My friend and I give a “nature” presentation at Camano Island State Park (Washington State) each year.
For three years we did “Where do my clothes come from?” Which focused on handspinning, natural fibers, and of course my friend Bec’s Angora goats.
We got bored with the tried and true presentation, and shook it up a little bit. Where as we still talked about other fibers, we really focused more where people’s attention tends to go… To the animal present. We called the program “Goats to Coats” this year, and featured mainly yarns and clothing articles made from that glorious fiber.
We had a great crowd! 110 people, mostly campers enjoying Memorial Day Weekend at a great park (My husband is the Area Manager for the parks on the island), and many from Seattle. A lot of children don’t get up and personal with farm animals any more, and most people have no clue about the clothes they put on their bodies.
This crowd was better informed than in years past, but we had a slew of children in that magical age of four-five years old, who were just delighted to meet Hera, a gorgeous almost 2 year old Angora doe.
I was really shocked to have at least 8 people want my business card, and several to have me design clothing for them! And another four wanted to come to our spinning group to learn to spin or just learn more about fiber arts in general.
All in all this was a lovely way to spend a saturday evening! Next weekend at Camano Island State Park, a group of Medieval Recreation Afficiandos will be doing a program on “Knightly Virtues”. This group puts on Ragnorak, a weekend of Viking Mythic Battles, culminated by a fight in a ring of fire. It’s really toooooo cool.
