The Tour de Fleece runs every year, for the duration of the Tour de France, hand-spinners all over the world set their own wheels spinning, like the cyclists, setting themselves challenges and try to spin yarn daily, even if it’s just for ten minutes. Some people use the Tour to expand their skills, others just […]
Category: Textile Arts
One thing about Yorkshire folk is – we don’t suffer fools gladly. Look away now if you’re squeamish. This is going to get honest. Anyone coming here from Ravelry, pull up a chair and bring the popcorn. You already know where I’m going, with this. I like exploding myths and poking at bullshit with a […]
“Textile historians often find it difficult to tell whether early knitted objects are made using a single needle, as here, or using more than one needle, as the finished articles are so similar in appearance.” [From the holy writ, source of all sources ™, Wikipedia, text to the image shown left]. Just back from the […]
They say “blood will out”, and so it seems to have proved. We broke the last brick wall in my family tree a few months back. Names included: Lister, Smith, Dawson and Crabtree; a long line of wool weavers, clothiers, and mill-owners in Longwood, near Huddersfield, and in Halifax. My surname should have been the […]
“19 April 1814 Markets all agree are very flatt. Mill as full of wool as it can hold & men as saucy as the Devil.” [Diary of Joseph Rogerson of Bramley, woollen mill-owner]. NB: If scouring raw fleece for the first time – read this right through before starting. Equipment needed: 1 or more large […]
I prefer to take my information from the horse’s mouth. Other folk go to the opposite end. And some of the misinformation coming out re. ‘swaving’ is, frankly, a load of old pony. Let’s see what Dalesfolk – who saw it – said ‘swaving’ was. Then see if you can find any reliable/accurate demo of […]
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Her Name is Finger Paper
Just a few textile related items from Selby inventories, from the second half of the 17thC. In amongst this, there are some interesting items. A ‘worsett’ (worsted) wheel would possibly, at these dates, be a sort of intermediate style wheel, somewhere between a great wheel and a smaller wheel. The spinner sat down – instead […]
“A tribute to the merit of Captain Raynes, of the Stirlingshire militia, was paid on the 4th … as an acknowledgement of … his indefatigable and unabated zeal in bringing to justice a number of those infatuated creatures calling themselves Luddites.” [Caledonian Mercury, Monday, November 30th, 1812]. In 1812, Yorkshire became the fulcrum of a […]
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Ori-Esque Mitts
What kind of idiot decides to knit a Dr Who scarf and a pair of mitts in under ten days? Yes, Gentle Reader… you are looking at her. Well, actually you are looking at a picture of Ori, the youngest and most naive dwarf in ‘The Hobbit’ – which is quite appropriate as it was […]
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“Authoress and Designer”
I’m wondering if I have found the UK’s first ever fabulous person who, self-described as “Designer” on a Census? It’s fun to go hunting well known 19thC knitting manual writers, on Censuses. Whether it is 1841 or 1881, you often find them as “Berlin Wool Dealer”, or next to an occupation described as “Berlin Wool […]
PENELOPE HEMINGWAY 