The Martha Stewart effect
(from July 2004 SQ)
There is something about spinning that appeals to everyone. If you've ever demonstrated at a public event, you know what I'm talking about: children's eyes widen at the sight of the spinning wheel, and they inch as close to the wheel as parents will allow; women with a hand on a hip say "Oooh, that's how yarn is made..."; men scratch their chins and lean in to see how the drive band sits in the groove on the whorl.
But there is more to this appeal than the flashy contraption used to make yarn.
I call it the "Martha Stewart effect". Forget her legal battles (although I do think she might like to have a spindle handy for any jail time), or the glossy magazines and slick TV shows. Before all that, what fuelled Martha to such heights was consumers' interest in the techniques she promoted and the results they generated. She built her empire on the appetite the mainstream had for the creation of basic household items.
The instant attraction people feel to spinning seems to be related to that same appetite, whether people recognize it or not. I speculate that this is because we are all connected to spinning: we are always in the presence of textiles, and they are all made from spun fibre. Spinners are conscious of this fact and revel in it. But people who have never been exposed to the making of thread before appear to notice it for the first time with a thirst they didn't even know they had.
I was recently interviewed for two different Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio shows. The first segment was regarding the International Back to Back Wool Challenge (see "Spinning Olympics," pg 3), on Sounds Like Canada, with another spinner, Jo-Anne Tabachek of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The second was a comparison of the merits of taking neuroceutical drugs versus using spinning or weaving as a form of therapy. This latter show was the first installment of a new show airing this summer, called Next, and for it the producers interviewed members of the Etobicoke Handweavers & Spinners guild.
It's difficult to say what the effect of these two interviews will be, but there appears to be a large and diverse audience that is hungry to know more about spinning. That the CBC includes this topic on two national shows within weeks is indicative of receptive listeners.
No one questions that national politics are radio fodder every day, perhaps because it's understood that politics are everywhere. Slowly but surely, as people listen to these radio shows, walk by us at demonstrations, look up-close at the cloth of their sleeve, or notice the postage stamp image of a sailboat and realize that sailcloth had to be made somehow, they are coming to the realization that spinning is everywhere too, and it's a good thing.
Happy spinning!
Lorraine Smith, Publisher & Editor