Dressing a linen distaff - ideas for next year?

Distaffs (or distaves) are used for all sorts of different fibres.  It's basically a third hand that holds the fibre while our other hands are busy spinning it into yarn.

Distaff Day is on the 7th of January and is the most important holiday in the spinner's calendar.  Well, I say holiday, but it's actually the back-to-work day but we do it with great fun.  

This year, I dressed distaves in flax fibre for spinning linen yarn.  

Here's a free PDF guide on dressing a distaff with linen fibre.

Last year I did the same with wool

Now, how do I up my game for next year?  Anything about distaves you wanted to know?

Someone somewhere recently asked me how I plan and work on my videos.

Chaotically

So this is a list I made for myself.  This includes the videos I am actively working on and if they have any deadlines (and yes, dyslexia is a thing - don't even bother correcting, I promise it will do more harm than good).

To get on this list, the video needs to be in the filming, editing, writing, crafting, or gathering materials stage.  The list fails to include some of the long-term projects where I'm gathering footage over several years (I started a flax video in 2019 for example), videos still in the planning stages, or videos that got stalled in the editing due to not having the right story to be worth making... yet.  There are also a few secret projects that won't make it into this either.  

Unexpected yarn

What unexpected yarn has fallen into your life?  Do you have a go-to project you love to make with found yarn or do you wait to see what the yarn says it wants to be?  

About a year ago, I stumbled on some free yarn, leftovers from the now closed local mill. Talking to people who used to work there, this was part of calibrating the spinning machine, so it contains a lot of different fibres from a variety of farms.  Most of them are less than a day's journey away.

So I made a thing.  And I made a video about the thing.  And the yarn.  And deep thoughts about the yarn, fibreshed, and my personal textile history.

Finishing a homegrown cloak

 Winter has been a bit meh this year.  A bit of a health setback before the Holidays and the only game we get to play on the farm is catch-up.

I've also been working away on several projects and finishing almost none of them.  

But finally, I got one done!  Just in time for (what I hope is) the last snowfall of the year. 

If you like the video, please pop over to youtube and leave a like or even a comment as it helps me out tremendously.  

And here is the full playlist that takes us from sheep to finished cloak!

I enjoyed this project.  It's the first time I've made something from sheep to clothing that feels like a quality garment.  What's more, it's a sheep from my farm!  One that I feed every day and who loves cuddles.  

In a lot of ways I've gained confidence.  I understand better how the yarn behaves in the woven cloth and that I can actually make something from scratch.  I also understand why a more historically accurate cloth would involve a lot more people: a shepherd, weaver, spinner, seamstress, etc. It seems almost that I lose as much as I gain doing each step myself.  

One of the things I worry about is this sets the bar too high.  Both for me and for viewers.  

There's no need to do every step ourselves.  I did it because I was curious if I could and I'm a cheap little chicken who can't always afford to buy the cloth I want to work with.  Even in this project, I combined modern cloth with traditional methods.  Add growing, spinning, and weaving the lining to the mix and I would need another year or three to get it done.  But even then, I don't think it would have been as good for the cloak as the lining I choose.  

It's about learning from history instead of trying to reproduce it.  What can I learn from the past and how can I incorporate it in my life today.  There's no shame in it.  There's no shame if a future project has bought yarn or I go to the shop and buy fabric.  And yet, it's a nagging worry that I now need to progress to better and better things, especially on my youtube journey.  That's not the path I want to take.  I want to make projects that fill me with joy, and sometimes that means buying yarn.  Sometimes it means spinning it.  

Sometimes there won't be any yarn involved at all.  

Most of all, I'm happy with the improvement in my video-making skills.  I'm getting better at what to film and what to leave out.  My voiceover confidence is improving.  I'm still seeking a balance between showing enough for the technically curious and keeping the story moving, but on the whole, I've moved up a notch and am now about 11% of the filmmaker I want to become.  

