Recent Activities

I have been doing yarn-related things, most of them not worth a blog post in themselves.

I have watched more film adaptations of Shakespeare than is even usual for me: the old yet timeless Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet, a recent Stratford Festival production of The Tempest played for broad laughs with Christopher Plummer in a clever robe with electronics sewn in to simulate static sparks, an austerely staged King Lear with Ian Holm, a brutal modern British adaptation of Othello, and a live production of The Winter's Tale where the thief Autolycus stole the show as well as the wallets.

It's been quite enjoyable, and I will shush that part of me that regrets not spinning yarn while I watched.  I may have said before, Shakespeare is compatible with handspinning because understanding depends more on listening than watching.  I can watch my drafting and not the screen.

I've seen Coriolanus, Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, the BBC Titus Andronicus, King John, Macbeth, Hamlet, Coriolanus again but with big actors and modern military uniforms, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III, Henry VIII, Timon of Athens, another Macbeth, more than one version of Twelfth Night, Two Men of Verona, and the BBC Much Ado about Nothing.  The more I watch, the more I see themes and patterns in the work.  I would post about that, but we're here for yarn and cloth so I will restrict myself to talking about Desemona's handkerchief and the like.

With that list, you can begin to see why I've put the task off into the future and so compounded the work as the titles have piled up.  It's best to do things as they arise, certainly.

The larger, heavier fibre arts books on my reading list are languishing behind the smaller ones, with bookmarks fifteen percent of the way in and not budging.

I had a conversation with some weaver friends about how we put off the larger projects that take more planning and involve more steps.  Weaving gets edged out by knitting and dyeing projects, and simple small knitting projects edge out complicated ones.

Sometimes large complicated plans just fall off the to-do list.  I had a good look at the yarn that contributed to the tablet woven strap I started at a demo.  I asked myself whether I like the colours and the fibre content enough to warp more for the body of a small purse.  Or rather, the question was whether I was willing to overlook my dislike of earth-tone cotton and go to extra trouble for the sake of making a slightly more interesting finished product.  I found the answer was no.  Soon the cones of donated yarn will go back from whence they came and the floor of the wool room will get a smidgen more tidy.

I finally sewed hems on my handwoven linen bath towel and hand towel in Ms and Os.

I learned to hemstitch on the loom and loved doing it, better than sewing hems.

I read Anni Albers' On Weaving (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1965), and learned more about art and what it means for a textile to be weaverly.  Here is a small but representative quote: "our stamp is or should be immediate or implicit lucidity, a considered position, a reduction to the comprehensible by reason or intuition in whatever we touch." (p. 72)  There was one plate of a Coptic textile in the book that I am sure is språng.

I knit in public at an outdoor market, where a man came up to say his mother used to knit and he hadn't seen anyone knit in a long time.  He said she could knit and carry on a conversation without looking at her knitting.  I like that about knitting in public, people talk to you where they never would ordinarily and they tell you stories of family.

I got to see a old darning egg scarred by darning needles.  It was originally used, so the story went, by the mother of someone's grandmother or great-aunt.

A member of my extended family will have a child this year, so I have a reason to make small knitted things if I wish.

I listened to an online archived radio interview of the author of Overdressed about the consequences of fast fashion, including the recent collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh (called the "world's worst garment industry disaster" by the CBC), and ways people can effect change.

I have been keeping a reference list of interesting third-party events for the handspinning guild I belong to, and I recently switched from a text-based list to an electronic calendar.  It has some advantages.  Anyone can copy an event easily into his or her own calendar account and with a few clicks arrange to have an email arrive in their mailbox to remind them a day ahead or a week ahead.

It was a bit of a thrill to get the embedding code, and put it on the guild website and have the calendar go live.  I was also able to integrate calendar entries from two neighbouring guilds who also use the same electronic calendar system and were kind enough to share.

The new calendar suffers from the same problem as the old: guild members have to remember to go and check the website or check their subscription in their own electronic calendar.  There's no help for that, as far as I can see, except perhaps occasionally posting a digest of the latest additions on the electronic discussion board.  The calendar's there if people want it.  When I was a newcomer to the guild and to handspinning, I had to gather this valuable information gradually through conversation, learning what annual conferences there were, and what festivals were on, and what craft schools offered classes.  Now you can see at a glance.  Might take away the fun of discovery, but it accelerates access to opportunities and I like that.

I have woven half of my first placemat ever and it's waiting in the class studio for me to get back to it.  Or I'm waiting to get back to it, take your pick.  There are two places where my threading error is plainly obvious.  The other two errors recede from notice.  I regret not fixing the threading.

I did have the wit not to make the same error with the treadling.  The pattern is twill variations, and the spacial relationships in the treadling patterns looks a lot like those of the threading.  I overlapped the places that would have given me two picks in one shed if I'd depressed the treadles in sequence as written when I transitioned from one variation to another.

I cannot say that I care for many of the twill variations that are appearing in the cloth.  As expected the only one I like is the bird's eye.  I am particular in my taste and consistent.  If I was going to thread the warp again, I would thread it for only bird's eye.  It's one of those situations where you can plan and guess how you'll receive a finished object but it's only when you see the item in the concrete that you know for certain what you think of it.

I found my missing, well-loved linen jacket.  It was hanging in the clothes closet which is deep with two rods, one in front of the other.  I need more linen clothes and linen bed clothes.  I have had to be out in the sun and heat more days than I have changes of long-sleeved linen shirts and slacks.

My språng bog hood that went to a medieval re-enactment event for display was well received, if the accompanying kind tokens of approval and comments are anything to go by.  When I talked to someone who'd been to the event and who had stood near the display, I realized that in my documentation I'd neglected to include the basic information about how språng works.  I feel fortunate she was there to tell people who asked.

tokens of approval left with my språng hood

Shuttle-craft Book of American Hand-weaving

Finally, I have gotten around to reading through to the end of Mary Meigs Atwater's The Shuttle-craft Book of American Hand-weaving.

There is a lot in this classic little book.  Some of the details of the techniques are beyond me, and I expect to re-read this book at a later date.

Some techniques I don't expect to ever pursue because I dislike the products and suspect that the processes would irritate me as well, but it's good to have a passing familiarity with them.  Specifically, I do not share the author's enthusiasm for coverlets.  "A beginner's first weaving should, I think, be in four-harness overshot.  The thing is surprisingly simple and effective, and a first piece will be an exciting adventure, like seeing a little flower garden spring into blossom under one's fingers." (p. 125)  I do bow to her experience and am prepared to believe that she finds much of interest there.

