Category: History

I didn’t get any garden or coop work done today because I forgot it was Founder’s Day at the museum until 90 minutes before I was to be there. We did get some more bee traps and tomato cages and hustled home for me to change. The Hance’s were Swiss and the theme is Swiss and I wasn’t sure how to dress for the event, so I wore my shift and petticoat, but left the gown at home and used the linen apron with the pinned up bib top. I was going to wear the shallow crowned flat straw hat, but I can’t keep it on in the wind.

It was a glorious 2 hours sitting outdoors, using the 18th century quill wheel I donated to the museum, a walnut top whorl spindle, and my box loom, though the loom was a challenge without a table. I had a basket of hats, mittens, and cowls, and another of yarn, not as an aggressive vending event, but to show what can be done with the wool and available for purchase if asked.

The half hap shawl went along as a demonstration of how 9 breeds of wool could be used and by the time the sun dropped below the buildings around 4 p.m., it ended up around my shoulders.

No rain, warm temperature, quite a breeze that billowed my skirt and apron as I spun, but a truly nice event. Music, swiss folk dance, story time, events for the kids, and refreshments of cheese, chocolate, and beverages available. Not a huge crowd, but visiting with folks I only see there, providing some history, and making plans with the director for the next event.

Tomorrow it rains, then cools off again for a week, but not so cold I won’t be able to finish the tasks that were planned for today before I remembered I was to be somewhere else.

The past weekend Newbern Fall Festival was a success on all levels, except soap sales. The town, museum, and I all felt good about the traffic and sales. I took soap, stain sticks, salves, yarn, and some knit and woven items and spent two day behind the old quill wheel talking about the history and process of spinning. I added a quill full of finely spun Jacob to my bobbin and left about a half a quill full on the wheel. Of the yarn I took, about half of it was sold. Also a hat and woven scarf/shawl of the same yarn.

It is always a mystery as to what will sell at an event. Sometimes the soap sells as fast as I can reshelve it, this time, not a single bar (but my soap and salves are also in the museum giftshop, so some may have sold there). Often hats and fingerless mitts are the item, rarely yarn, but I sold 7 skeins this time. It allowed me to make a generous donation to the museum fund.

At any rate, my breed for the spindle blanket challenge is spun, plied, and knit into it’s square and a second breed is spun, plied, and 1 of two squares almost complete. I’m not really stressing over the October/November challenge, so I put my spindles aside, except for the one I carry all the time, and pulled out my wheel that has been so idle for many, many months. I have a 4 ounce braid of pretty Pohlworth wool and I am spinning it on the wheel. I purchased a skein of linen yarn in a compatible color and I am going to weave a lindsey woolsey shawl from them. I don’t have a plan for it; personal use, gift, sale, who knows, but I wanted to weave and had nothing but cotton available for the loom. Perhaps I should warp the loom with some cotton and weave a dishtowel or two to knock off the rust from my skills before I use the linen and handspun wool.

If I like the outcome of the shawl/scarf, I have another 4 ounces of sapphire colored wool that could be handled the same way, spun on the wheel, woven with linen or a tightly spun mill spun wool as the warp and made into another scarf or some cowls for the Christmas markets.

Yesterday, I received my personal property tax bill for my craft equipment and inventory and it was the most I have ever been billed. I look at my sales for the past two years and the expenses and question the wisdom of maintaining the cottage business. I do enjoy the demonstration and lessons I can provide at the events, and vending can be rewarding when someone really seems to like something I made, but most people don’t realize the time that goes into spinning the wool, knitting or weaving the garment, and thus my prices end up being only my cost without labor, so I am doing it for the pleasure rather than the profit. I guess there is nothing wrong with that, it does keep me in supplies.

Now to figure out how to market more than 50 bars of soap.

After the weekend, both hubby and I were able to get both our flu shots and a Covid booster. We are hoping for a healthy winter ahead.