To the Heritage Syrup Festival and beyond!

Spinning at the Heritage Syrup Festival  in Henderson, TX, on November 8th.

Bright and early on the morning of November 8, 2014, four happy spinners sat down at their wheels at the Heritage Syrup Festival that was taking place in the East Texas town of Henderson.  It started off a bit chilly, and never really warmed up, the sun preferring to hide behind the clouds most of the day. Nevertheless, there were probably close to 10,000 visitors at the Festival, and we enjoyed demonstrating our craft and answering some really great questions from the crowds. I have demonstrated at quite a few venues over the years, and I must say that the folks at this one asked probably the best questions ever!  I was very impressed.

And, of course, several times we were asked if we could spin straw into gold.  What would a demonstration of spinning in public be without being asked that question at least once?!

Tammy spun some bamboo and llama fibers.  Jo spun some lovely variegated purple Merino wool roving, while Donna spun some of her homegrown white cotton, and I spun up some Black Welsh Mountain/Shetland wool roving.  The crowd was fascinated with the various fibers we were working with as well as the variety of  our spinning wheels.  

Tammy, Jo and Donna spinning and fielding questions from interested Heritage Syrup Festival attendees.

In the early afternoon, a young lady of about 11 or 12, along with her mother and two younger sisters, made her way up to us from the crowd.  As it turns out, she was already a knitter and loved and appreciated yarn!  She and her sisters were all drawn into the motion of the wheels, the treadling, and the magical transformation of the yarn being made from the carded fibers.  She told us that she wanted to learn to make her own yarn, and being home-schooled, she thought she could incorporate that into social studies or history with no problem.  Wow!  That made our hearts really nice and warm!

To be able to pass on our love of fibers, spinning and weaving to the younger generations is always a thrill for us, and we were especially pleased to watch it happen right in front of our eyes!  The two younger girls seemed very interested, also.  Who knows?  Maybe, just maybe, right there on that spot, three future fiber sisters were created to join our ranks!

Donna is the one who invited me to join them at the Festival this year.
Her shawl is hand-knit from hand-spun mohair yarn!  Awesome!

It was mid-afternoon when a young couple with a pit bull on a leash came up to inquire about the spinning process, and, just before they turned away, I asked if I could pet their dog.  I told them I had recently been attacked and bitten by a neighbor's pit bulls, and that I wanted a chance to erase the negative energy that had covered me ever since.  Folks, I want you to know that this was a very beautiful, well-behaved, calm pit bull named Max.  He was a lovely shade of blue gray with white, and his breeding was impeccable!  He looked into my eyes and I into his, and I found reassurance that not all pit bulls were as vicious as those inbred, abused dogs that my neighbor owns.  I feel cleansed of my traumatic experience.

We were each awarded a quart of fresh (HOT!) cane syrup as thanks for
demonstrating our fiber craft with the crowds.  Yummy!   

Across from where we were seated all day, a mule turned a cane-breaking machine and the pulp was boiled nearby in huge iron pots to make the cane syrup.  I should have gotten a photo of that, but next year that will be first thing on my list.  And second will be getting a bag of kettle corn before the line gets to be too long!  I can see myself attending this Festival and spinning with my friends for years to come.

Spinning at the Heritage Syrup Festival got me back into playing with my fibers, finally.  I had been in one of those funky moods lately, where I just couldn't get going on my spinning projects, or knitting for that matter.  I was having a hard time making the transition from gardening and reading to spinning, knitting and reading.  Sitting and spinning with three fiber sisters, however, got me back in the proper groove.

Black Welsh Mountain roving (left), a blend of Black Welsh Mountain and white Shetland (right).

The fibers in the photo above are what I worked on while at the Festival.  I have been collecting Black Welsh Mountain roving, 8 oz. at a time, from Suzanne at Fire Ant Ranch (nka Fiber Arts Republic) over the last several years.  I was not sure what I wanted to make with it, but I knew that I wanted enough yarn to make a statement of some kind.  You see, I am of Welsh extraction on both sides of my family tree, and felt a connection to Wales and King Arthur long before I discovered my actual heritage.  And besides, I am the black sheep of my family!

