Bands of Beads Tote Bag

This pattern comes courtesy of The Snuggles Project, which was founded a few years ago to provide nice soft beds for animals kept in cages in shelters. This is a volunteer project, and the website lists dozens of patterns for snuggle beds in knit, crochet, and sewing. Clicking on the link below the picture will lead you not only to the bag pattern, but also to this compassionate organization.

Love the way the beads dress up this otherwise basic bag.

Worsted weight cotton, G crochet hook.

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Summer Knits: Top Down V Neck Shell

Summery, chic, and sexy!

From allaboutyou website, Size 5 US (3.75 mm) needles, sport weight yarn.

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English Rib Vintage Socks

This classic sock is knitted using sport weight yarn, and is suitable for women or men. From Free Vintage Knitting.

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Novelty Rib Vintage Socks

from Free Vintage Knitting

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True Textile Tales: Message in a Sampler

I’ve been a student of textile history for over 20 years, and have never encountered anything quite like this extraordinary sampler from the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Stitched by Elizabeth Parker in the late 1820’s, it tells of her unhappiness and suffering at the cruelty of the family that employed her as a nursery maid. Embedded within the text is this compelling statement: ‘As I cannot write I put this down simply and freely as I might speak to a person to whose intimacy and tenderness I can fully intrust myself.’ She then proceeded to set down in tiny cross stitches her feelings of despair and her suicidal thoughts.

Elizabeth’s life did change for the better when she became a teacher. A fuller account of what is known of her life can be found at the V&A website .

Knitting News: Cables without the Sweater

photo from Vogue Russia

Here’s a brand new take on the classic cable sweater, from Russian designer Irina Shaposhnikova. Billed on Stylefrizz.com as the trendiest sweater for fall, the cables are held together via a “transparent layer” of something, cloth, I guess. Better start knitting all those Christmas sweaters for the stylistas in your life!

More photos here .

Textile Terms : The “Distaff Side”

A distaff is a tool used in spinning, to hold the unspun fibers, usually flax, to keep them untangled and ready to be spun. In the photo to the left, it is the object on the upper left that appears covered in long hair.

Because spinning was such a universal chore during medieval times, the distaff became a symbol for domestic life.

Gradually, the term “the distaff side” came to signify the female side of the family, or womanhood itself. In recent times, this descriptor has fallen out of common usage. The image at right shows a spinning wheel with a distaff dressed with flax. Sometimes  a gourd would be hung from the distaff, for holding water, with which the spinner would moisten her fingers while drawing out the flax fibers, to help “set” the new linen thread.

Medieval Images: The Distaff

Click on individual images for larger view.

This woman is shown beating her husband with her distaff!

detail from a Nativity scene

Medieval Images of Early Spinning Wheels and Yarn Winder

Woman spinning on the great or walking wheel.
Luttrell Psalter, British Library, London 14^th c. England

The great wheel produced thread more quickly than the drop spindle, but the thread was lower quality. It was underspun (not twisted enough) and uneven. The wheel was turned by pushing a stick against the spokes (above) or by turning a crank. Because the spinner had to use one hand to operate the wheel, she was left with only one hand to draft the fibers, resulting in uneven thread.

Woman spinning on a great wheel which is turned by a crank. MS 17, Musee Dobree, Nantes ^16th c. France

The spinner above is drafting the fibers with one hand and turning the crank with the other. The next step in the evolution of the spinning wheel was to attach a foot treadle to the crank. The spinner could then use her foot to turn the wheel, freeing both hands for drafting.

Unwinding thread from the drop spindle and making a skein.
MS Fr. 599, f. 48, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 15^th c. France

The spun thread was unwound from the spindle into a skein or ball. At this point, the thread might be ready for weaving, or it might first be dyed or plied (twisted with other thread to create a single heavier thread). {note: this yarn winder probably would not have been called a niddy noddy at this point}

Medieval Images- Using Drop Spindles

In all of these images, the spinners are using drop spindles and distaffs.