Close Encounter of the Weird Kind

A couple of weeks ago we got a message that someone was putting on a "FolkFest" and a "ScareFest" at the Prairie Capital Convention Center.  Weird combination, right?  As things winkled out, a "major cable network" with a "reputable reputation" was filming a reality series pilot to be centered around convention centers.  They threw these 2 events together in a short amount of time and invited folk art vendors to come and sell during the event.  It was free for vendors and free for the public and everyone got what they paid for.  But we had fun trying to speculate what the "reality" portion of the show was.

I said that I would come on Saturday for the 2:30-6:30 time slot to demonstrate bobbin lace and spinning cotton from seed.  I wasn't sure how many kids would be there and that's a real crowd pleaser for kids.  Come to find out, there weren't that many kids and there weren't that many adults other than the ones dressed in weird costumes or covered with fake blood and guts.  It was a nice crowd but it was a little odd to see these folks learning to square dance with square dancers dressed in their square dance finest.

But as weird as it was, getting to meet the other vendors was a nice little perk and I got to demonstrate bobbin lace to people who'd never seen it or heard of it.  In fact, of everyone (except my friends who hear about it all the time), there was only 1 lady who knew what it was.  She had just come from a trip to the Netherlands where she'd seen bobbin lace and bought a starter kit.  Unfortunately she lives quite a way from Springfield but I told her I'd help her get started.

In order to have something on the pillow that I thought I could work and still talk to people, I started a doily.

I know I'm probably supposed to work the center at the same time as the edging but the book seemed to indicate doing them separately and I wanted people to be able to see what I was doing.  The leaves are a little bit here and there because I was talking through most of them but I'm having a lot of fun with this one.  I'm certainly getting a lot of practice doing the leaves and plaits. 

I started it last Thursday night and have been able to get about a third of the way around.  That's what happens when you get to sit for 4 hours and work away, right?!

Oh, and if you can get hold of the next issue of PieceWork Magazine, there will be a short article from yours truly on bobbin lace.  I had a much larger article and project accepted but they decided they'd run out of space and so they cut down the article and cut out the project.  Once I get everything back, however, I'll put the project together and get it online.