Distaff spinning hints & tips: drafting

One of the parts of distaff spinning that consistently gets asked about on the Evangelical Church of Distaff Spinning community is about drafting. It does take a bit of getting used to, trying to learn how to draft between distaff and hand rather than between your two hands. So, this weekend my friend took a bit of video which I hope will help you.

Distaff spinning hints & tips: the half-hitch

There have been some questions recently from newbies on the Evangelical Church of Distaff Spinning page, so I thought I'd do some hints and tips. This first one is about the half-hitch, a common source of concern given that many of extant medieval spindle sticks do not have a notch or hook at the tip to hold the half-hitch in place.

Here are my hints and tips as to how to get a strong, functional half-hitch in place easily every time despite using a notch-less spindle.

Are we free? Some thoughts...

Isabella Pitcher at Prior Attire wrote an interesting post on her blog recently, entitled 'Are we free? The struggles of a professional interpreter...'. Whilst I often don't entirely agree with her opinions, on this account she has an excellent point. The issue of artists, musicians, writers and craftspeople being chronically undervalued and frequently requested to work for free or (groan) for 'exposure' is well documented. Heck, there are whole twitter feeds dedicated to it, a Huffington Post article about how to avoid doing it and, of course, lots of comics lambasting it.

This isn't even an issue just with 'professional interpreters'. I participate in a re-enactment group that has a high level of authenticity and research. As a group, we charge for the majority of events to hire us. Yep, even though we are hobbyists. Our group still has costs that need to be covered (petrol and insurance, to name but a few!) and we are still, for the most part, highly skilled and knowledgeable individuals with high-quality costumes and equipment, not just Jo(sephine) Bloggs off the street plonked into a synthetic pretty princess gown from Ebay.

That said, one thing I think Isabella has missed in her (quite justified) rant against being asked to work for free is that there are sometimes reasonable reasons why you might choose to do this. (Note: choose. People assuming you will work for free, particularly when emailing you at your business email, are just obnoxious.)

So here, a handy dandy guide to how not to be an arse when attempting to book historical interpreters (professional or otherwise).

Historical Sew Monthly 2017: #2 Re-make

The February challenge for this year's Historical Sew Monthly challenge is "Re-Make, Re-Use, Re-Fashion". Luckily, I had something in the works that perfectly fitted that challenge:

A 'Martebo' sack.

Historical Sew Monthly 2016: #8 Pattern

Continuing in my long tradition of documenting these things rather late, here is my entry for the Historical Sew Monthly 2016, #8 (August) - Pattern. 

A toddler's cote, for 1370s Wales.

Tutorial: Distaff spinning

Myself and other members of our reenactment group, the Cardiff Castle Garrison, have been going on a bit of a distaff spinning craze over the last few months. We set up The Evangelical Church of Distaff Spinning to spread the idea and to share hints, tips and information. However, this weekend we finally managed to get a video of what we've been up to.

Review: The Medieval Tailor's Assistant, 2nd edition

So, I have Sarah Thursfield's The Medieval Tailor's Assistant: making common garments 1200-1500 (1st edition) and my friend bought The Medieval Tailor's Assistant: Common Garments 1100-1480 (2nd edition - revised and expanded). So, as I'm sure many of you are absolutely dying to know what's in the new edition, we thought I should write a review and comparison.

Tutorial: how to correctly reference manuscripts

I thought I might show you how to read that tangle of numbers and letters and often foreign-language words that might crop up in a book, article or blogpost that is referencing a manuscript and how to correctly generate that style of reference too. 

The Evangelical Church of Distaff Spinning (!)

Hello, everyone. Long time, no posting! How is everyone?

Recently, I've been quite focused on hand spinning with the distaff and spindle after I found the hypothesis of Cathelina di Alessandri at 15th Century Spinning. With some gorgeous reproduction spindles from Katrin Kania (reviewed here), I've learnt Cathelina's method, experimented with some alterations, spread it to my reenactment group and now we appear to be corrupting fellow reenactors and modern crafters alike at a slightly terrifying rate...

Hence, we now have a FaceBook group for spreading the idea of distaff spinning in reenactment and crafting and for coming together and sharing ideas, hints, tips, new information, etc.

You can find us at The Evangelical Church of Distaff Spinning (yes, it has a silly name ^_^).

And I'll now leave you with a fascinating image: the only image of a top-whorl spindle I know of that's from medieval Western Europe. It even looks like it might have a little hook at the top.

