Never been so happy its thursday....

Last night we went for dinner with Debs and her partner (you might know her as the Mulberry dyer) and not only did we have a yummy dinner, but it was so so interesting to chat to people who's world of dyeing is really really quite different to mine. They do lots of reenactment type work, and really know their history and period styles, and what were dyes were used in certain times etc. I was completely fascinated and learned loads and loads and loads, and I even came away with a lucette to make cord, man, I love this little thing. And of course I had to order some treats for the shop, including some hand turned spindles, some special spindles from quite a long time ago, might have been Anglo Saxon (can't quite remember), and some lucette handles.

It was the first thing in ages which made me excited, I am a bit of a learning junkie, and I did ask if I could go and live with them and be an apprentice for a few months, hehehehehe. I was completely fascinated, and the books ahhhhhhhh, there were lots of them, heaven.

So you know the word 'Spinster' well the meaning of that word comes from the fact that all cloth was made from yarn which was spun on a spindle, and of course it meant people had to spin all the time, so they would carry it around with them, children would spin from about the ages of 4-5 and inbetween cooking you would spin, riding your horse you would spin, etc etc (actually which is exactly what I saw in Peru) and if you were an unmarried woman with no man, you would  be spinning because you had nothing else to occupy you, hence the word 'SPINSTER'!!!! Cool huh?

I also learned, that the origins of the top and bottom whorl spindles were originally to make and s twist yarn and a z twist yarn (not sure which on which) but because a cloth was originally made out of singles yarns, you used one for the warp and one for the weft, and because they were twisted opposite directions the fabric kind of was held together strongly by the opposite twists, eek, I'm not very good at explaining, but those who spin will understand what I mean. I want to learn more now, lol!!!

So anyway, yesterday I dyed some lovely yarns, sparkly, self striping, and other sock yarn, and although they are gorgeous, I wanted to add lots fo things to the shop, but I was disappointing because I thought it was update day today, and I didn't have tome to do more. Turns out its only Thursday today!! Who'd have thought it huh? You start learning about lovely things, and then someone goes and adds an extra day in there for you!!! So today is the day I don't normally get, the extra day to dye fun stuff, like fibers, get my carder going, because the belt is fixed, and do some treats........

Yipppppppeeeeee!!!!

xxxxx