Today was gobbled up by all kinds of preparation tasks for the two upcoming online workshops - especially making a few more distaffs, and some more pins for said distaffs.

 


It's been a while since my last pin-making session, so I was really looking forward to this. It's a fun task, if a little fiddly at times, and winding the coil for the pinheads takes a bit of a toll on the fingers... but I still like it a lot. (And I only lost one pinhead somewhere on the floor...)

I really like the simple look of these. Mind you, I also enjoy pins with fancy heads, and pins with pressed heads, but these are charming in their own way somehow.

So - pin-making, distaff-making, distaff-dressing, cutting the fabric for the sewing workshop, and packing things in boxes to be sent off. More boxes tomorrow - plus hopefully some time for the overdue book-keeping, and a few other desk and writing tasks.

I'm back from the winter break - so: Happy New Year to all of you!

There's a bit of catching up to do, obviously, and one of the most important tasks of today was finish packing all the orders that came in during the break. I've been working on that, and a bunch of other things, the past few days already. There were hopes that I'd actually get a bit more of the things on the list done, but website relaunches are a notoriously obstinate thing. (There's progress, though.)

Packing has been successfully done, though, and the things are going to the post now.

There's also some other shop stuff on the line, including a few new things to be sorted into stock - I have a new shape of spindle sticks. Those need to be described, and photographed, and put into the shop. I also have to take new photos of the pearwood spindle sticks, as the current batch is much, much more varied in colour and texture than the previous one:

[caption id="attachment_6666" align="alignnone" width="201"] New pearwood spindle sticks for the shop - now in a larger range of natural wood variation than before...


Already in there are the new online courses, both in German: One for Medieval Spinning on February 6, and one for sewing techniques on March 6.

It's taken a good, long, loooong while - but I am getting rigid heddles into the shop now. Lovely, very nice rigid heddles, made from local, sustainably produced wood, in a German workshop.

[caption id="attachment_6181" align="alignnone" width="506"] Maple wood on top, cherry wood on the bottom.


They are decently small with about 15.5 on 10 cm, and have 24 slits and 23 holes, which makes them wide enough for a nice, broad band.

I can get them in cherry or maple wood... and will probably stock both kinds. I'm all excited!

In German, there's the saying "Alles neu macht der Mai" - May makes everything new. Coincidentally, there's a few new things afoot here...

Thing One: Recycling Spindle Whorls! Medieval spindle whorls came in oh so many shapes, forms, sizes and materials... and one of the types was disc-shaped whorls made from broken pottery. This has been on my list for a while now, but finally I've gotten around to getting the tools and the broken pottery to try making them.



These are cut using modern tools, and the material is modern broken pottery. In the best-case scenario, I'll be able to get some potsherds from replica pots in the future... but for now, I think these will do nicely. They weigh somewhere between 11 and 19 g, depending on which pot they came from, and which part of the pot... and I confess that I'm utterly delighted by those.

They have been tested first thing, of course:



I find them a bit too light for starting off an empty spindle, but then I am fond of using heavy whorls for that. They do run beautifully on a half-filled spindle, though!

I'll be making a few more the next days, and then they will find their way into the shop as well.

Thing Two: I've finally decided to take the plunge and try online teaching. I've done in-person courses only up to now, and I do think it's so, so helpful to be able to touch and feel things and not just see them, but with the pandemic going on and on, I'm starting to think that half the deal is better than nothing. So now I'm planning an online spinning course... I am still trying to figure out a few details, but it will be about 2 hours, showing how to spin with hand-spindle and distaff. My biggest question at the moment is how to make sure that every participant has suitable tools and materials - in my in-person courses, I just bring a bunch of distaffs and a pile of spindle whorls so everyone can pick one to use during the course, and then either buy afterwards or toss them back to me. That is not so easy when teaching over distance, of course. Unfortunately, many modern spindles will have rotational properties that don't work well with the distaff spinning style. So... do I send out kits as part of the course? Or do I just offer them as an option, with the possible danger of someone participating with entirely unsuitable tools?

If you're interested in a spinning course, feel free to drop me an email, or comment here - and once I've figured out the rest of the open questions, you will also be able to find info in the shop in the workshops/courses section.

I always find it utterly fascinating how much variation there is between different kinds of wool. On the photo you can see three balls of top, each weighing 200g. They are obviously very different fibres!



The Manx wool in light brown is the most voluminous, the grey Gotland fibre is smooth and straight and thus rolls up quite tightly, and in between the trusty brown Eider wool - which comes out a bit darker on this picture than it actually is.

Just like they are different in density when rolled up into a ball, they also feel very different. And I'm always stunned by the readiness of the Gotland wool to felt even though it feels so smooth and slippery. I think it's the felt-happiest wool that I have ever seen...

There's not only new spindle whorls in the shop, there's also new wool - from a rare sheep breed.

The Manx Loaghan sheep is a small, hardy breed that can be found on the Isle of Man. The sheep are a four-horned breed; some of them even have six horns. You can read a bit more about it on the Wikipedia page, with links there for more.

It's mostly kept for its meat, but the wool is also really beautiful: a warm, brown colour that reminds me of honeydew or chestnut honey.



The wool arrived just in time to make it into the shop in time for the March newsletter... which will go out tomorrow in the English version, and has been sent already in the German version. Hooray!

 

I spent part of the day today standing in the wonderfully sun-warmed wintergarden, sorting these wonderful new arrivals:



Fresh wheel-thrown spindle whorls, with a new colour - there are some grey ones among the mix now, too! I'm all delighted with them.

They were lined up in neat rows according to their weight range:



Now they are in my shelf, sorted away, waiting to be sent to new homes... and, of course, waiting to be properly photographed so they can be listed in the shop! That will happen tomorrow, though, when the light is nice and bright but not too bright yet.