Seabreeze Spinners » Local Events

Florida Cracker County

Tropical Twister — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 23:19:02 +0000

Cracker Country at the Florida State Fair Grounds in Tampa is an outdoor Florida living history museum. Early Florida cowboys urged cattle to move with cracking whips, thus the cowboys who used whips to drive cattle became known as “crackers”. Since then, native Floridians have been known as “crackers”.

Today was my first day as a “docent”/volunteer. I brought the mystery wheel as it likely dates from the 1850′s. The leather part that connects to footman to the treadle snaped and I discovered that I’d left my “repair kit” , leather shoelaces and such, in the mountains. I switched over to the Norwegian Box Loom and worked on my red & white tape.

I was on the porch with Lacy and with my new friend, Penny a spinner and weaver. The sponge I used to moisten my fingers and to dampen the flax, is from Tarpon Springs, the Greek community which had a thriving sponge business at the turn of the century. (It’s on the ledge to my left.) Penny was using a drop spindle to spin cotton. (The wheel she had planned to use was missing bobbins…boy were we a pair. LOL)

We also had a blacksmith, bee keeper, and rope maker.

It took five of us to make rope and a lot of twisting.

Other craftswomen included a chair caner:

And Karol & Ruth of “Pine Needle Perfections”. Their pine needle creations are amazing. I’m already planning to take a class with them. The basket detail is sliced walnut shells (absolutely beautiful…looks like the finest of carving)

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Master Weaver Looms

Tropical Twister — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:26:21 +0000

I’ve had a number of questions recently related to Master Weaver Looms. Apparently, the first Master Weaver Loom was a small version which was used much like a rigid heddle lap loom. The photos I’ve seen show a nicely turned dark wood loom. (I don’t have one but would love to find one.) It was somewhat delicate in appearance as opposed to it’s cousin, the large and much heaver Master Weaver III. The Master Weaver loom was a larger version of the lap loom. It was made from natural wood and heavier in frame without the wood turning. Both of these earlier versions were limited in warp by the size of the loom. The warp was “turned” onto the frame end over end so that the warp was 2 times the length of the loom. The final verison, the Master Weaver III (the loom seen under “My Looms”) had a back beam and can accept a longer warp and can be warped like a conventional loom. Once warped (either style) the “feet” on the long “legs” of the loom can be un screwed which lengthens the legs and tightens the warp.

Janet Meany at the Weaver’s Friend was very helpful and can provide copies of various instruction books with patterns is you’ve been lucky enough to find a Master Weaver Loom. Apparently the business reorganized several times and to my knowledge is no longer in business. Hope this helps.

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Cathching Up

Tropical Twister — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:05:11 +0000

I’ve abandoned the Ship’s Project project, for now. I’ve read updates and have learned that olive is not an acceptable color. I’ll get some red, white and blue and go at it again.

I have been busy. We have a batch of shawls ready for blessing next Sunday for the Shawl Ministry.

I’ve been carding llama to spin and then knit into a shawl/throw. The next two Saturdays, I’ll be demonstrating at the Manatee County Fair. I’ll load some photos of the crafts and the fair.

The results of my carding:

I plan to spin at the Fair. More soon.

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Computer Crash

Tropical Twister — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:25:57 +0000

Saturday, my computer lost connectivity with the internet but seemed to work well otherwise. In the process of getting it back on line, it appeared my husband had reformatted the hard drive. All photos gone, geneaology research, correspondence, the works. After two days and some “marital discord”, we’re both pretty hard headed, we got the computer going again. Apparently, he wiped out the drivers but the data was mostly still there. Once we reloaded the software (what a job), we found most of the data. Any way, that has been a major event and the blog has been down.

Saturday, I took some of my years “production” to the Manatee County Fair. I took three photos and 7 fiber items. Friday I had been frame shopping at Michaels and met a very nice couple who where also frame shopping. Saturday, I saw his hibiscus photo at the fair, beautiful … Lots of amazing photography which humbled me and my offerings. My singular consolation, when we thought we’d lost all my photos on the computer, I knew I had three photos.

Recently, I was honored to have been elected an elder at my church and was ordained today, Sunday. I also had the honor to serve communion for the first time. After receiving the challis from the pastor, I looked down to see a huge horse fly doing the breast stroke in the grape juice. We serve communion by intintion, that is participants dip the bread in the cup. Fortunately, we had a third challis on the alter and we made a quick substitution. For such a solemn ceremony, my friends assured me that only I would have to contend with the errant fly. I checked on that fly after the service, he was still treading grape juice. Yuck.

This has been my weekend. Thank you for all who have visited.

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Taste of Manatee

Tropical Twister — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:07:16 +0000

Saturday night and Sunday afternoon and evening, the West Bradenton Rotary sponsored the Taste of Manatee (for Manatee County, FL). While it threatened rain most of the day yesterday, it mostly held off and we had an amazing day. Their second year hosting the event, was a total success; to the extent that several vendors ran out of food at the end. The focus of the event was local bands and local food vendors.

Hats off to my husband and his fellow Rotarians volunteer; all the money over expenses goes directly to Rotary charities. Locally they support a number of not-for-profits including the dictionary project which puts dictionaries into the hands of all county fifth grade students, highway clean up (they actually pick-up the trash and bag it), Daily Bread (“soup kitchen”), homeless coalition, ; they also support international projects like the polio project which has all but irradicated Polio from the planet, shelter box which assembles all the needs of a family (food, water and so forth) and packs them with a tent and ships them to where ever a natural or man made disaster occurs, and the clean water project funding wells to provide clean water accross the world.

I worked as a “go for” and “manned” a ticket booth Sunday. The crowd was a delight, everyone seemed to be having a great time. The event went smoothly thanks to all the hours planning and organizing donated by the Rotarians. And we have a lot of local talent from crafters to cloggers and school drill teams & pep squads, and the bands … they were amazing!

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Trick or Trunk

Tropical Twister — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:07:20 +0000

What fun Halloween night. Our church sponsored a “trick or trunk” event. Notice Lacy went as a “watch dog”. Lots of fun.

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