The author throws out strong opinions and advice.  I appreciate that she backs these up with reasons, so that I can see what criteria she used to reach her conclusions.

As a beginning weaver I can say that it's good to read a book from someone intent on conveying a specific tradition.  She draws on her study of the craft, her experience, and her association with other weavers, and lays out what was done historically and what is worth pursuing.

The book is also helpful to me because it associates different yarns with the types of weaving most suitable for them.  This information is absent from the book of patterns I have.

Thrums

Documentation

My språng bog hood has gone to be displayed at a re-enactors' event.  The group likes to have documentation go along with a piece so people can understand the research, choices, methods, and tools that informed the piece.  Here's mine.


handspun språng bog cap
Kristen M. Hughes
finished January, 2013

Original artifacts
cap found at Bredmose Arden, Denmark (mose means bog)
cap or hairnet found in a bog at Skrydstrup, Denmark
Both made of wool singles yarn, worked in språng, dated to about 1400 B.C.E. and 1300 B.C.E.

Sources
photo of Bredmose cap from the National Museum, Denmark, http://natmus.dk/
information about Skrydstrup cap and hairnet, National Museum, Denmark
instructions for Skrydstrup pattern in Peter Collingwood, The Techniques of Sprang
medieval looms for tablet weaving in Peter Collingwood, The Techniques of Tablet Weaving
photo of plain interlinked språng hood with tablet-woven edge in Candace Crockett, Card Weaving
photo of Bredmose cap in P.V. Glob, The Bog People
schematic drawings of Bredmose (Arden) and Skrydstrup patterns in Margrethe Hald, Ancient Danish Textiles
tablet-woven border in Marta Hoffmann, The Warp-weighted Loom
replica of low, wide Oseberg loom in Sofie Krafft’s Pictorial Weaving from the Viking Age
Elizabeth Wincott Heckett’s Viking Age Headcoverings from Dublin
Kathryn Alexander, Spinning Energized Yarns

Method of Fabrication
Using drop spindles, spun wool into fine, high-twist two ply yarn for the tablet weaving and medium gauge, medium twist two ply yarn for the supplementary weft.
Wove a strap by tablet weaving.  In the middle third of the strap (for a length of 20 inches), added supplementary weft which extended to one side in a fringe of loops twelve inches long.  The result looked like a string skirt.
Lashed the strap across the top of a picture frame, letting the fringe dangle.  Placed a long dowel rod through the loops of the fringe, and lashed the dowel to the bottom of the frame.  The fringe was now the språng warp.
Followed Collingwood's pattern for Skrydstrup, arriving at the meeting line in the middle after one and a half repeats.  Chained the meeting line.  Took the språng off the loom and cinched the bottom loops together to form the hood or bonnet shape.
I posted how-to videos for the woven fringe and the Skrydstrup pattern at www.youtube.com/user/thesojourningspinner.

Modifications
Used Bronze Age Nordic sources due to my inability to find specific information about the construction of språng hairnets or caps in the Middle Ages.  (General evidence found in Wincott Heckett.)
Used two ply, not singles yarn due to lack of skill at spinning singles yarn.  The two-ply yarn diminishes the look of the språng surface because the structure of the yarn interrupts the eye as it follows the lines of the cloth's structure (Alexander).  I would recommend that anyone making a cap use a balanced singles yarn instead of two-ply if he or she can.
Used wool from a modern breed of sheep, Perendale.  Wool from a primitive, unimproved breed would have been more authentic.
Used a weaver-tensioned setup for tablet-weaving, due to a lack of a period loom such the low, wide loom found in the Oseberg ship (Krafft) or those shown for tablet weaving in medieval manuscripts (Collingwood).
Used a picture frame to do språng, due to a lack of a period vertical two-beam loom such as the tall Oseberg loom (Hald, Hoffmann).
Used a chevron tablet-woven pattern for simplicity.
Chose a tablet-woven edge, found in a secondary source (Crockett) not a primary source, because it was an easy way to determine how many språng warp threads to use.  The tablet weaving acted like a reed to space the threads evenly, much as it does in borders on blankets in traditional warp-weighted weaving (Hoffmann).  There is no tablet-woven edge in Bredmose or Skrydstrup.  Crockett's hood is supposed to be based on a piece from Norway but no primary source is given in the book.
It would be a matter for further investigation, whether a cap might be more comfortable without the tablet-woven edge.  I think it would be more secure.  My bog cap relies on gravity and friction to keep it in place: the strap is too thick to tie under the chin.  A finer weaving yarn and a narrower strap would solve this.  A cap like Bredmose should stay securely in place because it has a long cord that runs over the head along the meeting line (Glob and National Museum, Denmark) and possibly a cord that runs along the bottom edges around the back.  Glob shows four cord ends but the museum only shows two ends and a line at the bottom edge that could be a cord.  The Skrydstrup hairnet, which is constructed in a different shape, has a cord running along the bottom edge so I think it's probable that one existed on Bredmose as well.
The fringe turned out to be a little too short.  There wasn't enough room to seam the hood a little way on the underside below the cinched part at the back, as with the Bredmose cap.  This detail is visible on the National Museum, Denmark website but not in Glob.
Followed Nordic sources and not Coptic because at the time I had not researched Coptic pieces as much and did not understand their patterns and construction as well as I did Nordic.  Also, I believed that Northern Europe's Bronze Age textiles would have had more to do with medieval Europe's than 4-6th century North Africa's.  However, after researching the patterns and construction of Coptic caps, noting their similarities to European pieces from the 1-19th centuries, and gaining a better understanding of the Coptic designs' roots in Europe (ancient Greece), I have changed my mind.

Conclusions
A språng cap is comfortable.
The dowel rod at the bottom of the frame prevented the twists from going all the way to the edge.  A taut string across the frame would have served better.  This would be a manner of working consistent with modern Nordic and Eastern European språng tradition.
Having used Collingwood's pattern for Skrydstrup and compared the resulting structure to Hald's schematic drawings, I find it closer to Hald's drawing of the Bredmose pattern.  Skrydstrup should have more rows of interlacing in succession than that, according to Hald.  There were two pieces of headgear found at Skrydstrup, one språng, one undetermined, and that could explain a mismatch between Collingwood and Hald.

