Spinzilla 2014

June 15, 2014

The second annual Spinzilla is right around the corner–one month from Saturday to be exact. Before we get into the fun and the fury of Spinzilla, its good to remember why we are participating in this event. Spinzilla, at its core, is a fundraising program for the Needle Arts Mentoring Program to “promote and encourage relationships between adults and youth, fostering curiosity, creativity and a feeling of achievement through the teaching of needle arts.” Your registration fees are what fund this amazing program. We believe in this so much that we are one of the three Yak sponsors of the event.

Now a global event, Spinzilla is connecting over 50 teams representing 1400 spinners from around the world. We are keeping an eye on the team from Bolivia, filled with life-long spinners. We are sure they will be major contenders. Last year as a spinning community, we raised over $6,000 and spun 1,373,175.06 yds (780.2 miles) of yarn; we can’t begin to measure the amount of fun we had.

You have a month to get ready, and it is never too early to prepare. Here is a brief checklist to keep in mind:

Is your wheel in working order? Tune up your wheel to make sure that it will spin with ease.

Do you have the right equipment? Spinning wheel oil, whorls (high-speed), threading hooks, niddy noddy, yardage counter, Ultra Umbrella Swift, etc. Check in with your Schacht Dealer for supplies.

Enough bobbins? During Spinzilla if you choose not to ply, you can transfer your yarn from your spinning wheel bobbins to cardboard spools or 6″ weaving bobbins, an effective and wallet-friendly way to store your yarn.

Tip: Weigh all of your bobbins when they are empty and make a note of each one before Spinzilla. This makes the measuring process more accurate later if you are weighing your yarn.

Do you have enough fiber? You don’t want to be caught short of fiber during the week. To help assess whether your fiber will be enough for the week, test how long it takes to spin an ounce of fiber close to the type you plan on spinning, and then realistically think about how many hours you might spin during the week. After a little bit of math, you’ll know about how many ounces you can spin.

Are you physically ready? When spinning for long stretches, be sure to stretch and take breaks at regular intervals to prevent injuries to wrists and hands.

Are you mentally ready? Though highly meditative, spinning for hours in front of the wheel can be monotonous. Keep interested by listening to books on tape, watching movies or t.v. shows, or have some friends over and chat while spinning. Whatever you do, make it fun!

Is your family ready? If they don’t already know, you might want to prepare your family by informing them that you might not be able to be interrupted…for a week. Tell them it’s for a good cause (which it is!) if they are skeptical.

If you have any tips or tricks to be more efficient for Spinzilla, post them in the comments below, or share them with us on Facebook! We will be blogging more often that week, so subscribe and keep up with the news!

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