Black Welsh Mountain ewe and lambs from Desert Weyr Farm, Paonia, CO.

Shetland sheep produce a longer, softer wool that comes in a variety of colors.

I have just recently decided on what I want to make from all Black Welsh Mountain yarn I have spun. Since the Black Welsh Mountain fleece is not for "next to the skin" projects, I had long ago decided I wanted to make a cape, ruana or coat, but which ?!, and what pattern ?!  Yep, decisions, decisions .... arghhh! Well, while I spin, I do a lot of thinking, of course, and I have finally decided to make a winter coat in a very simple style that I knitted for someone many years ago.

Skeins of my Black Welsh Mountain yarn collection so far.  The various colors are achieved by the
fact that some have Shetland or Gulf Coast Native wool or some dyed mohair locks added to the
roving for a bit of variety.  

It will be made up of knitted squares, joined for body and sleeves, with a ribbing all around the edges which will incorporate a collar of some kind.  And, of course, there will be pockets!  The piecing of the squares will make use of the fact that some yarns have a bit of added color in them.  There may or may not be a pattern in the center of the back, but I think that there probably will be.  I also have not decided if I will knit all of the squares and then join, or join as I go.  More decisions!  Meanwhile, I am back to spinning, and my heart is singing!

Part of the reason for my stalling on the spinning is because I have been in a dither about cleaning before my older son, Matt, gets here for Thanksgiving week.  But, I have finally reasoned, he is coming to visit me, not my house.  And, as long as he brings his allergy medicine, he should be alright among the dust and cat hair.  I hope.  Still, I do need to make some sort of effort on my weekends, but so many other things keep calling my name!!!

After the frigid temps of the past week that may continue into Thanksgiving Week, Matt also needs to bring some warm clothes with him from California!

Spinning happily along these days here at HeartSong Farm!

Spinning my wheels!

A really awesome basket of some of my hand-spun yarns!

I have had a love affair with the fiber arts since the age of 7.  My mother's mother taught me to crochet with both yarn and rags, and to embroider.  She, herself, made beautiful hooked wool rugs for her wooden floors.  I taught myself to knit in college, and I came to spinning by way of weaving.

I learned to weave when I was in college at North Texas State University, in the summer of 1970. It was a requirement for my art major and I fell in love with it!  The feel, textures, the way the colors worked with the various weaving patterns.  I hoped that one day I would be able to have a loom of my own.

Flash forward to the mid '80's and I am now living outside Springfield, Illinois, and very near Lincoln's New Salem, a recreated historic village where Abe Lincoln lived and worked before getting married and becoming our Nation's Sixteenth President.  It was in New Salem was where he did odd jobs, learned to read by firelight, and delivered the mail on horseback to the outlying rural areas.  The historic site needed someone who could weave on the old looms in the Museum and in the Trent brothers' cabin.  I was game!

I spent six very wintry Saturdays in 1985 with other new volunteers in seminars learning details about the time period of the village, and I became a docent.  I just adore history and here was a chance to "live" it!  I needed to wear authentic period clothing, so I made a calico dress of blue with cream, a bonnet to match, and purchased a pair of high top leather shoes from the old General Store on the square in nearby Petersburg, IL.

My son, Matt, joins me in the Trent brothers' cabin of New Salem, IL.  The loom I wove rag rugs
on in the cabin was a handmade two harness rigid heddle counter balance loom.  

During the Winter months, I wove on  the floor loom in the Museum.  The 4 harness counter balance loom was made from hand-hewn timbers and had cotton heddles, and I wove diligently on the blue and white overshot coverlet that had been abandoned years before by another weaving volunteer.  When it came late Spring, Summer and early Autumn of the next three years, I worked in the Trent brothers' cabin weaving rag rugs on a two heddle loom in my period clothing while, in the summertime, my two elementary-aged boys ran around barefooted in period clothing pretending to be boys of the 1820's. They played with a stick and hoop, climbed trees, helped the blacksmith, and helped make soap and cottage cheese.   We three had so much fun!

