to my spinning demo and said “Cool! You’re making socks!” I told him I was actually making yarn, and he laughed: “You can’t trick me, I know you’re making socks.”

I also taught an 11-year-old boy how to spin! He was super into it, and that gave me hope for the next generation. He was getting ready to leave, and his mom asked him “Do you have any questions for her before we go?” He says “Oh yea! Can I ply on this thing?” I’m pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. What 11-year-old knows about plying?! It made my whole day.

I have an update on the Yarn Sign Mystery: On Sunday of this weekend, someone took down the both of the signs. Still, no one has come forward, so I suppose this mystery will remain in the unsolved files.

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Back to the fibers arts, I have a finished object to show off. Though, technically, I already have. It finally got cool enough to wear my Karakul needle-felted pelt, so here it is in its natural habitat:

As far as my spinning goes, I tackled a huge feat this weekend. Remember that industrial-sized batt I got from our Fiber Guild’s Tour de Fleece team? Over the course of the season, I spun the whole thing!

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I’m very proud! Overall, it was a wonderful season. Thank you to everyone who came out to see me, and I hope you’ll all come next year!