Thoughts About Historic Craftsmen Pursuits - Most of you know that I pursue many "arts" that in history were the work of the craftsmen keeping civilization going or made things fancier: Spinning threads (and yarn) by hand, dyeing those threads and yarns (and cloth) in natural dyestuffs, Calligraphy and Illumination, Song Composition -- Creating things from scratch. This truly appeals to me. Putting my hand to the "ingredients" and making some sort of new product.

Lately, I've been contemplating the nature of hand-woven trim, embroidery, and other uses of threads in small projects. I still imagine I may find myself seated at my large floor loom [okay, looms PLURAL], but my brain has been fixated on narrow-wares, braids, and hand sewing. How different would it be if all the folks doing inkle-weaving, card-weaving, kumihimo, fingerloop braids, lucet cords, or embroidery had to acquire hand-made threads first? What would our finished products look like if we did card-weaving with hand-spun? embroidery with hand-spun? kumihimo with hand-spun?

More importantly: Could I spin that sort of thread?

I just loaned two spools of commercially purchases cotton to a friend for a major card-weaving project of his. And as I was driving home I thought "gosh, what would it take to produce that kind of cotton thread?" I can actually easily picture what my finished wool product would be like if I spun the singles first and then wove or embroidered with that thread. But cotton? I haven't really mastered spinning cotton yet. Silk? Yes, I could easily spin silk thread ... and even saying that so casually is a little weird. I've been spinning for about 14-15 years now, I think, and think nothing of spinning a very fine, strong, consistent wool thread or silk thread. I only *just* experimented with linen/flax in the past year, and I'm working on teaching it in the Spring. It baffles my brain to imagine spinning enough linen thread to weave the cloth for one linen dress, knowing how much cloth goes into an article of clothing. It almost makes me think that linen is far more precious than I've considered it in the past. And this all makes me think that wool over-dresses would be easier and more common, based on my spinning skills and the abundance of fiber from a single fleece.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Mistress Therese, for teaching me to spin on a drop spindle at an Oso Hammer-In, so many years ago. Mistress Astridr, for getting me to think about thread-to-woven item, with her skills at reeling silk and weaving silk ribbons. And the vast number of card-weavers, braiders, and embroiderers in the area who have gotten me thinking "where does all this thread come from? From spinners like me, right? Eep!"

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• Inkle Weaving: article on wikipedia)
• Card Weaving: article on wikipedia, Links on Larsdatter)
• Kumihimo: article on wikipedia, BraidersHand, a leading resource site
• Fingerloop Braids: Complete Anachronist #108, online version
• Lucet cording: article on wikipedia
• Embroidery: wikipedia: wool embroidery in the Bayeux Tapestry, wikipedia: silk on cotton or silk on linen, traditional Blackwork Embroidery