Say, that reminds me of a joke - one German says to the other, "Du spinnst!" The other says, "Nein, ich weben."
Okay, Layla, i've warmed them up for you!
Click here to read more:
Thank
you, Jessica, for hosting me today! I'm blog touring for my novella Homespun,
available now from Dreamspinner Press, and of all my guest posts, this and the
next are maybe the ones I had the most fun writing. Before I get to the good
stuff, though, I need to mention that during my blog tour (which runs 'til Oct.
8) I'm giving away a handmade scarf, knit or crocheted by me specially for you,
in a style and yarn color that you get to pick! (This would also be a great
holiday gift for someone else!) More details here: http://laylawier.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/scarf-giveaway/
- you just need to comment on any of the posts in the Homespun blog tour
to be entered.
Obviously,
given the nature of the prize, I enjoy knitting and crochet as hobbies. And as
you might guess from the title, Homespun uses spinning -- as in,
converting wool to yarn -- as a central metaphor. Owen is a spinner himself,
turning raw fiber from his sheep into yarn for the small home business that he
runs along with his daughter Laura. As the novella goes along, the characters'
lives are slowly wound together, like fiber being spun into thread.
You
might wonder, reading the descriptions of spinning in the novella, if I can
spin myself. The answer, up until about a month ago, would have been "not
at all". I wrote those passages based upon videos on Youtube and a couple
of spinning books which I acquired as *coughcough* research.
(Seriously,
the number of books I've bought over the years because I wanted to research
some minor point for something I was writing ... let me tell you, it is A LOT.)
But
I've always wanted to learn to spin, and a few weeks ago, I did exactly that!
Now I have a brand-new fun but useless skill for my "just in case I get
thrown back in time a thousand years and/or survive an apocalypse" skill
set.
*puts
on amateur-historian nerd hat*
Prior
to the modern era of powered looms and stores full of cheap clothing, spinning
was one of the main occupations of women (and some men) the world over. In most
agricultural societies, the vast majority of the labor of the adults in the
household went into producing textiles (clothing and blankets), and grinding
grain to make bread. All the yarn for the family's needs had to be spun from
raw fiber -- mainly wool, cotton, or flax, a.k.a. linen -- using simple hand
tools. While they were watching children, feeding livestock, visiting, and
doing many other ordinary activities, women carried around spindles with them
and casually spun fiber into different kinds of yarns and threads. These would
be used to make everything from blankets to rugs to the family's clothing.
Like
many generations of spinners before me, I learned to spin on a drop spindle
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindle_(textiles)). I am now the proud owner of
a simple wooden top-whorl spindle that looks like this:
The
other major way of producing yarn from raw fiber is on a spinning wheel
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wheel). If you were going to be making
all your family's clothing from hand-spun yarn, let's face it, this is what
you'd want for producing industrial-sized quantities of yarn, which is why they
caught on rapidly as soon as a spinning wheel was designed that could produce
reliable, high-quality yarn. However, they're expensive and have a lot of
moving parts. The spindle is just about as simple as you can possibly get. It
consists of a central rod and a weighted whorl (that's the bit on top, which
makes it spin). No one knows exactly how old they are, but they go back at
least 10,000 years. They are very cheap (mine cost less than $20) and can be
carried everywhere; you can pack a spindle and a good-sized quantity of wool
for spinning into the same sized bag that you'd use to carry knitting around
with you.
Me
with my new toy.
I'm
going to take a break here, and tomorrow I'll be back at Anne Barwell's blog
(http://anne-barwell.livejournal.com/) for Spinning: Part 2, in which I talk
about what learning to spin is like.
Homespun
by Layla M. Wier
Genre:
M/M Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: Novella/104
pages
Release Date: Sept. 18, 2013
Blurb:
For twenty years, Owen Fortescue, a down-to-earth farmer in
upstate New York, has had an on-again, off-again relationship with volatile New
York City artist Kerry Ruehling. Now that same-sex marriage is recognized in
New York, Owen wants to tie the knot. But Kerry responds to the proposal with
instant, angry withdrawal. Owen resolves to prove to Kerry that, regardless of
the way his family of origin has treated him, family ties don’t necessarily tie
a man down. With help from his grown daughter, Laura, who loves them both, Owen
hopes to convince Kerry that his marriage proposal isn’t a trap, but a chance
at real love.
Buy at Dreamspinner Press:
About Layla:
Layla M. Wier is the romance pen name of artist and writer
Layla Lawlor. She was born in a log cabin in rural Alaska and grew up thirty
miles from towns, roads, electricity, and cars. These days, she lives in Fox, a
gold-rush mining town on the highway north of Fairbanks, Alaska, with her
husband, dogs, and the occasional farm animal. Their house is a log cabin in a
birch and aspen forest. Wolves, moose, and foxes wander through the front yard.
During the short, bright Arctic summer, Layla enjoys gardening and hiking, and
in the winter, she writes, paints, and draws.
Where to find Layla:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Layla_in_Alaska
Tumblr: http://laylainalaska.tumblr.com
Stops and topics on the Homespun blog tour (Sept. 16-Oct.
8):
Monday, Sept. 16: Zahra Owens (http://zahraowens.com/)
- autumn
Tuesday, Sept. 17: Tali Spencer (http://talismania-brilliantdisguise.blogspot.com/)
- sharing passions
Wednesday, Sept. 18: RELEASE DAY! Party at the Dreamspinner Press blog!
Thursday, Sept. 19: Charley Descoteaux (http://cdescoteauxwrites.com/)
- location scouting in central New York
Friday, Sept. 20: Chris T. Kat (http://christikat.blogspot.com/)
- interview
Monday, Sept. 23: Charlie Cochet's Purple Rose Tea House (http://purpleroseteahouse.charliecochet.com/)
- doing research
Tuesday, Sept. 24: Helen Pattskyn (http://www.helenpattskyn.com/)
- bisexuality in Homespun
Wednesday, Sept. 25: Garrett Leigh (http://garrettleigh.com/)
- interview
Thursday, Sept. 26: Skylar Cates (http://skylarmcates.wordpress.com/)
- rural life
Friday, Sept. 27: Madison Parker (http://madisonparklove.com/blog/)
- interview + review
Monday, Sept. 30: Jessica Davies (http://jessicaskyedavies.blogspot.com/)
- learning to spin, part 1
Tuesday, Oct. 1: Anne Barwell (http://anne-barwell.livejournal.com/)
- learning to spin, part 2
Thursday, Oct. 3: Michael Rupured (http://rupured.com/)
- writing respectfully from outside a subculture
Friday, Oct. 4: Jana Denardo (http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com/)
- invading characters' privacy
Monday, Oct. 7: SL Huang (http://slhuang.com/)
- interview
Thank you again for hosting me, Jessica! I really appreciate it. :)
ReplyDeleteI thought knitting was too much work for me and now this! I just don't think I'm very crafty…
ReplyDeleteIt's really not that hard! I'm hopelessly uncoordinated, so if I can learn it, anyone can. :)
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