Go to the British Library's site for images online, imagesonline.bl.uk, search for filename 071982, and you will see the page in the Luttrell Psalter that shows a woman spinning yarn with a spinning wheel. The psalter is from the fourteenth century.
A black and white detail of this image is commonly included in books about handspinning to illustrate the earliest example of a spinning wheel in Europe.
The psalter is in colour; the yarn is red. The wheel is turned by hand and the yarn spun off the tip of a spindle driven by the wheel, as with a modern great wheel. The base is very level, more like wheels from Asia than great wheels now.
There is a detail that gives you a closer view, if you search for 003937.
You can find a similar fourteenth century spinning wheel and handspinner shown in the Smithfield Decretals, filename 023698 and another wheel at 065458.
You may recognize the picture from De claris mulieribus, 061928. Handspinning books include it because it shows a distaff and spindle, hand cards, and wool combs in use in the fifteenth century.
If you like cats, filename stowe_ms_17_f034r from a fourteenth century Book of Hours is a lot of fun: the cat has caught a spindle in midair. The free-standing distaff is worth seeing as well, it's quite tall and appears carved at the base.
In the Luttrell Psalter there is an illustration of a woman feeding a hen and chicks while holding her distaff and spindle under her arm. In the database it is filename 071921 (full page) and 057655 (detail).
The same manuscript has an illustration of a woman holding a distaff over her head to strike the man at her feet. You can find it under 071862. On the page, the accompanying written verses* are from Psalm 31 in the Vulgate, and their content has nothing to do with the illustrations.
Sarah uses a distaff to beat Hagar over the head in the Egerton Genesis Picture Book, filename c13160-09. In Smithfield Decretals a woman uses her distaff to beat Reynard the Fox, 024291.
The database has a number of other images for weaving, spinning, and dyeing from different time periods and places. And, of general interest there are images of manuscripts, drawings, paintings, sculpture, carvings, pottery, mosaics, weaponry, coins, jewellery, silver, and textiles. The images don't just originate with British collections, either, I saw some Iron Age objects marked as being from Museum Hallstatt.
*I find old manuscripts difficult to read so I took what I could decipher, ran it through an online translator, then went looking for something like it in an online concordance. Here's what I found, verses 4 through most of 6. Enjoy, if you like Latin.
Quoniam die ac nocte gravata est
super me manus tua conversus
sum in aerumna mea; dum configitur
mihi; spina [diapsalma]
Delictum meum cognitum tibi; feci
et iniustitiam meam non abscondi
Dixi confitebor adversus me
iniustitiam meam Domino et tu
remisisti impietatem peccati mei [diapsalma]
Pro hac orabit ad te omnis
sanctus in tempore oportuno
Verumtamen in diluvio aquarum
multarum ad [eum non adproximabunt]
There is a discrepancy between the numbering of the Psalms in the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the original, and in English translations such as the King James Version, so if you want to read the verses in English then look up Psalm 32.
Showing posts with label great wheel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label great wheel. Show all posts
January 08, 2013
UK paintings database and old spinning wheels, part two
Continuing from my last post, instances of fibre arts in the UK's new database of public paintings. More tomorrow.
Thomas Duncan (attributed), "The Spinning Wheel" shows a woman with her hands in her lap at rest near a spinning wheel with distaff dressed and bound with red ribbon.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-wheel-135437
Nicholas Condy's "Interior, Girl Spinning," shows a spinning wheel of chunky design
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/interior-girl-spinning
Charles Towne (attributed), "Italianate Landscape with Peasant Woman Spinning" shows a small figure holding a long distaff at her left side and minding a mixed flock
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/italianate-landscape-with-a-peasant-woman-spinning-98683
Eric Austwick's "Mona Douglas (1898-1987) Spinning" shows a woman spinning, holding her hands on the fibre quite far apart. The distance between the maidens of the wheel is also wide. This the first portrait of a specific person I've come across in the database, and either she or the painter must have been from the Isle of Man because the painting is held in the Manx National Heritage collection. The museum is located incidentally in a place called Douglas. The painting entered the collection the year after Douglas' death.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/mona-douglas-18981987-spinning
Henry John Dobson's "Old Lady Spinning" shows a woman spinning a fine thread with her hands wide apart. She wears old-fashioned clothing and granny glasses and she stoops with age as do many handspinners shown in the paintings in the database, enough to call the depiction a theme or cliche. The window alcove is the same as the painter's "Burn's Grace," so was probably painted in the same place.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/old-lady-spinning-213621
unknown, "Old Woman at a Spinning Wheel" shows a dynamic scene of a young girl trying to climb on the lap of an old woman, whose hands are pulling a strand of flax off a dressed distaff. A cat stalks a bobbin on the floor. A bottle of gold liquid dangles on a string from the wheel's adjustment knob, possibly for wetting the flax though I doubt it since more commonly flax spinners use cups. The bottle could be for oiling the wheel's parts. There are more spokes than usual on the wheel and the turning on the legs is quite bulbous. The painting is in a collection in Ulster, a place identified with flax production.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/old-woman-at-a-spinning-wheel-123084
unknown, "Portrait of an Old Lady Spinning" shows a wheel in use with what might be tow flax arranged on a distaff. The distaff is cone-shaped with wooden spokes radiating out from the top and set into a wooden ring at the base of the cone.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/portrait-of-an-old-lady-spinning-196472
Mortimer L. Menpes' "Spinning Ajmere" shows a wheel that looks Eastern and from the name it might be a scene from India. A quick Internet search on the painter shows he travelled in India. No date is given for the painting but the museum acquired it in 1929.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/spinning-ajmere-72077
James Duff's "Spinning and Weaving" shows hand methods of spinning and weaving on the left juxtaposed with mechanized methods on the right. The painting's date is recent.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/spinning-and-weaving-92333
William Collins' "Spinning Girl of Sorrento" shows a distaff held in the left hand and a spindle held in the hand against the right thigh. It is not clear whether the spindle is in use or at rest. I trust there is a seat under the woman and she is not standing on one leg. It is difficult to see the spindle's shape.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/spinning-girl-of-sorrento-65856
Karel Frans Philippeau's "Spinning: Italian Scene" shows a woman holding a distaff in her left hand and reaching down toward a stick in a child's hand. There is a filament running from her hand to the top of the stick. The description calls the stick a spinning reel. The fibre on the distaff looks like line flax.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/spinning-italian-scene-205810
