Starting a new relationship

An important part of being a Laurel is the commitment to passing on your knowledge. The common way to do this is to take on an apprentice. Having been the apprentice to Mistress Brid, I have big expectations for how to undertake this new relationship. It was definitely not something to rush into. But after much thought on my part, and a period as Teacher/Student, I have taken my first apprentice. Her name is Marjorie Parmentar. Her interest in fiber arts is not the same as mine, but our interests intersect. I will not be teaching her spinning or nalbinding or knitting (at least not yet). Her passion is the history of clothing design. While I do not see myself sewing late medieval period clothing, I love researching all periods and cultures of textile design. And research is where she has asked for the most guidance. I think we are a good fit. I look forward to a long friendship and an enjoyable time learning together. She has begun her first project. There is a link to her blog - To Stitch a Story - in my blog list on the right. I am very proud of her first steps. I hope you will visit her blog often and watch her skill and knowledge grow.

Today is worldwide spin in public day.

So I did.

At first I thought it would be nice to work on finishing up the silk/alpaca blend I've been working on. It shines so beautifully in the sun. But it was very windy here today, and it was difficult to control the roving without my distaff. So I made a new plan. I had a few mystery locks that a friend had given me, and I decided it was the perfect day to spin in the grease. It was just enough to fill the comb. I combed, spun, plied, and washed. Here is my little skein, drying in the garden:

 You can see my alpaca roving on the chair; later I brought it inside to finish spinning.

 The nice thing about spinning in the grease is that the fibers don't fly all over. (Of course alpaca doesn't have grease, so it tends to be fly-away not matter what.) Also, I find I can spin a finer thread, although I spun this at a gauge to be able to add to some yarn I spun for knitting, as a little accent. I like the feel of the  lanolin on my hands, but it did make the spindle shaft a bit sticky. No problem, it washed right off.

embroidery project

It's so nice to have a day off from work. Besides catching up on yard work, and getting ready for an arts and sciences event I am running next Saturday, I found time to finish an embroidery project I have been working on for a few months, off and on.
 Back in the spring, I participated in Artisans Row at Mudthaw. I was lucky to be seated next to Kathryn Goodwyn, who was demonstrating various late medieval embroidery techniques. By the end of the day she gave me some thread and fabric, and off I went to try it on my own. First, I decided to make a bookmark. I chose a counted pattern of laurel leaves, and set to work. I didn't figure on how large the finished piece would be (there are about 7 squares to the inch). I like how it turned out, and I love the weaving technique, but I'll need a very big book to use it.

I was so taken with the technique, I immediately started a second piece, based on a 14th century Swedish embroidery. I love this little horse:

I haven't been able to find a source for the netted fabric, so I guess I'll just have to learn to make the net myself. I'll save that for another day.

Pueblo Shoe-Sock

The Arizona State Museum has in its possession three shoe-socks made by looping thread. They are made of cotton thread, with woven yucca soles. These date from pre-European contact (c. 1100-1300 CE). This past spring there was a flurry of discussion about the socks on the nalbinding yahoo group that I belong to, as people discussed if the stitch used was the same as any known European nalbinding socks. The final suggestion was that they were made using the Coptic stitch. I disagreed, and decided to verify it by reproducing the stitching pattern.

Here is a close-up of one of the socks:

While I did not recognize the stitch by looking at the photo, it became obvious as soon as I started stitching. If you are familiar with embroidery stitches, you will recognize it as the detached buttonhole stitch.

Here are my samples:

Detached buttonhole stitch is on top, Coptic stitch is on the bottom.

Both the detached buttonhole stitch and the Coptic stitch create loops in the same manner, working from left to right, bringing the thread in front of the loop. But that is where the similarity ends. The Coptic stitch places each stitch directly above the stitch from the previous row, creating vertical lines that resemble stockinette stitch. Like stockinette stitch, it curls over at the edge.

The detached buttonhole stitch places each new stitch between two stitches on the previous row. The resulting fabric is more net-like, and it does not curl at the edge.

Do you agree with me? You can see more pictures of the artifacts on the museum's website.