You were about to tell me about your affair with sewing.

Oh, no, that was just awful and sorted. I went through this stage. So I was going to make all of my own clothing and all I could make were squares and rectangles.

So I had this strappy dress that was just a big rectangle with a hole in it, and the straps kept falling

off. I would wear it over a t-shirt until the day when I'm waiting for the bus, and the bus

comes, and I stand up, and the whole thing just falls to my ankles. Oh, no. Thank God I had the

t-shirt on. If you knit or so, you've probably experienced something like this, an epic fabric fail.

It's humiliating, but that's besides the point.

What is the point is that we tend to remember failures rather than successes.

You might proudly show off the sweater you knit or the dress you sewed,

but what you'll talk about are the seven times you had to redo it

because you couldn't fit it over your head. But today, I want to talk about success, and not the

kind where your quilt wins a prize or you design your first garment. I want to talk about when making

and using cloth is not only successful, but downright revolutionary, when textiles or cloth or even string

become a slingshot that propels the human race forward, making it possible to go places

we never even imagined.

Today, we're traveling through 40,000 years of textile history, from Neanderthal caves to Egyptian pyramids, from Viking ships to spaceships,

none of these journeys would have happened without someone in the background, spinning, weaving, or sewing.

You're listening to Fibernation, tales of textiles, craft, and culture.

And I'm your host, Alison Kourleski.

Music styles, craft, and culture. And I'm your host, Alison Corleski. Hey, Hannah. How's it going? Hey, Allison. I'm good. How are you? I'm just duckie. I am sitting in my

closet. Yep. I am in my closet. Even epic journeys begin with a small step. I needed a friend to help me with this exploration. So I'm joined today by Hannah Baker, my colleague and fellow fiber geek. I'm Hannah Baker, and I am the editor of Inner Weave Nitz Magazine, and I'm also the host of a new podcast called The Knitting Nerdcast.

Which is a podcast I like very much?

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