Spinning away the hours

Spin Like a Viking

How your great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother did it.

I had the immense pleasure of attending a spinning workshop today by the ever whimsical Lois Swales.  She specializes in historical spinning techniques, with emphasis on medieval times.

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Lois Swales

Having started out spinning on a drop spindle but recently acquiring a wheel, I was doubtful that I'd be all that interested in spindle work again.  Boy was I wrong!  The modern drop spindle has nothing on these adjustable whorl sticks that were so popular in our history.  For the life of me I can't understand why the design would have ever changed, though I suppose it's far easier to create a static spindle than trying to fit a spindle stick with whorls.  Either way, I've been sold on the drop spindle again.

Lois is a fascinating character to watch.  The love for her craft is obvious in every second she spends lecturing on its history.  A history that she has painstakingly researched to a level that I could only dream of having the patience for.  Studying illuminated manuscripts, etchings, and archaeological digs she has used trial and error to put together the missing pieces of our spinning history. As she's discovered, there are almost always missing pieces.  Spinning instruments have generally been made out of wooden components, which allows for enough friction to keep the wool from sliding around.  This means, sadly, that even with the best of archaeological finds there may be significant damage to critical parts of these ancient instruments. 

Illuminated Manuscript depicting spindle and distaff use

While many don't generally give thought to ancient crafting techniques, I have always been fascinated with how things used to be done.  It's easy to look at a sock or shirt these days and take it for granted.  We machine make textiles in the blink of an eye, and don't think twice about where the techniques that got us here came from.   The fascinating thing about Lois's work is that it addresses those questions.  Inspection of pieces she has hand woven from handspun yarn show just how skilled these women in ancient times had to be.  I can only dream of being good enough to create woven pieces with my spinning, but these ancestors were tasked with creating every piece of fabric that their household used.  

Today's lecture was not only about spindles but how to use the distaff, which I admit is an object that greatly intimidated me. When I spin I am very hands on with the fiber.  As a beginner I wonder of my technique is normal, but it's working for me right now so I'm sticking with it.  The introduction of the distaff into that equation had me fearing I'd have to relinquish some of that control. I was pleased to discover that wasn't at all true.  Lois had several different variations of staves for us to practice with.  Everything from the hand distaff, to a Roman style, to the large stationary cage ones that sit by a wheel. While the hand distaff was a bit much for my carpal tunnel I found that the Roman style was quite comfortable.  I also enjoyed the belted version that tucks under your arm as it allowed me the greatest control of the fiber.

While I could write MUCH more on this, I will leave the informative stuff to Lois herself, and just say that if you ever have the opportunity to take one of her classes I highly suggest it.  You can learn more about what she does at her blog Missingspindle.blogspot.com, or also find her on youtube where she gives demonstrations of the techniques she went over today.

Check out all of her videos, including the upcoming one, Spin like a Roman!

On a more personal note, i'm excited to have been introduced to some local connections to the Society for Creative Anachronism. Lois had some friends attending her workshop that are local for me and I'm excited to potentially become a part of this group that shares so many of my interests.  I learned that if I leave the house once in a while I might actually enjoy myself.  Who'd have thought?!