Sewing a homegrown cloak - Mood winterberry cloak pattern

Wow, I may have just jumped the shark here, but I did it.  I made a cloak, entirely by hand, using traditional methods, from sheep to finished clothing!

For those of you new to the adventure, you can catch the full playlist here.

Basically, I gave in to peer pressure and put my life on hold to make this cloak.  It turned out amazing, but I still have a lot of work to do to finish it up.  Something to keep me busy this winter.

I want to talk about the pattern because the video was long and I edited that bit out.  Also I don't really feel qualified to assess a sewing pattern as a complete N00b!

Learning a new craft - and a teaser

 I get obsessed when learning a new craft.  I take great pleasure in learning everything and to find out what the limits of the craft are, what my limits doing that craft are, and what happens when I push past those limits.

Last month, I experimented with pushing past those limits - twice.

First, I finally took the dive into making a fully (ish) homegrown garment from sheep to wearable clothing.  To keep me focused, I gave myself a timeframe - one month - to get it done.  

I choose the wrong month because September is pretty much the busiest time on the farm and the only month of the year the weather is friendly, so I'm regretting this.

But the yarn community is lovely and supportive.  Sure there are opinions, but so long as we remember when someone says "the best way" or "the right way" what they really mean is "this worked well for me", it's much easier to deal with absolutes.

The second limit was to see if I could make videos about this adventure on a time budget.  (time budget?  deadline).  

I did better than I expected.  

And worse.

The thing I'm learning about making videos is that it is a craft - like knitting, spinning, weaving...

I talked about how the craft of weaving has its own personality (ISTP on the Myers-Briggs scale).  I suspect we could do that for any craft.  Video editing and youtube creation is no exception.  Actually, I think it might be entirely off the scale.  

But first, proof that I did finish the cloak in time - even if I'm still struggling to finish the video.

Edititus Troglodytus (and a cloak update)

 Edititus Troglodytus: a subspecies of the Homo sapiens who dwells in dark grey caverns and worships glowing screens while moving around little boxes that look thus

The Cloak is done ... well...

Because... does one have to have a reason?

 

Actually, there is a pretty good reason.  I wanted to understand how circle cloaks work so I made some tiny mockups.  And since the only thing I have that resembles a doll are these chickens... 

So what did I learn?  

Spinning a homegrown cape - #CAPEtember2022

 

Well, it has begun.

I'm actually doing this.  I'm going to attempt to make a cloak, from raw wool, in one month.  That's spinning, weaving, and sewing.

And on top of that, I'm making videos about each step - which more than doubles the time everything takes.

This might not be the smartest decision I ever made, but it's going to be a fun adventure.

So, without more preamble (because my spellcheck won't let me put 'preramble' as in the rambling on of words before the thing), I bring you SPINNING!

Cancel Everything - I'm doing CAPETember!

#CAPEtember #CAPEtember2022

Don't ask me why... Okay, you can ask me why but I'll probably mumble "I don-no" and change the subject to "isn't that pretty yarn?"

For some reason, I am filled with the belief that my life will be infinitely better if I own a cloak.

(or possibly cape, I haven't figured this part out yet - I figure cloaks are longer but this might just be something I made up in my head)

So I'm going to drop all my other projects and make a cloak.  By "make" I mean I'm going to go outside and ask my sheep for some wool then spin, weave, and sew a cloak.

But to make things even more challenging, I'm going to do it in a month.  This month.  The month of September, in this year, 2022.  

Um... this sleep thing they keep talking about.  That's optional, right?

I have no idea if I can do this.  It's a lot more than I've ever attempted before.  On top of that, I'm still on the mend from my surgery.  This might not go well.  

Full disclosure, I have some of the yarn spun already.  Probably not enough to make much difference.

So it's going to be a challenge.  Especially because I hope to also make some videos about this journey which makes everything take twice as long.  

Wish me luck!

Blooming after a fallow state - the Victoria Flax to Linen Group

“The theory was that while in a Fallow state you were gathering and conserving strength, nourishing yourself through meditation, sending invisible rootlets out into the universe.”

― Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam

Got to hang out with the Victoria Flax to Linen group last weekend.  It was really special to connect after so many years in hibernation.  

All wool has value

It began as a compost pile and a birthday present.  

When I asked what he wanted for his Birthday, he said something like, you know that yarn you have stashed away as a treasure?  You know how you promised me a rug?  That's what I want.  

The yarn has a story.  It's spun at the (former) local fibre mill from a mixture of fibre from the farm.  Some of the animals like the rich deep black alpaca, are no longer with us.  This is sad, but also happy because the rug helps us remember the good times we had.

But it's not just any old fibre, this fibre was destined for the compost heap, to get smothered with squash plants as it slowly transforms into soil.  The fibre was too fragile, too dirty, too... whatever to spin into a sensible yarn.  But the mill had this machine that could use inferior fibre to twist around a core and make it soft and strong and valuable.  

The results are gorgeous!  

 

Could Craft With Me become a thing? I think so.

 My attention span isn't always what I would like.  I admit, I find it difficult to stick to one task for long enough to get anything done.  So I look around for tricks to hack my brain into getting stuff done.

One of those tricks is watching youtube videos in the background.  It's a lot like when I used to watch TV, I knew the show was a set amount of time, and used that to guide my action.  I would work until the show was over and it really helped to have the background noise to distract the part of my brain that want's to get up and do something else.  Music helps too.

This last few years, I've been using Study With Me and LoFi Girl videos to help my crafting.  But to be honest, studying isn't a good friend for crafting.  It's so serious, the music is designed to cause deep focus and my crafting is more light brain work and repetitive tasks.  I'm not engaging the same part of the brain.

I really needed something more craft specific.  Preferably something with yarn, good music, and no talking.   

But alas, the internet seems to be lacking in this.

So I made a thing.

I really enjoyed making this!  

I want to make more.

I worry it's going to flop pretty badly by youtube standards.  There's very little out there like this and even if I'm not the only one who needs something like this in their life to help make things, people don't know to search for it because it's too new.

Maybe I can make one a month, if I can stick to a schedule that much, if only to use up the extra footage that didn't make it into my main videos.  

And maybe it will become a thing.  I hope so.  I imagine having a whole bunch of people making Craft With Me videos about many different crafts, so I can choose today I want to spin yarn, so I watch a spin with me video.  Tomorrow maybe I'm in the mood for a woodworking with me video.  I don't know.  

If you think it's a good idea, please share with your friends who need a little motivation to get crafty. 

Knit a sweater in a day, they said! It would be easy, they said! yeh right.

 I think the title says it all really.  

This wonderful machine fell in my lap and in my hubris I thought I knew plenty of knitting and this would be easier than the two pointy sticks.

yah right.

At the end of the sweater, I am overwhelmed by how much love and respect I now have for machine knitting and machine knitters.

It really is true that it doesn't matter what tools we use.  It's what the knitter brings to the yarn that makes all the difference.  

I can't wait to find out how to use my ribber.  Any ideas?  There don't seem to be many tutorials on this that I can find.

(oh, and there is dyeing and sheep in there too because, well, sheep)

New friends from the Cowichan valley - or how much yarn can I spin on a road trip?

Winters here are dark.  Far darker than you think for our latitude, but with the clouds, rain, and oppressive conifers hemming us in on all sides, we can go weeks needing the lights on in the house at noon.  

It's also very hard on the animals.  We have lights in the hen house our they forget to wake up and eat.  It's always a battle to keep everyone healthy - critters and humans alike.

Basically, winters on the farm are dark.  But what makes them bearable is spring and all the new life it brings.

A while back, I put an advert in the local UsedAnywhere seeking bummers.  A bummer is a lamb whose mum is unable to feed it, either because the lamb is an orphan or they have too many siblings competing for limited milk supply or other reasons.  

Well, I got a reply so I'm off on an adventure to meet some lambs.

