On New Years Day we planned a relaxing day and decided to catch the last day (or so we thought) of the Sheik Zayed Heritage Festival in the Al Wathba Endurance Village. It is located nearby the camel race track and can be reached by car or with a free shuttle bus from Abu Dhabi’s central bus station in Al Wahda which leaves every hour on the hour. In the meantime we have learned that the festival has been extended until January 21st which gives us and everyone an opportunity to visit (again).
Since we arrived relatively early, shortly after the festival started for the day, some areas were still being set up. We walked by one of the heritage craft areas where spinning, weaving and working with palm leaves just started to begin. So, our first visit was to the UAE stores which were lined up in tents and small stalls close by. We found clothing, coffee, baked goods,sweets, dates, camel yarn and locally made spindles to be used for spinning the fibres of the region.
The camel yarn felt fairly rough and scratchy and is usually woven into mats or tent fabric. When woven tightly it yields a sturdy fabric which not only provides shade from the sun but shelter from the wind as well. Very useful when living in the open desert or close to the coast where the wind can blow steadily on many days. The spindles are a basic wooden top-whorl design and are being used as supported and a drop spindle. The wares were lovingly displayed in hand-woven palm leave baskets which I start to really like and might explore purchasing if I can ascertain that they were woven locally and not outsourced to another country. The next area we were drawn to was a heritage exhibit showcasing the traditional Bedouin Ayala dance (that is closest description I could find) and nearby a weaving of palm fronds for mats and of the twisting of palm fiber for the ropes binding the fronds together. Both were works performed by men. I have seen the mats used inside traditional mud and stone houses as floor covers and outside as roofs and walls for a more temporary shelter.
There were many more areas to visit: many Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries were represented with small shops selling their local crafts, arts and foods. A stage close by allowed for occasional traditional dances of the represented region. We saw the military marching band walk by, but missed the Arabian horse show and the fireworks later in the evening.
My most memorable activity was a meeting with a lady who spun her own yarn from her own sheep’s fleece. She invited me to sit in her area and take pictures of her craft. I showed her my mini spindle I had been using to spin some lace-weight Cheviot and she was curious, but found it not practical for her fibre. At one point two young photographers came by to take photos of her spinning and I asked for some translation: The spinner asked me what I used my yarn for (knitting and garments) and I asked where I could find some local sheep wool to buy. Unfortunately, those were her sheep’s fleeces and not for sale. She was very kind to gift me two small amounts of her natural white and dyed orange fibre which I spun up the same evening with my mini turtle-made spindle. I was so excited about my first spinning with local fibre – particularly after reading an article in the Winter 2017 Spin Off magazine about spinning and designing into the fibre shed.
After spinning the white fibre without any preparation from the lock I realized that it was difficult to draft and needed a high twist to hold together. At the same time lots of fibre ends were sticking out making the final “yarn” even more scratchy. So, the orange fibre I prepped by carding it into small rolags from which I spun a more woolen yarn. Overall the orange yarn looked more organized with fewer ends sticking out, but still felt scratchy, albeit a little less.
I decided to try for a two-ply to yield a more balanced yarn and ended up with approximately 3 meters of the natural and the orange colour. After this spin I understand why the Emirati lady thought spinning for lace is not for her: The resulting yarn feels more like rope and is best used for weaving of mats or table runners. I am still excited that I had a chance to try local fibre in my spinning and will continue to look to buy or barter some to play with it a bit in the future. These mini skeins will most likely be woven into a very small square.
It was an auspicious beginning of 2017!
May you have wonderful experiences this year! Happy crafting and exploring! Thank you, for reading my blog. Maike
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