Back in May or June my mom brought up the idea of a spinning-wheel party that she wanted to throw for the spinners in the Spinning/Weaving guild I've been attending since last October.

First things first - It took us some time but by late July we nailed down a date that the largest number of us could make it for, this happened to be the 4th week in August - our usual spinning week for each moth.

Once we had a date, mom called up Paradise Fibers for some fiber suggestions. She generously ordered us 11 different fibers to try! Paradise fibers sent 3 more fibers for a whopping 14 types of fiber!

I broke each of these fibers into 12 4"-6" samples (whatever came to about .10oz) and numbered them like this;

1. Paradise Fibers Microblends Opal Spinning Fiber
2. Ashland Bay Tencel - Black
3. Louet Hemp Top Spinning Fiber 7.121
4. Paradise Fibers "White Vanilla" Alpaca Top
5. Black Diamond Bamboo Top Spinning Fiber
6. Baby Camel Down Natural Brown
7. Paradise Fibers Natural Flax Top/Roving Vegetable Fiber
8. Special Merino Tencel SuperWash Spinning Fiber (White) 50/50
9. Gotland Lambswool Top-Spinning Fiber
10. Sweet Grass Targhee Wool Top (Natural White)
11. Ashland Bay Blue Face Leicester Top
12. Paradise Fibers Natural (Honey Gold Color) Soy Silk Spinning Fiber
13. Black Welsh Mountain Top
14. Ashland Bay Corriedale Cross (this is actually Natural Fawn not ecru like the link)

I made up a price list that corresponded to the numbers and attached a paradise fibers card to each one since they were all purchased there. Then I did up a paper with just a list of the names and a place for the numbers left blank so that I could make a game of it and have the ladies guess which fiber was which. One of each of all the fibers went into a bag, I did up 12 even though I only expected 8, I didn't want to be wrong and come up short!

I was glad I'd done all 12, by time everyone had arrived for the party we had 8 spinning wheels and 9 spinners present -- look at all those spinning wheels!

One woman who was expected was unable to come at the last minute, so I set a side one of the bags of fiber for her and then saved one to bring out to the guild building to keep there for future orders. So it turned out that I used all but 1 of the bags - I was really glad I'd done up all 12!

Once everyone got there I we passed out the fibers and the sheets with the list of names out of order and the numbers left off for the ladies to try and fill in themselves. I knew some would like it, but I was afraid that a few of the ladies might be bored or annoyed with the guessing game, but they actually really enjoyed it! I had a prize for who knew the most (one woman had 12 of the 14! Just had the hemp and flax switched) and a random door prize, but one woman only got 2 right and was a good enough sport to admit it, so we all decided to forgo the random drawing and give her the prize!

When we finished that we headed in for lunch - I did up Raspberry Italian Sodas, with organic raspberry syrup and organic cream (it's organic therefore it's healthy.) and mom had prepared a pasta salad. Most ladies had also brought a lunch.

When lunch was over we went back out and started trying some of the fibers. It was a lot of fun to see how different people spun it up different ways or hear the different opinions and favorites of everyone. I didn't spin much, I ended up wandering around and watching what everyone else was doing! One woman who was spinning but was going to do the plying at home had all the fibers piled up in stripes - it looked so cool. Another who had come with 2 empty bobbins would go ahead and Navajo ply everything and then show it around while everyone expressed their opinions on that fiber whether they liked it more or less once it was spun up, or what you might use it for.

When things started to wind down and there were just a few ladies left one of them asked if they could hear my harp, so I brought out my lever harp to them and played a coupls songs, we ended on that note (no pun intended) and everyone left... or so I'd though, one woman came back to ask if we had something long to help them get into their locked car... lol.
She, and another lady with her daughter had carpooled with here and were locked out of the car 25 miles from home (and at least that far from any locksmith). They had left the window open a crack, so we pulled got a walking stick and tried and tried to hit the automatic lock button, one stick was too short to reach, another stick was too long to maneuver... Finally I realized that my arm would fit about halfway in the window, not far enough to hit the button, but far enough to move my wrist and hold the walking stick, which was too short just stuck in the window. But it was a short car and I'm a tallish person - my arm was still a tight fit and the stick was heavy, so I couldn't see what I was doing, and my control wasn't the best, with directions of "Up a little... not that much - down a little... right just a tiny bit... too far... back... good! up... up... push the button!" we finally got the car unlocked. I was sure to inform them that if they ever dropped their keys on the wrong side of a chain link fence, I could get those for them too (I know this from personal experience).

All the ladies want to do it again next year, they really appreciate all my mom did to put it on (and I do too - thanks mom!) - and next time they want to put in a contribution for the fiber. They also want me to set up the guessing game again. Despite the 30 minute drive that many of them had to make to come out here - they really liked the setting my parents had for it - early on we moved a few yards over into the area of the yard that has our volleyball net up, it's mostly surrounded by big trees and less clover in the grass, so we weren't sitting right in the sun and there were less bees. We all got to spin and chat while sitting with God's glorious creation all around us... in one direction you look into a green forest in another direction a little dirt lane going into the woods, then finally you look up and see an evergreen covered foothill looming over it all that us locals know is only the beginnings of the mountains that we're so blessed to live right by...