Jetlagged, and oh my deer!

It's just a manhole, but since this is Japan, design is a must. The deer is a symbol of Nara, where the rest of the photos were taken last week.

Feeding time!

Do you see the pleased look on this cookie-eating deer?

Larry is beseeched to share his ice cream.

"That looks yummy!" These fellows are not incapable of poking your butt to get you to feed them.

Looking stately and nonchalant among tourists.

This deer, er, dear getting water just outside the temple to cool off.

Ravelry

To toast the Ravelry invite received, I present the French music video of Camille, Ta Douleur, where she gets caught up slowly, but surely in a self-knitting blue yarn.

Abigoy: Indie artist in Manila

So I've been in Manila for almost two weeks now and a trip to Manila is not complete without a weekend in the country with family friends from waaaaay back. One of them is an indie artist named Abi Goy whose hip t-shirts are sold at Analog Soul.

So Abi and I had our "stitch and bitch" time during which she worked on her contribution to an upcoming group exhibition. For the show, each artist was given a blank doll which was to be finished according to the individual's desire. Abi's is a doll with two identities: Fire and Rain. Note the flame on the red doll's right hand and a rain drop on the blue one's. Abi drew the design on the doll with a pencil as she stitched along. That's a true artist, not a mere craftster!

Out for the Summer

Halo-halo is a favorite treat in Manila, especially during the summer months. A tall glass is filled halfway with sweetened beans, coconut meat, jackfruit, yam, plantain, flan caramel, and rice crispies. Then the whole mix is covered with crushed ice, milk is poured on and topped with ice cream.

What goes in halo-halo.


How to prepare halo-halo.


Ice shaver fashioned after the traditional kind made of cast-iron.

JumpSheep gets woven in France

Back in February, Le Forum de Filage held a yarn exchange called,
Le feu couve sous la glace. My godmother was Carine; and my godson, Paul -- not a spinner, but a weaver.

Last month, Paul sent me photos of what he had done with the yarns that I sent him. I was so delighted to see our work together -- a table runner -- and am equally delighted to share them with you. Paul wrote that it was his first time to weave with handspun yarn. Well, it was also my first time to have a weaver work with my yarn. : )





By the way, at last month's spinning retreat in France, Paul won my yarn -- which I had DHL'd when I learned I was quarantined -- at the raffle. It's a plied lace yarn in gold and burgundy.

Le Forum de Filage has opened an English section!

I'm delighted to let anglophone spinners know that the French spinning group Le Forum de Filage has opened a new English section. This is after the spinners' retreat in the Cevennes in France was graced with the presence of anglophones Owen and Glynnis Poad of Majacraft in New Zealand. Also, the European spinners of the forum are planning to come to the U.S. for the Maryland Sheep and Wool and, eventually, visit the Majacraft factory in Tauranga. Therefore, they are brushing up on their English.

So far, we've heard from Andy Poad, son of Owen and Glynnis; Otto Strauch, creator of the fabulous drum carders; Elizabeth of Spinning from the Edge; and Natasha of Luxe.

Andy, along with brother, Rob, are fashioning a new Majacraft flyer as requested by Midian.


As Sandrine, the forum's host, describes it, "It's a small flyer, for baby bobbins and fat-core bobbins. Not a flyer for standard bobbins. Instead of an orifice for fine fibers it's a delta orifice like the standard flyer, but with e-hook. And of course fiber-glass arms."

So, there you are. If you want constant discussions daily, go join the filage forum!

I bring you what I missed...

due to chickenpox: the spinning retreat in the Cevennes region of France. You can view photos taken by Richard and written about by Sandrine right here

More photos below courtesy of Sandrine, Muriel and Paul.

Joelle, the quintessential chic French woman played the ever-gracious hostess, along with her husband, Pascal. Here she is spinning with her suede boots on.

What spinner or weaver wouldn't want to get lost in a place like this:

A basket of fantasy handspuns by Joelle labeled "LamadeLaine". One for each of her spinning guests.

Florence with one of Joelle's affectionate donkeys.

Joelle with a gift from Paul: his own handwoven piece.

Joelle's basket of singles. This picture is so French country.

Owen Poad and his wife, Glynnis, of Majacraft flew all the way from New Zealand to attend the retreat. The francophone spinners are fanatic about the their wheels, The Little Gem and the Suzie Pro.

Laurence, Sandrine and Florence mesmerized by the sight of fleece.

The buffet table.

Table for twenty, at least.

Spinners, weavers and spouses breaking bread.

Joelle's husband flambéing cognac on the hearth.

The May babies: Christine, Spock, Agnes, Joelle and Muriel (me, too). On the right is Pascal who prepared the cake. By the way, Christine is translating the Elizabeth Zimmerman patterns into French for Meg Swensen.

Paul hamming it up with a handspun.

Muriel and Laurence.

The Belgians: Agnes and Florence with the emblematic Belgian beer.

Mic's van filled with swags, spinning equipment and tools.

The view on Monday morning, departure day. A promising sign. Next retreat will be at Mic's place in Fall 2008.

A missed opportunity, a surprise in the mail

At this time today, I should be airborne on the way to the Cevennes region in France for the second francophone spinning retreat this long weekend (Memorial Day in the US; Pentecost in Catholic France). Attending are some 20 spinners from Switzerland, Belgium and, of course, France who hang out daily at the spinning forum, Tricofolk. Special guests at the event are Owen and Glynnis Poad, the couple behind the Majacraft spinning wheels from New Zealand. So apt, as the Tricofolk spinners are diehard Majacraft fans, especially of the Special Edition Alpaga Suzie Pro.

