So, Saturday, after a very crummy Friday, I went down to Connecticut to the Nutmeg Spinner’s Guild to see the fabulous Abby Franquemont talk about “Spindle Culture.”

So, I happily got up, showered, and headed out, almost as early as normal work, following the directions of the Garmin a friend gave me for my birthday.

Boy was it worth it. I got to see the Tsock Tsarina, who I haven’t seen since Rhinebeck (and who brought that lovely circle jacket that’s up on her blog), and Marcy, and Lynn, and Mardi, and Kelly, and Jenny, Glenna, and Abby Herself, and and and and so very many awesome people.

While running around hugging everyone under the sun, I also stopped by the small collection of dealers and got this little guy. A Tabachek, with a Bubinga whorl and Maple shaft. He spins quite happily.

Then Abby started, talking about “Spindle Culture.” The first half (9:30ish to noon) was mostly about history and things.

During the talk, we, of course, spun.

I got the whole sample of Devon wool that came in the sampler all spun up on my new spindle. And I laughed a lot because it’s a rug fiber, and people kept asking why I was spinning it, and why I was spinning it on a small light spindle. Answer? I don’t spin fibers like that often, so it was new and interesting, and because it was good practice. I wouldn’t want to WEAR the Devon, but it’s a nice fiber.

The second half of the talk was about more history, and how textiles have affected history, politics, civilization, and industrialization. Fascinating.

During this half, Abby talked about how spinning might have come to be, including pointing out that the spindle predates the wheel, and possibly the lever. Woh. Here’s a clip. Sorry it’s on it’s side, I don’t seem to have the skills to turn it.

While I was listening, I spun more of the alpaca I was showing you earlier. We’ll come back to that.

After the talk, around 3:30, also known as beer o’clock some of us headed over to Ruby Tuesday’s where we had food, and beer. Mmm. Much bemoaning at the lack of a proper dark beer was had. More spindling, much laughing, lots of talk (some serious, some otherwise) was had.

Eventually, after that, we decided we were hogging their tables and not ordering much more. So a few of us moved to Bickford’s, where we had more snacks, beer, chocolate, spinning, and much laughter. We also explained to poor confused waiters what we were doing, and a group of old ladies.

Abby showed me how to do the famous wristlet plying trick. Which was cool. It’s both a neat technique, and the mechanics of it are cool. Yes, I’m a dork.

So then I had some two ply. Neat!

I didn’t leave until 10:00 at night. Woh. Long, AWESOME day. Sweet.

During the talk Abby was also talking about “textile tech” and how it’s around us all the time but we’re distanced from it and unaware…

Guess what showed up in my mailbox at work on Monday?

See that translucent square? It’s a filter. The picture to the left is an electron micrograph of it. It’s a woven fabric, for separating out organelles and parts of cells. Yep, fabric, woven. There’s some textile tech for ya.

That’s all for now. Fiber update tomorrowish.

Today’s fae is the first to show up with wings. He’s been fluttering around my messy living room since the weekend. Cute bugger, but quiet.

~The Gnome