(Hey!  It’s not a garb post!  Yes, I know someone will wear these stockings, but my interest in them is not as clothing for me or Daan….come on, I gotta take it where I can find it.  This is a Break From Garb.) I volunteered to help knit stockings for the garbification of the costumed docents at Plimoth Plantation. Gabrielle brought me a kit with yarn and instructions at Magna Fair, and the following Monday I swatched the yarn. It’s interesting yarn.  Came on cones, is clearly two-ply, with rather a lot of extra twist energy.  An itchy wool.  I … Continue reading Plimoth Stockings

AHA! I’ve run across references to ‘spun worsted’ or ‘spun woolen’ for this last year that I’ve been spinning.  There’s a good basic discussion here of what the technical difference is in the technique, but not WHY, or a cultural context. The latter, I’ve been trying to piece together, with that near-imaginary historic animal, the ‘warm-weather-wool’ in mind. Earlier period wools were combed, not carded.  Carding paddles only date to about 1580 in England.  This makes sense, because per Rutt, wire technology was new in Shakespeare’s time.  (One of the reasons that knitting took so long to develop – metalwork … Continue reading Worsted vs woolen, spinning research, handcranked wheel

I’ve been filching from my stocking (aka Abe Books) and thought I’d share what’s arriving in the mail. (Hey, for two childless adults with Consuming Interests, the postman is the Big Star in December.  Santa who?) My own copy of the ever-authoritative and argued-with Richard Rutt’s A History of Hand Knitting.  It’s hard to criticize an authoritative book you don’t own.  A detailed review will follow in a separate post. (This is a smaller book than you’d think.) And also, The Guide to Basket Weaving: Creative Weaving with Coconut Palms. I’ve read through this one, and I’m not sure about … Continue reading New books!