Visiting The Fold
Friday morning we drove out to The Fold, about an hour from our hotel, going from city, to suburb, to country. It was a nice sunny day and we were driving past cornfields and farms, and houses. We almost drove straight past The Fold because it looked like just another house. There were whole walls filled with fibre. Dyed and undyed, blends and colours, soft and not so soft. Spindles I've heard of but never seen (Avi Wasserman and Cascabeles), and lots of spinning wheels.
We lined up a Majacraft Rose, a Lendrum, and a Majacraft Suzie Pro. Toni said I had to try the Lendrum but I started with the Rose and some merino roving from my stash. Spinning was almost effortless, treadling was easy and I was spinning really thin without trying. Next up was the Lendrum, which I admit is a nice wheel. The weird lean towards me and the bobbin poking out the back were odd at first, but it was easy to spin on, just not much of an upgrade from a Louet S10. The Suzie Pro and I did not get along. The treadling was more difficult, couldn't spin as thin, it just didn't feel as good as the Rose. I'm sure I could have mastered her in time, and I know it's a good wheel, but the Rose was just more me, and I spun for a while longer on the Rose after putting the Suzie Pro aside.
The price tag on the Rose is a fair chunk of change to dump down on a spinning wheel, especially when you already have a spinning wheel. I dithered and wandered off to explore the Socks That Rock mill ends and rare gems being packed for Rhinebeck, picking out a sky blue mill-end that was almost but not quite the blue of my old school uniform. Wandered through the rest of the store looking at yarn and fibre, picked out 2oz of gorgeous tawny Polwarth, and came back to the main room a shade too early. A minute later and Hubby would have had the box with the Majacraft Rose in the car, packed and ready to go. He'd decided while I was off dithering. He'd decided before we even left St Louis. Toni sent us off with a pillow-sized clump of Targhee fibre and threw in the skein of Socks that Rock too. The Rose is now safely ensconced in a top-secret location until Christmas. Roll on Christmas!
Driving back to the hotel, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. We ended up at a T junction we hadn't seen before, turned around and finally found a sign pointing back to the highway a different route than we came in on. I thought we'd never get out of there! The roads weren't always labelled and I was starting to panic because all we had were written directions and no map. Happily we made it out alive, though I'd love to go back and visit another time.