Habetrot

The Happy Spindler

Here's a happy spindler in Serbia showing off her fistful of Russian style support spindles.  Doesn't she look like she's enjoying herself? 

Hmm.  Maybe it's not the spindles that are making her feel so happy.

I wonder what's in that pipe?

(click to biggify)

Famous Spinners I

Her Majesty Queen Victoria, By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India, Spinner

 

A recent news article * about Prince Charles giving Camilla two sheep for her 60th birthday prompted a question from a reader of these pages about Camilla, "Don't tell me that next she will be spinning that wool herself.  Does she look like a spinner to you?"  To which question I respond with the above photo.  Royalty are not above the humbler arts.

My understanding is that QV did, indeed, spin for pleasure.  So who knows, perhaps Camilla will spin her new sheep's fleece--but those are some pretty little shoes to fill.

 

 

*

20/07/07 - News section

Happy birthday to ewe! Charles gives Camilla two sheep
By REBECCA ENGLISH

She already has several wardrobes of designer clothes and enough diamonds to open her own jeweller's. 

So when it comes to finding that special 60th birthday gift for the Duchess of Cornwall, what do you give the woman who has everything? 

The answer, so far as her husband Prince Charles is concerned, was simple. A handful of plants for her garden -- and two large, long-haired sheep. 

The Mail understands that Camilla is delighted with her gift of a rare-breed ram and ewe, which will be joining the flock at Home Farm, Charles's organic establishment just down the road from Highgrove in Gloucestershire. 

The prince, who is patron of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, probably paid about £300 per animal. 

He has already invested £10,000 on two rare fell ponies for the duchess to ride at Birkhall, their Scottish retreat. 

"The prince and the duchess are passionate country people who are very concerned about the demise of rarebreeds in this country," said a friend of Camilla. 

The sheep are likely to be used for breeding and wool rather than eating, although as the prince is the founder of the Mutton Renaissance Club, the duchess might one day see them served up as Sunday lunch. 

The friend said: "The Royal Family have so much already that they don't actually give wildly extravagant presents. 

"Their gifts tend to be more thoughtful -- although some may view them as a little bit crazy. 

"Camilla is, in fact, absolutely chuffed to bits." 

A spokesman for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust added: 

"We are delighted to hear that the prince has chosen to support this country's rare breeds. 

"It sounds like he may have gone for something like the Lesser Long Wool or possibly even the Cotswold sheep, both of which are under threat of extinction. 

"He has already bred a large flock of Hebridean sheep on his farm which, although they have thrived in recent years, are still very much at risk. 

"They are big black or grey animals whose fleece is very much in demand by traditional hand spinners and are worth up to £300 each. 

"The prince is very passionate about the work we do -- the fell ponies he recently bought were of a very rare bloodline and extremely valuable -- so it is wonderful that he is actively helping to restore Britain's native livestock to their rightful place in our countryside." 

According to friends, Charles has also chosen a selection of hardy perennials for his wife -- who is an extremely keen gardener -- to plant in a small plot she has been given at Highgrove. 

"Camilla loves to unwind by pottering around in her patch," said one. "The gardens at Highgrove are quite formal and very much the prince's pet project but this is a little plot of land that she can call her own. By all accounts, she is equally green-fingered." 

Find this story at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=469806&in_page_id=1770    ©2007 Associated New Media

Delft Shepherd

This Delft tile showing a shepherd and his sheep dates from about 1675.

Delft tiles of this sort originated in Holland in the 1600's and often depicted people going about their everyday tasks.

 
This tile from about 1725 shows what our shepherd's farm house might have looked like.

The tiles also often showed landscapes and cityscapes.  For some examples of various motifs, look here.

      

The tiles were used in large groupings rather than individually.  You can get an idea of what the interior of our shepherd's home might have looked like from this postcard from the 1930's.

Who Knew?

I had no idea that Cupid is a spinner.

Spinner in India II

 

Here is another support spindler on the move.  Note the larger spindle and support stick than we saw last time.  The larger tools are probably because she would be spinning sheep's wool rather than cashmere.

As with the spindler in my prior entry, she is from northern India, this time from the Ladakh region on the Tibet border. 

(click for bigness)

But whereas the woman in the last entry was fairly citified, this spindler is a working shepherdess.  You can see her sheep* in the background, grazing on next to nothing.

Her dress has been patched and re-patched.  She wears a sheepskin around her shoulders, and her hat is knitted.  It looks to me like the red sash is silk.  You can see that she wears several layers of clothing.

See the blue bag on her left forearm?  That's her version of a wrist distaff--it holds her fiber supply, which looks to be prepared rovings.

---
*I can hear some of you crying out, "But what kind of sheep are they?" 

The best answer I can give you is Indian sheep. 

According to the publication Sheep and Goat Breeds of India by R.M. Acharya, Director, Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar via Jaipur (Rajasthan), India,

In the strict sense, there are no specific breeds, since the majority of them do not have specified defined characters.  Neither are there breeding societies or agencies to register animals of particular breeds, maintain flock books and ensure the purity of the breed.  A population of sheep or goats in a given locality, with characters distinct from other populations in the vicinity and with a distinct local name, has usually been considered as a breed. 

Most of the breeds of sheep and goats are very well adapted to the harsh climate, long migration, and lack of vegetation and drinking water.  A large proportion of sheep and goats (more particularly the latter) are of nondescript or mixed breeds.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/X6532E/X6532E00.HTM

 

Spinner in India

"She says you need brains to do this."

These images are screen captures (sorry for the poor quality) from a video of a spindler in Himachal Pradesh, a state in northernmost India.

