Grace with Yarn

 A year or so ago, I picked up a Basque drop spindle.  I sat down this weekend to see if I could manage to figure out the spinning technique needed. Turns out I can spin it just fine but definitely need to work on the proper way to wind the fiber.  This is undyed Merino wool.  I'll post more pictures once I spin the rest and ply it. When I decided to follow the trail of finding more info about the Basque spindle, I came across this: The World of Spindles by Beatrix Nutz, a paper I found on Academia.edu, was published in 2025.   https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/122677264/The_World_of_Spindles-libre.pdf?1746555633=&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B+filename%3DThe_World_of_Spindles.pdf&Expires=1759187775&Signature=VhZH6mK4u7TU0U53d8oAbz31kz0qQL9nLUCufdHExjcwt0rps6myrcNC58WNbHlE2fylYFq95nTS7N6A4UWBSCfnH2opqV-vqDt0lphmxUU~6xJ0YFkGuENMFIA43aCc5n5DZtu2F~PlY-JL9-Vh3yAMj-trEi8TY9UjgffEGI2Guu0b5Gpurw1Tk1DpsnqBg82LPqxHDf-BuSA~hHaaxTOrZvvNm1LOg63KR...

 I happily identify as a knitter, but I think I may be approaching burnout.  My creative side has been focused on knitting for quite some time- the Spanish pillow, assorted gifts, etc but after I had to rip out a 5 inch section of a current project (300+ stitches per row) recently, I think I need a break. My spinning wheel has been calling to me along with my drop spindles, especially as the weather cools off. I have the Basque drop spindle I want to get a feel for, some blackwork projects that have been tickling my mind and I'm actually craving embroidery. I purchased a book from Avleafolkembroidery.com (amazing shop) and want to try my hand at borders for some scrolls.  As much as I wish I could do calligraphy and illumination, I have trouble drawing stick figures. Maybe I'll also play around with different patterns and do a set of cup covers or handkerchiefs that I can give to the royals for gifts. Just thinking of different ideas that will still allow for fiber creati...

Now that's it's over, I can talk about the Big Thing that occurred earlier this week. Back in March 2025, I competed for the first time in our kingdom Arts and Sciences Champion competition.  I wasn't expecting to win, but was told I was in the top 10 of all entrants. Spring forward a bit to May, where I was asking to be on the team for the A&S War Point.  There are 10 spots with 2 taken by the King's and Queen's champions.  I was blown away to be asked and thrilled with the honor. I was pretty confident in my knit pillow, but knew I could improve my documentation and my display. I need to give shout-outs to everyone who let me stress-babble at them, were willing to read and reread my documentation, offer suggestions for improvement and all the support. Taking into account suggestions from the feedback from the kingdom competition, I started two experimental archeology projects.  These were a matched set of cuffs, 120 stitches each, knit on identical sets of dou...

The first documented knitting guild in medieval Europe is the Knitting Guild of Saint Fiacre in Paris, France 1527.  Other countries adopted the practice with guilds in Catalonia, Venice and Nuremberg. Prior to the creation of knitting guilds, there were workshops with similar practices.  These would consist of apprentices, journeymen and master craftsmen. Apprenticeship would begin from age 7 to 12 and the child would live with the master craftsman to learn the trade.  An apprentice would learn the techniques for prepping the wool, spinning and basic knitting skills. The journeyman would literally journey and travel extensively to both extend his skills with various masters and gain experience in the world.  The journey could last three to four years.  At the end of his travels, he would need to create a body of work to gain his master’s certification.  This would typically consist of several small objects such as a pain of socks/hose, gloves, pouches and ...

 The next big thing I want to concentrate on is the knit ecclesiastical gloves. I’ve roughed out my “to-do” list as a way to keep myself organized and then post in more detail as I complete the steps. 1. Find a knit glove pattern in size 2s or smaller and knit out of wool/silk blend (from my stash) since I've never made gloves before. 2. Either extrapolate or modify the pattern to fit size 0000 needles.  Possibly knit another glove out of the wool/silk blend as a trial. 2b. See how many other museums I can get to and look at more gloves in person like last year at the MFA. 3. Decide if I’m going to pattern working off a specific glove to recreate or blend different aspects of separate gloves together for a whole new glove- cuff design, back of the hand, rings on fingers, etc. 4. Knit at least the cuff in both mulberry and caterpillar silk to show the difference in how the fiber acts. 5. Make the set of gloves in time for Kingdom A&S either for 2026 or 2027. Estimated proje...

A few years ago, I was knitting and spinning for my own entertainment.  I wasn’t interested in participating in the A&S community beyond the occasional class. However, there was an experience I had that showed me 1) what not to do and 2) if I was to actively participate (ie teaching, competing) in the A&S community, the type of participant I wanted to be. Here's the story: A few years ago, I attended an event that had a “Spinners’ meetup”.  It was early in the event, so I attended without wearing any of my awards.  At that point, I had my court baronetcy and my Silver Brooch.  I made my way to the meetup and introduced myself to the first person who was there.  We both started spinning and chatting. Another person came over who knew the first spinner.  I introduced myself and the three of us continued spinning and talking.  This third person asked to look at my work.  I tend to spin very fine on my dropspindle and am confident on the quali...