Wednesday, November 25, 2015

GO!

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http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/french_tapestries/ Everyone passes through Southern California during the Holiday Season. Give yours...

Fair and balanced

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I have been babbling happy sounds over Shetland knitting belts. And, yes, if you are knitting delicate fabrics with light weight and/or woo...
Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Shetland Knitting Belts

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My first major knitting project was his and hers Icelandic socks as gifts for my parents on their 50th wedding anniversary. Thus, as a knit...
6 comments:
Monday, November 23, 2015

Getting under the skin of a medieval mystery

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http://phys.org/news/2015-11-skin-medieval-mystery.html See in particular the last paragraph.
Sunday, November 22, 2015

Eastern Cross Stitch Revisited

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I like ECS.  The fabric is thicker, with much more cushion and ventilation than plain knitting.  It has a much softer feel than plain knitt...
2 comments:
Monday, November 16, 2015

How long do knitting sheaths last?

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A while back, I made my "coffin" series of knitting sheaths: They were fast and easy to make, and I made them in various size...
6 comments:
Saturday, November 07, 2015

Big Fat and Not

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I have described myself in this blog as "a fat old man with palsy". With drugs for the Lyme Disease, the palsy has much reduced...
6 comments:
Thursday, October 29, 2015

Running socks

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The most important aspect of any knitting project is choosing the fabric.  I have chosen the fabric for my running socks:  The yarn is ...
2 comments:
Tuesday, October 27, 2015

A History of Fine Spinning in America

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Consider how modern mill spun/ mill woven wool shirting and suiting weight wool fabrics drape. Alden Amos instructs on how to estimate th...
Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The Nazi

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I have been called a Nazi.  Pretty mild compared to some of the things spinners have called me in the last couple of weeks -- and people wo...
7 comments:
Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Whorls

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See https://www.academia.edu/11841581/Efficiency_and_technique_Experiments_with_original_spindle_whorls A good spindle is faster than mos...
1 comment:

Celtic spinning

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See Celtic Clothing (with Greek and Roman Influence) form the Iron Age - a Realistic View Based on What We Know by Heather Smith  ( https:/...

Homespun and Professional Textile Workers in Classical Greece

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Stella Spantidaki writing in arachne, volume 3, 2009 tells of Specialization in textiles in Classical Athens. (https://www.academia.edu/398...
1 comment:
Wednesday, October 07, 2015

The Wobble in the Arc

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While there is a clear Arc in the western heritage of spinning, it is not a straightforward arc.  One example is the changes in Austrian te...

Early Midevial Spinning.

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Early Medieval textile finds at South Moravia, Czech Republic show that they had fine spinning and weaving. Early Medieval textiles, loca...

Nomads in Europe -pre Charlemagne

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Nomads in Europe before Charlemagne were using wool fabrics woven sometimes coarsely, and sometimes very fine. Nomads in the cold were spi...
3 comments:

Spinning fine and fast in the old world

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I have pointed to spinning fine and fast as a spinning standard.  So, how fine and did the old spinners spin?  How fine were the yarns pro...
1 comment:
Sunday, October 04, 2015

Spinning as a cultural heritage

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The European craft of hand spinning is a cultural heritage just like art, literature, music, and architecture.  It was passed down to us an...
5 comments:
Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Spinning in the Rain

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Californian has been in a drought, so when it started raining this morning, I went out to spin on the porch. Am I spinning skeins?  Not l...
2 comments:

Multi-ply Refined

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I came to spinning for better gansey yarn. Gansey yarns were all worsted spun so worsted spun is what I did without thought.  And I loved t...