Olds Fibre Week

Wow, what a great weekend!  I planned to post everyday but by the end of the day I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as I sat down.  This will be mostly a picture post with a little bit of commentary.

As you can see the grounds are beautiful.  Although there has been terrible flooding in Alberta during this time, the rain helped make these grounds even more lush (although the mosquitoes were relentless).

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Jeremy found a really cool wetland area on the college grounds that has a great walking path that lead up to a gazebo that would be a great spot to relax and read a book (or knit). 

There are also barns on campus, we visited the horses and their babies <3

One thing that could be good or bad depending on how strong your will power is... there are always items for sale, at really great prices and available everywhere you look. This spinning wheel was for sale and looked very interesting.

I helped out with the wool show again this year.  I had fun scribing, laying out the fleeces into sheep shape and filling out the judging cards.  We had over 50 fleeces this year.  The wool judge, although a tough marker, showed a lot of knowledge and kept the audience - yes we had an audience, interested.  The whole point of the wool show is to educate and I believe we achieved that.  We spent the day laughing and making friends.  The following day was the wool auction.  People could bid on fleeces based on the judges marks/comments or by feeling the fleeces themselves.  As usual the auction was a big success, people went a little crazy when it came down to crunch time but that's part of the fun ;P

There is also another auction which creates a lot of excitement and wow there were so many great items to chose from.  I bid on a couple things and won a couple bags of cotton.  There was fibre of all kinds, fibre tools, a spinning wheel, an antique sock knitting machine (!) bags, books, clothing and SO much more.

There are social events put on by the college every night during the weekend.  I went to see a fellow guild member talk about how spinning changed her life.  Colleen Nimetz is a master spinner and is a silk expert.  She talked about her time spent at a silk farm in Laos and all the work that's goes into reeling silk.  The most impressive part about her presentation is at the end she showed a picture of her sitting with a live tiger and spinning tiger fibre on her Tabachek spindle... now that's cool!!  We also went to a pub night in honour of Shuttleworks who became a Titanium sponsor this year.  There is also the fashion show on the last night, you can see all the wonderful work people do and all the talent that surrounds you during Fibre Week. 

Saturday we stayed up late to watch the fireworks put on by the college to celebrate their 100th year.  I have to say the show was VERY well done!  A lot of thought and effort was put into it.  They shot off fireworks to music and they were perfectly timed.  They even had fireworks that when they exploded they made hearts and the number 100.  Well worth the wait!

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Olds is a beautiful town and had lots to offer during our visit.  We also checked out the Summer Oldstice street fair and car show and ate at the BEST restaurant ever called Stonewood Grill.  Can't wait for next year.