International Back to Back Wool Challenge Silent Auction + Craft Sale + Tea

Come watch the Inverness County team shear a sheep, spin the wool and knit a sweater... all in one day!   This is taking place at the Scotsville School of Crafts, Scotsville, Lake Ainslie, on Saturday, May 21st.  Starting at 9 AM and continuing until the sweater is completed.  All proceeds raised through this competition go to Central Inverness County Palliative Care Society.

Phone: 258.3838 or 787.2770 or 945.2146 or 945.2256 or 756-9084 or 248-2595 or 258-2312

All Ages Welcome!

(Hey, check out the super cute knitting sheep on the poster, too!)

Wow, hard to believe it's been almost a month now that CBFA has been live - and almost a month since my last blog post! I've been down for the count for a while with a nasty cold but finally went to the doctor yesterday and came home armed with four (4!) new prescriptions. Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, my germs should be a thing of the past in no time, which means I'll be more able to stay on top of ALL THE (fibery) THINGS, at least for a while.

Had I been on my game, I would have posted last week about the De-Stashing Sale at the Cedars Club in Sydney last weekend before it happened. It was amazing! There were over 25 tables filled with craft supplies that needed a new home - and many new homes were found! I went and filled two tables in spite of my germs (never could have done it without TONS of help from my friend Sandra, even if I had been feeling 100% - thank you, Sandra!) and came home several bulky things lighter, for which I was truly thankful. It's taken me most of the following week to get things put away again and I'm still not done, but at least now I have a much better idea of just what I've got in my prodigious stash and there might be a few folks out there interested in lightening it further. You know anyone who'd be interested in basketry supplies, buttons, purse findings, zippers, or #3 zipper coil (with sliders!), you send them to me!

If you check out the calendar, you'll see that the De-Stashing Sale was just one Saturday out of a whole series of 'em on which fun stuff will be happening. Tomorrow in particular is one that I'm excited about: it's the Spinthrifts 2nd Annual Back to Back Challenge! I'll make an announcement with all the deets in a bit, or you can go check out the flyer right now, or you can even find it on Facebook if you're into that sort of thing, but first I want to say how much I'm looking forward to this! My friend Chris and I are going over today and staying the night Friday and Saturday so that we're there with the team from the time the clock starts to the moment when the last seam is sewn. We did the same last year and it was great!

The deal is that a team of seven knitters and spinners (plus one sheep and one shearer) work like mad to take a fleece straight from the sheep's back, spin it, ply it, and then knit it into a full sized, adult's sweater - all in one go. There's a strict pattern they must follow, and strict rules as well, and there are teams all over the world doing exactly the same thing all during the Spring, all of whom are using their events to raise money for cancer related charities. Last year 12 teams competed around the world and three of them were from Nova Scotia! There was also a team in Toronto, meaning that Canada represented 1/3 of all the teams in the world - how cool is that!? In fact, I think the Toronto team won again last year, but don't quote me on that 'cause I'm not 100% sure it's true. They have won in the past, at least, and those ladies are freaky fast knitters 'cause they did it in less than 5 hours!  We Nova Scotians tend to take a bit longer but I've heard rumours that the Spinthrifts are hoping to finish before dark this year. I can't wait to go and cheer them on as they make the attempt!

They're going to have a craft sale, and a tea, and a silent auction, and I suspect prizes awarded for other kinds of contests like their "three bags full" contest last year for which you had to guess the total weight of three giant bags of fleece. All of this is happening at the Scottsville School of Crafts on Lake Ainslie, and all of it is to raise funds for their chosen organization: the Central Inverness County Palliative Care Society. Last year they raised over $1000 (a goodly chunk of which came from me - I won so many cool things in their silent auction!).

There are lots more events coming up on the calendar, too: there's WeaveFest on May 28th in Charlottetown, another Nova Scotian Back to Back Challenge on June 4th near Wolfville at Gaspereau Valley Fibres, and Fibre Fest at the Gagetown Fibre Emporium on the June 11 - which is also World Wide Knit in Public Day - just to name three.  If you know of any more, please please please let me know so I can add them to the calendar!

- Janet