Cogswell's "Still Life Interior with Spinning Wheel" shows a very odd, rudimentary spinning wheel with a board taking the place of the front leg, mother of all, and maidens. The wheel obscures whatever spindle or flyer and bobbin should be there. The spokes and legs have no turning details at all, unlike the pieces of furniture in the room which are elaborate.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/still-life-interior-with-a-spinning-wheel-64908
unknown, "The Fortune Teller (A Family Group at a Spinning Wheel)" shows a castle wheel, very small, with a cup to hold water to smooth flax. Line flax and the undressed distaff are on the handspinner's lap. She sits in a chair with a somewhat narrow back, possibly to facilitate arm movements during spinning.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-fortune-teller-a-family-group-at-a-spinning-wheel-190826
Leon Bakst's "The Sleeping Beauty: The Princess Pricks Her Finger on a Spinning Wheel" shows enough of the scene to convey it but not enough to tell exactly what part the princess injures herself with. The old woman appears to be adjusting the drive band. The wheel is a castle wheel, I think. The painting's style is interesting, it was done about a hundred years ago and is refreshing after so many weighty and dark paintings. Also, there's a cat playing with an enormous ball of yarn.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-sleeping-beauty-the-princess-pricks-her-finger-on-a-s229345
Hugh Cameron's "The Spinning Lesson" shows an old woman spinning flax from a distaff on a wheel with long legs and a lot of turned detail in the wood. A girl watches. The room is in deep gloom with light from one window, which could help the woman see the fibre and spin a fine yarn.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-lesson-83470
Samuel Edmonston's "The Spinning Lesson" shows a young woman spinning from a distaff on a wheel just outside the door. A girl and an old woman watch.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-lesson-128617
John Phillip, "The Spinning Wheel" shows a woman holding fibre, possibly flax, in her lap. A glossy spinning wheel sits in position in front of her; only the edge of the spinning wheel with the flyer is shown.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-wheel-85678
Chinese school, "Two Women Spinning" shows a woman rolling out something long and white. Another woman sits on a very low stool and spins with a delicate Asian-style wheel, spinning longdraw off the tip of the spindle. Here and elsewhere fibre preparation and spinning yarn are considered one process. The women sit in a building with one side open to the courtyard.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/two-women-spinning-74549
Beatrice Offor (attributed), "Woman at Spinning Wheel" shows a woman spinning on a wheel. There is a roughly-dressed distaff but the woman is drawing out the fibre in the opposite direction. The wheel is quite small for the frame and the frame is slanted at a steep angle.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-at-a-spinning-wheel-134126
unknown, "Woman at a Spinning Wheel" shows a woman outside sitting in front of a castle wheel. She is wearing wooden clogs and one clog is on the treadle, which I find unusual since I see most handspinners go in sock feet or slippers. She is holding a dressed distaff bound in blue ribbon.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-at-a-spinning-wheel-81768
Julien Gustave Gagliardini's "Woman at Spinning Wheel" shows a woman sitting outside in front of what I take to be a swift, not a spinning wheel. There is yarn on the swift. The base of the swift is formed from the upturned crotch of a tree cut where three branches meet. A similar swift is shown in Spencer's Spinning and Weaving at Upper Canada Village.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-at-spinning-wheel
Margaret Thomas' "Woman Spinning" shows a woman standing with her left arm raised in the air, a strand going from her left hand down through her right hand and down another good foot or more to a spindle suspended in the air. The spindle has two whorls, rare today, and the cop of yarn is wound between them. Very little fibre remains to be spun, which makes the portrait look posed.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-spinning-15809
Pieter Nys' "Woman Spinning" shows a woman spinning flax next to a hearth. The drive wheel is quite small. And, nothing to do with spinning, I think I recognize the type of footstool in front of an empty chair as the kind you put coals in for a portable source of radiant heat. The woman is minding a child as she spins.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-spinning-200186
Paul Falconer Poole's "An Italian Family" shows a woman seated on a bench outside, spinning with a distaff in her left hand and a top whorl spindle dangling by her hem on her right side. She is looking straight ahead, not at her fingers.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/an-italian-family-80934
Isack van Ostade's "Interior of a Barn with an Old Woman at a Distaff" shows just that. The dressed distaff consists of a long post fixed in a base. It is placed on the ground near her left hand. Her hand is raised to draw down fibre. Her right hand drops down at her right side, holding the tip of a long spindle with no discernible whorl and a cop evenly wound along its whole length. In the old days, according to Baines, the phrase "spin on a distaff" implicitly meant distaff and spindle.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/interior-of-a-barn-with-an-old-woman-at-a-distaff-206293
William Linnell's "The Distaff" shows a woman on the shore seated and holding a distaff in her left hand. The distaff is dressed with what might be tow flax. A strand runs down through the right hand, which is at rest on the woman's lap. If there is a spindle, it is hidden behind her skirt.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-distaff-71796
Frederick Goodall's "The Distaff Worker" shows a woman seated on the ground in a field. In her right hand she holds up a spindle, either top or bottom whorl. Her left hand draws from a mass of fluffy white fibre pinned down by her foot, a method new to me. There is a lamb in front of her and a flock in the background, so the fibre is probably wool. The woman's headdress, the dry field, and her position on the ground make me think this scene is in North Africa or the Arab peninsula.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-distaff-worker-47234
Mark Senior's "The Flax Spinners, Rotterdam" shows a woman vigorously turning a very large wheel by hand and holding fibre in the way you'd use a great wheel. I hope the flax is tow, I hear line flax is unsuited to great wheels.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-flax-spinners-rotterdam-22916
T. Cash's "Welsh Woman Picking Wool"
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/welsh-woman-picking-wool
Henry Hetherington Emmerson's "Wool Gathering" shows women gathering wool next to a flock of sheep, probably Scottish Blackface sheep from the markings, horns, and texture of wool. The women hold their aprons folded at their waists to form bags in which they put wool that was shed by the sheep and left on the plants around them.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/wool-gathering-35318
Thomas Duncan (attributed), "The Spinning Wheel" shows a woman with her hands in her lap at rest near a spinning wheel with distaff dressed and bound with red ribbon.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-wheel-135437
Nicholas Condy's "Interior, Girl Spinning," shows a spinning wheel of chunky design
