What does vanilla ice cream have to do with handspinning?
Imagine a place where you wake up, your cheek resting on a handspun, handwoven cotton pillowcase; toss back the handspun, handwoven coverlet that covers your bed; place your feet onto a cushy handspun, handwoven rug; reach over and pull on your handspun, handknitted robe; walk over to the sink, scrub up with, yes, a handspun, handwoven washcloth; dry off your face off with a handspun, handwoven terry-cloth towel. Maybe peek out the window through handspun, handwoven curtains to see what the birds are doing at the bird feeder while you slip into your handspun, handwoven linen garments. You're ready for your day baking your own bread, tending your garden, warping your loom, and drumcarding fiber that you've scoured and dyed to prepare it for spinning.
Yep, you're Rita Buchanan. Most of these yarns you've spun while reading books—it is your mindless spinning.
You have a chance to enter into this magical world and hear directly from Rita about how she approaches these projects in her new video In Praise of Simple Cloth—how she samples for weaving versus how she samples for knitting (vastly different processes), how she learned over time that the buttons she chooses for her blouses would garner more questions than the miles of handspun yarn she prepared, dyed, and spun for the garments, and what kind of spinning makes her swoon.
In this DVD, Rita talks about her simple vanilla ice cream yarns and how she uses them in garments and household accessories—they aren't anything fancy or splashy, but they sure give her a lot of pleasure for years on end, day in and day out—these yarns are the foundation of her simple, sincere, functional, beautiful, and comfortable handspun and handmade cloth.
Happy spinning!