TRURO, N.S. — Faith Drinnan can easily drop-spin her woolly creations while enjoying a peaceful stroll outdoors.
The Tatamagouche woman can weave everything from hats to sweaters using animal threads and a spindle – and showed off her finest spinning skills at the Truro Fibre Frolic festival Saturday.
“It’s nice and easy to take it with you,” said Drinnan, who owns the Sisterhood Fibres business in her hometown. “It’s portable and affordable and anyone can do it.”
Drop-spinning works by drafting out the fibres and twisting the spindle around as it is suspended in the air.
She joined other local merchants such as herself at the Farm Equipment Museum, on the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition Grounds, who displayed woven hook rugs and smaller wares such as scarves, bracelets and laces.
Inside the museum, Allan Baird used a 1920s-era metal maypole braider, built in the United States, to weave together shoelaces and little bracelets for children.
He said the machine works “like a maypole dance – the yarn is loaded over and under, one set going counter-clockwise and the other set going clockwise.”
Baird inserted 16 spools into the maypole braider for weaving his products. Each shoelace sells for 50 cents, while the bracelets are going for $3.
He quipped the profits he makes “pays for my light bill.”
Fibre Frolic event organizer Ursula Ryle-Gulliver was pleased with the turnout on Aug. 4.
“Today we have seen weaving, drop spindle, spinning and rug-hooking,” she said. “We’ve seen quilting, knitting, crocheting, felting and wheel spinning.”
Ryle-Gulliver said Fibre Frolic was also a way to introduce the local public to how animal fibres can be used to make exquisite creations, such as rug hooking art, which she enjoys doing herself.
Such rugs include scenes of nature or pictures of animals, stitched together using dyed fibres of different colours.
At the same time Ryle-Gulliver was keen the animals like sheep, whose wool is often used for such work, are respected.
Earlier in the day, attendees at Fibre Frolic enjoyed watching a sheep being sheared. The wool is yet more raw material for vendors like Drinnan and Baird to keep spinning and weaving their creations.