Youngest son, Ben, just being a country boy.  Notice his dirty feet!

Not sure what is on the other side of this fence, but Matt and Ben can see it!  I think it's a little pig.

Matt and Ben petting the ram outside the cooper's cabin at New Salem, Illinois.

I managed to purchase a floor loom for myself during this time as my love for weaving was renewed and blossomed. But a new love was soon to take hold!  One Winter weekend at New Salem's Museum, I took a workshop in spinning and learned to card and spin cotton on a Great Wheel, and wool on an handmade Irish castle wheel!  Oh, no!  Now I needed a wheel, too!  I began hyperventilating immediately.  My pulse was racing.  I had found a New Love, a new Passion!!!

A spinner demonstrating her craft alongside a dulcimer player at Lincoln's New Salem, IL.

It took three years for me to acquire that first spinning wheel, and, like my Harrisville floor loom, I bought a kit and put it together all by myself.  Not only was this the less-expensive way to go, but in both cases, it allowed me to learn the parts and mechanisms intimately.  You really need and want to be intimate with your looms and wheels.  Just ask any spinner or weaver!

This is my first wheel.  Her name is Betsy and she is an Ashford Traditional.

It took three more years and a move to Connecticut from Tennessee for me to finally get "real" lessons from another spinner, and not just reading about it in my subscription to "SPIN OFF" magazine.  My passion never wavered, however, and my spinner instructor, Anne Williams, also shared the art of dyeing a fleece with natural dyes from the garden and the kitchen!  Oh, no!  Something else to be passionate about! 

Soon I was experimenting with rhododendron leaves, Osage orange (aka horse apples), yarrow, onion skins, purple cabbage leaves and black-eyed Susans in a huge metal pot on the stove!  Then I tried solar dyeing in a garbage can covered with black plastic trash bags set out on my driveway to catch the rays of the sun.  My then-husband thought I had completely lost my marbles, and said so in no uncertain terms!  He was quite sure some of the neighbors had seen me playing with a garbage can in the driveway, and that was just not to be tolerated!

My Daddy was an enthusiastic woodcarver and was also handy at making just about anything out of wood.  He recognized the passion I was feeling with the weaving, spinning, and dyeing, and was very pleased to help me along.  He made me some drop spindles in several weights, my loom bench, a warping board, and the most used tool of all for my new found love ....  a niddy-noddy.  Actually, he made two for me .... just because that was how he was.

Part of my collection of drop spindles.  These are the ones my Daddy made for me, and on some he
hand-carved motifs on the whorls.  Quite special, indeed!

One of two niddy-noddies that Daddy made for me.  These are for winding off yarn from the wheel.
You can also use them as a way of measuring yardage of yarns, and to help set twist.  Daddy made
my niddies out of Parana pine and Philippine mahogany on his lathe.  I sometimes wonder just how
many miles of my yarn has been measured on my niddy-noddies!

Anne had told our class the story of how she came to be a spinner and it started with a drop spindle. She was of the opinion that everyone should learn to use a drop spindle before going to a wheel because it gave you a sense of history, and also helped your fingers memorize the necessary movements before adding the rhythm you needed for treadling a wheel.

Some of us are more impatient than others, but I did take that advice somewhat to heart, especially since my Daddy had made such special spindles just for me.  Naturally, I wanted to show him what I had made with his handiwork. So, I bought some wool dyed in lovely blues and greens and carded it into rolags for spinning.  And, I practiced with my drop spindle, and made lots of pretty darn good singles that I then plied on my spindle.  

I took great pleasure in showing off my handmade yarn, but most of the reactions I got were:  "Can't you buy that stuff at Walmart?  Why do you have to/want to make it yourself?"  Some folks will never understand, and that is all there is to it!

Mittens made from that first wool purchase and the mahogany drop spindle made by my Daddy that spun the yarn.