Thoughts on Språng Loom Requirements

I've been giving some thought to historical språng looms and what I want in a språng loom, or looms.

I think I want a loom that is as versatile as possible, and portable.  To take spinning wheels, for example, the current trend in spinning wheels is away from specialization toward versatility.  Traditional wheels make one kind of yarn well.  A Canadian production wheel makes thin worsted, a great wheel makes woollen, a charkha only takes short fibres, a flax wheel's orifice only lets skinny linen yarn through.  Modern designs let you change ratios, swap out flyers for lace flyers or bulky flyers or spindle tips, put large-gauge yarn and lumpy yarn through the orifice, make minute adjustments to the tension for high twist or low twist yarn, and so on.

Or at least so the wheel spinners tell me.  I only use drop spindles.  Spindles on the market seem to have moved the other way toward specialization, probably because it's easier to afford and store a collection of specialized spindles and because people buy them as art objects.

But anyway, there are some historically accurate språng looms that I know of, and from what I can tell, each design lends itself to making a particular size and shape of språng goods.  I'd like to make items in different sizes and shapes.  An adjustable, versatile loom would let me do that.

The alternative is to have two or more specialized looms made.  That might be safer.  It's always a risk to order a custom, untested design because you don't know how it will turn out.  You don't know whether there will be a fatal flaw in the construction or the functionality.  Compared to historical forms, self-designed and modern models are often ill-proportioned with dull finishes and little ornamentation or detail.

One Thousand and One

That's a little Sweetgrass Targhee wool yarn there on my spindle.  I'm spinning a couple of ounces at about 30 wpi to match a four ounce braid's worth of two ply yarn that I spun awhile back, so that I'll have enough for a project.

The number of things overall that I'd like to make is not quite one thousand and one.

I Say The Book Told Me to Thread the Warp That Way

I spent hours threading a loom for twill, only to learn I had three errors in the cloth, places where two threads were in the same shed side by side.

After a couple more hours, I could say that I'd followed the draft in the book exactly.  Once I understood what had happened, I predicted that I'd find a fourth error.  It turned up exactly where I thought it would be, where one block followed another.  I formed a theory about what it would take to change the blocks to avoid the errors, by flipping the third block on the vertical axis.

My weaving teacher had previously taught me about the rules of twill but I didn't apply them to this draft.  I assumed that what you see is what you do.  The same day after I discovered the errors, I read about Summer and Winter patterns in Mary Meigs Atwater's American Hand-weaving.  It changed my understanding about what it would take to change the book's draft and avoid the error.  I now think it would have been a matter of overlapping the blocks in question.  I think the book with the pattern, Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book, assumes a certain level of experience and understanding.

While it's good I have been able to think through the problem and come up with a solution to present to my weaving teacher for review and critique, it would have been better to have perceived the need for a change sooner.

Old Spindle Whorls at Metropolitan Museum of Art

I looked at images of spindle whorls in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's online collections as a sideline a few weeks ago when I was researching språng items on the website.

I think some of the whorls are beautiful.  They're different from modern spindles, less wood, more pottery, glass, stone, and bone, smaller sizes, more centre-weighted shapes, and incised surface designs.

Språng Chart and Sample Inspired by a Coptic Turban

http://youtu.be/1UvmKe4Pdjo

I charted a språng motif of holes taken from a Coptic turban and I made a small sample piece.  

I found that I didn't refer to the chart while making the piece.  I looked at the warp for cues for what to do next based on the positions of the holes in previous rows and the positions of the threads.  It reminded me of lace knitting.  It demands more attention than a pattern like Skrydstrup.

I've considered the idea of making a scarf or waistcoat with this motif.  The product would be good.  The process would probably remain tiresome to me even after enough practice.  I'm a product crafter, so I'll have to mull these questions over: how badly do I want such a thing, is the tediousness worth it, and is there is a more tolerable way to approach the process.

Språng Chart Inspired by the Lengberg Design

I took my chart based on a photo of the original Lengberg bra with sprang, and I drew a new chart inspired by it.  I don't know if I'll ever use it to make anything, but it was a good exercise.

I've been reading Moseley, Johnson, and Koenig's Crafts Design and you can see I've taken their point about the value of balance between positive and negative space.

http://youtu.be/MrqczPP6NA4

http://youtu.be/zxBlpE0PiRE

What Goes Where in Interlaced Språng

http://youtu.be/tn2-2hJljR0

I posted another video of interlaced språng.  It shows more repeats of the two rows and it uses only two colours in the warp this time.  Hopefully it is clear what goes where.

That Page in the Luttrell Psalter and a Few Others Like It

Go to the British Library's site for images online, imagesonline.bl.uk, search for filename 071982, and you will see the page in the Luttrell Psalter that shows a woman spinning yarn with a spinning wheel.  The psalter is from the fourteenth century.

A black and white detail of this image is commonly included in books about handspinning to illustrate the earliest example of a spinning wheel in Europe.

The psalter is in colour; the yarn is red.  The wheel is turned by hand and the yarn spun off the tip of a spindle driven by the wheel, as with a modern great wheel.  The base is very level, more like wheels from Asia than great wheels now.

There is a detail that gives you a closer view, if you search for 003937.

You can find a similar fourteenth century spinning wheel and handspinner shown in the Smithfield Decretals, filename 023698 and another wheel at 065458.

You may recognize the picture from De claris mulieribus, 061928.  Handspinning books include it because it shows a distaff and spindle, hand cards, and wool combs in use in the fifteenth century.

If you like cats, filename stowe_ms_17_f034r from a fourteenth century Book of Hours is a lot of fun: the cat has caught a spindle in midair.  The free-standing distaff is worth seeing as well, it's quite tall and appears carved at the base.

In the Luttrell Psalter there is an illustration of a woman feeding a hen and chicks while holding her distaff and spindle under her arm.  In the database it is filename 071921 (full page) and 057655 (detail).

The same manuscript has an illustration of a woman holding a distaff over her head to strike the man at her feet.  You can find it under 071862.  On the page, the accompanying written verses* are from Psalm 31 in the Vulgate, and their content has nothing to do with the illustrations.

Sarah uses a distaff to beat Hagar over the head in the Egerton Genesis Picture Book, filename c13160-09.  In Smithfield Decretals a woman uses her distaff to beat Reynard the Fox, 024291.

