This past weekend we went to VA Beach to visit my Mom for Mother’s day.
We had a great time—seeing her, my brother Curt and his family. Curt and Mary got us to go to the Monster Trucks on the Beach show that was going on. I’d never heard of Monster Trucks—what fun—sort of like a circus and a rodeo combined.

That’s an entry for another time… what I want to talk about today is spinning.
I used to be a weaver. I was a founding member and past president of the South Jersey Guild of Spinners and Handweavers even though I lived “just over the bridge” in PA.
I was also a member of the Philadelphia Guild of Weavers. I stopped spinning and weaving when I started teaching at Philadelphia University—something had to go and I fed my fiber itch with knitting. My friend Jane is a wonderful knitter and she taught me in exchange for my creating her web site.

This winter I got the spinning bug again—perhaps because I expect my madder plants to mature enough to harvest the roots for dying (if Chris’s cats don’t ruin them). I got out my wheels, an Ashford and a Louet—cleaned them up, replaced the rotten leather bits and oiled them. I still have a trunk of fleece— some still very nice—I found my carders and set to work.

I have no romantic ideas of the “olden days” —I’m sure if I lived then I’d have hated to have had spinning as a chore. But it’s today and I like spinning—I even like the carding, piling up a number of rovings and then the act of spinning its self. Its very meditative, plus you get a skein of yarn in the end.

Back to our VA trip. My Mom moved to VA Beach at the end of last summer and we have made a number of trips, helping her settle in. The most direct route is down the Delmarva peninsula. We used to drive that route when Curt and Mary lived in the Outer Banks but haven’t for a number of years. I’ve always loved the Eastern Shore of VA. Its very beautiful in a quiet natural way. In the fall there are flocks and flocks of birds flying south and while one doesn’t see water as one drives route 13, it is never far away.

We discovered a small restaurant just a few miles off 13 in the historic town of Onancock, VA. It’s name is Mallards at the Wharf and its placed just right if we leave PA early in the am to hit for lunch. So…we stopped at Mallards last weekend. It’s located in an old General Store overlooking an inlet on the Bayside. Something new was added this year. Out side was a sign in the shape of a sheep that said “Handspun Yarn”. A spinner has rented space in the store for the summer.

Her name is Garland B. Harvie and her card identifies her as “Chief Spinner and Knitter” and says that all her wool comes from sheep raised on the Eastern Shore of VA. She spins very fast—I thought I did as I calm down from a busy day at work getting rid of aggressions—but she makes me look like a slow poke. Her yarns are thick and fluffy, many in natural sheep colors, whites, and tans and browns, but she also dyes fibers. She sells both the yarns and items knitted from them. She had a group of wonderful felted knit hats.
She stopped by our table and we talked—I told her of my renewed interest in spinning and the connection to my madder plants. Garland said she was part Cherokee and that the Cherokee believe in circles and that things in life come around. I found this idea wonderful.
So… if you are on Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of VA, take about a 3 mile side trip to Onancock and stop for lunch at Mallards and meet a very interesting spinner and you could even buy some yarn.

12.30.07 – Stopped at Mallards in Onancock and Garland no longer has a shop here. Here’s wishing her well!