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/interior-girl-spinning
Charles Towne (attributed), "Italianate Landscape with Peasant Woman Spinning" shows a small figure holding a long distaff at her left side and minding a mixed flock
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/italianate-landscape-with-a-peasant-woman-spinning-98683
Eric Austwick's "Mona Douglas (1898-1987) Spinning" shows a woman spinning, holding her hands on the fibre quite far apart. The distance between the maidens of the wheel is also wide. This the first portrait of a specific person I've come across in the database, and either she or the painter must have been from the Isle of Man because the painting is held in the Manx National Heritage collection. The museum is located incidentally in a place called Douglas. The painting entered the collection the year after Douglas' death.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/mona-douglas-18981987-spinning
Henry John Dobson's "Old Lady Spinning" shows a woman spinning a fine thread with her hands wide apart. She wears old-fashioned clothing and granny glasses and she stoops with age as do many handspinners shown in the paintings in the database, enough to call the depiction a theme or cliche. The window alcove is the same as the painter's "Burn's Grace," so was probably painted in the same place.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/old-lady-spinning-213621
unknown, "Old Woman at a Spinning Wheel" shows a dynamic scene of a young girl trying to climb on the lap of an old woman, whose hands are pulling a strand of flax off a dressed distaff. A cat stalks a bobbin on the floor. A bottle of gold liquid dangles on a string from the wheel's adjustment knob, possibly for wetting the flax though I doubt it since more commonly flax spinners use cups. The bottle could be for oiling the wheel's parts. There are more spokes than usual on the wheel and the turning on the legs is quite bulbous. The painting is in a collection in Ulster, a place identified with flax production.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/old-woman-at-a-spinning-wheel-123084
unknown, "Portrait of an Old Lady Spinning" shows a wheel in use with what might be tow flax arranged on a distaff. The distaff is cone-shaped with wooden spokes radiating out from the top and set into a wooden ring at the base of the cone.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/portrait-of-an-old-lady-spinning-196472
Mortimer L. Menpes' "Spinning Ajmere" shows a wheel that looks Eastern and from the name it might be a scene from India. A quick Internet search on the painter shows he travelled in India. No date is given for the painting but the museum acquired it in 1929.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/spinning-ajmere-72077
James Duff's "Spinning and Weaving" shows hand methods of spinning and weaving on the left juxtaposed with mechanized methods on the right. The painting's date is recent.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/spinning-and-weaving-92333
William Collins' "Spinning Girl of Sorrento" shows a distaff held in the left hand and a spindle held in the hand against the right thigh. It is not clear whether the spindle is in use or at rest. I trust there is a seat under the woman and she is not standing on one leg. It is difficult to see the spindle's shape.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/spinning-girl-of-sorrento-65856
Karel Frans Philippeau's "Spinning: Italian Scene" shows a woman holding a distaff in her left hand and reaching down toward a stick in a child's hand. There is a filament running from her hand to the top of the stick. The description calls the stick a spinning reel. The fibre on the distaff looks like line flax.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/spinning-italian-scene-205810
Cogswell's "Still Life Interior with Spinning Wheel" shows a very odd, rudimentary spinning wheel with a board taking the place of the front leg, mother of all, and maidens. The wheel obscures whatever spindle or flyer and bobbin should be there. The spokes and legs have no turning details at all, unlike the pieces of furniture in the room which are elaborate.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/still-life-interior-with-a-spinning-wheel-64908
unknown, "The Fortune Teller (A Family Group at a Spinning Wheel)" shows a castle wheel, very small, with a cup to hold water to smooth flax. Line flax and the undressed distaff are on the handspinner's lap. She sits in a chair with a somewhat narrow back, possibly to facilitate arm movements during spinning.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-fortune-teller-a-family-group-at-a-spinning-wheel-190826
Leon Bakst's "The Sleeping Beauty: The Princess Pricks Her Finger on a Spinning Wheel" shows enough of the scene to convey it but not enough to tell exactly what part the princess injures herself with. The old woman appears to be adjusting the drive band. The wheel is a castle wheel, I think. The painting's style is interesting, it was done about a hundred years ago and is refreshing after so many weighty and dark paintings. Also, there's a cat playing with an enormous ball of yarn.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-sleeping-beauty-the-princess-pricks-her-finger-on-a-s229345
Hugh Cameron's "The Spinning Lesson" shows an old woman spinning flax from a distaff on a wheel with long legs and a lot of turned detail in the wood. A girl watches. The room is in deep gloom with light from one window, which could help the woman see the fibre and spin a fine yarn.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-lesson-83470
Samuel Edmonston's "The Spinning Lesson" shows a young woman spinning from a distaff on a wheel just outside the door. A girl and an old woman watch.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-lesson-128617
John Phillip, "The Spinning Wheel" shows a woman holding fibre, possibly flax, in her lap. A glossy spinning wheel sits in position in front of her; only the edge of the spinning wheel with the flyer is shown.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-wheel-85678
Chinese school, "Two Women Spinning" shows a woman rolling out something long and white. Another woman sits on a very low stool and spins with a delicate Asian-style wheel, spinning longdraw off the tip of the spindle. Here and elsewhere fibre preparation and spinning yarn are considered one process. The women sit in a building with one side open to the courtyard.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/two-women-spinning-74549
Beatrice Offor (attributed), "Woman at Spinning Wheel" shows a woman spinning on a wheel. There is a roughly-dressed distaff but the woman is drawing out the fibre in the opposite direction. The wheel is quite small for the frame and the frame is slanted at a steep angle.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-at-a-spinning-wheel-134126
unknown, "Woman at a Spinning Wheel" shows a woman outside sitting in front of a castle wheel. She is wearing wooden clogs and one clog is on the treadle, which I find unusual since I see most handspinners go in sock feet or slippers. She is holding a dressed distaff bound in blue ribbon.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-at-a-spinning-wheel-81768
Julien Gustave Gagliardini's "Woman at Spinning Wheel" shows a woman sitting outside in front of what I take to be a swift, not a spinning wheel. There is yarn on the swift. The base of the swift is formed from the upturned crotch of a tree cut where three branches meet. A similar swift is shown in Spencer's Spinning and Weaving at Upper Canada Village.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-at-spinning-wheel