The database has a number of other images for weaving, spinning, and dyeing from different time periods and places.  And, of general interest there are images of manuscripts, drawings, paintings, sculpture, carvings, pottery, mosaics, weaponry, coins, jewellery, silver, and textiles.  The images don't just originate with British collections, either, I saw some Iron Age objects marked as being from Museum Hallstatt.


*I find old manuscripts difficult to read so I took what I could decipher, ran it through an online translator, then went looking for something like it in an online concordance.  Here's what I found, verses 4 through most of 6.  Enjoy, if you like Latin.
Quoniam die ac nocte gravata est
super me manus tua conversus
sum in aerumna mea; dum configitur
mihi; spina [diapsalma]
Delictum meum cognitum tibi; feci
et iniustitiam meam non abscondi
Dixi confitebor adversus me
iniustitiam meam Domino et tu
remisisti impietatem peccati mei [diapsalma]
Pro hac orabit ad te omnis
sanctus in tempore oportuno
Verumtamen in diluvio aquarum
multarum ad [eum non adproximabunt]
There is a discrepancy between the numbering of the Psalms in the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the original, and in English translations such as the King James Version, so if you want to read the verses in English then look up Psalm 32.

Ways to Undo Mistakes in Språng

I posted a short video of ways to get rid of mistakes made in a piece of språng.  In knitting you pull on the end and rip out your work, and in weaving you reverse what you did.  With språng I have tried that, reversing what I've done twist by twist.  Usually I lose track of what row each twist belongs to.  To preserve that information and thereby save time and aggravation, I put in something to open the shed in a row above the mistake.  Then I take out all the twists to that point but no further.

 http://youtu.be/EnchU2sIs1M

Products of Demos

Here are the products of three public demonstrations of fibre arts: yarn spun in two hours at a farmers' market, yarn spun in four hours at a museum, and a strap woven for as long as I felt like it at a festival.  That turned out to be a short amount of time, maybe an hour at the most.  I was in a mood to sit down and talk but the weaver-tensioned setup prevented me from doing that.  I was standing up with my warp tied to a fixed object in an awkward spot away from people.

I expected that people would take photos of me weaving but they didn't.  Not sure why.  Maybe tablet weaving doesn't draw the eye like a drop spindle in motion.  And of course, I was in the awkward spot and I wasn't at official festival booth looking like a person worthy of notice.

Love it and Leave it

I went to two fibre festivals and a private destash sale.  I looked at books.  I admired some glossy white Border Leceister yarn, some natural black Jacob roving, some naturally dyed mohair yarn, an antler whorl spindle, and a maple spindle.  I saw some weaving yarn I'd heard about; this was a chance to get a literal feel for it.  While they are excellent products, I was not moved to buy.

I'm sure somewhere festival organizers are clutching their hair saying "no, no, wrong idea."  At some point I will buy.  Right now I am not using up much of my stashed fibre or yarn.  I have sufficient amounts on hand, and I am reluctant to add to the pile.

I should have checked the auction tent for a secondhand warping board but I forgot.  I am leery of that place.  It's cramped.  The last time I went in, I bumped a production wheel on a table.  Most distressing.

Ketchup and Mustard

Those that Like That Sort of Thing

My YouTube how-to videos have accumulated a total of over 3 000 views.  When I started posting videos this past October, I expected maybe a hundred views, so they've done quite well.

I notice that the most popular video is the only one with a bright multi-coloured warp.  I guess that its dynamic eye-catching look is a factor in its popularity.  I must see how I can capitalize on this knowledge for future videos.  It won't be intuitive: I gravitate to structure, texture, and strong but serene colour combinations.  I didn't pick the colours of the peacock interlaced scarf in the video, I let the scarf's recipient pick.  What you see is at a tangent to my taste.

I have a warp on a språng frame right now that I love to hate.  I affectionately call "ketchup and mustard" because it's exactly those colours.  Terracotta red and goldenrod yellow.  The cotton yarn is left over from some dish cloths I knitted as a gift for someone whose taste is well-defined and consistent and on many points the opposite of mine.

I warped the frame with this yarn so someone could try språng and, having served its purpose, the thing is sitting on the floor near my desk.  It is objectionable to my mind, truly.  It's quite funny, I keep looking over and startling myself.

Tatterdemalion

The warp for cotton placemats is on the loom at my weaving class and half the heddles are threaded for Rose Path Project 1 (sampler) in Marguerite Perter Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book.  This is the first time I've threaded heddles for twill.  The dots on the pattern draft are arranged like the graphics of old arcade games, which is amusing.

I should shortly have a small rented floor loom to work on at home as well.  I have on hand a good quantity of linen yarn to use, and simply need to choose between projects: more hand towels or a light-weight jacket.  There are more ways a jacket could go wrong.  Planning would take more thought and there's a risk I could incorrectly calculate the sett if I use a twill pattern.

I have more need of a jacket than towels.  I've had two identical store-bought linen jackets for over a decade and they are so well loved they have become quite shabby.  One recently went missing.

Stockings Shown in a Tapestry Could be Språng Construction

There is a tapestry, The Last Supper in the Robert Leman collection, shown in Christa C. Mayer Thurman's The Robert Leman Collection Vol 14 European Textiles (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), pages 16-21, www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/The_Robert_Lehman_Collection_Vol_14_European_Textiles

According to the publication, the tapestry probably dates to the late 15th or early 16th century.

I am mostly interested in the image "No. 4, detail" on page 20, and this sentence on page 18, "The only patterning in the scene is in the tablecloth, the two textile hangings to either side of the marble columns, and the stockings and cap of the host figure in the left foreground."

The stockings are tubular, running from just below the knee to just above the ankle.  They may be fringed at the edges, and are patterned in colour with a grid of diamond shapes in orange on a burgundy background.  

They remind me of stockings in the line drawing of the Assyrian hunter on pages 56 and 57 of M.G. Houston and F.S. Hornblower's Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian And Persian Costume and Decorations (London: A&C Black, 1920).  There the stocking was longer, it extended above the knee and under the tunic.  It was secured around the leg under the knee, possibly with a garter, and disappeared into a boot.  The stocking had a grid of diamond shapes.

Their shape resembles the written Tegle and York stocking descriptions in Peter Collingwood's The Techniques of Sprang, though the pattern is different.  Tegle is about 1st century B.C.E. or C.E.; York is around 9th century.

I wonder whether the stockings in the tapestry were based on contemporary costume; that is, European and something commonly worn at the time the tapestry was woven.  An alternative explanation is that the stockings are not, and rather the artist included the stockings because they signify a costume of the Near East and antiquity.

