• Updates

    Time to Impose Some Order on Things

    I’m not usually a new year, new goals kind of person. But in the interest of imposing some order in my life while outside order isn’t being imposed on me, I’m going to give it a whirl. In no particular order… Create a fiber arts related challenge for myself for three months in 2021. Doing my 100 Days of Stashbusting challenge helped get me back into more regular spinning and knitting. I even got a couple of spinning projects done as a result. And since I got a subscription to the Paradise Fibers Fiber of the Month Club, the stash is going to keep growing quickly if I don’t stay…

  • Odds and Ends,  Updates

    A Year Without Events

    I certainly didn’t expect 2020 to be ending this way, and looking back at my post from May, I really wasn’t prepared for *everything* to be cancelled (either officially or unofficially because it seemed too risky to me). I’ve finally managed to finish the dark blue check linen apron I started ages ago. The cap and the patchwork pocket are still not finished, and I’ve added an embroidered pocket and a flame stitch pinball to my pile of history projects. There’s even some modern embroidery there. I finished a couple of books, but added even more to the stack. And we won’t even start on the spinning projects that are…

  • Odds and Ends,  Updates

    Topsy Turvy

    I’d started a long update entry a couple months ago, but this definitely isn’t it. I’ll edit that post (heavily) and put it up (eventually), but I thought a post acknowledging that things are Very Much Not Normal Right Now was a bit more appropriate. As much as I’ve tried to act like things are totally manageable, sometimes they just aren’t. In so many ways, I’m very lucky that nothing major has changed for me as the COVID-19 pandemic has swept its way around the globe. My corner of North Carolina has seen cases, but it’s not been as hard hit as some of the other major metropolitan areas. Most…

  • Odds and Ends

    With A Little Help From My Friends

    Looking at the calendar, it’s already shaping up to be a busy summer. At least one event (usually more) every month between now and the end of October. I’m really looking forward to them – some are at new sites, and some at sites I’ve been going to for years. I’ll be talking about historic clothing, spinning, cooking, and medicine from the 18th and 19th centuries. I love doing living history, but between the clothing, gear, food, and travel costs, going to these events isn’t exactly cheap. Most of the time, I’m a volunteer at these sites, so I’m carrying all of these costs. As a result, I’ve set up…

  • Odds and Ends

    Finding a Bit of Motivation

    At times, it can be hard to motivate myself to make time to work on the various creative projects that I’ve got floating around when I’ve got competing work and home demands (plus those whole eating healthy, getting to the gym, and sleeping things). I’ve currently got a scarf on the needles, and four spinning projects (two on drop spindles and two on spinning wheels). And of course I’ve got a couple fleeces to process and plenty of other bits of fluff on hand ready to spin. So when someone in one of the spinning groups I’m in on Facebook created a couple of 100 Day Projects (#100DaysOfFiberArt and #100DaysOfSpinning),…

  • Fiber Feature

    Gotland

    Carolina FiberFest was a couple of weeks ago in Raleigh. I really lucked out this year and was able to find fiber from a number of sheep breeds that I’d never seen before. Gotland was one of these. The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook describes this fiber as “an unusual wool, resembling a fine mohair or an English luster long wool more than the other Northern European Short-Tailed breeds”. This sheep was developed in Sweden in the early twentieth century from the more primitive Goth, Gute, or Gutefår breeds. The fleeces are usually in the grey range (light silvery grey to charcoal to near black), occasionally white or brown, with subtle…

  • Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson

    Disaster, Loss, and Coming Home Again

    BT/FA is my “home” site, even though I live in Durham now. It was Jim and Shannon who first convinced me to put on funny clothes and talk to people about spinning. It didn’t take long for me to ask my mom to make an outfit for me to wear during events. For a number of years, BT/FA was pretty much the only place I did living history. It was there that I learned how to tell the stories of the past in ways that people today could relate to. The erosion on the waterfront, and the artifacts recovered as a result, also provided a topic for my MA thesis…

  • Spinning

    Spinning a Yarn

    At this point, I’ve been spinning for over a decade. I was very lucky to have a local yarn shop, Mad About Ewes, in my college town. In addition to teaching various knitting classes, Libby, the owner, taught spinning. So one spring weekend, I spent the day learning to spin. Totally normal for a college sophomore, right? The first part of the lesson was on a drop spindle, which helped me understand how to draft the fiber and how twist travels through the yarn. The advantage of a drop spindle is that you can spin it, stop the spin, and then pull on the fiber (called drafting) and to let…

  • Beginnings

    Why I Do These “Strange” Things

    A question I’m often asked whether I’m spinning, knitting, doing living history, or doing research/fieldwork as an archaeologist is “Why do you do that?” When it comes to the fiber arts, my why is a bit more practical. It’s about having something that I can do with my hands whenever and often wherever. I’ve never done “do nothing” well – I like to have something to do with my hands if I’m only engaging my eyes or ears. It’s my version of a fidget spinner, and it actually keeps me present in the moment better than just sitting there. I’ve been known to knit during talks and lectures, and my…

  • Beginnings

    A Short Introduction

    Maybe we’ve met in person, maybe we follow each other on social media, or maybe you’ve just stumbled across my site while searching for a place to buy yarn or looking for information about the fiber arts, archaeology, or living history. Regardless of how you found me, an introduction of sorts seems to be in order. I’m the creative type who also enjoys structure, so it’s not surprising that I picked up knitting during my freshman year of college. I wanted a way to make things outside of my art classes, and I’d seen the pretty things on display in the local yarn shop in my college town. After a…