In the event of a zombie or nuclear apocalypse, a liberal arts graduate is, perhaps, not the most useful person to have in your survival camp. I have a Bachelor of Arts in English (with distinction, but that's beside the point) and my degree qualifies me for both everything and nothing at the same time. With my Bachelor's degree, I can read, write and theorize on any number of topics but I feel that I lack a certain amount of practical knowledge. To this end, I found myself at the Tuesday evening drop-in class of the Prince George Fibre Arts Guild learning how to spin yarn.
The Prince George Fibre Arts Guild, also known as Prince George Weavers and Spinners, meet every Tuesday at 6:00pm and Saturdays at 10:00am upstairs at Studio 2880. The Guild has been around since the early seventies and is open to anyone with an interest in the Fibre Arts. I am a fairly decent knitter, a very poor crocheter and I love yarn and fabric. At Studio Fair and other craft fairs around the city, you can probably find me petting fabric and scrunching knitted items with a ridiculously pleased look on my face. Imagine my dorky joy when I found that I could learn how to spin yarn myself right here in this fine city. Or, at least, attempt to spin yarn.
My thought was that in the event of a major catastrophic event, we will need people to make clothes and woolen accessories (legwarmers!) rather than someone who can parse a sentence and talk, at length, about the Great Vowel Shift. I have discovered that spinning yarn however, is easy to do poorly and it will take some practice to spin a nice, not lumpy, length of yarn that could feasibly be made into some fabulous legwarmers.
The first visit is free and for a small donation, the guild will let you take home the drop spindle that you were working on and some fleece to spin. I went with a friend and a very cranky teething baby and we had a really great time and meet some very nice ladies. Every time I try something new in Prince George, I am amazed at the kindness of the people who live here and who are willing to teach others new skills just for the joy of it.
And although my husband feigned interest in the drop spindle and yarn that my girlfriend and I proudly showed off at the end of the night, I know that he wasn't very enthusiastic about my new spinning skills. I know that once the zombie hoards arrive and he needs a nice warm set of legwarmers made from dog hair, then he'll be eating his words.
For more information about the PG Fibre Arts Guild, contact Margaret at [email protected] or on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PGFibreArts.