Språng Images on Brooklyn Museum Website

Some images of språng on the Brooklyn Museum website.

Brooklyn museum Accession 34.1592, collection 64.114.20 two sprang strings with tassels on skirt.  Camelid.  Peru, 0-100 C.E.

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/38971/Skirt

Brooklyn Museum Accession 37.1769E, fragment of cap, Coptic, linen, patterns of holes, 7x24 inches, woven meeting line?

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/118289/Fragment_of_Cap

The following are not labeled språng.  Some I'm more sure of than others.

Brooklyn acc 15.454 “netted weave” fragment, Coptic, wool

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/9195/Netted_Weave

Brooklyn acc 37.1763E “knitted” wool, meeting line, pattern of holes like clovers only with multiple twists

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/118283/Cap/image/27251/image

Brooklyn, acc 37.1770E “knitted” linen fragment of cap, meeting line, possibly sprang, strange pattern, 

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/118290/Fragment_of_Cap

Brooklyn acc 37.1767E “knitted” yellow wool cap 10x20 inches, Coptic, patterns of holes in chevrons and diamonds, peculiar line at top (meeting line or sewing line?), cinched end, probably turban construction as opposed to bag-style cap construction

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/118287/Cap

Brooklyn acc 37.1761E “knitted” maroon and yellow wool, 7x11, Coptic, pattern of twining diamonds on background, drawstring

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/118281/Cap

Brooklyn acc 37.1762E “knitted” blue and yellow wool cap, Coptic, 10x16, pattern in double cloth?, cord at meeting line

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/118282/Cap

Brooklyn acc 85.165.1 textile, Coptic, wool (maroon, green, yellow?), 8x13, complex pattern of holes and either twining or double cloth colourwork, side borders, spectacular control of positive and negative space

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/112734/Textile

Brooklyn acc 85.165.2 textile, Coptic, wool, either twined or double cloth pattern of colour, 5x15

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/112735/Textile

Brooklyn acc 64.114.243 

www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/85179/Netting

Spindel Typologie

While looking up the Lengberg bras, I came across the University of Innsbruck's compendium of spindle types from different countries:
www.uibk.ac.at/urgeschichte/projekte_forschung/abt/spindeltypologie/kleine-spindeltypologie.html

"I thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound"

I went to an exhibit on pre-Raphaelite art at the National Gallery of Art and saw two paintings done from scenes in Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott."  I was already familiar with John William Waterhouse's painting of the lady in the boat looking rather doomed and tragic.  In this exhibit's paintings, the lady is weaving.  One of the looms has a round frame, a peculiar setup.  You can see it on page 43 of the exhibition booklet.  The booklet also shows a Morris & Co. tapestry on page 38.

I got an anthology of Tennyson out of the library and read the poem.  It is rather fantastical.  I can see a normal person staying up late to weave but not weaving night and day; it makes the point that the lady of Shalott is not a normal person in ordinary circumstances.  I noticed she is cut off from the population yet somehow never runs out of yarn.  Odd, that.  If you like fairy tales, there is a tower and a knight and a mirror.  The story comes from the Arthurian legends.

I also read The Princess and came across a couple of lines I recognized.  A Handbook to Literature gives them as an example in its definition of alliteration.  The Handbook cites the poem's author but no title.  When I read the definition I'd been curious and wanted to see the lines in context, but never looked them up.  I found the lines at the end of this segment:

Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height....
So waste not thou, but come; for all the vales
Await thee; azure pillars of the hearth
Arise to thee; the children call, and I
Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound,
Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;
Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn,
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.

–Tennyson, The Princess, part seventh 

Lengberg

My presentation went off well.  And look, as part of the content, I even took a stab at charting the språng design for one of the fifteenth century bras from Lengberg castle.

I like how sprang designs so often preserve the overall balance of positive and negative space.  In the case of the Lengberg bra pattern, I like the way the clovers fill in the large diamond.

The blue line is meant to represent the limit of the photograph and everything outside it, an extrapolation.  I drew in the top line a little too low.

Patchy Blog Forecast Next Few Weeks

Just to let you know, I am going to give the blog a rest for the next few weeks.

Deadlines are brilliant.  I find deadlines good motivation for getting my thoughts together and making things with yarn instead of sitting around mulling about what has been and what could be.

I have a deadline coming up, one I'm looking forward to because when the day arrives, I get to make a presentation to interested people about a particular fibre art dear to my heart.  It's also the season for festivals and spinning in public at events, and I'll be participating in those sorts of activities too.  Normally I like to blog as I spin yarn, do research, go places, and make things.  However, I need to focus and confine my writing to the presentation.  There may or may not be blog posts for the next while.  Will pick up again in May.

Some Things Get Made, Some Don't

I finished weaving the hem of my linen Ms and Os bath towel, cut it off the loom, and showed it to someone.  As yet unwashed and unhemmed, it looks like a big glossy sheet of white with a raised pattern all over and long thrums dangling at the ends.  "Will you hang it on the wall?"  Right on the towel rod, I said.

I selected my next project.  It is partly dictated by the yarn available and partly by my need to gain some experience with more kinds of weaving.  I'll be doing cotton sampler placemats in variations on rosepath twill.

I started and abandoned the brim of a knitted hat in sock yarn because I could not get a sufficiently tight gauge with the needles I have.

I tried to learn pure intertwined språng and could not even figure out how to start.  That's dispiriting, I was hoping to show a sample to someone at the end of the month.

Twill-like Språng

A wee bag and a how-to video for interlaced språng with threads running over two, under two threads to give horizontal ribs. 

http://youtu.be/O_ndunVfEmk

I quite like the result.

Trying to Suss Out Tegle

I tried to learn the Tegle pattern in språng, just the interlinking without the tablet-woven borders.  My bit of practice went smoothly at first.  There is a peculiar arrangement of the warp at every junction of S and Z twists and that means that the edges of the triangles present themselves in an obvious fashion and indicate what to do.

I got muddled where the upward-pointing triangle is as wide as its going to be and you need to reverse twist and start an up-side down triangle.

