Spinning Wool at the Brookfield Zoo!

My sister and I took the kids to Brookfield Zoo today.  It was a beautiful day for it too!  The kids were having so much fun going from habitat to habitat, and luckily the animals were agreeable to be seen.  Brookfield also has a small petting zoo within it, so of course they wanted to check it out.
Zoo's are really not my cup of tea.  I do love and enjoy looking at all of the animals.  I just feel a little sad about animals being sort of trapped away from their homes, so I normally don't get overly excited about being there.  Today however was different.  As we walked through the petting zoo, I smiled as the kids pet the goats.  I laughed at how cute and huge the pig was, and looked thankfully upon the sheep....but then everything around me faded and became silent as I was drawn like a magnet to the women with the spinning wheel.  What was this?  This has to be the best trip to the zoo ever!  My sister took the kids by the hands, remarking she knows that she has lost me for a while, and told me to meet up with her when my eyes are unglazed.

So I had a lovely chat with a women named June, whom has been knitting most of her life.  She was spinning on a portable Ashford Joy spinning wheel, which I watched her pack up in about 1 minutes time.  It was a real treat today, and totally unexpected to run into someone making yarn at the zoo.  June has a lot of experience through her years of carding,spinning and knitting wool.  She happily answered questions as kids crowed all around her (me being the biggest one!☺).  She also gave me some information about an inexpensive spinning wheel that she has come across.  The spinning wheel is made out of PVC.  She said it is not the prettiest wheel on the block, but that it spins like a dream.  The good news is, it is very inexpensive.  I went to the website of Babe's Fiber Garden, and sure enough you can get a spinning wheel for under $200.  So if function over fancy works for you, you can own your own wheel in no time!  I may have to give it a whorl..get it!

Anyway, thanks for chatting with me today June.  I truly enjoyed meeting you.  Keep teaching those kids to love wool!  You just may have inspired someone to spin today! =)