 

The extraordinary thing about this lady's spindling is that she is using a support spindle while on the move, something I have never seen before.  She is supporting the spindle on a stick with a carved cup on one end and a knob on the other, and the stick is thrust through the cloth tied at her waist. 

As with the Togolese spindler in the previous entry, this spindler is using a support spindle for spinning fiber with a very short staple length.  But rather than spinning cotton, I believe she must be spinning cashmere or similar goat down fiber.

To see the full video on YouTube, go here.

My thanks go out to Julia and The Boy of Moth Heaven for finding this video and sending it to me.

Togolese Spindler

Cotton spinning in Agou, a region of the African nation of Togo.  Inasmuch as the national language of Togo is French, this lady would more properly be described as une fileuse de coton à Agou. 

She is spinning with a support spindle rather than a drop spindle.  Since the spindle is supported, there is no weight on the fiber being spun, enabling her to work with very short fibers and to produce a very fine yarn. 

Spinning in China

 

Several years ago I came across this 1873 engraving of a Chinese spinner. 

(My apologies for the moiré effect from the low-quality scan.  If you click for big, it's clearer.)  

My reaction to the construction of the wheel was amused disbelief--who could possibly believe in a wheel that worked like that?  Please. The artist had clearly misinterpreted what s/he had seen.

Nevertheless, the engraving is fascinating for its depiction of everyday life in rural China of another time.  It looks like a loom behind the spinning wheel.  There's a household shrine on the wall behind the well-bundled-up kids, one of whom is plunked in a basket.  The dog, I think, is getting scarce before it gets plunked in a basket, too.

A couple of years later I came across this photo, and I believed.

There are some unique and fascinating aspects of this wheel that are unlike anything I have seen in any other spinning wheels.

(click for bigger)

The drive wheel is not unlike what we see on charkha-type spinning wheels from across Asia. 

But the spinning head is arranged above the drive wheel, much like a castle wheel, rather than off to the side which is the case with every other spindle wheel I have seen.

And take a look at those spindles.  In the engraving there are three separate spindles, all driven by the one drive band, and in the photo there are two.  (I wish I could get a better look at the mechanism behind the spindle mounting--it looks like it might be some kind of acceleration device.)  And look the size of the spindles. They seem to be a foot long or more--far longer than anything we see on other spindle wheels.  Both spinners appear to be spinning cotton punis, drafting on all spindles simultaneously.

But the most amazing part of this wheel is the means of moving the drive wheel.  The spinner has her feet on a double curved beam that looks like it acts as a reciprocating crankshaft.  As the spinner's feet move alternately up and down, the crankshaft turns the drive wheel.  We are more familiar with cranks with right-angles in the shaft, such as the crank that the footman of your spinning wheel attaches to, which is an extension of the wheel axle, or such as the bicycle pedal crankshaft.

I have seen spinning wheels with cranks connected to the axle, whether moved by hand or by treadle connected by a footman.  And I have seen wheels and charkhas that are moved by hand, either directly by a hand on the spokes or by way of a knob on one of the spokes or on the disk of the drive wheel.  This appears to be a combination of the two.

The shaft connects not to the axle of the wheel but to one of the spokes of the wheel near, but not at, the axle.  So can it, in fact, be a crankshaft?  Perhaps not.  I also note that the beam also is part lever, with the pivot point between the spinner's feet.  Perhaps it's more lever than crankshaft, with one end of the lever moving in a circle with the drive shaft? 

If there are any mechanical engineers out there who have a better take on this, I'd sure like to hear from you.  Or has anyone ever seen one of these in person?  Does anyone have any better images?  Please let me know.

UPDATE 4-18-07:

I have receive a number of thoughtful and helpful comments, both here and privately.

As I finished the original entry, I was feeling quite unsure about my analysis of the mechanics of the "treadle".  Thus my plea for assistance.

Commenter Janel offered up a very clear explanation of how it must work: 

Very interesting wheel. I would guess based on the u-shape of the pivot support and the location of the attachment to the wheel spoke plus the fact that the wheel is situated perpendicular to the spinner instead of in front of the spinner, that the large "treadle" is really acting more like an oar and that the spinner uses both feet to "row" the wheel around by rotating the "treadle".

A couple of people asked about drafting and winding on from that position.  My best guess was that the spinner would do a lot of swooping up over her head with her left arm.  Uh, no.  Not quite.

Blogless Barbara Clorite-Ventura, spindle maven and author and star of  the video "Spindles Around the World" had the answer:

Very interesting wheels! 

In both pictures I see a stick in the spinner's right hand.  At the end of the draw, you use the stick as an arm extension to whip the yarns off the spindle tips and divert them to a 90-degree angle to wind on.  The left hand doesn't have to move at all.  The stick in the right hand grabs the yarn and does it for you.

After winding on, when you remove the stick, the yarn spirals to the tip by itself, and you are spinning off the point again. 

Me, I didn't even see the stick.

Barbara and I collaborated to produce this graphic depicting the process:

Pretty cool, huh?  I love what the community of fiber people can accomplish.

Chinese spinning wheel

 

Song of Spring

La Chanson du Printemps

(click for big)

 

The Happy Spinner

A certain reader has commented more than once about the dour aspect of many of the spinners who grace these pages.  I will admit that, for whatever reasons, many of them do look less than chipper.

I searched my archives and collections, and as a contrast to all those serious spinners, I present to you The Happy Spinner.

One from long ago:

And one from not so long ago--an icon for modern-day spinners everywhere.