Join us for MAFA Virtual’s first ever Distaff Day Celebration!
January 12, 2025, Noon to 5pm Eastern, on Zoom
Handspinners, non-spinners too, all are welcome!
Register in advance to get a Zoom link for the meeting HERE.
Our celebration will be hosted by David Heustess and Gigi Matthews. Drop in when you can, help us celebrate the history of handspinning, and raise a handful of fiber to its future! This will be an informal event for spinning together (or doing other fiber arts) and sharing fiber wisdom. Scroll down for the schedule of special guests.
St. Distaff’s Day, also known as Distaff Day or Roc Day, is an unofficial holiday celebrated on January 7th (remember our celebration will be on Sunday January 12th), the day after the feast of the Epiphany. It is a day when European women would resume spinning after the Christmas festivities, and is a symbol of the importance of spinning in the medieval era.
Questions about Distaff Day? Please email Gigi Matthews at meetup@mafafiber.org.
Distaff Day Schedule
NOTE: All times Eastern. Schedule Subject to Change – please check back in early-January
| Time – Eastern | Speaker | Links | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:30 p.m. | Martha Owen Martha Owen Woolens and the John C Campbell Folk School (she/her) | Links: Instagram: @marthaowenwoolens / Facebook: Martha Owen Woolens / https://www.folkschool.org/ / Spin Off Magazine articles: https://spinoffmagazine.com/author/martha-owen/ | |
| 1:00 p.m. | Nikyle Begaye Dine shepherd and weaver, keynote speaker at Convergence 2024 (they/them) | Links: Instagram: @navajoshepherd / Spin Off Magazine articles: https://spinoffmagazine.com/author/nikyle-begay/ | |
| 1:30 p.m. | David Heustess Art educator and fiber artist (he/him) | Link: https://davidheustess.com/ | |
| 2:00 p.m. | Thomas Victor Recipient of numerous awards at the New York Sheep & Wool Festival (he/him) | Link: http://thomasvictor.com/ | |
| 2:30 p.m. | Anthony DiRenzo Textile artist, weaving and dyeing teacher, writer | Link: https://www.anthonydirenzo.com/ | |
| 3:00 p.m. | Elliot Rockart Textile artist, writer, and researcher at the Tatter Textile Library in Brooklyn NYC (they/them) | Links: https://www.ecrockart.com/ and https://tatter.org/ | |
| 3:30 p.m. | Margaret Briggs MAFA President and Conference Chair of MAFA 2025 | Links: https://mafafiber.org/ and https://mafafiber.org/conferences/mafa2025/ | |
| 4:00 p.m. | Gigi Matthews Sustainable spinner, board member of the Handweavers Guild of America and MAFA | Links: Instagram: @brooklyncrafter / https://gigimatthews9.wixsite.com/my-site | |
| 4:30 p.m. | Barbara Cloud-Wiseman Rusty Bee Ranch, owner of a small flock of Florida Cracker sheep, the first breed of sheep in the US and now critically endangered. | Links: rarewool.org and Instagram: @rustybeeranch | |