Moreover, I discovered that I was merely making something similar to Tegle.  I was following Collingwood's directions in The Techniques of Sprang for a triangle of S twist interlinking on a background of Z twist, modified to include more triangles.  I peered at the picture of the Tegle stocking in Hald's Old Danish Textiles (which is clearer than Hoffann's picture in The Warp-weighted Loom but still not easy to analyze) and realized that while Collingwood's direction are a good start, Tegle is actually is Z on S.  I used too few warp threads in each triangle and I started the points too far to the left.

Since the points are too far to the left, the working row's first few twists at the edge are slanting the wrong way, and therefore the strands are not regularly arranged in the shed one up and one down.  It's noticeable in the gap where the bone sword shows through.  (It's actually a nalbinding needle used for a sword.)  That's why I can't get started with upside-down triangles.  I'm sure there's a way out, probably involving a row of Z twist, but the arrangement isn't working for me and I'd rather start again.

At least the embossed look appeals to my taste, despite being done in cotton yarn which I dislike.

Image of Språng Cap on the Louvre's website

There is an image of a red wool Coptic språng cap, item E 29484 on the Louvre's website, www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/sprang-cap, along with information about språng.  The writer believes that the Copts were influenced by the ancient Greeks' språng head coverings.

I was on the Louvre's website trying, without success, to look up a piece of Greek pottery in their collection that shows a woman holding a trapezoidal språng frame.

Pyxis

There is a beautiful image of a pyxis, a piece of ancient Greek pottery, on the British Museum website.  I believe its name translates as compass box.  [Correction: its name is the same as a constellation whose name translates as compass box but a pyxis is a container with a lid.]  Its design shows a språng loom with a partially-completed piece of språng.  It is museum number 1907,0519.1.  The description notes that it's a "sprang frame, used for making hairnets."

You can get a sense of the loom's size by comparing it to the women shown.  The frame's ratio of width to height, excluding the bit at the top, is 1:1.5, very close to phi, the golden ratio.

Twine to the Left

I managed to learn how to twine a pair of threads to the left on a background of interlinked språng.  Here's a video I made, if you would like to do it too.

http://youtu.be/8vjCns6d4Yw

And I made a wee bag.  Here it is still at the flat stage, where I've just taken it off the frame.

The idea is to combine twining threads going to the right and threads going to the left to imitate certain Coptic textiles.  I doubt that I will do much in the way of reproductions or pieces inspired by Coptic interlinked pieces with intertwined patterns, but it's good to have at least done the technique.

"It is amazing to study any manual skill." – språng artist Chieko Aihara

Interview of Chieko Aihara about her research and språng artwork, and her artwear
www.yarntasting.com/2011/03/chieko-aihara-fiber-artist/

gallery on the artist's website
www.yupanqui.jp/j/sprang.html

Språng Images on the Kelsey Museum Website

There are many online entries for very old pieces of språng on the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology's website, and many of the images show the collections to be in fragments.

Here is a språng bag that is mostly intact, record number 0000.01.3532
quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kelsey2ic/x-0000.01.3532/13532P1
It is in three colours.  The pattern is described as having been "made using sprang and twining," or what Collingwood would call intertwined språng on a background of interlinking.

Be sure to increase the image size using the drop-down menu.  You'll want to use a computer monitor, not a mobile screen.  Also be sure to click the description tab in the left menu.  This museum offers the most comprehensive analysis I've seen for the structure of a språng piece and the yarn types in it.

Språng Images on the Smithsonian Website

19th century Swedish sampler in off-white silk with patterns of holes, accession number 1981-28-199
collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18616515/

20th century Tunisian headress, wool, tie-dyed, accession number 2007-8-2; also, an explanation of språng in general.

collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18705687/

I think it's worth repeating, this piece is tie-dyed.  It looks different from any picture of språng I've seen so far.

another Tunisian headress, accession number 2007-2-2

africa.si.edu/collections/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:17706

5th century Coptic bag or bonnet with patterns of both holes and stripes, accession number 1971-50-482

collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18474817/

Mexican fragment of knotless netting, accession number 374960

collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/anth/?irn=8554507

The Book Was There For Me

http://youtu.be/OWKT4svR-dY

Fortunately, the book was there for me and I was able to pick up the technique again in order to make a how-to video about the way threads (and colours) move diagonally in double-twist språng.

I made the video to be thorough and cover the possibilities.  I don't think this technique will find its way into projects, as I find the play of colour rather ugly.  (It's okay if you like it, people have different tastes.)

Also swotted in order to learn a different technique, one that I've never done.  So far, the words are not translating into the proper actions on my part.  I'll try again.

Books, Memory, and Making Stuff

I went to do some double-twist interlinked språng to get diagonal lines of colour and forgot how.  Had to re-read a small part of the book to pick it up again.  There's a little thing you have to do with the edges in the plait row.

språng name tag strap

I cut a commercial strap off a name tag and made a new strap in linen interlaced sprang.  I needed a new name tag to wear at guild meetings.

I have a "hello, my name is" Ravelry button with my user name and it pins easily on the strap, a nice feature.

The warp is circular and uncut.  I wove the last inch of warp in plain weave; that's the part in the lark's head where the strap is attached to the tag's finding.

Carol James video of a Språng Sash

www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0GkJFsuEoY

"Une réplique inédite de la ceinture de George Washington par Carol James" by La Liberté of Manitoba, which roughly translates as "A replica unpublished [novel, original?] of the sash of George Washington by Carol James."

The short video begins with a demonstration of how språng works in general on a tabletop loom.  James shows the "two for one," the "deux morceaux de tissue" (two pieces of cloth) you get from manipulating a warp secured at both top and bottom of a frame.  The video also shows the frame and circular warp James is using for the reproduction sash, the way twists are pushed around a circular warp, the rods used to keep the shed open securely, the patterns of holes worked so far, and the elasticity of the fabric.

I caught most of the dialogue.  I am poor with numbers in French but if I understood correctly the number of threads in the warp of the sash, the length, and the number of hours worked, they are high.

James and the interviewer use the verb tresser, to braid, to describe the action of making språng, and the captioning refers to språng as la technique de tressage Sprang.  

The two books on the table are the 1999 edition of Collingwood's The Techniques of Sprang and Skowronski and Reddy's Sprang: Thread Twisting.

Applied TOC to Handspinning a Little

On someone's recommendation I read The Goal, a novel that discusses the theory of constraints (TOC) in business.  I like a good makeover story and the theory, applied, looks like a good way to tackle problems of production.  Part of it I've known all my life because whenever things stopped, my father would ask, "what's the holdup?"  That's the main thing you do with the theory of constraints, you ask what is constraining production.

