Years ago, when I was a girl, I was taught in highschool how to wash, card, and spin wool. I learned weaving as a child, of course, and as a teen I built my own Salish loom and jury-rigged a heddle system for it. I experimented in different dying techniques and materials. I love fibre arts.
But I'm a modern woman with children, a job, and a household to run; and looms and spinning wheels are expensive clutter if you don't have time to use them, and amazingly time-consuming hobbies if you do try to use them (as in, months to complete a project rather than days or hours as in some of the other hobbies I indulge in.) I limit my love of fibre-arts to sewing and banner-making, like the sensible modern woman I am.
And then, I was undermined: "Mama, please may we have our own drop-spindles?"
Say what? How did my modern pre-teens even *know* about drop-spindles, let alone want their own? And I'd only learned to spin on a wheel, I'd never used a spindle. Besides, the last thing this house needs is more clutter! Like I was going to waste good money on a passing fad!
"But Mama, they aren't very expensive, and they don't take up much space, and any time we spend spinning will be time that we're NOT playing computer games or watching TV and getting square-eyed."
Don't you just hate it when your children listen to you well enough to know all your good arguments, and use them back on you?
Turns out, the drop-spindles could be had for $10 apiece, which is a good price for a low-tech toy. But there were these gorgeous hand-carved hardwood turkish-style drop spindles, too, that made your hand quiver to touch the soft polish of the wood.
So I bought one for me, too.
And wool -- soft, pre-combed roving from long-haired sheep, with only the faintest smell of lanolin lingering. And pre-drafted stranding for my younger daughter. And it turns out that the main skill required for spinning -- evenly drafting the wool into the yarn -- transfers smoothly from wheel-spinning to drop-spinning. And the rhythmic activity is amazingly soothing, and you can spin while you walk, or supervise the playground, or chat in the parlour, or ride the bus. And the children *did* really take it up, and prove true to their promise that it wouldn't be just clutter.
So now we have several rather large balls of fairly fine homespun. Time for a loom, right? I sketched out a Salish design for my dear husband, but I'm not sure he'll get to it. And if he does, it might be just as expensive as buying one. I want a weft at least 50cm (20") wide, able to weave a piece at least 160cm (5') long; so that the yardage can be used for folk-garments. I don't want a bulky treadle-system, but it has to have some sort of heddle, and it needs to be vertical to take up minimum space (did I mention I already have a clutter problem?)
Any weavers out there who have any suggestions?
But I'm a modern woman with children, a job, and a household to run; and looms and spinning wheels are expensive clutter if you don't have time to use them, and amazingly time-consuming hobbies if you do try to use them (as in, months to complete a project rather than days or hours as in some of the other hobbies I indulge in.) I limit my love of fibre-arts to sewing and banner-making, like the sensible modern woman I am.
And then, I was undermined: "Mama, please may we have our own drop-spindles?"
Say what? How did my modern pre-teens even *know* about drop-spindles, let alone want their own? And I'd only learned to spin on a wheel, I'd never used a spindle. Besides, the last thing this house needs is more clutter! Like I was going to waste good money on a passing fad!
"But Mama, they aren't very expensive, and they don't take up much space, and any time we spend spinning will be time that we're NOT playing computer games or watching TV and getting square-eyed."
Don't you just hate it when your children listen to you well enough to know all your good arguments, and use them back on you?
Turns out, the drop-spindles could be had for $10 apiece, which is a good price for a low-tech toy. But there were these gorgeous hand-carved hardwood turkish-style drop spindles, too, that made your hand quiver to touch the soft polish of the wood.
So I bought one for me, too.
And wool -- soft, pre-combed roving from long-haired sheep, with only the faintest smell of lanolin lingering. And pre-drafted stranding for my younger daughter. And it turns out that the main skill required for spinning -- evenly drafting the wool into the yarn -- transfers smoothly from wheel-spinning to drop-spinning. And the rhythmic activity is amazingly soothing, and you can spin while you walk, or supervise the playground, or chat in the parlour, or ride the bus. And the children *did* really take it up, and prove true to their promise that it wouldn't be just clutter.
So now we have several rather large balls of fairly fine homespun. Time for a loom, right? I sketched out a Salish design for my dear husband, but I'm not sure he'll get to it. And if he does, it might be just as expensive as buying one. I want a weft at least 50cm (20") wide, able to weave a piece at least 160cm (5') long; so that the yardage can be used for folk-garments. I don't want a bulky treadle-system, but it has to have some sort of heddle, and it needs to be vertical to take up minimum space (did I mention I already have a clutter problem?)
Any weavers out there who have any suggestions?