Anyway, hosting this time is Joelle, whom I had the opportunity to visit in October. She has a lovely place where she and her husband, Pascal, offer a country gîte to nature trekkers at certain periods of the year. Pascal was a lawyer practicing in Paris when he decided 29 years ago to go back to nature. Their business is called Balladanes and their service includes renting out donkeys and llamas to carry gear, and arranging for a stay in a series of other gîtes within the region for a guideless tour on foot with nothing else except provisions (Pascal is a fabulous hand in the kitchen) and a map. Unbeatable.

As luck would have it, I caught chickenpox and was forbidden to travel until the end of the month. That sure sucks, except, there's always a next time.

The good news is that, today, I got an unexpected package in the mail from amazon.com. In it was a copy of "Victorian Lace Today" which I have been eyeing at the bookstore, but which I never bought. DH, after opening the box for me, started reading a note on the invoice in French. It was a gift from Laurence, a.k.a. Laine Zinzin, one of the spinners who will in the Cevennes tomorrow. The note read: "Here is something to distract you while waiting for your pox to go away. You need a lot of concentration to work on lace." True, I have been spinning lace lately. It's just appropriate that I should start knitting lace as well. Merci, Laurence!

JumpSheep Handspuns & Hand-dyed Sock Yarns at MSWF

I will not be able to shop for fleece and test-drive spinning wheels due to work, but about sixty of JumpSheep handspuns and sock yarns will be on sale at the Springwater Fiber Workshop booth in the Main building.

Enjoy! I look forward to reading about this weekend in the spinning blogs.

Je serai en voyage à partir d'aujourd'hui

Hotel Rwanda: du 30 avril au 5 mai
chez-Florence: le 6 mai

Vive la langue française!

Et merci à mon amie Bonne Marie pour ce lien:

Denis, t'as pas perdu tout sens de l'humour et c'est pour ça sûrement que t'as survecu à Washington aussi long. Comme moi.

In May: the face of things to come

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival takes place (as if everyone didn't know already!) on the first full weekend of May.

Fiber addicts attempting to load 500 lbs of fiber into a van. Photo from the fiber shop in Japan called Spinhouse. Its magazine is called Spinnuts.

Charkhas for Ethiopia

I returned from a Youth and AIDS meeting in Johannesburg last week and found this email from one of the Ethiopian participants I met there. His name is Nibretie, a program officer from a UN agency in Addis Ababa. He wrote:

Dear Therese,

Thank you for all your logistical support for the Regional Consultation in South Africa.

Please advise how we should start the project you told me last time to support women in spinning and weaving. Maybe you could send me the type of materials that could be made available so that I can discuss the issue with my colleagues and partners?

As you know, there are a number of destitute women who need to be supported to improve their livelihood. There are also sex workers and women living with HIV/AIDS who badly need such support.

Thank you and kind regards,

Nibretie

Today, as I was sipping coffee at the office cafeteria after lunch, who should I see but Nibretie, in Washington for a training course. He was surpised to see me as well as he didn't think I was based in Washington.

Now I have to quickly put together something for Nibretie to take back to Addis. Fortunately, I still have one book charkha at home. I've just ordered a DVD copy of "Basic Techniques and Charkha Proficiency" by Eileen Hallman to serve as a manual and I hope it arrives before he leaves end of next week.

Today I also placed an order for a Babe charkha and Pinkie from Nels Wiberg of Babe's Fiber Garden. The Babe will go to Ethiopia, while the Pinkie will go to Mali. I have a standing request from Korotimi of the Sinigessigui guild in Ségou, Mali, for a Pinkie.

Previously, I gave Sinigessigui four sets of handcarders and four book charkhas. At that time, I didn't know the Malians knew how to use spinning wheels so I brought only one Pinkie which went to the Nieleni guild in the same city. Korotimi has since, checked out the Pinkie at their sister guild and I got an email saying, yes, they are interested in receiving one.

Midian's Troll Umbrella

The gigantic parasol that I saw at the Filature Houard showroom reminded me of the work of my Swiss friend, Midian.

Midian is a fellow spinner. She is also a fabulous lace knitter who specializes in shawls, but her parasol creation is nothing less than breath-taking.

Midian calls it the troll umbrella, after the Scandinavian folklore of supernatural beings thought of as giants (or sometimes, dwarfs). It is an umbrella with 10 panels fitted over the frame of an antique one that she restored.


See Midian's home -- which is wired with cameras -- here. The interior evokes the same romantic character as knitted lace.

Filature Houard

This is the famous French yarn manufacturer I discovered through Laine Zinzin. It's located about an hour or so from Montpellier and Toulouse, or somewhere between Provence (South) and the Pyrénées (Southwest). If you are in the area and driving around, don't fail to visit the factory showroom because I've heard the company is in financial trouble, which is distressing. In fact, I can no longer access either of its two websites.



The store window from inside.


Scenes from the store.




An umbrella made of yarn.


Mill ends on the mezzanine floor.



The cashier asked if I was a weaver and I answered "no" and that puzzled her. So I explained that I'm a spinner. She still looked puzzled. I further explained that I use their yarn to ply with mine and mentioned to her that spinning in the US is "tres tendance" -- very trendy. She did mention that there was a lady who would come to the shop from time to time and buy lots of cones to send to friends in the US. As some of us know, that lady is none other than Laine Zinzin herself.


My modest loot from the store and the upstairs outlet. There was so much stuff in the outlet section that it took me no less than two hours to find just a few cones that I liked. You really have to dive into the corral of mill ends.