Abigail M. Franquemont (born 1972) is an American textile crafts writer, lecturer and educator, based in Cusco, Peru. She spent her early childhood among the

Quechua people Quechua people (, ; ) , Quichua people or Kichwa people may refer to any of the Indigenous peoples of South America who speak the Quechua languages, which originated among the Indigenous people of Peru. Although most Quechua speakers are nativ ...

Chinchero Chinchero District is one of seven Districts of Peru, districts of the Urubamba Province in Peru. The town of Chinchero is the capital of the district. It is the location for the proposed Chinchero International Airport, which would serve traveler ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, where "women spun to eat and pay for the home they lived in." As a revivalist of the ancient art of

hand spinning Spinning is an ancient textile art in which plant, animal or synthetic fibres are drawn out and twisted together to form yarn. For thousands of years, fibre was spun by hand using simple tools, the spindle and distaff. After the introduction o ...

with the spindle, she published her book, ''Respect the Spindle'', in 2009.

Early life and family

2015 Smithsonian folklife festival DC - Cusco Weavers - 01

Abigail M. Franquemont was born in Massachusetts. Her parents were anthropologists Ed Franquemont (1945–2003) and Christine Robinson Franquemont (1948–2013). According to Ann Peters in ''Andean Past'', Ed and Chris met at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, traveled as

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

s with their children to

, Peru, and settled there to join the community and study traditional knowledge of

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

, construction and agriculture in 1976 "in the context of social change". They returned to the U.S. around 1982, and by 1985 the family had moved to

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, where the couple continued to research, and to contribute to the community there. Franquemont's younger sister, Molly Anne Franquemont (b. 1975), was reported missing in May 2013. Glen Griggs of

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...

was suspected of her murder, but was shot and killed by police in 2014.

Textile arts background

Franquemont was born into a textile environment. She remembers "falling asleep under her father's loom." Among friends in Chinchero, Franquemont and her sister spent their early childhoods within the

and hand weaving culture of the local

, before those ancient skills began to be lost to the influence of

Western society Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

, as described in ''Respect the Spindle'' (2009). In a world where "women...spun to eat and pay for the home they lived in," the Franquemont girls learned to spin

alpaca The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. Traditionally, alpacas were kept in herds that grazed on the level heights of the Andes of Southern Peru, Western Bolivia, Ecuador, and Northern Chile. More recentl ...

fiber at or before the age of five years, hoping to reach a professional standard before adulthood. Spinning was part of their play.Abby Franquemont, ''Respect the Spindle, spin infinite yarns with one amazing tool'', Interweave (2009) After the family's return to America, Franquemont attended

Lehman Alternative Community School The Lehman Alternative Community School (LACS) is a public, alternative, combined middle and high school in the Ithaca City School District in Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, Unite ...

, Ithaca, then read liberal arts at

Bard College at Simon's Rock Bard College at Simon's Rock (more commonly known as Simon's Rock) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It is part of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudso ...

Career

Franquemont Fibers

Franquemont worked in the textile business and

system software System software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. An example of system software is an operating system (OS) (like macOS, Linux, Android, and Microsoft Windows). Application software is software that allows users to d ...

until 2006, when she founded Franquemont Fibers LLC. The company supplies products for the spinning and fiber arts. It also allows her to pursue her vocation as a fiber arts educator and consultant. She has been described by ''Interweave'' as "a fiber artist, teacher, technical editor, and writer whose work has appeared in ''Spin-Off'', ''Spindicity'', and ''Twist Collective''".

Writing

In 2009 she published the hand spinning instruction book, ''Respect the Spindle''. The book outlines her personal experience of the place of hand spinning within the indigenous community of Chinchero in the 1970s, discusses the physics of hand spinning with spindles, and describes the techniques required for this. One of the reasons why she has supported the revival of the use of hand spindles is that, as her father said, in comparison with the spinning wheel "spindles (are) slower by the hour, but faster by the week." According to Franquemont, he meant that one can use a spindle while travelling or walking around, thus increasing potential spinning time. In the spring 2010 issue of ''Spin-Off'' magazine she clarifies the difference between

bobbin A bobbin or spool is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which yarn, thread, wire, tape or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in industrial textile machinery, as well as in sewing machines, fishing reels, tape measures ...

-driven and flyer-driven

spinning wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, ...

s. In the summer 2015 edition she discusses the origins of

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

plying In the textile arts, plying (from the French verb ''plier'', "to fold", from the Latin verb ''plico'', from the ancient Greek verb .) is a process of twisting one or more strings (called strands or plies) of yarn together to create a stronger yarn ...

Videos, teaching and lecturing

She took part in ''Knitting Daily TV, Series 300'' in 2009. She published or took part in various video downloads, including: ''Drafting: The Long and Short of It'' (Interweave 2010), ''Handspinning Prep Matters: Making Sense of Batts, Roving, Rolags, and More'' (Interweave 2015), ''New Spinner's Guide to Troubleshooting'' (Interweave 2015) and ''Get More Spun: Spinning to Knit Large Projects'' (Interweave, 2015), and she has lectured at "The National Needlearts Association (TNNA), Golden Gate Fiber Institute, the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR), Sock Summit, the Taos Wool Festival, New York State Sheep & Wool (Rhinebeck), Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF), and Fibre East in Bedfordshire, UK."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Franquemont, Abby Indigenous textile art of the Americas Indigenous culture of the Andes American bloggers 21st-century American women writers Crafts educators 1972 births Living people 21st-century American women textile artists Textile artists from Massachusetts 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women bloggers Writers from Massachusetts Bard College alumni 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American textile artists