I have a large quantity of Hampshire wool and Romney wool with more grease left on it than I like; therefore, I want to produce washed wool for handspinning.  I washed a few batches but it was patchy progress.  The basin went back in its place and I didn't bring it out again to resume the task.  The work in progress stalled.  My reason wanted clean wool, my will wanted clean wool, but the hands were not grabbing the wool and filling the basin.

The limiting factor turned out to be space to dry wet wool.  Specifically, when I dug deep and asked myself what was wrong, the answer was this: I wanted to wash a lot of wool at a time, more than can fit arranged in a thin layer on top of the washing machine and clothes dryer, the spot with the most warmth and air circulation.  The solution was to clear off wire shelves over the machines and dry wool there too.  I got a third of the Hampshire done.

Another TOC tactic in the book is to subordinate inventory and operations to throughput.  For example, if you cannot make anything good with a certain material, don't stockpile it.  If you have to use an inefficient machine to make a small batch so you can get on with production, do it.  If you need to outsource some tasks, do it.  If you test a finished object for quality and it fails, figure out a way to test earlier before you put in so much effort.  Pay attention to the stages where works-in-progress stop and pile up.  Prioritize work, do many small batches, limit the amount in progress, and focus on completing items people want.  It sounds more compelling when you read the novel.

Right after I read the book I looked at these considerations in regard to my handspinning and thought about making some changes.  I put the list aside at the time: I am cautious about overhauls and outlays and it was easier just to go on as usual.  However, my throughput is less than what I'd like to have and less than my capacity.  I do want to change somewhat.  Now I can't remember what some of the changes were supposed to be, which is annoying, but if I go back and look it over I'll probably recapture my thoughts.

Viking Lawn Chair

A lawn chair I restrung with rope in the York språng pattern.  As I expected, this pattern looks much better with a wide warp.

Was tricky getting the tension correct.  There are a couple of cross pieces in the frame so for comfort the mesh cannot sag too much.  You can see at the edges of the seat that the warp is bunched up there.  I had to lash that area more tightly.

Warp take up was maybe 18 inches.  I warped directly onto the frame, extending the warp from the top bar down past the bottom bar and up the back to a string stretched across the frame a foot or so above the bottom bar.

There are two types of rope in there because I underestimated requirements the first time and I had to go back to the hardware store to get another couple hundred feet.  By tracking the two different types, I discovered that the York pattern causes each warp thread to move diagonally as the rows progress.  The slightly thicker rope started out in the middle of the warp and here it is at the sides.

The interplay of S twist interlinking, Z twist interlinking, and interlacing is quite attractive.

White Knitted Dish Cloths

Completed a stack of white knitted dish cloths and sent them off in the mail as a gift.

Four Ways to Chart Språng

I've found four ways to chart språng hole patterns so far in four books.  This video is my attempt to make sense of the four methods.

There is more I still need to cover.  I plan at some point to reverse engineer a pattern from a picture of an actual språng item.

What you see isn't always what you get.  The cloth's appearance will not exactly match the chart's depiction, whichever method you choose.  There is also a difference between the way språng cloth looks stretched on the loom and what it looks like when finished.  I need to play with that and see if there are any principles that will let me chart original motifs without them coming out squashed or distorted.

In Clover

Sorry I didn't make the clover in green yarn.

The clover pattern is from Fenny Nijman's Sprang - Egyptisch Vlechten.  She calls it "klavertje" which is the Dutch word for clover.  Beside the pattern she gives a photograph of a plant, a four-leaved clover.

You can see an example of the clover pattern in an image showing silk mittens from the early 1800s on the Rijks museum website.  The Rijksmuseum is in the Netherlands.  They list språng under the name Egyptisch vlechtwerk.

Elisabeth Siewertsz van Reesema, whose språng work is in the same museum, shows a collar patterned with clovers in her book Egyptisch Vletchwerk.

Språng belt on National Gallery of Australia website

If you liked the red språng sash on the ROM website I pointed out the other day, have a look at Accession No: NGA 2009.187 on the National Gallery of Australia website.  Similar in colour, pattern,  and fibre type apart from the addition of metallic yarn.  Different in geographical origin (Pakistan) and time period (nineteenth century).

It is described as a belt or drawstring and it is narrow, 9 centimetres by 206 cm (about 3.5 inches by 81 inches).  By comparison the ROM's sash is 28 cm by 302 cm (about 11 inches by 119 inches).

Happy Pi Day

Happy Pi Day, the third month and the fourteenth day, 3.14.

I prefer phi, 1:1.618.  I got a necklace showing the golden ratio, just because.  There was a Pi necklace too, and also earrings.

Rain and Linen

Last week at my weaving class, I was flummoxed by my inability to beat down my linen weft enough to square up my blocks of Ms and Os.

This week it rained.  There was moisture in the air, and all was well with my weaving.

Språng Sash on the ROM Website

I found an image of the following on the Royal Ontario Museum site, http://images.rom.on.ca:

Man's sash
American ?
Silk "spang" [sic] plaited and tasseled
Centimetres: 302 (length), 28 (width)
circa 1775
Area of Origin: United States of America?
Gift of the Sigmund Samuel Endowment Fund
962.185.2
ROM2004_1024_1

It looks similar to the Braddock sash owned by George Washington.

ETA: There are openwork holes on a background of interlinking.  The length of the sash is divided into sections width-wise by lines, something I've seen on other språng sashes.  This arrangement is also in ancient Greek woven textiles; see Barber, Prehistoric Textiles.  While the pictures don't show everything, I do not see any figures of people or plants.  There are zig-zags, diamonds within diamonds, and triangles.  In each section with diamonds, the diamonds are lined up in a row side-by-side with one another across the width.  I cannot tell whether there are other types of språng patterning, though there is some draw in at the ends which may come from multiple thread interlinking.

Edith Meusnier

I have been looking online at the art of Edith Meusnier, who uses språng in large outdoor installations.

