a memory tool for a life

We visited the Cooper Hewitt Museum back in December. This is the Smithsonian Museum of Design. They had just re-opened after a major renovation which increased their gallery space. The Cooper Hewitt has an extensive collection of textiles, ranging from ancient Egyptian wool and linen tapestries, to twenty-first century synthetics. There were some beautiful pieces on display, but that wasn't what impressed me the most. On the top floor was an exhibit of tools through the centuries, starting with stone age spear points, all the way up to space suits and i-pods. But this was the tool that impressed me the most:

This ball of thread is about the size of a softball. It is a Klikitat (Southern British Columbia) Time Ball, that was created in the early 20th century. According to the museum label, "when ready for marriage, a young woman started her time ball, a fiber diary that employed knots to record events. Glass beads, shells, and cloth fragments marked special occasions. As a woman aged, her time ball accumulated the history of her family and extended community. It was so essential to her identity that she was buried with it."

Imagine being able to hold your whole adult life in your hand.

a spinning experiment

I've completed spinning trial #1, in an effort to get a feel for the difference between spinning on a modern spindle vs a medieval spindle. As a reminder, using my "moosie" (36 grams with a 22 cm shaft) I spun 155 meters at 10 wraps/cm. I stopped spinning when the total spindle weight was 81 grams and the thread tended to slip off the shaft.

For the medieval style spindle I used my #6 whorl and the Ribe style shaft. The total spindle weight is 26 grams, and the shaft length is 30 cm. The purpose of the experiment was only to test the amount of thread which could be held by the spindle.

I began by spinning a thread at a gauge of 14 wpc. When the total spindle weight reached 35 grams I needed to add a second half hitch to the shaft to keep the thread in place until the spindle reached the ground. At 45 grams the second hitch began to slip occasionally, and I had to be more careful tying it on. At 52 grams it was very difficult to keep a consistent thread diameter. The spindle spun backwards before I could draft more than once. When the total spindle weight was 53 grams, I stopped. The result measured 170 meters of thread. However, by the end my gauge had changed to 12 wpc. It had happened so gradually that I hadn't even noticed. When I spin for a particular project, I generally make a little sample to help me keep a consistent gauge and twist. I did not do that this time. But, the ordinary medieval spinner probably didn't do that either. While there is a visible difference in the size of the thread at the beginning and end, I do not believe it is enough to make an appreciable difference in the finished cloth.

In retrospect, I would have had a more consistent thread if I had stopped spinning when the spindle weight reached about 50 grams. That would have given me about the same amount of thread as the modern spindle.

I forgot to take a picture before I took the thread off the spindle, so here is what I spun in the first trial, and the beginning of the second trial.

2015 Goals

Looking back at my 2014 goals I see I didn't reach many of them. I did recreate my great grandmother's socks, and I did a tiny bit of tablet weaving, and quite a bit of spinning. I guess I did a lot of meandering last year. Even so, I find I do best if I lay out a map of things I want to accomplish. I know I am rarely successful at completing all the tasks I set for myself, but it keeps me moving in a generally positive direction. So, here goes:

1. Stop Procrastinating, and FINISH THE RIBE MITTENS. There is nothing more to say.

2. Toward the end of 2014 I posed myself a little question about how much thread could comfortably fit on a period spindle, and how long it would take to spin it. I started to experiment, using my #6 whorl and Ribe style shaft. I am guessing the spindle is somewhat more than half full at this point. When the spindle reached a weight of 35 grams I started having to add a second half hitch to keep the thread from slipping off. We'll see how much more I can add before it becomes too difficult to keep a consistent gauge, or both knots slip off. There have been too many interruptions to the spinning to be able to time it, so I will do it again. Besides, it's always nice to have more than one trial to reach a valid conclusion.

3. Finish my tablet weaving project. I started to make myself a pair of garters, but stalled after just a couple of inches. Can I finish them before the end of May?

4. Teach. As often as I can. The first thing I will teach is beginning sprang, at the January 20 Concordia A&S night.

5. In that same vein, I have taken on a student. Marjorie Parmentar and I will get together each week so that I can help her structure her learning process. If we find the relationship works well, she will become my first apprentice.

6. I want to inventory all of my wool and roving. I'm sure I have more than enough to keep me busy for a year. If I organize it I can begin to decide on some projects to spin for. First is to finish spinning for the shawl I want to knit.

7. Finally, in December we visited the Metropolitan, the Cloisters and the Cooper Hewitt museums. I was particularly interested in the embroidery pieces that were on display, since I had taken several embroidery classes at Pennsic this past summer. It was wonderful to see in person some of the artifacts made using the techniques I had just learned about. This year I would like to begin a period style embroidery project.

This is a scene from the life of St. Catherine, South Netherlandish, c. 1430, from the Cloisters - silk and metal thread on linen. What is difficult to see in my poor photo is the diaper pattern of couched gold around the edges of the scene. This is much more complex than anything I would attempt as my first metal thread project, but I thought you might enjoy the picture.