Spinning; with a drop-spindle!

Well hat's off to the ladies (spinsters!) of any parish who used the drop-spindle as they were doing other things! The above is my very first attempt at spinning wool using a drop spindle! it looks more like my friend, Paul's, dreadlocks, than a skein of wool!
I made a bit of a 'mullack' (mess) with varying thicknesses throughout the length of the wool, rather than a nice uniformity.
As the electricity was off (builder and electrician working in the garage!) it was something I could do without needing power...except my own hands that is. Took a while to do; and was quite complicated....I thought maybe if I had 3 hands, it might be easier to manage the fleece!


But what has pleased me, is that the fleece I used, was the one I brought back from Islay last summer; that I dyed using procion dyes from my textiles course; and that I've now spun, into 'wool'....or the nearest thing to 'wool'! I'm going to use it on one of my textile prints, rather than knit with it.

Dye-ing, Spinning & Weaving

Today I've spent a lovely afternoon, in gorgeous sunshine, at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. There was a demonstration from the Hallamshire & District Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers.

Some photos I took, show the plant-dyed wools from North Yorkshire Wool; spinning using wheels (it was like being in the middle of a fairy tale!) and drop spindles; and weavings done with a peg loom, and a back strap loom. It was a fascinating afternoon, and I longed to get my hands and feet on the spinning wheel, and have a go!

Understandably this wasn't encouraged!

 

I had an interesting conversation with the woman from North Yorkshire Wool, who told me about using Cow Parsley as a dye.

I remembered when I was a child, cow parsley was known as 'mother die', and that if you picked it, your mother would die!

Well, I had the realisation that I'd go the word wrong; it was Mother DYE! Cow parsley is the mother of all dyes! Quite a few other people remember this folk tale from their childhood, so I'm not the only one.

The whole afternoon begins to take on more and more of a fairy tale experience!

                             

Whitby Museum

On the left are spindle whorls, in a range of materials, ranging from bone, shell, pebbles and clay. On the right are loom weights, to hold down the warp and weft of fabric woven back in the neolithic age. From Whitby Museum; that treasure trove of interesting finds. The next visit I make to the seaside, I'll be looking out for a holed stone. Have a play with making my own spindle whorl to attempt spinning some thread/wool. Lots of inspiration from the 1970's book I found in Pickering!