Margaret Thomas' "Woman Spinning" shows a woman standing with her left arm raised in the air, a strand going from her left hand down through her right hand and down another good foot or more to a spindle suspended in the air. The spindle has two whorls, rare today, and the cop of yarn is wound between them. Very little fibre remains to be spun, which makes the portrait look posed.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-spinning-15809
Pieter Nys' "Woman Spinning" shows a woman spinning flax next to a hearth. The drive wheel is quite small. And, nothing to do with spinning, I think I recognize the type of footstool in front of an empty chair as the kind you put coals in for a portable source of radiant heat. The woman is minding a child as she spins.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-spinning-200186
Paul Falconer Poole's "An Italian Family" shows a woman seated on a bench outside, spinning with a distaff in her left hand and a top whorl spindle dangling by her hem on her right side. She is looking straight ahead, not at her fingers.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/an-italian-family-80934
Isack van Ostade's "Interior of a Barn with an Old Woman at a Distaff" shows just that. The dressed distaff consists of a long post fixed in a base. It is placed on the ground near her left hand. Her hand is raised to draw down fibre. Her right hand drops down at her right side, holding the tip of a long spindle with no discernible whorl and a cop evenly wound along its whole length. In the old days, according to Baines, the phrase "spin on a distaff" implicitly meant distaff and spindle.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/interior-of-a-barn-with-an-old-woman-at-a-distaff-206293
William Linnell's "The Distaff" shows a woman on the shore seated and holding a distaff in her left hand. The distaff is dressed with what might be tow flax. A strand runs down through the right hand, which is at rest on the woman's lap. If there is a spindle, it is hidden behind her skirt.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-distaff-71796
Frederick Goodall's "The Distaff Worker" shows a woman seated on the ground in a field. In her right hand she holds up a spindle, either top or bottom whorl. Her left hand draws from a mass of fluffy white fibre pinned down by her foot, a method new to me. There is a lamb in front of her and a flock in the background, so the fibre is probably wool. The woman's headdress, the dry field, and her position on the ground make me think this scene is in North Africa or the Arab peninsula.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-distaff-worker-47234
Mark Senior's "The Flax Spinners, Rotterdam" shows a woman vigorously turning a very large wheel by hand and holding fibre in the way you'd use a great wheel. I hope the flax is tow, I hear line flax is unsuited to great wheels.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-flax-spinners-rotterdam-22916
T. Cash's "Welsh Woman Picking Wool"
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/welsh-woman-picking-wool
Henry Hetherington Emmerson's "Wool Gathering" shows women gathering wool next to a flock of sheep, probably Scottish Blackface sheep from the markings, horns, and texture of wool. The women hold their aprons folded at their waists to form bags in which they put wool that was shed by the sheep and left on the plants around them.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/wool-gathering-35318
January 07, 2013
UK paintings database and old spinning wheels, part one
Old paintings show us how people used to live, and in this case, how they spun yarn and treated their equipment. The UK made available online a database of its public paintings. Here are some to help you celebrate Distaff day. My favourites are first. I have posted details about as many paintings as I could in one sitting but there are more left.
Francis Wheatley (style of), "A Woman Spinning in a Farmyard Setting" shows a spinning wheel with a drive wheel that is quite small, and a tall pole which is probably an undressed distaff. The woman's foot is not actually on the treadle, she is sitting behind the wheel holding on her lap what looks like a bundle of line flax in strands about two or three feet long. She is holding the fibre in a manner similar to the way strands of line flax are supposed to be arranged before putting them on a distaff.
Thomas Stuart Smith's "A Welsh Interior, Spinning," shows a very large great wheel in use
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/a-welsh-interior-spinning-127440
"Woman Spinning" shows another spindle wheel but this one has no legs, has a crank at the axle to turn the wheel, and a peculiar rim on the wheel which might be in two hoops connected by cross pieces. Good detail on the spindle assembly: you can see the wound cop, the leather bearings, and the grooves for the drive band. The woman's long draw technique looks accurate.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-spinning-127471
Reinier Craeyvanger's "Cottage Interior" shows a Saxony spinning wheel. In a back room, a blacksmith strikes iron on an anvil.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/cottage-interior-8435
Thomas Faed (attributed), "The Spinning Wheel" shows a woman sitting at a castle wheel with a flax distaff dressed and bound with pink ribbon. A girl interrupts her and a boy pokes his head out from under a table cloth right by the wheel.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-wheel-152804
Thomas Fawcett Hutton's "Kitchen in Wales" shows a great wheel
Francis Wheatley (style of), "A Woman Spinning in a Farmyard Setting" shows a spinning wheel with a drive wheel that is quite small, and a tall pole which is probably an undressed distaff. The woman's foot is not actually on the treadle, she is sitting behind the wheel holding on her lap what looks like a bundle of line flax in strands about two or three feet long. She is holding the fibre in a manner similar to the way strands of line flax are supposed to be arranged before putting them on a distaff.
Thomas Stuart Smith's "A Welsh Interior, Spinning," shows a very large great wheel in use
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/a-welsh-interior-spinning-127440
"Woman Spinning" shows another spindle wheel but this one has no legs, has a crank at the axle to turn the wheel, and a peculiar rim on the wheel which might be in two hoops connected by cross pieces. Good detail on the spindle assembly: you can see the wound cop, the leather bearings, and the grooves for the drive band. The woman's long draw technique looks accurate.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/woman-spinning-127471
Reinier Craeyvanger's "Cottage Interior" shows a Saxony spinning wheel. In a back room, a blacksmith strikes iron on an anvil.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/cottage-interior-8435
Bartolome Esteban Murillo's "An Old Woman Holding a Distaff and Spindle"
Thomas Uwin's "Neopolitan Peasants" shows a spindle and distaff, though unfortunately not in use
Frederick Daniel Hardy's "A Prayer for Those at Sea" shows a spinning wheel with distaff
and "Preparing for Dinner" shows a spinning wheel in the background
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/preparing-for-dinner-18936
Quiringh van Brekelenkam's "Domestic Dutch Interior" shows a spinning wheel with a rim like a great wheel
"Interior with Old Man and Old Woman Spinning" shows a spinning wheel in use with flax on a distaff which might be a bird cage distaff. The base of the wheel looks like box, something like those decorations shaped like spinning wheels that hold potted plants. The man is not spinning like the squinting modifier of a title suggests he is.
