#Spinning & Weaving

[saja-star]

a phrase that kinda bothers me when talking about women's historical roles in europe is "cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children." you hear it so often, those exact words in the same order even. and once you learn a little more you realize that the massive gaping hole in that list is fiberwork. im not an expert and have no hard numbers, but i wouldnt be surprised if fiberwork took up nearly as much time as the other three tasks combined, so it's not a trivial omission.

it's not a hot take to say that the mass amnesia about fiberwork is linked to the belittlement of women's work in geneal, but i do think there's a special kind of illusion that is cast by "cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children." you hear that and think "well i cook and clean and take care of children (or i know someone who does) and i have a sense of how much work that is" and you know of course that cooking and cleaning were more laborious before modern technology, but still, you have a ballpark estimate you think, when in fact you are drastically underestimating the work load.

i also think that this just micharacterizes the role of women's work in livelihoods? cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children are all sisyphean tasks that have to be repeated the next day. these are important, but not the whole picture. when we include all kinds of fiberwork—and other things, such as making candles or soap—women's work looks much more like manufacturing, a sphere we now associate more with men's work. i feel like women's connection to making and craftsmanship is often elided.

[anxiousangerball]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but

YOU DO NOT NEED TO START A NEW HOBBY!

STEP AWAY FROM THE TEXTILES!

YOU DON'T NEED MORE YARN!

THAT FABRIC IS NOT CALLING TO YOU! LEAVE IT ALONE!

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

I own the night.

[shannonpurdyjones]

My kid's class is on their Middle Ages history unit right now, so naturally I volunteered to give a short talk and demonstration on medieval spinning and weaving. (In full garb of course...one thing about me, I don't do stuff halfway lol).

If this novelist thing doesn't pan out maybe I can fall back on the equally lucrative career of reenactor lol.

[rathenarts]

A poll, because I'm curious to know if I'm alone in my feelings about all these colourful artisan yarns I keep seeing posted on here:

(Note, this is specifically about projects where you're picking the yarn to your own taste, not gifts or commissions where you're constrained by what the eventual recipient would like! I'm interested in your personal feelings in particular.)

[speedwagons-glorious-mane]

PSA for all the people who have a pet Fibre Artist, whether you have a Knitter, a Crocheter or perhaps one of the more rare breeds like Spinners and Lace-Makers, make sure that they take frequent breaks from their craft by playing with them and taking them on walks since Fibre Artists are prone to giving themselves RSIs and Carpal Tunnel when left to their own devices for too long!

[homesweetgoodneighbor]

Alright, my babies, as it is now officially October, it is not only Halloween month, but it is the start of the annual FIBER ARTS FRENZY, A time when we fiber artists have to officially acknowledge the holidays have just hitched a ride on the Spaceball 1 and is coming at us at Ludicrous Speed. (If you don't get the reference your parents did not raise you right, and you have my sympathies.)

And, when I say holidays, I mean ALL of them. Why so many cultures and religions were so inconsiderate as to bunch them all up at the same time of year so we fiber artists have to scramble, wail, and curse the heavens, I'll never know.

At least we have each other.

So, to my fellow fiber artists I say: Y'ALL START YOUR ENGINES.

To the people in fiber artists' lives during this frantic time: You best have comfort, understanding, support, and a sturdy sense of survival ready, because your loved one is about to try to Make All The Things.

[jupiter-dragonsong]

Hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand woven. Not totally sure what “it” is. The world’s ugliest bookmark? A scarf for an unwilling rodent? Athena looks down upon me and grimaces. I am proud and ashamed in equal measures.

Oh well. First time for everything.

[thesilicontribesman]

Ancient Spindle Whorls Selection, Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

[sunshineandrosesnoraincamemyway]

thinking today about how much I love literally all fiber arts. I am hopeless at almost every other kind of art, but as soon as there is thread, yarn, or string I can figure it out fairly quickly.

I learned how to knit when i was eight, started sewing at nine, my dad taught me rock climbing knots around that age, I figured out from a book how to make friendship bracelets, I've made my own drop spindle to make yarn with, and more recently I've picked up visible mending. I've learned embroidery through fixing my overalls, and this year I've learned how to darn and how to do sashiko (which I did for the first time today). After years of being unable to crochet I finally figured it out last night and made seven granny squares in just a few hours.

