Some of the first souls I met were SOAR veterans Pete and Carol Leonard, who travel each year from Great Britain. There are quite a few SOAR regulars, all of whom went out of their way to make a newbie like me feel welcome, and soon, I felt quite at home. So many new faces, and so few photos!
So, who did I get to know? And who was I clever enough to take pictures of?
There were, of course, the fabulous mentors, some of whom you have already met...
Demetrio Bautista Lazo...
Deb Menz...
Margaret Stove...
and Stephenie Gaustad, here with Jacey Boggs. (More about Jacey later.)
I spent much of the week with Kathryn Alexander, who posed glamourously for me...
... and who makes remarkable garments from yarn and does unnatural things to fibre with stunning results...
There were my classmates in the workshop, who were all wonderful to hang out with for 18 hours in a dim cavern, doing unnatural things to fibres ourselves...
There were a lot of spinners there, of all levels of experience, and with all sorts of different styles. We hung out in clumps, under the elk...
and out in the sunshine, when there was some!
I met the lovely Linda Ligon, founder of Interweave press and fairy godmother to scholarship recipients such as myself...
I got to sit at breakfasts, lunches, and dinners beside the mentors, all of whom are fabulous people, discussing the weather and craft and survival with Deanna Dailey, cracking cold weather jokes with Bobbi Daniels (who hails from Alaska). Sharing lunch with the camera-shy Sara Lamb, Deb Menz, Kathryn Alexander, and Gord Lendrum (yes, that Lendrum). Eating dinner with Jacey Boggs, who shared with me her secret desire to take this interesting little fibre arts college program that they offer in Canada. Oddly enough, I knew where there was a US off-campus class being offered by that Canadian college, which turned out to be half-an-hour from Jacey's home. So, with a little contemplation and a great deal of family juggleing, Ms. Jacey was able to join our little Master Spinner class in Sedalia. All because she sat beside the wrong woman at dinner one evening!
And I made a new BFF, my roommate Sarah Wilson...
The minute we met, literally in our hotel room doorway, we hit it off. Sarah is, well, relatively extroverted and has a sneaky, though occasionally lowbrow, sense of humor. She is also in love with color and texture and string. And she lives somewhere where she would rather not live. I cannot imagine why we get along, with so little in common...
And just so you know, Sarah is Miss June in the Spin-Off 2011 calendar. I was in the presence of a calendar girl!
We sat together at meals, and hung out in the evenings, sharing stories of families and exchanging opinions on yarn and the world in general. I'm so glad we got "stuck" together. In fact, Interweave book editor Anne Merrow called us "the best SOAR roomie match since Abby and Denny", whose pairing lives on in infamy.
The notoriety of Michelle and Sarah was confirmed on the last evening of SOAR, at the Farewell Spin-In.
'Twas the night before Halloween, and there was a costume theme in the air. While many did not dress up. I had taken my felted Medusa costume, and Sarah had made some preparations, too. When we showed up together for dinner, there were many questions as to our theme. Since we didn't have one, and both being naturally inclined to make something up on the spot, we came up with...
Prince Charles and Camilla! (Maybe you had to be there...it was HILARIOUS at the time!)
On top of that silliness, we plunged headlong, so to speak, into the Batts to Hats challenge at the spin-in. The challenge was to spin and create a wearable hat in one hour. We had to provide our own fibre, come up with a plan, and a strategy, then make the hat at the spin-in. There was some highly un-technical spinning...
...along with some frenzied knitting. Margaret Stove sat beside us and cheered us on, along with many other fans of speedy spinning. One spinner even lent me her wheel when mine started snagging the fat, furry yarn I was making! In the end, we had a hat that looked like a pumpkin, which was awarded Most Organic and Most Seasonal. Our prize, a 2011 Spin-Off calendar, was given to our champion, whose name I'm pretty sure was Elizabeth, for coming to the rescue with her wheel.
There were others who were into the Halloween spirit of the evening, including Sharon Costello...
as St. Distaff.
There was also a coven of witches across the room....
It was more fun than should be legal.
Those of you who are spinny types may have noticed that there has been a ridiculous amount of name-dropping in this post. That is the glory of SOAR. You get to meet all sorts of people, from brand new spinners, to the high priestesses of our craft like Judith McKenzie and Maggie Casey. They are all there, mixing an mingling with the common folk. I also met Sheryl, and Toni, and Annette, and Carol, and so very many others, far too numerous to name one by one. I have heard that SOAR has lost some of the intimacy it once had, because it has grown so popular, but I was very impressed by the sense of comraderie that existed with almost 300 people coming and going. People brought their babies, sat next to strangers at meals, and chatted with each other when they met in the ladies room. There were no barriers, and we were all one tribe for those 6 days and nights.
And then it was over. The next morning was full of tearful goodbyes, and promises to keep in touch. And I was off on the second leg of my great adventure...
