Tag: weaving

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Spliced cord

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I’m getting ready for Saltare, and using the event as a deadline for some new accessories.  This here is a new drawstring pouch, which is more appropriate for my 14thc versatile gown than my leather pouch. (Also the leather pouch won’t work on the dainty loveliness that is my apprentice belt.  I think the leather pouch has been Overcome by Events, and didn’t even last a year.  Oh well.) I used the wool bits I got out of that thrifted men’s wool blazer (remember my detachable sleeves?) and some blue wool/silk embroidery floss that I originally thought I might use … Continue reading Spliced cord

Clothing and Equipment4 Comments

Holiday wrap

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Just a quick post to sum up what I managed to do over the holidays.  (Note to self: Close office from Dec 24 to Jan 1.  Just give in.) Added about 20" to my weaving project.  This brings the total to 51" woven so far.  I warped on 5.5 yards, so there’s a LONG way to go.  20" represents 1 day’s spinning, which yielded 8 plied bobbins of semi-worsted yarn.  (Carded, not combed…but I haven’t figured out how to ‘spin woolen’ versus ‘spin worsted’.  I think I’m probably spinning worsted.) Bluebonnet gown is wearable.  Yes, I want to see a … Continue reading Holiday wrap

Clothing and Equipment1 Comment

Linen remnants and aglets arrived!

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I can’t get over how every little thing I do presents stacks of opportunities to learn.  So verily cool. These are the remnants of linen (the last batch, bwahaha!) I ordered from Historic Enterprises, and also the aglets (aka ‘chapes’) from them. (Lavena suggested that I make my own aglets, and I like that notion, but I need some NOW, and I prefer to see how someone else invented the wheel before I waste my time chipping stone.) So the two things I have learned right away from my $22 are: How the heck do they get relatively new linen … Continue reading Linen remnants and aglets arrived!

Clothing and Equipment2 Comments

Thursday’s Child

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Monday’s child is fair of face;Tuesday’s child is full of grace;Wednesday’s child is full of woe;Thursday’s child has far to go;Friday’s child is loving and giving.Saturday’s child works hard for a living.But the child that is born on the Sabbath Day,Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay. I had that rhyme in a Mother Goose book as a girl, and I was born on a Thursday.  (Everyone out there is now shouting ‘OF COURSE YOU WERE!!’) For example: Since I have this new lovely loom, and I finished Debbie Redding Chandler’s recommended beginner sampler, and I went to weaver’s … Continue reading Thursday’s Child

EventsLeave a comment

Wanted: Rumpelstiltskin

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Though I’m fresh out of first-born.  S’pose he’d take a cat? Seriously, I’m trying to spin up all my loose fiber, so I have yarn for weaving/knitting/dyeing.  I’ve got 1.5 pounds of linen strick, and you see here about 0.25 pounds spun, which has taken at least five 2-hour sessions.  For comparison, I was filling this bobbin with worsted Alpaca completely in about 2 hours in April.  I’m trying to learn how to spin more finely, and the exchange is you get more time out of your money’s worth of fiber.  Hmm. I’ve also been building up my needle callouses. … Continue reading Wanted: Rumpelstiltskin

ResearchLeave a comment

Book Review – Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years

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Ann recommended this book to me when I first expressed an interest not only in spinning, but in the technology of cultures, and in learning how to do things from the ‘ground up’.  I got it just in time for Gulf Wars, and started reading it aloud to Gabrielle on the way there.  That was March. I’ve just finished Women’s Work last week, and it’s fantastic.  I’m actually glad that it’s taken me so long to get through it, because it’s just chock full of fabulous information, each little bit that just shifted my worldview.  Rather like the archaeological finds … Continue reading Book Review – Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years

ResearchLeave a comment

Patricia Baines’ “Flax & Linen”

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New book arrived! (I really want her "Linen: Handspinning and Weaving", but it’s out of print.)  This one, though, is a great little book, packed with terrific information.  I’ve already used it to clarify a question I had from "Women’s Work." What is this Egyptian ‘splicing flax fibers end-to-end’ business, as a pre-drafting technique? Baines touches on it just long enough for me to give it a try.  What you do is pull a few fibers with damp fingers, and twist them every few inches.  Then you roll that ribbon into a ball.  (My first attempt I coiled on a … Continue reading Patricia Baines’ “Flax & Linen”

EventsLeave a comment

Heritage Museum – Saturday in the Park

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UPDATE: We were in a local newspaper!  The very readable (only comes out weekly, so they must have time to weed out all the dumb stuff that the daily runs) Bay Beacon featured the following: (click to enlarge) Yes, that’s me with my mouth open.  Standard expression for a magpie, don’t you know? ****end update*** One of our little cities’ Heritage Museum has a craft fair fundraiser every year in the adjacent park.  The local shire was told that we could appear for free, and we might sell our own fundraiser crafts.  So here we are on April 28, 2007. … Continue reading Heritage Museum – Saturday in the Park