Habetrot

Zuiderzee Spinner

 

(Click for Big)

This image of a family of Zuiderzee (a historic region of the Netherlands and now part of North Holland) is a hand-colored print from a steel engraving drawn and engraved by Rouargue Frères in 1857 in Paris.

Sunlight floods through the leaded glass window as the child plays in the background, the man concentrates on lighting his clay pipe, and the woman, keeping an eye on the artist, industriously spins flax on her flat-rim treadle wheel. All is not labor for the dear lady, however--note the glass of a little something close by on the sideboard to her left. Some things do not change.  She looks like good company, doesn't she?

I like how the woman has tilted her stool forward on the front legs to reach the wheel more comfortably and how the wheel sits on a small patterned rug to keep it from skidding across the floor. I also note the simple distaff with the line flax tied in a knot at the top. Although it is tempting to put this down to a lack of accuracy on the part of the artist, I have seen a few other images of spinners with the flax tied in just this way.

 

The Rest of the Haymakers

(click to embiggen)

The Rest of the Haymakers, 1872, Jules Breton (1827 - 1906).  

Jules Breton was a French realist painter who produced many romanticized paintings of rural peasant life.  

Here we have a young field worker who is spinning flax during her rest period from making hay.  She's working with a hand spindle, holding and twiddling it in her right hand as she drafts the flax with her left hand. Note how her distaff is inserted behind and through her apron bib and waistband to hold it in place.

I love the splashes of red at her turned up cuffs--hinting of something wild and free behind her somber, tired face.

 

Russian Spindler

 

(click for big)

This postcard of a young Russian girl spinning flax with a spindle and distaff dates to 1906.

Spanish Spinner

This famous photo is from the heyday of "LIFE Magazine."  It was was taken in Deleitosa, Spain, in 1950, by photojournalist W. Eugene Smith.

(click for way big)

Get a load of those spindles!  Is she spinning/plying flax?  It would appear so by the fact that she is using her mouth, apparently to wet the fiber.  Or is she working with wool and just removing a slub with her teeth?  I'm just not sure.  But get a load of those spindles! 

And what is going on with the yarn coming down from above?  My best theory is that she's spinning/plying flax in a fashion similar to the Egyptian method illustrated here:


I have read that sometimes the yarns would be run over an overhead hook to provide more length and drying time for the yarn.  What do you think?

BTW, did you notice the spindles? 

11/23 - Edited to add:  Commenter Manise has an excellent theory: "The right fuller cop looks plied. I think she wound 2 plies side by side by hand onto the left spindle kind of like a noste and then plied it onto the right one." 

I think she has something, there.  And the spinner may simply be biting off the strands from the supply spindle.  Make sense?

--
Many thanks to my friend Dianna in Saskatchewan for bringing the LIFE photo archive to my attention.

Party On!

Any party is better with accordion music, don't you think?

This photo of a scutching party is from the early 20th century and was taken in a village somewhere in eastern Europe. 

(Click for bigness.)

flax linen hackel hackle scutch break hetchel hatchel spin flax

Is It Spring Yet?

Please?

A field of flax flowers. . .and friend.




(click to biggify)