Woman spinning flax (?) with distaff and spindle whilst on ducking stool (?).
Rutland Psalter (British Library, Add. MS 62925), f. 86r.
England (London?), c. 1260. Source.

What about you? What have you been focusing on this season? Have you tried spinning with distaff and reproduction spindles? Have you seen any other interesting medieval spinning images?

Thoughts on Living History

Katrin Kania recently wrote an interesting blog post about The Rules of Experimental Archaeology. I thought I might write something similar about Living History, though they are not rules per se ... more like advice with a dose of opinion. ;)

Of course, perhaps I should first explain what living history is... Wiki gives a fairly good explanation: 

Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is similar to, and sometimes incorporates, historical reenactment. Living history is an educational medium used by living history museums, historic sites, heritage interpreters, schools and historical reenactment groups to educate the public in particular areas of history, such as clothing styles, pastimes and handicrafts, or to simply convey a sense of the everyday life of a certain period in history.

Another way to put it is: living history is an obsessive, time-consuming hobby that quickly turns into a way of life. Symptoms include always having a small sewing project in your purse and being able to spot a 100% wool melton at 50 paces...

Reenacting ... prompts a to-do list

I've spent the weekend away reenacting (yay!) - my first show since last July, and a three-day one at that. Wonderful. However, there's nothing quite like a show to remind you of all the things you need to fix/change. This time, I'm going to put them here, in a hope that I will actually remember about them and maybe even (shock! horror!) actually get around to making the mends and additions.

Pink lower class dress: finding inspiration

I've been meaning to make another 1370s lower class dress for some time now. My mainstay reenacting dress is a pale green one in coarse linen, which was my first ever sewing project (ignoring the shift that goes under it). While it has held up remarkably well to both 6 years of reenacting wear-and-tear and my increasing knowledge of actual medieval dress construction, I'm often cold when wearing it (stupid Welsh weather...).

So, it is time for an overdress. A nicely made one, despite it being lower class, incorporating all the knowledge I've gained, plus using WOOL so that I will be nice and toasty. 

Teasels: a quick note

I wrote before about my theory that teasels being used to card unspun wool was a myth (at least in medieval England). I've come across a few more pieces of evidence which I thought I would share with you:

Teasels for carding - a myth?

As you may soon realise, if you haven't already, I'm terribly flighty when it comes to crafts and projects. I've put down my needle and thread for the time being and dusted off my spindle and spinning wheel for the first time in ages. With that, I got to thinking about fibre preparation in the medieval period, and so to that oft-repeated 'fact' that "teasels were used for carding wool".

Cuisses: pattern-making

Well, I was going to be good and get some photos of the blue dress to show off, but that completely didn't happen. So, now for something completely different, as the Pythons would say.

Himself has been scheming over a late 14th Century harness of transitional armour. Some of it he has already bought, some he is going to make and some he has yet to buy. However, it (along with most re-enacting things) got shelved when we moved. Now, finally, most of our stuff is out of storage - including the half-completed armour.

Fingerloop braiding ... gotta catch them all?

So, I promise to write about the wedding outfits soon. I just need to find some time to actually get back in them and get some nice photos of everything from a constructional perspective.

In the meantime: fingerloop!

I've been thinking about what I would have in a display of medieval textiles and crafts, given endless time, skills and money. ^_^ Of course, some of those ideal things are not at all feasible and others (e.g. weaving, netting) I do not know how to do (yet...?). Others, however, I have dabbled in and can talk about reasonably intelligently (at least to complete novices). It's just nice display pieces that are lacking.

I had a big debate with Himself about what one should do when reenacting and how it is best to display things. Basically, my feelings are that one can go down two routes - to be representative (and show things in terms of their frequency) or be complete (and show as much as possible, even unusual things or things a bit off your scope in either date or geography). I'm going to follow the latter in terms of items, then try to make sure I am representative via my actual conversations. I think it's easier to engage with people if there's more things on display - it is more likely that a visitor will find at least one thing interesting. Also, it is easier to talk about development, progress and history if you can compare it to other things not only verbally but also visually and tactile-ly.

Anyway, this all boils down to my first planned project: to be complete and have a full display of all the known 15th Century fingerloop braids. Which, having done a little reading, now seems to be quite a task! There are 67 braids in Tollemache/Harley 2303 alone. I'm not yet sure if I'm going to be able to find a like-minded nutter or two to do the multiperson braids with, or if I'm going to have to attempt to use this lady's method of doing braids F-fell so they can be singleperson.

In any case, it should keep me occupied for a while... so, watch this space.