The first ever BritSpin was a fantastic event, more than 500,000 metres of yarn being spun by 25 teams of 10 spinners. But it absolutely was not just about the mileage.
My team, Team Tour of British Fleece, took 1st in Individual Breedathon and 2nd in Team Breedathon. Our team member ‘Treeflea’ span at least 50g of each of an incredible 16 different breeds or types of sheep over the four days, and when we discovered what she’d done we managed to find another 4 qualifying skeins to take 2nd in Team Breedathon. The team which won, The Rare Breeds, chalked up an amazing 42 different sheep between them.
Our team also won 2nd and 3rd in the ‘Spinners Relaxing’ Photo Competition, was narrowly pipped from joint third in ‘Spinning in Unusual Places’ Photo Competition (the worthy winner was spindling on a horse, in the rain - at a canter!
), and was 9th overall in the mileage department, with a total of 19,250 metres of qualifying yarn (we had some disallowed on technicalities, but our unofficial total was well over the Half Marathon!). Not bad when we weren’t even trying for mileages!
One of our members won a ‘Two New Skills’ Award, and another was the first to complete the Bakewell Bingo Card.
Another of our members span some of her 5,083 metres on a Turkish spindle, n-plying on the fly, and took 1st place in the Marathon Spindle with her yardage on that.
The donations to this year’s charity, the Association of Air Ambulances, have reached almost £3,500 (including Gift Aid) as I write. It’s not too late to donate if you would like, another £30 and we’ll have the £3,500...
BritSpin charity donationsWe had five spinning in my flat on the first day, and I can’t tell you how much fun we had. I was hosting an American travelling Raveller for the duration, and it was while giving her the gift of her first dip in the ocean for 46 years that we took our own ‘Spinning in Unusual Places’ photo, with two of us spindling on the beach
Did we enjoy it? We’re high as kites!!!
. Will we do it again? Can’t wait!!!
And many thanks to our fibre sponsor, Adam Curtis Online, for some very interesting and eminently spinnable Shetland blend tops.
Adam Curtis Online Pics are 1) Spinning in my flat on the first day; 2) Spindling in the beach-side cafe; 3) Spindling on the beach and 4) one spinner’s output - 2,633 metres, mostly spun in my flat on my Leicester (but not by me)
Topic: BritSpin writeup (Read 2054 times)