I want to learn every fiber art that I can. I want to quilt, I want to use a spinning wheel, I want to weave, I want to learn tatting, I want to learn how to weave a basket, I want to learn them all. If I could travel through time and meet anyone in the Bible, high on my list are the craftsmen who made the Tabernacle.

I want to travel the world and learn the fiber arts of every culture, from the gorgeous Mayan weaving in Guatemala, to the stunning batik of Java, to Kente in Ghana. I want to sit at the feet of experienced men and women and watch them do their craft expertly and learn from them.

Of every art form I've seen, it's fiber arts that tug most at my heartstrings.

[saja-star]

One of the things I like about spinning is that it feels like looking closely. Take a t-shirt from your closet. Look closely. It's probably knitted. You can see the tiny chevrons. You can see the way those interlocking loops stretch when you pull on the fabric. Look closer. Each chevron is made up of fine thread. Look closer. You probably can't even see this level of detail, but each thread is plied from finer strands. Look closer (you would need a microscope). Each strand is twisted from smaller fibers. When I spin, this recursive structure becomes obvious. Each level of structure its own long, slow stage of creation. I work from part to whole. Fiber, spun into a single, plied into a yarn, knitted into a fabric. Now when I'm lying in bed in the morning, I look closely at where the light catches the individual threads in my pillowcase, and instead of a shape, I see a structure.

[official-linguistics-post]

i will probably be particularly bad about answering asks in the next few weeks. nothing's wrong i just overcommitted to fiber craft projects with hard deadlines.

[leafatlaw]

Lifesteal s6, On spawn, causes worth fighting for, and hope.

Tumblr post by @/screenshots of despair and @/wearepaladin //Take it Back*** Princezam stream//Melissa Broder, Last Sext // Take it Back*** Princezam stream //Take it Back*** Princezam stream //Ellen Bass, The Thing Is //Take it Back*** Princezam stream //Toni Morrison, Guardian article // Twitter post by @/crowsfault //Take it Back*** Princezam stream //Minutetech fight with Manepear //Take it Back*** Princezam stream (screenshot from tumblr user @/heartcircus // Brennan Lee Mulligan // Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark //No Manepear Day, Kaboodle stream //Light Before Dawn, Pangi stream //Unknown

[their-we-go]

Tri-coloured scarf woven on a rigid heddle loom from yarn I spun myself. This took around three weeks of work start to finish, and I couldn’t be happier with the result :-)

[shannonpurdyjones]

Short sample clip because Tumblr is being a butt and refusing to upload the full video without crashing (hellsite my beloved and beloathed)

Here's the link if you want to see the full in-hand spinning demo video with captions (you don't have to subscribe or download anything to watch...I mean it's lovely for me if you do subscribe obviously, but don't let Substack bully you. It's a link. You can open it with no strings, no matter what they say lol.)

More about the textile history inspiration behind my historical fantasy novel Wyrd Weaving below the cut!

When I first conceived of the idea that is now becoming Wyrd Weaving, an historical fantasy novel set between Northumbria and Svealand in the tumultuous early 9th century, I only knew two things for certain. I knew I wanted to write a story centering the lives of women, queer people, and gender-nonconforming people in the 800s. So often stories set in the “Viking Age” center only the pursuits of men (wealthy men especially), and I wanted to dig for what other stories were buried there, waiting to be told. I also knew without doubt that fiber arts would somehow comprise a significant portion of the story’s magical realism elements.

I’ve knitted since my late teens, and have harbored and interest in all sorts of fiber arts for even longer than that. When I decided to get serious about writing a story centering the lives of medieval women (in Europe primarily, though several other unique period cultures factor into the story as well), I knew I had to do a deep dive into historical spinning and weaving. Women at all levels of society spent more time on aspects of cloth production than any other chore during this period, yet arts like spinning and weaving are almost never shown in novels, movies, or TV set in the early Middle Ages.

That wasn’t going to fly for Wyrd Weaving, a story inspired by the countless forgotten fiber artists who quite literally wove the history of our society. This first short video about my (mis)adventures in historical textile research gives you a glimpse at how and why I learned in-hand or “twiddle” spinning, the style of spinning prominent in early 9th century northern Europe. Enjoy!