We will be enjoying the festival and demonstrating spinning!  Hope we see you there!!

Saturday, September 28, 2024

9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Birden Field, 1871 Main Street ~ South Windsor

It will be at Birden Field, 1871 Main Street, next to the East Windsor Hill Post Office.

South Windsor History and Family Fun!

Free Admission (But donations are appreciated)

Historic wagon rides up Main Street sponsored by the Wood Memorial Library & Museum

The historic Governor’s Horse Guard will have demonstrations and offer pony rides

Entertainment: The Grass Routes Bluegrass Band, and The Sweetest Keya cappella singers.

Historical displays include Native American skills, the Bissell Ferry, First Congregational Church, Wapping Community Church, the South Windsor Historical Society,

Food trucks, handmade specialty crafters

Teacup Auction and much more!

Special Exhibit: Liberty’s Daughters in Northeastern Connecticut: Women, Textiles, and the Nonimportation Movement in the Revolutionary Era. Sat., June 29 through Sun., Oct. 20, 2024. When in the 1760s and 1770s, American colonists decided to protest laws and taxes enacted in Parliament — indeed, to protest the entire notion of Parliamentary supremacy — they put teeth in their protests by boycotting British manufactured goods. The male leaders of this Nonimportation Movement quickly realized that, in order for it to succeed, it needed the energetic support of American women, for it was women who knew how to spin thread and yarn and weave it into cloth. This exhibit examine the contributions of patriot women — called the Daughters of Liberty at the time — to the success of the Nonimportation Movement. It also explores how women’s vital role in the Movement may have — or may not have — transformed women’s political and economic roles in the New Republic following the Revolution, interweaving conclusions reached by mainstream historians with local examples. The exhibit will be staged in the Mill Museum’s main exhibit room, the Bev York Room. There will be demonstrations of how to use preindustrial textile technology and other’s women’s crafts. And on Saturday, August 17, the Museum and friends will reenact a Revolutionary Era spinning bee on Windham Green. The exhibit is part of the national observation of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.

Special Exhibit: Liberty’s Daughters in Northeastern Connecticut: Women, Textiles, and the Nonimportation Movement in the Revolutionary Era. Sat., June 29 through Sun., Oct. 20, 2024. When in the 1760s and 1770s, American colonists decided to protest laws and taxes enacted in Parliament — indeed, to protest the entire notion of Parliamentary supremacy — they put teeth in their protests by boycotting British manufactured goods. The male leaders of this Nonimportation Movement quickly realized that, in order for it to succeed, it needed the energetic support of American women, for it was women who knew how to spin thread and yarn and weave it into cloth. This exhibit examine the contributions of patriot women — called the Daughters of Liberty at the time — to the success of the Nonimportation Movement. It also explores how women’s vital role in the Movement may have — or may not have — transformed women’s political and economic roles in the New Republic following the Revolution, interweaving conclusions reached by mainstream historians with local examples. The exhibit will be staged in the Mill Museum’s main exhibit room, the Bev York Room. There will be demonstrations of how to use preindustrial textile technology and other’s women’s crafts. And on Saturday, August 17, the Museum and friends will reenact a Revolutionary Era spinning bee on Windham Green. The exhibit is part of the national observation of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.

Strong Family Farm is having a homesteading Day on Sunday June 30th. They are having a canning demonstration; going to talk about gardening at home and raising chickens. They are hoping to have sheep or alpaca visitors.

Morning Session - Workshop

Fiber Playground – Come and Play with Silk!

We will explore, compare and contrast various types of Silks. For example: Bombyx, tussah, eri, mugga; etc.

We will also explore different preparations: mawatas/hankies, brick, sliver, reeled

NOTE: This workshop is intended to be a “let’s play with different fibers” experience and NOT a breed study. We will put a bunch of silk fiber in your hands, we’ll discuss the characteristics and best uses for each type, and just generally have fun! We will also discuss how different methods of preparation will affect your final product.

Spinning Level Required: Comfortable with spinning (can spin a stable, continuous yarn) and looking to explore options.

Student Should Bring: Students should bring note-taking supplies, a spinning wheel in good working order, extra bobbins, and lazy kate.

Afternoon Session - Demonstration

Silk Reeling

Terri and Herman Guerette demonstrate how silk fiber is processed into thread for textile use. Terri will cover the various steps in this process, from soaking silkworm cocoons in water to reeling and twisting the filaments into different types of thread.

In addition to the reeled silk thread, Terri always has a variety of different types, species and preparations of silk available for viewing (and touching, of course!!).

Materials Cost: Silk Fiber will be provided to members who participate in the program for a $10 material fee (the full cost will be subsidized by the guild).

Please contact president.nutmegspinnersguild@gmail.com if you are not a guild member and would like to attend as a guest

If you are interested in becoming a member of the guild, please contact membership.nutmegspinnersguild@gmail.com or sign up here.