While living in Connecticut, I also received my second wheel.  My Daddy's older brother, John and his wife, Mary Anne, had come across an old spinning wheel in the 70's at a junk dealer somewhere on the East Coast.  They went through several boxes and found what they hoped would be all of the pieces, and they bought it because it looked "Early American" which was the latest style in decorating (along with orange or green shag carpet!).  Think Ethan Allen and you will know what I mean.

They took it home, put it together and painted it black and gold to go with the ambiance of their den. They were pleased.  They had absolutely no idea what they had found!  When my Uncle John found out I had learned to spin, he wrote me a letter about this "decorative wheel" they had found over two decades before, asking if I would like to have it.

I said sure, and in a few weeks a large box from my uncle arrived with an honest-to-gosh handmade Pennsylvania Dutch flax wheel, complete with the maker's mark!  There is only one bobbin for her, handmade of course, so I haven't really used her for any serious spinning, although I have played around with it at times.

She is extremely fast, double-drive, she is quite lovely even in the "stylish" black and gold.  I named her Priscilla, and when I retire and have the time, I plan on stripping the paint and getting her back to her Pennsylvania Dutch roots!

This is Priscilla.  She is my antique flax wheel of Pennsylvania Dutch origin.
That is one of many rag rugs I have woven that Priscilla is standing on.

Look closely and you will see the "mark" of the maker of this wheel: "I JACOB".  I imagine that 
he made it as a wedding present for his bride!

And yes, most spinners do name their wheels.  Each and every one, no matter handmade or factory made, has a individual personality all its own, even within the same manufactured model.  Getting to know your wheel is exactly that, for they have quirks and sounds unique unto themselves, and finding their name is a true bonding experience.  Next time you are near a spinner and wheel, listen for the creaks, squeaks, chirps and whirrs of that particular wheel!

My third wheel is another of the New Zealand-made Ashford models .... a "Joy," ... and she is just that. Although I tried out other names, I could not deny what a joy she was to spin on, and Joy! is how I know her.  She is a traveling wheel, and folds up wonderfully into her padded, zippered bag. She fits in the overhead compartment of an airplane with no problem, and is an easy tote from home to retreats, trips, demonstrations or wherever.  She arrived in my life during the winter of 2005 and she has been a constant companion ever since.

Betsy got her feelings hurt, however, and has to be sweet-talked into spinning properly again if I spend too much time away from her.  (I am NOT kidding!)  Priscilla, on the other hand, is content to be admired for her heritage and nothing more right now.  She probably has a lot of squeaks and clicks and wobbles at her age that she would rather no one knew about?!

My newest wheel, Joy!, is well-used since she can travel with me anywhere.
Spinning on my back porch has been quite a joy!

Learning to spin and work with fiber has led me on an exciting and fulfilling journey from Illinois, Tennessee, Connecticut, Missouri, and, finally, to East Texas.  Along the way, I have met some amazing people (spinners, weavers, craftsmen and craftswomen, and artists) and formed many friendships.  It was because of my love of all things fiber that I began to dream of owning my own sheep and llamas, which led to the birth of HeartSong Farm. I have had the pleasure of attending the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival in Upstate New York, the Bethel Sheep and Wool Festival in Iowa, and the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (along with dear friend, Stephanie), which happened to be an item on my Bucket List.

Here in East Texas, I was a regular attendee of the Wildflower Fiber Retreat each March, and am now looking forward to the retreats ahead with the Chix Packin Stix gals, and becoming more involved in demonstrations of spinning and weaving in my retirement years in the community.  I still dream of attending the Taos Wool Festival as well as the Kid 'n Ewe & Lamas, Too! in Boerne, Texas. The latter is bound to happen the first November after I retire!  I even have a place to sleep, right Judy H.??  Hint, hint!

A gathering of fiber sisters is an awesome event!  This was the final Wildflower Retreat, March 2014.

This Saturday, November 8, I will be spinning with two fiber sisters in Henderson, TX, at the annual Heritage Syrup Festival.  Joy! will be accompanying me, and if you are in the area, please come by and see us!