Hendrik Martensz. Sorg's "Interior with Young Woman Washing Pots" shows most of a spinning wheel
William Allan's "The Ballad of Old Robin Gray" shows a spinning wheel with a distaff whose fibre is bound with a pink ribbon. Distaff ribbon colour at one time denoted marital status. Marital status is the theme of this particular ballad where a young woman is pressured to marry an older man instead of her sweetheart. I can't remember which colour ribbon means what marital status and so cannot tell if the ribbon is symbolic.
John Ballantyne's "Thomas Faed at His Easel in His Studio" shows a castle-style spinning wheel among the props, rendered without the level of detail in the painting attributed to Faed; for example Ballantyne leaves out the flyer and bobbin.
Thomas Faed (attributed), "The Spinning Wheel" shows a woman sitting at a castle wheel with a flax distaff dressed and bound with pink ribbon. A girl interrupts her and a boy pokes his head out from under a table cloth right by the wheel.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-spinning-wheel-152804
Hendrik Ringeling's "Woman and Child" shows a castle wheel with two upright posts holding the flyer instead of the usual one
Caspar Netscher's "A Lady at a Spinning Wheel" partially shows a spinning wheel with an elaborately turned design and what is probably a distaff dressed with flax and bound with ribbon
Francis Henry Newberry's "A Spinning or Rope-walk" shows women walking backward spinning rope on multiple heads on a wheel turned by a child. If memory serves, a copy of this is an illustration in Patricia Baines' Spinning Wheels, Spinners, and Spinning. Most of the paintings show handspinners in a domestic setting but Newberry shows them in a community or business setting.
"A Weaving Shop" shows a bobbin winder, a swift, and horizontal two-harness treadle looms in use. The bobbin winder is sitting down and turning the wheel by hand. At first glance it looks like she is spinning.
"Interior Scene, Spinning Wool" shows a similar setup as the rope-walk, only for wool
Margaret Sarah Carpenter's "An Old Woman Spinning" shows part of a wheel, with a bobbin almost full of a shiny fine gold thread, probably flax. Quite a thick drive band on the wheel, and the band only goes around the bobbin, there is no flyer at all. Also, the thread comes straight off the bobbin, not through a spindle and out the far side of the support. The right arm is raised to the wheel suggesting she is turning the wheel instead of treadling. I would say that this is bobbin winding not spinning yarn except that the bobbin is too large to fit any weaving shuttle I know.
Michael Sweerts' "An Old Woman Spinning" shows a spindle and distaff in use
Thomas McEwan's "At the Spinning Wheel" shows a spinning wheel with unusual turning on a leg, what could be a strangely large bobbin, and what could be a very thick rim on the wheel
"Interior: The Spinning Wheel" shows a similar wheel. You can see the fibre held in the hand more distinctly in this painting; the preparation looks like a rolag. The woman is spinning while minding an infant, her eyes are not on her work.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/interior-the-spinning-wheel-85223
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/interior-the-spinning-wheel-85223
Francis Hayman's "Girl at a Spinning Wheel" shows flax being spun from a distaff on a dainty wheel
Veitch's "Girl at a Spinning Wheel" which was painted only a couple of decades ago, unlike most in the database, shows a castle wheel in use with a forked distaff.
a French school "Interior, a Peasant Woman Spinning, her Daughter Making Lace and Conversing with a Young Man" shows a wheel turned by the right hand with a handle, possibly a crank handle on the axle, and a distaff loaded with flax and held under the left arm. The distaff seems to have a cross piece, maybe to make it easier to hold in place.
December 19, 2011
Historic Banning Mills
I stayed at the Lodges at Historic Banning Mills in Georgia. The location once had water-powered mills that ran a cotton gin and cotton spinning machines. Here is the shell of the spinning mill building:
This is one of the dams, now washed out after a flood. At the left there are two lines of stone wall; these are walls of a mill race that channeled water to the mills. It's now a walking path, and you walk through the lock that controlled water flow.
If I correctly caught the narration of the Banning Mills documentary, wool, not just cotton, was spun at this site with water power to make Confederate military uniforms. I posted once before, after reading Massey's Ersatz in the Confederacy, about the abrupt change in conditions in the American South during their civil war when there were trade embargoes and disruption of transportation lines. Local and regional production became important, and so did the power generation (or hand power), infrastructure and tools, know-how, labour, and supplies at hand. So different from today where these things are remote from our experience.
Here is a walking wheel that was found on the property. The spindle and leather bearings are missing. The spinning wheel is on display in the lodge, assembled with the wheel on the wrong side in order to fit on the mantlepiece.
Here is a walking wheel that was found on the property. The spindle and leather bearings are missing. The spinning wheel is on display in the lodge, assembled with the wheel on the wrong side in order to fit on the mantlepiece.
In the gift shop you can buy a miniature bale of cotton for a souvenir.
There are trails in the woods and along the creek, with amphitheatres, picnic tables, and pavilions. At the main building there is a deck with rocking chairs. The weather was warm enough to be outside in comfort and I found some good spots in which to spin, knit, weave, and read fibre arts books.
I think Historic Banning Mills is a place with potential for knitting retreats. The only issue I could see handspinners, knitters, dyers, and weavers coming up against is the steep slope of the terrain. The slope is an asset for the scenic views and the zip lines where you zip through the tree canopy riding a pulley on a cable high off the ground. However, the stairs down to the creek and down to the conference rooms might be a barrier to access for some.
August 19, 2011
Knaut-Rhuland House in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
What do you do when you go to a designated world heritage site in a really old part of Canada? Go looking around town for evidence of handspinning.
