Grace with Yarn

 Sometimes the smallest things have unexpected consequences. At St. Eligius last November, a  A&S competitor took time away from her own display to talk to me about mine.  The spinning experiment did not come out the way I thought and she and I discussed possible reasons why.  We geeked out as fiber nerds do. Then, this lovely person showed me a new technique for spinning that I had never tried before and it blew my mind.  I still haven't quite gotten the hang of it, but I'm working on it. I couldn't tell you exactly how this interaction affected me, but it made a huge, lasting impact. When I heard that Morwenna was being elevated to the Laurel at Harper's Retreat, I knew I wanted to do something to show my appreciation. I proceed to scour through patterns until I found something I liked and then combined a couple for the look I was going for. A simple set of fingerless mitts with the Laurel leaves around the wrists, in wool. She didn't have to share her knowled

 I am fascinated. I downloaded a paper online titled "The knitting crafts in Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century" and finally sat down to read it. OMG. The majority of the paper focused on the establishment of guilds for hand knitters across Europe and the hypothesized migration of such.  The author talked more about the western and northern parts of Europe instead of Italy and Spain (my focus) but it's giving me some side trails to explore. Apparently guilds didn't really come about until the sixteenth century as far as hand knitting is concerned.  However, the author states "The guild of knitters in Barcelona, established in 1496, was active."  So therefore I should be able to locate information about the hand knitting guilds in Barcelona and hopefully other Spanish cities. Documentation also shows that it was considered more of a "cottage industry" prior to that, before the increase in demand for knit items. There's mention

The holiday season got away from me and things have been hectic since November which is why I haven’t posted.  So sorry for that. So, to pick up where I left off, here’s what’s been happening in my fiber experiences: In January 2024 I was honored to be made a companion of the Order of the Maunche, which is the East Kingdom’s kingdom level award for arts and sciences.  I received an amazing scroll from Mistress Charis Accipiter who included a knit glove, drop spindle, spinning wheel, sheep and even yarn chicken.  (Yarn chicken is what it’s called when you’re at the end of the knitting/crochet project and you’re not sure you’ll have enough yarn.) One of the medallions I received which I will cherish is from Lady Mairi Crawford, my cadet.  She created a stunning piece that can be worn as a necklace or pin.  I’m in awe of her skills. The same day, I was able to gift a newly completed Laurel shawl for my dear friend Charitye Dale who received her Laurel in July 2023.  I’m so happy with how

 This past Saturday I participated in my second A&S competition at St. Eligius in Dragonship Haven. My project was actually a science experiment instead of something created in an attempt to push my limits. When I created the funeral pillow panel last year, the extant piece was made out of 100% silk and was 26 stitches to the inch.  Using a 50/50 wool/silk blend of commercial yarn, I was able to achieve 20 stitches to the inch on size 0000 needles. I'm comfortable spinning fairly fine yarn, so my experiment was to see if I could spin fiber fine enough to knit a swatch which would meet the 26 stitches per inch parameter. Using two dropspindles that each weighed 19 grams, one wooden and one tahkli, I spun two samples each of 50/50 merino/silk and 100% mulberry silk.  Each sample was then plied (double strand) on a different dropspindle and knit into a swatch 30 stitches wide using size 0000 needles. I chose the two different types of spindles because the Tahkli would have come fr

 The third set of gloves is also documented to be approximately 1520 Spain.  It’s another pair of ivory/gilt knit gloves, but much more complicated in design than the first set.                       These gloves are 11 13/16 inches by 5 3/4 inches. There are 5 different patterns on the fingers and thumbs, perhaps to portray rings that would otherwise be displayed without the gloves on.  I’m curious to do research into what each of the individual patterns indicate.  Why is there a laurel pattern on the index fingers versus the offset diamonds on the second and fourth?   The same IHS symbol is knit into the back of both hands and this set has an almost Baroque pattern in the cuff, edged with metallic gimp threads. The director held the gloves up and was able to show that this set is fully lined in a pale green/blue silk; likely to protect the gilt threads as well as to protect the bishop’s hands. I’m seeing the construction of the fingertips coming to a much sharper point than the other

 The next set of gloves I examined is Italian, documented as early 17th century.  This set is 11 1/4 inches by 5 1/2 inches. This set is made with green silk and gilt thread.  I’m not sure what was used to dye the silk green, but it’s a striking change from the typical ivory/gilt gloves. On both gloves in this set, there’s a specific seam closing up the outside of the hand, hand sewn with linen thread instead of being knit in the round.   For construction, the fingertips ended with a small decrease in the last half inch of the finger.  It looks like the tips themselves were sewn closed with the same linen thread.  Or possibly the tips were reinforced with the linen thread to handle wear and tear. The thumb construction is fascinating to me.  Instead of typical (modern) glove construction which has a hole and stitches are picked up around the whole to create the thumb, this shows a distinct gusset for the base of the thumb, increasing in a wedge shape before picking up the inside stitch