It's a day trip and a ferry trip from home.  But it's a lot of fun to see what's up in the Cowichan Valley.  Enjoy.  

fun and fluffy

 Long story.  There was a question about spinning fluffy yarn - probably angora.  But making sure it stays fluffy.

So we talked about all the different ways and I mentioned just ply it in.  

What?  

I tried to describe it. 

Failed

Tried to find a tutorial.

failed

So I grabbed my camera and spent the morning making one:

Sorry about the lack of cute animals.  These youtube shorts are great exercise for me, but hard to get everything in under 58 seconds.  

I'm pretty sure I learned this technique from my spinning group.  But I can't for the life of me remember what it's called.

If anyone knows the name of this, please let me know.  

ps, this is even better if you use handspun silk, overtwisted, singles for the ply yarn, then ply as per usual but with the fluffy stuff getting caught between.  

Standing out in the cold - I try root retting stinging nettles

 Our stinging nettles take forever to die off in the winter.  It isn't until the hard freeze we get for a week to ten days after Christmas that they really start to die back, and even then there are hangers on.  

But come Feb, all but the most shelter nettle plants are standing corpses (with the little baby nettles already peaking up in the leaf litter).  A few days break from the rain and we can finally explore the root retting method for harvesting fibre.  

On my bookshelf, you will find,Yarn from Wild Nettles, by Birte Ford.  It's a great book with lots of ideas for, you guessed it - transforming stinging nettles into yarn.  It is from here I got the idea.

Finally, I caught the nettles at the perfect moment in our weather cycle - so it's time to see if it works.

Here's what happened:

I think I know why it didn't work. 

Spinning wheel options for people who can only use their upper body

 I saw a question on reddit a while back.  For reasons, they were looking for spinning wheel options that use only the upper body.  I love a challenge!  

 I'm never going to learn that reddit is the place for one-sentence answers.  But I also know that whatever is written there quickly fades away.  So, with that in mind, the following was my (rather long-winded) reply. (spelling mistakes and all)

Exciting! I love this part of the process... getting ready for the next step and finding the wheel to best fit your needs.

Before we go too much further, I do want to mention that per minute spent a wheel is more efficient (and a spindle wheel like a charkha even more so), but like two pointy sticks vs the knitting machine, per day spinning, a spindle can easily out do a wheel. The portability and freedom to use every spare moment... but you're ready for a wheel, so let's get to that.

Using only upper body. I'm imagining a long draw (like a spindle wheel), using a distaff, or an e-spinner.

Charkha - especially the book (folding up version) is very good at cotton and other downy fibres with a staple length of under 2 inches and for spinning fine thread. I wouldn't say it is ONLY for cotton (saying that a wheel is ONLY for ONE SPECIFIC kind of fibre is my biggest bugbear! That and the modern trend of calling wheels "wool wheels" or "flax wheels"... It's simply not true!) is a mistake someone who didn't know spinning made a few decades ago and it's been parroted as truth ever since. (I'll cut the rant short there).

Spindle Wheels (a charkha is just one kind) traditionally (but not always) have a drivewheel that is hand-powered, and a spindle that we spin the yarn off the tip in a long (one-handed) draw. This is one of the oldest styles of spinning wheels and is extremely efficient! Miles per hour, I can spin more on this kind of wheel than any other.

A great wheel or Walking Wheel would be the European/North American equivalent. We also had table top versions but they were less popular. In much of the world, they have smaller table top spindle wheels (in India it's called a charkha, other places have different names).

These are great for fibres under 4" and were often used for wool and cotton in North America. Most of them have a stronger spindle and motherofall than a book charkha, so they can handle coarser fibres.

In Europe, when these first arrived, there was a strong rebellion against them because the yarn wasn't as consistent as people would like (learning curve took a while to get the quality up) so they quickly got the reputation that 'wheel spun yarn isn't strong enough for warp in weaving' which was parroted along the centuries to peak in the 1970s as "all handspun yarn is impossible to use in weaving"... sigh. (another long rant later... where was I?)