I found it at the Knaut-Rhuland House museum in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
The textile room at the back holds a comprehensive collection of tools and supplies that museum interpreters must find well-suited to teaching the public about hand methods of fabric production. There is a great wheel with bat head, loom, inkle loom, warping board, spinning wheel, line flax, baskets of wool, basket of spindles and roving, swift, skein winder, hand cards for wool, handwoven fabric samples, a crude Turkish spindle made from twigs, and an enormous rustic forked distaff whose practicality I question. I was interested the line flax, of course, but sadly wasn't able to find out where the flax came from.
The Saxony spinning wheel had paint on the wood to highlight its turned details, a touch I've read is characteristic of wheels from French-speaking cultures in North America. There was a similar wheel in the front room.
Upstairs were the beginnings of socks on double pointed needles.
Also upstairs was a very old set of table linen labeled as a flax linen centre and serviettes. (Canadians say serviettes, Americans say napkins. I remember my Canadian-born grandmother once defended the word serviette, clinching her argument with the fact that napkins, nappies, go on babies' bottoms.) The set was made locally by hand at every stage from flax seed planted by a settler who came to the area in the mid-1700s. I won't post a photo of the linens because they are from a private collection on loan to the museum, but I will describe the workmanship. The material is fine, even, and smooth. Extensive embellishment was done in cutwork; that is, small holes were cut out in patterns and the edges bound with embroidery in the shape of leaves and flowers. Vines and blossoms are embroidered on the solid parts. I can't imagine anyone daring to wipe a greasy mouth with one of those serviettes.
In the narrow garden around the house were small sprouts, identified by the museum worker as flax, as well as dye plants at the back.
I found it at the Knaut-Rhuland House museum in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
The textile room at the back holds a comprehensive collection of tools and supplies that museum interpreters must find well-suited to teaching the public about hand methods of fabric production. There is a great wheel with bat head, loom, inkle loom, warping board, spinning wheel, line flax, baskets of wool, basket of spindles and roving, swift, skein winder, hand cards for wool, handwoven fabric samples, a crude Turkish spindle made from twigs, and an enormous rustic forked distaff whose practicality I question. I was interested the line flax, of course, but sadly wasn't able to find out where the flax came from.
 |
| bat head on great wheel |
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| decorative paint on spinning wheel; line flax |
Also upstairs was a very old set of table linen labeled as a flax linen centre and serviettes. (Canadians say serviettes, Americans say napkins. I remember my Canadian-born grandmother once defended the word serviette, clinching her argument with the fact that napkins, nappies, go on babies' bottoms.) The set was made locally by hand at every stage from flax seed planted by a settler who came to the area in the mid-1700s. I won't post a photo of the linens because they are from a private collection on loan to the museum, but I will describe the workmanship. The material is fine, even, and smooth. Extensive embellishment was done in cutwork; that is, small holes were cut out in patterns and the edges bound with embroidery in the shape of leaves and flowers. Vines and blossoms are embroidered on the solid parts. I can't imagine anyone daring to wipe a greasy mouth with one of those serviettes.
In the narrow garden around the house were small sprouts, identified by the museum worker as flax, as well as dye plants at the back.
August 05, 2011
Handspun in Newfoundland
Meet Bill. Bill is from Newfoundland. Up through his late teens, Bill wore handspun, homemade clothes exclusively. His grandfather kept sheep and made Bill's mother a great wheel so she could spin yarn, and that's where the family's clothes came from. He thinks he remembers the sheep breed was called Shetland.
Bill says other people he knew in Newfoundland at the time wore handspun too. They did it out of necessity. People kept their spinning wheels until the late 1960s when Americans came and paid five to ten dollars a wheel.
Bill is wearing a handsome fisherman's sweater he knit himself with commercial yarn. It has honeycomb cables in the middle, seed stitch at the sides, and what he calls "some sort of cable" in between. He enjoyed doing the math to change the pattern from a crew neck to a shawl collar, which he likes better.
Bill learned how to spin yarn with his mother's great wheel when he was young. Mine was the first drop spindle he'd seen. I showed him how my drop spindle works and he could see the similarity between its action and a great wheel's.
Newfoundland and Labrador's tourism site is here. If you need some orientation, the province is Canada's easternmost. I'm from the westernmost province.
I wonder what they thought, when they sold their spinning wheels. Maybe they told themselves they didn't need spinning wheels anymore and it would be good to have the money. Maybe they figured they could always build another.
March 14, 2011
Long Draw
The weather warmed up enough for me to venture out to the bothy and use the new great wheel.
I was able to draft cotton into impossibly fine strands but unable to make them hold together.
After cotton and I re-affirmed our mutual antipathy, I delved into the depths of my stash and found a whiskery bit of wool someone destashed to me when I first learned to spin. I managed to spin this:
I am much slower with a great wheel than I am with a spindle, unaccustomed as I am. I gingerly turn the wheel, frequently check the yarn's twist, and generally feel like I am doing something completely foreign.
Before I could get the drafting results I wanted, I had to remind myself not to make the classic novice handspinner's mistake of keeping a death grip on the fibre. I also had to predraft the roving to make it fluffy and loose, similar to the density of a rolag. I probably should use rolags, but I'm not.
I draft fibre with a short draw when I use a drop spindle. The great wheel requires me to spin with a long draw.
Switching from short draw to long draw is akin to switching between a stick shift and an automatic, or between a Mac and a PC. The discombobulation is not as great as when trying to write with the non-dominant hand, fortunately, even though I am using my left hand to draft long draw whereas I use my right hand to draft short draw. This is because short draw requires fine finger control. Long draw needs long sweeps of the arm.
I was able to draft cotton into impossibly fine strands but unable to make them hold together.
After cotton and I re-affirmed our mutual antipathy, I delved into the depths of my stash and found a whiskery bit of wool someone destashed to me when I first learned to spin. I managed to spin this:
I am much slower with a great wheel than I am with a spindle, unaccustomed as I am. I gingerly turn the wheel, frequently check the yarn's twist, and generally feel like I am doing something completely foreign.
Before I could get the drafting results I wanted, I had to remind myself not to make the classic novice handspinner's mistake of keeping a death grip on the fibre. I also had to predraft the roving to make it fluffy and loose, similar to the density of a rolag. I probably should use rolags, but I'm not.
