Thursday 26 September 2013

Spinnst du? -Ja, ich spinne!

For some reason, my first version of this post disappeared yesterday. I don't know how, but it's not online or on my blogger homepage. People's comments are still there, but not the actual post. Ah, well. I'll have to try to reconstruct it, since my next post is connected to it. Here goes...

My spindle, now with thread!
I'm spinning again. After years (yes, years) of quiet practice, I'm now reasonably happy with my handspun thread. At last, I feel that I control the output of my spindle. So now would be the time to get going with the Slightly Insane Wool Project I wrote about here. But combing and carding all that wool...well, it takes a lot of time. And I want to spin now!

So I've chosen to go for a Slightly Modified Wool Project instead. Rather than preparing the wool myself at this time, I've settled for pre-prepared Shetland wool, just to start things off with. I begun spinning warp thread from it a couple of weeks ago, at the 100 Jahre 14tes Jahrhundert event at Ronneburg, Germany, where I went together with friends from Albrechts Bössor. It was a wonderful event with great people, excellent food and lots and lots of textile talk, including a workshop on frilled veils (which Isis of Medieval Silkwork has written about here). I spent most of the weekend hanging out in the "textile room" upstairs in the burg, lounging in the (mostly) sunny courtyard or down by the gate with the guards, always with my spindle close at hand.
At the Ronneburg: Spinning and talking textiles with Mervi of the Hibernaatio blog
I also - finally! - got to fire a 14th century handgonne!

1 comment:

Lara said...

Your blog was archived on my reading service:

Future warp yarn from preprepared Shetland wool
After a long time of quiet practice, I've finally started with a Slightly Modified Wool Project, rather than the Slightly Insane Wool Project I wrote about here. I'm reasonably happy with the thread I spin now: I can do both high-twist warp yarn, long-draw weft yarn (well, there's still a slight issue with speed when it comes to long-draw, but I'm getting there) and a rather nice two-ply sewing thread. I feel that I finally control the output of my spindle, rather than the other way around. But combing and carding all that wool by hand...it takes time and at the moment I want to spin! So I've decided to use store-bought pre-prepared wool to start with, just to get the whole thing going.

And I did get the whole thing going, last weekend at the 100 Jahre 14. Jahrhundert-event at Ronneburg, Germany where I went together with some of my friends from Albrechts Bössor. I spent the event dividing my time between the women's sewing-room, the burg's beautiful courtyard and hanging out with the soldiers down by the gate, always with my spindle at hand (I did some Finnish tablet weaving and a little bit of sewing, too). The weather was great, the food fantastic and I had such a wonderful time meeting all the other reenactos at the event!

Spinning and talking textiles with Mervi of the Merry Swan and the Hibernaatio blog

I also - finally! - got to fire a 14th century handgonne!