I know quite a few people who spin linen/flax on a spindle wheel as this technology is infinitely adjustable for the spinner's needs.

You can also adjust your method so that you can spin worsted-style using a distaff and different drafting techniques on a spindle wheel.

Spindle wheels are far more versatile than many people realize. I know quite a few novelty yarn spinners who have converted their flyer wheel to spindle because they can get the results they want.

A GOOD e-spinner will give you the largest variety of yarn possibilities. It lets you use both hands to spin the yarn. Good not only means well made (I'm partial to the Ashford ones, but there are many well-made ones out there) but a good fit for the spinner. If possible (and this goes for any spinning wheel) see if you can try one before you buy. Some yarn shops have them that you can use.

Adapting a treadle machine to hand powered: I haven't... but it sounds awesome. I would go with a Saxony style (big wheel to one side of the flyer). Cut the legs to make it tabletop compatible... or adjust them somehow for the right height for your body. Take the treadle and footman off as well. You could turn the spokes with your hand like a great wheel, but I almost feel I would reverse the wheel somehow so that the axel is facing towards me and I could put a handle on it.

Drafting one-handed isn't awesome on a flyer wheel. Simple to convert it to a spindle wheel... but there are ways to spin without doing that. Distaff mentioned earlier will probably be the best method. Long draw for woolen style yarn also works.

And I've written a huge essay. Sorry.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. I'm excited about your adventure and would love to learn what path you choose.

It doesn't madder what colour I get

 Confession time: Dyeing scares me.

(dyeing - as in making things colourful)

There is so much science about it - and as much as I love geeking out and learning the details, I also get lost in them.  

What if I do it wrong?  What if it's ugly?  What if... 

A few months ago, I was putting my garden to bed for the winter and I was thinking about this list of what if's, probably because I was digging up some madder roots for a new garden because I love the colours madder makes and you can never have too much.  

I put aside about a third of the madder root for drying and dyeing at some later date.  Because one day I'll know enough to be able to use it.  I've never seen instructions for dyeing with fresh root before.  Maybe it's not possible.  Someone would have told me if it was.

Then I started to get angry at myself. Why don't I just do it?  It's only yarn.  I've got nearly 5 kilometres of handspun yarn ready for just this sort of harvest.  It's not like I need a specific colour, all I want are pretty reds.  What keeps stopping me from dyeing?  

The answer, I'm sad to say, is me.

So I designed an experiment based on what I know about madder.  Scared that I might destroy all that handspun yarn, but excited too that I could finally do this thing.    

It's so pretty!  

PS, don't miss out on the easter eggs at the end of the video.  

Distaff Day 2022 - where I dress sticks in wool

We look at the past and forget.  

It's easy to do.  We forget that the spinners of years gone by didn't spin yarn for fun, or to save money or for sentimental reasons.  They did so because, without yarn, they were bloody cold!  

Yarn is survival.  

All the incarnations.  Be it string, twine, rope, thread, yarn... all was made by hand and without it humanity couldn't thrive in the extreme environments that we do today.  Yarn binds us together as a species.  

What amazes me most of all is how universal yarn production is.  Every culture that makes yarn has three steps (draft, twist, stash).  Sometimes these are done by different people (Cowichan Nations and Ancient Egypt), but always the same three steps.  Draft, twist, stash.

And almost universal is having something to manage your fibre source.  Often this is a distaff.  

If it was as clumsy as it feels to my modern hands, people would have given it up long ago.  And yet, even well into the 20th Century, handspinners who are connected to their cultural roots and a time when spinning yarn was a survival trait, still used distaves (plural of distaff).  

Last year, I set out to perfect my distaff spinning skills.  I got pretty good at it, but I also learned that one year is not long enough to master this skill.  There is so much more to learn.

But... I did learn lots and here are a few methods I found work well for me for dressing a distaff with wool.

There are as many ways to dress a distaff as there are spinners who use them, so try lots of things and find out what works well for you.  There is no wrong way so long as it gives you the results you seek.