And now, I have a request for my niece, Heidi, who lives up in Washington State!  I promised her nine years ago when I learned that she was a knitter (I was so very excited!) that I would send her some of my hand-spun yarns for her to knit with.  So, Heidi, choose one of the two rovings below (merino wool and silk blends), and this will be my next big project on my wheel!  Let me know which one you choose when you get a chance, and I will get started spinning!  And I am sorry it has taken so long to fulfill my promise to you.

Pinks and greens.

Blues and purples.

!! NEWSFLASH FROM THE GARDEN !!

Garlic bulbs with cloves to plant (left) and the cloves too small to plant, but fine for cooking (right)
(resting on a blue rag handwoven woven place mat that I wove many years ago).

A friend gave me five huge homegrown garlic bulbs in August, and last week I put 50 garlic cloves in one-half of one of my raised beds.  I made sure to plant them before October 31, as instructed by Dan. Was that to make sure I would be safe from any local vampires on Halloween night?  Well, if so, it worked!  And, next May I should have 50 big beautiful bulbs to lift from the soil for my culinary needs, saving five out for planting next October.  A Circle of Garlic has begun!

It's time to get back to spinning here at HeartSong Farm!

A final Retreat....

Last Sunday afternoon I returned home from the final Wildflower Fiber Retreat ever, and I am sad.  We all are. But all good things must come to an end, and our fiber retreats were a really, really good thing for those of us in this neck of the woods who are crazy about all things fiber, including fiber animals, spinning, weaving, and knitting, and getting together once a year with like-minded souls to learn and share in an atmosphere of fun and fellowship. For me personally, it was my life-line to communal creativity, and a testament to the fact that there really were others out there who are interested in the same things that I am.  This final get-together was the 20th Anniversary, and I have been blessed to attend 9 out of the last 10 retreats. I have the t-shirts to prove it!

We began arriving at Camp Tyler, on Lake Tyler, around 4:30 pm on Friday, March 7, 2014.  For many of us older ladies, it is VERY important to get there early so we can claim a Bottom Bunk in one of the cabins where we will spend the next two nights. I found out my first year that climbing into the top bunk is easy....getting down from it, not so easy, especially in the middle of the night for a potty call.  

Cabin at Camp Tyler

Most of our time will be spent in and around the Lodge, which quickly turns into a hive of activity as new arrivals are greeted, hugged, and registered for the Event.  There were several new faces among the "regulars", and everyone was excited to be away from their usual environment for a weekend ... ready to see what fun the Wildflower Committee had planned for us.  Ready to play!

The Lodge at Camp Tyler

Soon the main room of the Lodge was packed with spinning wheels, bags and baskets overflowing with equipment, fiber, handspun yarns, completed projects, UFOs (Unfinished Objects), and snacks (mostly of the chocolate kind). The vendors set up their wares in the library while everyone else got settled into the spot they had chosen in the main room of the Lodge.  Pizza and salad were served between 6 and 7, and then the real fun began! New spinners met in the Lodge's smaller room and began the sometimes frustrating but always rewarding journey of learning to spin fibers into yarn.  The "old timers" spent time catching up on each other's lives while we spun on what we had brought, visited the vendor's to see what we couldn't resist adding to our stash, and held impromptu "show and tell" with one another.  

My fiber purchases from some of the vendor's.  From left to right is
silk/merino blend, Shetland/Black Welsh Mt. wool blend batt,
Black Welsh Mt. wool batt,silk/merino blend, & painted wool roving.

Fiber Sisters

Wildflower Fiber Retreat Spinners

While most went to bed around 10 pm each night, some of us continued our tradition and stayed up way past midnight, talking and laughing and sharing, and then walked back to our cabins in the pitch black dark, swinging our flashlights and listening for rustling in the bushes. We crept quickly and quietly into our squeaky bunk beds, and before we knew it some one's alarm was going off and a new day of fun had dawned.  Time to get up, get dressed, brush teeth, comb hair, put on makeup (some of us!), and back to the Lodge for playtime!  But first some coffee or tea, and breakfast of muffins, fresh fruit, and yogurt.