I draft fibre with a short draw when I use a drop spindle. The great wheel requires me to spin with a long draw.
Switching from short draw to long draw is akin to switching between a stick shift and an automatic, or between a Mac and a PC. The discombobulation is not as great as when trying to write with the non-dominant hand, fortunately, even though I am using my left hand to draft long draw whereas I use my right hand to draft short draw. This is because short draw requires fine finger control. Long draw needs long sweeps of the arm.
March 08, 2011
A Walking Wheel of My Own
I bought a spinning wheel, an antique walking wheel. I bought it from Tracy Miller of Tracy Miller Designs and Silkenstone on Etsy. Miller designs vector surface art for various materials including fabric. Miller says this wheel was used to spin cotton in her family three generations ago.
I am no longer an oddity among handspinners, owning only drop spindles. But I trust I remain sufficiently eccentric? This is not your typical wheel choice. I still have to stand up while spinning. I still have stop spinning to wind yarn on the spindle. The wheel is twice the size of a typical Saxony or castle wheel.
It comes apart for transport and stows more easily than you'd think.
Saw the ad on Friday night and bought the wheel Saturday morning. This was an impulse buy I've been waiting two years to have the chance to do.
February 03, 2011
The Age Of Homespun
I read The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. With a title like that, you can imagine the content is rather weighty and academic. There's a great deal about the people who lived in the New England area from the late 1600s to early 1800s, how they got along (or didn't–a lot about how they didn't) and what they produced and traded.
When I was a teenager, I heard general stories about teen girls in the old days who used to fill their hope chests with linens and towels they made. The Age of Handspun gives specifics drawn from original records and objects.
There are some practical tidbits. In the eighth chapter, I was rewarded with the information that flax should not be retted in July or August because, so they said, strong sunlight hits drops of water and scorches the fibre, and because "in hot weather fermentation produced a dark stain."
I was surprised to learn that in the late 1700s, Ireland harvested its flax before it was ripe and imported new seed each year from the United States. I would have thought that they would have pulled most early to make fine linen but left some plants to mature and give them seed to save. The Irish outsourced and off-shored their flax seeds. I can't find where it is now, but I am pretty sure the author states somewhere that the War of 1812 cut off the supply.
I learned that duffle is a type of cloth, not just a style of coat. The children's book character Paddington Bear wears a duffle coat and I wore one as a child.
The copy I read was purchased by the guild from the estate of an elderly, accomplished handspinner who favoured the walking wheel. There is one margin note in the entire 500 page book, an exclamation point next to this passage in the second chapter: "Using one hand to give the wheel an occasional turn, the spinner drew out her fiber with the other. As the thread lengthened, she stepped backward inch by inch until she had gone as far as her arm could reach." I've used a walking wheel; not that I'm any expert but I stepped back in normal-sized steps and drew my arm back smoothly, and I can't imagine backing up inch by inch. I think the margin note means the book's late owner strongly disagreed with this technical description of inching backward.
An overarching motif of the author's is that our perspectives and biases not only drive what we do (make certain textiles) but what we select, keep, display, and emphasize (collect for museums). I agree. I know that my projects reflect my belief that making handspun is desirable, beneficial, and relevant today.
When I was a teenager, I heard general stories about teen girls in the old days who used to fill their hope chests with linens and towels they made. The Age of Handspun gives specifics drawn from original records and objects.
There are some practical tidbits. In the eighth chapter, I was rewarded with the information that flax should not be retted in July or August because, so they said, strong sunlight hits drops of water and scorches the fibre, and because "in hot weather fermentation produced a dark stain."
I was surprised to learn that in the late 1700s, Ireland harvested its flax before it was ripe and imported new seed each year from the United States. I would have thought that they would have pulled most early to make fine linen but left some plants to mature and give them seed to save. The Irish outsourced and off-shored their flax seeds. I can't find where it is now, but I am pretty sure the author states somewhere that the War of 1812 cut off the supply.
I learned that duffle is a type of cloth, not just a style of coat. The children's book character Paddington Bear wears a duffle coat and I wore one as a child.
The copy I read was purchased by the guild from the estate of an elderly, accomplished handspinner who favoured the walking wheel. There is one margin note in the entire 500 page book, an exclamation point next to this passage in the second chapter: "Using one hand to give the wheel an occasional turn, the spinner drew out her fiber with the other. As the thread lengthened, she stepped backward inch by inch until she had gone as far as her arm could reach." I've used a walking wheel; not that I'm any expert but I stepped back in normal-sized steps and drew my arm back smoothly, and I can't imagine backing up inch by inch. I think the margin note means the book's late owner strongly disagreed with this technical description of inching backward.
An overarching motif of the author's is that our perspectives and biases not only drive what we do (make certain textiles) but what we select, keep, display, and emphasize (collect for museums). I agree. I know that my projects reflect my belief that making handspun is desirable, beneficial, and relevant today.
October 24, 2009
Farmhouse Style
I was reading David Larkin's The Farmhouse Book: Tradition, Style, and Experience (New York: Universe, 2005), as a sort of vicarious pastoral experience with some information on how spinning used to be part of people's lives thrown in. For instance,
Page 114 describes a stage in home linen production as part of the daily chores: "If there was linen whitening on the grass, as was usual at this season, that must be sprinkled." The linen was taken into the house after tea.
Page 116 has a reminiscence from Harriet Beecher Stowe about "refreshing our faces and hands by a brisk rub upon a coarse rolling-towel of brown homespun linen." I wonder what the rolling-towel looked like, as it couldn't be like the ones they used to have in public restrooms that automatically dispensed and wound up the cloth when you pulled.
Page 126 is very sad: "Spinning wheels for flax and wool ended up there [the attic] as the availability of cotton made them less necessary downstairs."
Page 167 shows a photograph of a kitchen with a great wheel at the back wall.
The sheets and pillowcases used in farmhouse bedchambers were always made of linen, and the blankets were homemade, woven from the wool of the sheep sheared from the farm. They were thick and heavy and represented a lot of spinning and weaving work. (p. 92)(The quote strikes me a generalization that could use some qualification. Interpreters at Colonial Williamsburg and Humpback Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway have told me people would buy blankets and cloth at times in history where modern people assume the people made them at home.)
