The buffalo I received, both times, was NOT soft. Would make a rug that
irritated your feet thru your shoes.
One of my favorite small knitting items (both small amounts of yarn and
small amounts of time) is a doggie sweater. My dog is 8 1/4 inches high and
pushes 6# (actually quite large for a Chihuahua). I have had to make up my
own patterns as I've never found one even billed as being for the smallest
dog that would fit her. Right now she has about 15 sweaters/coats, and all
but two are handspun.
How to become a spinning judge. Think I fell into it by default. I teach
spinning and am active in the local guild, I also have been entering the
county fair for over 25 years and know the superintendent of Fine Arts, have
worked there as a cooking judge, and helped. when they finally admitted
they realy didn't have anyone to judge the handspun and weaving, and
knitting with handspun, I suppose it was natural they asked me. I think I
had also been recommended by another spinner/weaver.
Judging the upcoming AZ Federation spinning contest - again think it is by
default. I taught a spinning class for their Conference in 2000 and was
scheduled to teach again in 2002 but lacked students so class was cancelled.
when they needed a judge for the contest I was not only known as a teacher,
but lived close to where the contest would be held. I will be joined in
judging this by the president of our local guild, who is a wonderful
spinner.
To be a good judge (I hope I am) you must be:
Absolutely impartial - judge the yarn on it's merits as seen in your
hand and nothing else
Be critical, but helpful in your comments. Just telling them what may
be "wrong" with the yarn is not enough, you need to give them positive
comments about what they can do to improve their spinning. To do this you
must be an accomplished spinner and know what is right/wrong with different
yarns. (ie - you need to work on keeping your drafted fibers equal, your
joins are weak, there are over and under spun areas in the yarn, the tension
when plying is not always even, there are slubs in the yarn from noils (or
VM) left when processing the fleece - try a different way of processing or
process(run thru the drum card more times) more completely before spinning).
To give a good critique:
You must have spun a huge variety of different fibers so you are
familiar with their characteristics - how do they spin, what are their
difficulties, any special techniques needed to be successful with them, what
is the best kind of yarn to spin with that particular fiber and WHY.
You must have spun a huge variety of different kinds of yarns - fat,
thin, multi ply, designer, fancy, "worsted", "woolen" (I think a teacher
should know the technical differences and technically correct ways to spin
each of these yarns - but lists have been thru that before so I'm just
saying I think it is important for a judge and no more). you hve to have
worked with hand carded, drum carded and combed fibers.
You need to have prepared lots of different wools from grease fleece to
finished articles. without having done this, you don't have a solid
background for knowing what yarn works for what project, and what fleeces
are best for what yarns, projects, etc. There are also so many ways to spin
a fleece, you should be aware of at least three or four and how they can
best be used to take advantage of the properties of the individual fleece
and highlight that fleece in a finished project.
You need to have worked with lots of other fibers from "start to finish",
whatever that is for that fiber. (Cotton boll to spun yarn, etc.)\
It is helpful if you use handspun in more than one product - ie knitting
(and knitting different kinds of things), crochet, weaving.
You don't have to be a big expert in any of these areas, just very familiar
with them so that you know problems that arise when spinning and what they
are, how they are caused/avoided, and what needs to be done to improve the
finished skein.
It is also helpful to have a judging criteria not just in your mind but
written out so you can mark each thing as excellent, good or needs
improvement, thereby giving you a good look at how the skein was spun and
giving the contestant a solid basis for your judging placement and critique.
Hope this helps - If you really want to judge I would contact the county
fair departments, 4-H etc. and volunteer. Have your "resume" written out
for them and a sample of your work. In my limited experience, many county
fairs are looking for good judges and when it comes to some of the more
"obscure" fine arts (sewing being well known, spinning rather obscure at
least in my area) they have no clue. I know for a fact that the first time
handspun was entered at our county fair it was judged by someone who had not
only never seen a skein of handspun yarn in her life before being presented
with an array of them at the fair, but had NO clue what handspinning even
involved.
This brings up another point. 7 yrs ago our county fair didn't have a
category for handspun yarns. Working with them - being very positive and
supportive and providing a huge entry for them to see we were really
interested, we not only had handspun broken out as a fine arts category but
within two years they also allowed us to designate knitting with handspun,
weaving with handspun, crochet with handspun. That makes a BIG difference
in the entries they receive, and the judging of those articles.
Ruthann in Southern AZ
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Delia (Az-Kik'n Tuff-E-Nuff Delia, CGC; TDI) Chihuahua
Boomer, CGC Toy Poodle
Come visit my website at:
http://home.mindspring.com/~hovowart
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