Saturday was centered around learning how to create "art batts" which are quite popular these days.  You can find them for sale on Etsy, Artfire, Ebay, and Amazon.com.  We were going to learn how to make our very own!  What fun!  Linda Masters was to be our main guru with the help of one of the Wildflower ladies, Mitchie Ryan, who had been practicing different techniques of the spinning of art batts so that she could help answer any and all questions that we might have.  An art batt is made up of a multitude of colors and textures, with or without some sparkle or found objects.....truly one-of-a-kind, and creativity is the only rule.

Linda Masters demonstrating how to make an art batt.

Linda shows off the art batt she just made.
She is wearing one of her art batts as a cowl!
How cool is that?!

In the beginning, various colors and types of fiber were spread onto two tables in the Lodge's main room. Three other tables held drum carders....one at each corner of the tables...for a total of 12.  The minute the instruction was over, we scattered like fish in a well-mannered feeding frenzy to the mounds of colored fibers and began grabbing what we wanted to use in our very first experiments with this technique.  There was wool roving and top in a rainbow of colors, dyed mohair locks, natural and dyed uncarded wools and fibers, silk, soy fiber, alpaca, and llama.  And there were the bags of angelina and angelfire: synthetic fibers that glisten and let you add as much "bling" as you want to your carded batt. Some like a lot, some not so much....I am one of the latter.  To me, a little goes a long way!

Angelfire fiber and

Angelina fibers.....lots of glitz for lots of bling!

Then it was a race to the drum carders, although some of us, including me, took a much longer time deciding which colors of which fibers they wanted to use.  Once the carding began, the magic was everywhere! There was much ooohhhhing and ahhhhing as colors were blended, glitz was added, and batts came off the carders with a great deal of admiration by the onlookers who were awaiting their turn at the equipment. Once everyone had made their first batt, we were invited to make as many as we wanted as there was plenty of fiber to share. Some of us immediately made one or two more, while others were anxious to get started on spinning their first art batt creation.  Most of us ended up creating at least 3 batts to spin.

Using the drum carder to blend fibers

Creating magic with colorful fibers!

WOW!!!  My first art batt!  

My first art batt spun up, 2 singles plied together

After supper on Saturday night, it was time for announcing the skein contest winners, show and tell, and door prizes.  There is always a door prize for everyone who attends, which is really fun for me for I never had any luck with winning door prizes, anywhere, at any time.  You know how there are folks who always win something?  That is not me!  

At the conclusion of handing out the door prizes, we got busy again, and when the night owls among us finally turned out all the lights and headed to our cabins, there was fuzz and fiber and bits of glitz all over the floor,  on our clothes, in our hair, and only a tiny fraction of fiber left on the two tables.  It had all been used in the creation of handspun beauty, and creativity had taken its toll!

Another one of my batts

I will ply it with this copper metallic thread!

Another of my batts...

and another!  I made four in all.

When I left my cabin on Sunday morning, it was beginning to mist, and fog was beginning to roll in "on little cat feet" (thank you, Carl Sandburg!).  A line of waterfowl took off from the lake, and the smell of coffee invited me into the Lodge for our last day of the Retreat.  After breakfast, we began winding down toward an after lunch departure.  The morning was spent spinning, visiting the vendors (again!) and visiting with new and old friends. Email addresses, blog sites and other social media info were exchanged.  Most of us began moving some of our "stuff" out to our vehicles before sitting down at our wheels one last time until the call for lunch was made.

Flor shows off the yarn she spun from her first
art batt.... and she is a newbie spinner!!!

During lunch, there were a few announcements made relative to how we might continue to meet at various other venues as a way to keep the friendships, connections, and creativity flowing. We were all sad, but hopeful. Twenty years is a long time, and a lot of hard work for our fiber sisters, the dedicated women of the Wildflower Committee.  We are grateful that they had had the vision to host a Wildflower Retreat all those years ago, and then to continue to do so despite all the major planning that was involved.  We appreciate them all so very much! And it is not really Farewell.....it's Till We Meet Again!

View of Lake Tyler from porch of the Lodge

Around 4:15 pm Sunday, I arrived back home, tired but happy, to HeartSong Farm!