Page 114 describes a stage in home linen production as part of the daily chores: "If there was linen whitening on the grass, as was usual at this season, that must be sprinkled." The linen was taken into the house after tea.
Page 116 has a reminiscence from Harriet Beecher Stowe about "refreshing our faces and hands by a brisk rub upon a coarse rolling-towel of brown homespun linen." I wonder what the rolling-towel looked like, as it couldn't be like the ones they used to have in public restrooms that automatically dispensed and wound up the cloth when you pulled.
Page 126 is very sad: "Spinning wheels for flax and wool ended up there [the attic] as the availability of cotton made them less necessary downstairs."
Page 167 shows a photograph of a kitchen with a great wheel at the back wall.
September 24, 2009
Not for the Purist
Of course, if I do get a great wheel, it will probably look more like the one on the Mother Earth News website that's made from scrap wood and a bicycle tire.
Not that I'd mind. I don't require a great wheel that looks authentic to a time-period.
On the contrary, I am keen on showing spinning as an activity for everyday life today.
I like that this great wheel takes advantage of common modern scrap materials.
And, consider this: a reproduction great wheel with wooden hoop rim can list around $1 500, but the bicycle tire rim great wheel cost its makers $2.50 at the time of publication. If I asked myself whether I really thought one was really 600 times better than the other, I would have to say, let's at least try the cheaper option first.
Though preferably with an added Minor's head attachment and a way to adjust the tension.
Not that I'd mind. I don't require a great wheel that looks authentic to a time-period.
On the contrary, I am keen on showing spinning as an activity for everyday life today.
I like that this great wheel takes advantage of common modern scrap materials.
And, consider this: a reproduction great wheel with wooden hoop rim can list around $1 500, but the bicycle tire rim great wheel cost its makers $2.50 at the time of publication. If I asked myself whether I really thought one was really 600 times better than the other, I would have to say, let's at least try the cheaper option first.
Though preferably with an added Minor's head attachment and a way to adjust the tension.
September 23, 2009
"Watson, come here. I need you."
When I found the listing for Houndesign, I also found one for Watson Wheels.
It's good to know that someone on Vancouver Island has built a great wheel.
Watson Wheels has a write up in SpinOff magazine, Fall 2008. James Watson considers "supply rather than demand the limiting factor," that is, there are more spinners wanting to buy quality, ergonomic wheels like his and his son's than they can make.
It's good to know that someone on Vancouver Island has built a great wheel.
Watson Wheels has a write up in SpinOff magazine, Fall 2008. James Watson considers "supply rather than demand the limiting factor," that is, there are more spinners wanting to buy quality, ergonomic wheels like his and his son's than they can make.
April 30, 2009
Ain’t Necessarily Historically So
When I spin in public (SIP) and talk to people, I like to tell them about the drop spindle’s place in history. I tell them that before five hundred years ago, all fabric and all clothes started on a drop spindle. People say, “Oooh!” and mentally begin to calculate how long whipping up a toga for themselves would take.
The trouble is, it ain’t necessarily so.
Could spin with a twisty stick, which looks in The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning like a smooth straight stick that’s slightly thick in the top third with a hook on the end. You’re supposed to twirl the stick on your thigh and stretch the strand out as long as you can. Not sure about winding on; I don’t think you can. I’ve heard that nalbinding could have been done with twisty-stick spun yarn, since nalbinding is formed with short lengths spliced together as you go.
Could spin on the thigh, unaided.
Could wear furs, sheepskin, and buckskin. Or hats woven out of rigid fibres.
Could have used a great wheel, which I hear were around much earlier than five hundred years ago, though they were not in widespread use.
Could have used a rakestraw spinner. I got to try one out at Knotty by Nature in Victoria, at the urging of a clerk who could tell I’d be interested in the novelty factor.
Could have fused fibres into fabric. Fusing, I think, is the most interesting pre-industrial alternative to a drop spindle. I read about a method in M. Wylie Blanchet’s The Curve of Time:
I am finding it enjoyable to go back over old books like the 1927 memoir The Curve of Time and read with the new aim of getting practical understanding of spinning. I’m going to have to drag out my copy of Edmund Spenser’s poem The Faerie Queene and look up that passage where the knights get captured by a girl warrior and are forced to spin, imprisoned.
The trouble is, it ain’t necessarily so.
Could spin with a twisty stick, which looks in The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning like a smooth straight stick that’s slightly thick in the top third with a hook on the end. You’re supposed to twirl the stick on your thigh and stretch the strand out as long as you can. Not sure about winding on; I don’t think you can. I’ve heard that nalbinding could have been done with twisty-stick spun yarn, since nalbinding is formed with short lengths spliced together as you go.
Could spin on the thigh, unaided.
Could wear furs, sheepskin, and buckskin. Or hats woven out of rigid fibres.
Could have used a great wheel, which I hear were around much earlier than five hundred years ago, though they were not in widespread use.
Could have used a rakestraw spinner. I got to try one out at Knotty by Nature in Victoria, at the urging of a clerk who could tell I’d be interested in the novelty factor.
Could have fused fibres into fabric. Fusing, I think, is the most interesting pre-industrial alternative to a drop spindle. I read about a method in M. Wylie Blanchet’s The Curve of Time:
[Miss. B] took us over to a small house to look at some fabric….In the Kwakuitl village of Mamalilaculla, on the west coast of British Columbia, this old, old woman of the tribe was making South Sea Island tapa cloth out of cedar roots. The cloth was spread across a heavy wooden table—a wooden mallet lying on top of it.
I am not quite sure how tapa cloth is made. But I believe they soak the roots in something to soften them—lay them in a rough pattern of dark and light roots, and then pound them with a wooden mallet into paper-thin, quite tough cloth.
I am finding it enjoyable to go back over old books like the 1927 memoir The Curve of Time and read with the new aim of getting practical understanding of spinning. I’m going to have to drag out my copy of Edmund Spenser’s poem The Faerie Queene and look up that passage where the knights get captured by a girl warrior and are forced to spin, imprisoned.
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