House Study/Handmade: Wave Hill Blog

After another amazing Saturday, full of great conversation, beautiful colours and connections made over the experience of working with wool, I came home especially tired. It was a long day - I try to get there early on Saturdays to organize the space and get some skeins ready for what have become regular crowds. Then I stayed late so as to have some skeins ready for Tuesday and to re-organize the wool pile back into colours. I love that it gets completely messed up within minutes and I like putting it back to rights at the end of the afternoon. It feels very satisfying to see the pile diminish. There is just something so satisfying about doing all this work: the dyeing, the carding, the spinning, the soaking, the knitting (and crocheting and felting). Things get made and used in the most real, practical way. In a world that gets more and more virtual, the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of our labour right in front of us may be what is drawing people back week after week.

Today a woman came in right near the end expressing, as many have, that this was something she always wanted to learn more about. She very carefully made a batt on the drum carder, choosing specific colours that had meaning for her. Then I got her going on a spindle, which she picked up quite nicely. But time was running out so I promised to set aside her spindle and batt for next weekend. This is a promise I nearly never make because my motto has been "it's all community property" for this project but occasionally someone comes along and spends so much time, working really hard that I just can't insist that they toss their batt into the mix. She was very grateful and went to collect her things. Then she came back and asked to have a little piece of her batt to take home - just to look at and admire during the week.

We laughed as she pulled a piece off but I knew exactly what she meant. Sometimes you just need to let your eyes rest on a thing of beauty.

There is a lovely post up on the Wave Hill blog just now. It was written by Stephanie who has been my #1 assistant for this project. She had never done any this kind of thing before and now she uses the spindle and the wheel like a seasoned expert. Today she had her boyfriend spinning! Thanks, Stephanie, for writing such a nice piece. I am definitely going to miss our twice weekly spinning frolics!