Some did it for fun.

Others did it for money.

A few did it for ageism and sizeism.

But they all – every single one of them – did it for wool.

What members of the Wednesday Spinners did was bare it all for a 2003 calendar called “Wearing Wool: Celebrating the Ancient Art of Spinning and the Ageless Beauty of Women.” The calendar, but not the spinners, was unveiled Friday during a press conference in Ellsworth.

The Wednesday Spinners have been meeting clothed in each other’s houses to spin and share ideas and a hearty meal since 1975. For 25 years, they’ve demonstrated their skills at the Common Ground Fair, sponsored by the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association, in September.

They’d never taken on a project like the calendar before, although several members are published writers. And, not every spinner was ready to take it all, or nearly all, off to be photographed outside by a male photographer, let alone have her bare bum hanging in the kitchens of strangers all over the world.

These photographs are not racy pinups a la the famous calendars featuring models in swimsuits or nothing at all. On the cover, the spinners, ranging in age from 4 to 69, are shown standing on a lush carpet of grass holding hands and wearing colorful sweaters they’ve made from the wool they’ve dyed and spun, facing away from the camera.

The month of July pictures them lying face down on the grass wearing nothing but brightly colored knee socks. For September, seven posed on a front porch sitting in chairs knitting, their finished work – mittens, sweaters, shawls and socks – hung strategically over the porch railing. Eleven naked spinners are shown carrying their spinning wheels into a grove of pine trees for March. Even Santa makes an appearance in December as two women wearing crocheted hats and partially clad with a blanket eye him.

Wearing Wool, however, is more than a collection of photographs of women posing mostly in the nude. It includes directions on how to care for wool, recipes for the hearty soups the women share most Wednesdays and knitting instructions for a crocheted hat, sweater and other items. There also are tips on skirting, processing a fleece and carding wool, dying wool, knitting with handspun yarns and many others.

Susanne Grosjean, the spinner others credit with dreaming up the idea, says that the calendar is full of tidbits because originally it was going to be a book.

“A few years ago, we started having retreats in the winter where we spin all weekend,” she explains. “Year before last, we rented a hot tub for our retreat at Goose Cove Lodge. We had this tub on the porch steaming in subzero weather. I’d been looking at a fancy coffee table book about Ireland. I thought that we were just as beautiful as those skinny Celtic maidens. One thing just led to another. That’s what happens when you have group power.”

A book proved to be too big a project for the group, however, so they settled on the calendar. Cynthia Thayer, author

of “A Certain Slant of Light” and “Strong for Potatoes,” used her literary connections to help get the project off the ground. Photographer Doug Trumbull, best known as the special effects behind the film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” took a majority of the photos. In all, 30 of the Wednesday Spinners, including their husbands, grandchildren and friends, worked on the project.

Earlier this month, Thayer and several spinners went to New York to begin promotional work. The writer, organic farmer and indigo dyer says that Ms and Mother Jones magazines as well as Peter Jennings, anchor of the ABC Evening News, are interested in doing stories on the calendar and its evolution. Wearing Wool will be available by mail but also will be distributed nationally to major bookstores throughout the country, according to Thayer.

The question of what to do with the potential profits from calendar sales was a contentious one, according to Grosjean. The women quickly agreed that they wanted to take another trip together similar to the one they took to Russia in 1990. Eventually, they agreed to donate 10 percent of the net proceeds to INFORM INC., a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and eliminating the environmental causes of breast cancer and other cancers.

“We really want to do another trip together, possibly to Ireland,” says idea-woman Grosjean. “That seemed doable. But, we are all real concerned about the environment and wanted to give a substantial chunk to an environmental cause. We were advised to go with INFORM because they’re doing research into prevention, which seems to be what really needs to be looked into. Originally, we talked about giving money to our fellow sheep farmers in the British Isles due to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, but their government was really helping them out, so we went in a different direction.”

Grosjean has promised those involved in the project that she won’t have any more ideas for a while. The calendar has been more work than the spinners imagined, she confesses, but she envisions the coffee table book being ready in about 10 years.

“It’s going to be great to spin and just talk about goat breeding instead of who’s doing wholesale or who’s contacting the trucking firm,” she says. “But we’ve had lots of fun doing it. We really did it to promote wool. We just want everybody to wear wool.”

Excerpts from the calendar

Weaving is the ancient art of entwining strips of pliable material into a texture. A weaving loom is a frame which holds lengthwise a series of threads called warp. The weaver weaves across with other threads called weft, woof or filling. Modern weavers use the same prinicpals (sic) of weaving as those employed thousands of years ago. Primitive man first stretched twisted root fibers from tree to tree, interlaced other fibers across by hand, and made the first web or cloth. Refinements have continued with shuttle, heddle, foot power, but peoples who have retained the old methods possess a heritage of talent which enables them to produce textiles rich in design, coloring and texture. (December)

Gyre Carline is a fairy witch in Scotland who inspects the spinning wheels on New Year’s Eve. If there is unfinished work on the bobbin, she will spin it full, but she will also curse your laziness. (December)

Veggie & Peanut Soup

1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil (not olive oil)

2 cups chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup sliced carrots

1/2 cup diced celery

3 cups water

3 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)

1 cup peeled and diced sweet potatoes

2 cups peeled and diced white potatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

Cayenne pepper to taste

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Heat oil in soup pot, add onion, garlic, carrots, celery and saute 5 minutes. Add water, stock, potatoes, tomato paste, ginger, and cayenne. Bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes or until veggies are tender. Puree in blender. Return to soup pot, add peanut butter, salt, pepper, and more cayenne to taste. Serve topped with thinly sliced scallions and finely chopped peanuts. (July)