We will be enjoying the festival and demonstrating spinning!  Hope we see you there!!

I will be marching in the parade with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia and spinning on a spindle.

Find us in Building E

We will demonstrate how silk fiber is processed into thread for textile use. We will cover the steps in this process, from soaking silkworm cocoons in warm water to reeling and twisting the filaments into different types of thread. 

Each cocoon is made up of one fiber that is only about 2 to 3 denier (four and a half million yards per pound). The trick is finding it!

I always have a variety of different types, species and preparations of silk available for viewing (and touching, of course!!).

I will be demonstrating spinning with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia.  I will be demonstrating while riding in the back of the cannon trailer during the Gaspee Days Parade.

We will be enjoying the festival and demonstrating spinning!  Hope we see you there!!

I hope that you can join me as I demonstrate spinning with other members of the Nutmeg Spinners’ Guild!

An Interactive Celebration and Demonstration of All Things Fiber!

While our sheep are being shorn, Hill-Stead Museum will welcome fiber artists and vendors demonstrating skirting, carding, spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, felting; storytelling; and more. There will be free hayrides to and from the barns, food vendors, and craft activities.

Learn what it takes to create something “from sheep to shawl.” It’s a celebration—Join us!

I will be marching in the parade with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia and spinning on a spindle.

I will be demonstrating spinning, on spindles and a spinning wheel, with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia.

I will be demonstrating spinning, on both spindles and spinning wheel, with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia.

I always have a variety of spinning tools, as well as different types of fiber available for viewing (and touching, of course!!).

Leffingwell House Museum invites you to Midsummer Living History Day on Saturday, August 13, 11-3pm. The Lebanon Militia will be on site with their skilled crafters, as will Big Bear Trading Co. who can fulfill all your colonial needs! In addition we will have a special exhibit, from our Archives, of two personal Whaling Journals, actual accounts written on Whaling voyages. In addition, visitors can talk with Mary Brewster, wife of the captain of Whaling ship Tiger, who went a-whaling with her husband in 1845. Learn about life aboard the ship which was written in the journal she kept during the voyage. See another journal from the same voyage, which was written by a young seaman from Norwich!! Men from CT went down to the sea, as did some courageous women!

I will be demonstrating spinning, on spindles and on a spinning wheel, with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia at the Orange History Day.

I will be demonstrating spinning, on spindles and a spinning wheel, with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia.

Lebanon Town Militia Encampment Day

On the grounds of the Beaumont House
Event to include some militia and settlers.

Demonstrations include:

leather working, spinning and other colonial crafts and stories

As a special treat, colonial chocolate, hot chocolate and tea will be sold.

Free and open to the public

I will be demonstrating spinning, on spindles and a spinning wheel, with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia.

I will be demonstrating spinning with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia.  I will be demonstrating while riding in the back of the cannon trailer during the Gaspee Days Parade.

Lebanon, CT

We will be demonstrating spinning with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia while riding in the Cannon Trailer.

I will be demonstrating spinning, on both spindles and spinning wheel, with the Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia.

I always have a variety of spinning tools, as well as different types of fiber available for viewing (and touching, of course!!).

We will be enjoying the festival and demonstrating spinning!  Hope we see you there!!

An Interactive Celebration and Demonstration of All Things Fiber!

While our sheep are being shorn, Hill-Stead Museum will welcome fiber artists and vendors demonstrating skirting, carding, spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, felting; storytelling; and more. There will be free hayrides to and from the barns, food vendors, and craft activities.

Learn what it takes to create something “from sheep to shawl.” It’s a celebration—Join us!

I know that many of you are too far away to join us in person. Please join us in spirit, comment and tell us what you will be spinning, and share a picture or two!! ;D

Monday, February 3rd is St. Blaise's Day. 

St. Blaise is the patron saint of wool combers.

Saint Blaise, was a physician, and bishop of Sebastea in historical Armenia (modern Sivas, Turkey). According to the Acta Sanctorum, he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron combs, and beheaded. He is the patron saint of wool combers.

I will be honoring him by spinning combed top in public. If you are in the area, I would love it if you'd join me! I will be at
Ewe and You Fiber Arts
The Carriage House
261 Broad Street
Windsor, CT 06095

Distaff Day (Roc Day) is the day after the feast of the Epiphany. It is also known as Saint Distaff's Day, one of the many unofficial holidays in Catholic nations.

Many St. Distaff's Day gatherings are held, large and small, throughout local fiber communities. The distaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of women's work.

In many European cultural traditions, women resumed their household work after the twelve days of Christmas. Women of all classes would spend their evenings spinning on the wheel. During the day, they would carry a drop spindle with them. Spinning was the only means of turning raw wool, cotton or flax into thread, which could then be woven into cloth.