Stone Age Spinning?

A newly published article in the September 11th issue of Science magazine  announces the discovery of ancient, twisted, wild flax fibers, embedded in soil samples taken from the Dzudzuana Cave in Georgia (Russia). Carbon dating places the habitation of the cave to the Upper Paleolithic period (32,000 to 11,000 years ago). The evidence, microscopic though [...]

Textile Terms: On tenterhooks

It’s been so long since anyone has seen either a tenter, or the hooks on one, that the word and the idea behind it are now quite mysterious, but at one time, the phrase on tenterhooks would have evoked an image that was immediately understandable.   Tenter hooks were L-shaped staples, much like a bent nail, placed at [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 14th 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 [...]

Textile History: Oldest English Sampler 1598

This sampler is more than 400 years old! It’s in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and it was stitched to commemorate the birth of a child. Further information can be found on the museum website, linked below. Amazing!

Maker –>Jane Bostocke
Country –>England
Date –>1598
Materials — Linen, embroidered with silk and metal thread
Dimensions [...]

Textile Terms: Spinsters of the world, Unite!

Remember playing “Old Maid” as a kid? Who ever got stuck with the old maid card was the loser and received a lot of taunting. The proper term for old maid is spinster, which means a woman beyond the usual marriageable age who is still single.
But what does the “spin” in that word refer to? [...]

Textile Tools – Teasel

Before wool can be spun it is necessary to comb, or card, it to align the fibers and remove knots and debris. Today that job is done very efficiently by machine, but before mechanization, of course, it had to be done by hand. Wool cards are steel brushes that look very much like [...]

Textile Terms: Wool Gathering

When someone is daydreaming instead of paying attention to the talk at hand, it used to be, and sometimes still is said that the person is “wool gathering” .  How did that saying come about? Most people don’t require any wool at all to do their fanciful thinking.
The answer is simple enough. When sheep are [...]