Habetrot

West Virginia Spinner

It occurred to me recently that I haven't posted many (any?) spinners from the US. 

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So I give you this intent spinner and her pouting child from West Virginia from the late 1800's.  This is a photograph rather than a postcard and is, consequently, precious as it is very probably the only one in existence.  I wish I knew more about her, but the photo bears no more identifying information.

One very interesting aspect of this photo is the preparation of the wool she is spinning--rolags produced by a wool carding mill.  I have seen very few images of spinners working with this form of fiber.  Her rolags are quite different from what we contemporary spinners call rolags; they are very thin and airy and are two or three feet long. 

The bit of fiber hanging from her left hand is the unspun part of the rolag.  The white bundle hanging off the tension handle of her saxony wheel is a large number of these rolags, waiting to be spun.  Rolags such as these are a perfect preparation for woolen spinning; they practically spin themselves.

In the 19th century in the eastern US almost every stream--no matter how small--and every river was lined with mills. Mills for every purpose from wood turning to manufacturing brooms,to grinding grain and corn.  Chief amongst such mills were have been woolen mills.

With the advent of the industrial revolution, one of the earliest uses to which mill machines were put was to process wool.  Everyone needed wool for clothing and bedding, and at this time many people raised sheep and spun and wove their own fabrics, especially in rural areas.

People would deliver their wool to the mill and receive back the processed fiber, either in rolag or batt form.  People who did not raise their own sheep could also purchase the processed wool from the mill.

I have witnessed this process, myself, at Old Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts on these water-driven carding machines.  The one in the foreground produces rolags, and the one behind produces batts.  If you are ever in the area, a visit to the woolen mill would be well worth your while.

Happy New Year

Happy Holidays and my best wishes to you all for a very Happy New Year

It has been a fine year here at Habetrot, and I thank you all for coming by.

Click for some sheepish seasonal music.

With thanks to http://www.golakes.co.uk/ .

How To Be Warm

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With thanks to Pooch Cafe.

I Love Latvia

A year ago this week I blogged about the 9,000 Latvia NATO mittens here.  I was made dizzy by all these mittens then, and I still am.  For the last year I have been using the images from the mitten archive as my screen saver, and they delight me just as much now as they did a year ago.

So, to re-affirm my love of Latvia and its mittens, I give you Latvian mitten stamps. 

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Each stamp is a small work of art.  The stamps were issued between 2002 and 2005, and each bears both mittens and costumes from a different region of the nation.  Can you imagine a country that values its handcraft traditions so highly that it puts them out for all the world to see in such a way?

And, yes, yes, before you say anything, I do know that the US has issued knitting stamps.  And I give them to you here.

Oy.  Well, ok.  It is knitting of a sort.  I'll give you that.

Does anyone else mind that the images appear to have been knitted upside down?  Or is that just me?

Can you imagine a country that values its handcraft traditions so poorly that it puts them out for all the world to see in such a way?

Reeling Silk

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This photograph was taken in Turkestan in 1862.  The men are reeling silk.  The older man on the right is boiling the silk cocoons and feeding the silk strands up over the wooden frame leaning over the pot.  The younger man is guiding the strands (if you biggify and look closely, you can just make out the thread running through his had) onto the charkha for winding.

Alfred, is that you?

"Good Neighbours"

 

This tender scene was painted in 1885 by English painter John William Waterhouse (1849 - 1917).  The work is also sometimes known as "The Gossips" or "Washing Day."

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Waterhouse loved women, and this love is clear in all his works; he rarely painted anything other than women.

Although I have not been able to find any information about this painting online, it is utterly different from anything else he painted that I have found, and I believe it must be his wife and daughter in their London back garden.  While most of his other works have a distinctly dreamy, romantic, and mythical content, this one feels real to me.

Turkey Day

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  The day is also commonly known as Turkey Day.

In honor of the day and in keeping with the theme of this blog, I present to you some offerings from the Weird Wide Web.

(Click all images to biggify.)

A turkey on a dishcloth.  Nice.

A baby drumstick hat.  Isn't it cute?

Oh, look!  A variegated knit turkey.  Ok.

A knitted knitting turkey.  Oookay.

And, uh, a fun fur turkey, still with its, uh, fur on.

Ummm, a fun fur turkey hat. Planted on a head.

And another "hat", for which we should be most thankful.

Or not.

If you are very very brave, biggify the last two pictures.  I promise nothing but your eyes will be harmed.

Happy Turkey Day, everybody!

Sheep, Eh?

I pulled this image out of my archives recently for my friend Dianna who lives in Saskatchewan, Canada, and I thought y'all would enjoy it, too.

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"Ranching in the Canadian West. Flock of Sheep."

This postcard is from the early 20th century, probably around 1910.  Nice flock, eh?

Festivals

Last month around Rhinebeck time I was telling a new co-worker about my fondness for attending sheep and wool festivals.  He responded, "What?!  Did you say 'Sheep and wolf festivals?"  I'm still laughing about it.

Not as crazy as it sounds, though.  Here's one now:

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And so they will forever be Sheep & Wolf Festivals for me.  Thanks, Gerry!

 

BOO II

Happy Halloween!

You must click for big.

This lovely, "The Spinner,"  is a woodcut by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497?-1543), best known for his portraits with lush and exquisite textile detail, as with the older Hal here, and for his woodcuts of the Dance of Death.

That giant distaff of hers, stuck full of full spindles, has gotten me to thinking about witches and their broomsticks.  While contemporary images of witches flying on their brooms shows the broom portion behind the witch, earlier images sometimes show the "broom" portion in front of the witch.  Perhaps witches don't fly on broomsticks at all, but on distaves.  What say you?