Spinning, Weaving and Wool

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History of Spinning and Weaving
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Interesting Spinning/Weaving Fact
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Quick Guide to Calculating Weave and Weft
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Stories and Poems about Spinning & Weaving

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I am particularly interested in the history of spinning and weaving. As the SCA is interested in historical research, one of the other groups in the Kingdom of AnTir, has a lovely page on the

history of spinning

Roman spinning, weaving and textiles

Observations on the Loss of Woollen Spinning, 1794

I also located a fascinating site on how archaeology gives us insights into textiles. This page is about a pottery sherd that reveals the weaving of Ecuador in 1500-1300 BC.

If you are interested in reading more about the history of spinning the book Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times Elizabeth Wayland Barber,W.W. Norton & Company, 1994 is recommended for the information on the earliest times.

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My favorite project is spinning. I have bought a lovely spinning wheel made of rimu wood from New Zealand. It is handmade with a rose carved on it. I started with a drop spindle and fell in love with the feel of fiber in my fingers. I have not done anything with what I have spun yet, but I am thinking of some knitting.

My current roving is some fawn colored Alpaca. It is so wonderful to spin! So far I have 28 plyed yards of it done.

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Interesting Spinning Fact:

The oldest handspun weaving fragment found to date was unearthed at the archaeolgocial excavation of Catal Huyuk in southcentral Turkey, and has been carbon dated to more than 8,000 years ago. It appears to be a bast fiber carefully prepared and spun into a very smooth yarn. It was woven at 30 threads per inch in one direction and 38 in the other direction. It is a tight smooth tabby weave with an even beat. Any spinner or weaver examing the fragment would recognize the high level of workmanship. Some fragments from Catal Huyuk also show evidence of darning and sewn hems. (Spin, Span, Spun: Fact and Folklore for Spinners and Weavers by Bette Hochberg)

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