Reading Time: 3 minutesIn preparation for an event, Archaeology of the Dark Ages at Bishops Wood Environmental Centre (near Stourport, Worcestershire), mentioned in the last post, I’ve been helping to set up a Saxon style warp-weighted loom. Nina, Deborah and I battled with metres (or yards, in old money) of flax yarn for several hours as this is a job that takes […]
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Norwegian Warp-weighted Loom Weavers
Reading Time: 2 minutesI’m re-visiting the ancient (as in thousands of years old) craft of warp-weighted loom weaving in order to share some links to film made in the 1940s and 1950s in Norway. I’m sure many who are interested in weaving will be glad the films are still in existence. Last November I described the process in […]
Advantages of Spinning on a Drop Spindle
Reading Time: 5 minutesBeing a free-range spinner is one of the main advantages of spinning on a drop spindle. It’s like scribbling notes in a notebook, rather than being at your desk. You and your work are portable – you can be anywhere. With dexterity, you can also multi-task. I could be a nomadic spinner with a drop […]
Year Of Traditional Textile Skills
Reading Time: 3 minutesLooking back over the year, it’s been a year for hopping about. I’ve delved into some knitting design (Elizabeth Zimmermann inspired), lots of scouring, or washing of my large stock of Ryeland fleece prior to spinning it, attempts at using up small quantities of hand-dyed and handspun yarn using crochet, an experiment in growing and […]
Mix It Up: Spinning With Carding Waste
Reading Time: 3 minutesCarding waste – I nearly threw it on the compost heap. I’d been spinning some hand-dyed fleece and was left with the shorter fibres. The little matted blobs and generally unhelpful stuff that was making spinning frustrating. I didn’t quite know what to do with it, but kept it for a while and hovered over […]
Warp-weighted Loom Weaving: Ancient Ways of Making Cloth
Reading Time: 6 minutesThe journey from flax crop in the field to finished linen cloth (even before washing and bleaching) has many steps. The transformation from a retted sheath of flax, from the field to flax fibres ready for warp-weighted loom weaving is remarkable. We start with scratchy and straw-like and end with floppy and silky. It takes […]
