A visit with Abby Franquemont

Ater lunch at the brew pub--we were celebrating Valentine's Day a little early. From left to right: Stephanie Flynn-Sokolov, Maggie Casey, and Abby Franquemont.

Abby chatting with our Production Manager, Cindy Lair

If you stopped in at Schacht last Friday, it would appear that we don’t do much except sit around and talk… But let me just say that talking is a good thing, AND talking with other textile enthusiasts is exhilarating, AND talking with Abby was ubber wonderful indeed.

In case you don’t know, Abby Franquemont started spinning as a child, in Peru, where she spent extended periods of her childhood. She did what other kids in Peru did: spin on a drop spindle. Like kids who grow up playing kick ball in the street, you don’t necessarily consider it a career path. Neither did Abby, until a few years ago when, well past her kick ball years, she decided her childhood spinning roots ran deep, and found there latent passion just waiting to spring forth. And spring it has.

Shortly after this epiphany, she “retired” from computer geeking, moved from California with her husband and son to the middle of affordable rural Ohio, determined to not just pursue the craft of hand spinning, but make a livelihood of it, too. In a short three years she’s started a business: Abby's Yarns (the most luscious fiber blending imaginable—available from The Spinning Loft, Spunky Eclectic, Yarn Expressions, and Ball and Skein), engaged in seemingly nonstop blogging, written articles for Spin-Off magazine, taught classes at SOAR as well as other venues, and written a book (Respect the Spindle), due out from Interweave in Fall of 2009.

Here is some of what we were buzzing about in the showroom:

Textile Legacy
Abby comes from a wonderful pedigree. Both her parents were anthropologists—which explains the time in Peru. Her father, Ed Franquemont, was a textile scholar who made many contributions to the field. Abby grew up with textile enthusiasts in the 70’s when so much exploration and study of textiles was being done by the likes of Virginia Harvey, Lillian Ellliott, Martha Stanley, Peter Collingwood, Mary Frame, Anne Blinks, Bette Hochberg, Harry and Olive Linder, and on and on. It was uplifting to meet someone of the “next generation” who actually admires these individuals. We both questioned this: Where ARE all the people doing research in textiles and textile traditions? Are people not involved in the same curious way? Is it just that their research is not getting published so we don’t know about it? Or, is the world of the craft do-ers and the craft studiers just more separate than in the 70’s and early 80’s?

The Internet
Blogging and communicating online is a boon and a bane. The wonderful thing about the internet is that it expands the textile community. People in far flung places are able to communicate and share information. Find each other; learn from each other. We discussed the downside: how do you correct bad or wrong information? How do you jump into a conversation to give accurate information? How do you handle negative threads that aren’t factual or include the involved parties?

How do you deal with “instant experts”? Such as….the person who’s been spinning for 2 months and posts a how-to spinning video on YouTube full of incorrect information that could really truly cause harm to someone trying to learn the craft? Does enthusiasm excuse bad information?

On Teaching
Teaching is the lifeblood of the craft, because through teaching new weavers and spinners are created. The good news: there are increasingly more new weavers and spinners. The bad news: there’s some not-so-great teaching out there.. Idea: a symposium for teachers focused on best-practice techniques.

Besides the seriousness of the above, we had fun too. How can you not with Abby? After yakking our heads off all morning, we headed to our LYS, Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins and lunched with Maggie Casey and my Schacht colleague Stephanie Flynn-Sokolov. Returning home I was inspired by being with my craft community and feeling lucky indeed to have this wonderful, shared passion.