Meusnier's website, Paysages d'Artifice, www.edithmeusnier.net

Interview on World of Threads Festival website, www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/artist_interviews/038_edith_meusnier.html

How to Make Crazy-Looking Hole Patterns in Språng

I recorded and uploaded some more how-to videos on YouTube showing some språng patterns and techniques: all-over holes, gothic arches, clover, and chained ridges.  The first and last ones has been used for thousands of years (Haraldskær hairnet and Bredmose cap respectively); the second one probably dates back to the seventies as the earliest I've seen it is in Skowronski and Reddy's book.  Clovers have been used for at least two centuries.

http://youtu.be/fn-UZw7TM6E

http://youtu.be/Z5Zpb8h25PE

http://youtu.be/eAs_aaBJHk4

http://youtu.be/foUXkJcc5jE

Métis Sash at the Smithsonian Museum

This is a detail of a Métis sash at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian.  (The museum covers North America as well as Central and South America.)

Today the CBC reported that "the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the federal government failed in its obligations to the Métis people."  "Métis win historic land dispute ruling in Supreme Court Manitoba: Métis Federation sought declaration of government's failure to implement 1870 land deal," CBC News, March 8, 2013, www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/03/08/pol-metis-supreme-court-land-dispute.html.

Found a Flax Hackle Producer

I thought no one was producing and selling new flax hackles, and then I discovered some listed on Stephenie Gautad and Alden Amos' website.  Also lists a flax break and scutching sword.

Bag at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

This bag at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian could be språng construction but I am not sure.  It is made of plant fibre.  The exhibit is in low light and I did not use the flash, so what you see is a photograph with the colour adjusted.

Linen Warps

I have a linen warp on a loom for weaving and a small linen warp on a frame for språng.  Linen yarn is difficult to tension consistently.  Good thing I used a safety line across the frame with the språng warp to keep the strands in order.  The safety line acts like the cross does in weaving by sending even and odd threads in different directions around a divider, and thereby separating them enough to tell which is which.

The yarn is 16/2, fine compared to typical knitting yarns and many weaving yarns.  I've made an inch of språng interlinking and it is pleasing, though not as finely textured as I expected.  The two rows of holes I tried looked worse.  Already the cloth is curling from the twists so I plan to switch to interlacing instead and see how that goes.

Images of Coptic Turbans at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Coptic turban, accession number 90.5.33, www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/100012770 with a slightly more complicated sprang pattern than the next turban

Coptic turban, accession number 30.3.56, www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/100005768, a good view of the meeting line in image 3

Blue Dish Cloths

On my last visit home, I scrounged in a thrift store and found an old Canadian-made wooden bowl.  The bottom is stamped with a word that could be Bartbocraft or Barbocraft, Canada.  Got it for a souvenir.  Had a local up-cycling shop sand the surface down and refinish it with a semi-gloss coat of something that won't turn the wood orange.  Looks so much better.

The handknit blue dish cloths look okay too.  Must try to avoid causing the curling at the corners next time I knit some.

Article about Old Believers Tablet Weaving

Sometimes information comes in by dribs and drabs.  When I do tablet weaving, I secure the warp at my waist using a tool I had made after an image in the documentary film Old Believers.

The weaver in that film is Feodora Seledkova.  According to Kathe Todd-Hooker's "The Russian Old Believers in Woodburn, Oregon," Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, Winter '96/'97, p. 58-61, a weaver named Feodora S. taught Todd-Hooker how to weave after her tradition and allowed belts to be photographed for illustration.  Her age, difficulty finding a successor, and use of a translator are the same in both article and film.

In one illustration, p. 58, there is a piece of wood, with a balled-up knot of completed belt sticking through its centre and a thick belt looped through the notches on either side as though securing it at the waist.  The interesting thing is, the piece of wood is shown from the side.  You cannot see the clever shape that allows the design to do this.

I think it's interesting that the information would be obscured in the article, and shown in the film.

York språng pattern

I did a little more work on the sample of York språng pattern and then I quit, and took it off the frame.  This pattern really needs a wide warp, not a narrow warp.

At the end of this how-to video about the York pattern I show the sample as an example of what not to do.



It is one thing to be able to do the pattern and another to attempt a pair of stockings.  Pity Collingwood doesn't give more context in his book, some idea of how large, how many threads, what type of yarn.  I have tried to discover what museum collection holds the piece, so far without success.

Språng in Barber's The Mummies of Ürümchi

I got ahold of a copy of Barber's The Mummies of Ürümchi (New York: W.W. Norton, 1999), looked up språng in the index, and went to the page.

Two women wore black hairnets that may or may not be made in språng.  That is all.  She adds a footnote defining språng and states that it is still done by "elderly peasants in parts of Greece, Scandinavia, and Central Europe." (p. 200)

Borum Eshøj språng hairnet at National Museum, Denmark

Found the Borum Eshøj språng hairnet image at the National Museum, Denmark's website: http://natmus.dk/historisk-viden/temaer/livet-i-oldtiden/hvordan-gik-de-klaedt/bronzealderens-dragter/kvindens-dragt-i-bronzealderen/

Part of the caption, translated by Google Translate, reads, "The woman from Borum Eshøj at Aarhus had a beautiful hairnet and a hat, which was merged into sprang technique, with the grave."

This same item is shown in Peter Collingwood's The Techniques of Sprang and described in the book as having ridges and multiple twists.

Språng Bredmose Cap in Glob's The Bog People

I got ahold of P.V. Glob's The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved, trans. Rupert Bruce-Mitford (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969) to look at an illustration of a språng cap found at Bred fen, Storarden (Arden forest), Denmark.

While I am a little squeamish about grave finds and wish we could let everything rest, the cap is certainly pretty.  Glob describes it as "a skillfully-made little bonnet or cap of wool yarn, held by two fastening-strings.  This is made by means of a special technique known as 'sprung' (sprang) and is a charming net-like head-covering."  (p. 82)

I like the translator's choice to give the name as it is pronounced in the original language.

The shape of the cap is similar to the bog hood I made, though there is no tablet-woven strap at the front and the yarn looks thinner.  The pattern of interlinking looks much like Skrydstrup, with five or six repeats, though it is hard to see.  I am not sure if there is a line of interlacing where rows of S twists reverse to rows of Z twists.

The National Museum, Denmark gave me this page when I searched for Bredmose (Bred fen): http://natmus.dk/historisk-viden/temaer/livet-i-oldtiden/hvordan-gik-de-klaedt/teknologi-og-produktion/sprang/.  In the right margin is a thumbnail image of the Bredmose cap, which you can enlarge to see in more detail.  The museum shows a different view than Glob's book, which is good.  I can see there is some seaming below the gathered section at the back.  The image is in colour, though presumably what you see is not the original colour of the wool but a tint picked up from bog water.

The large image on the page is not the cap found at Bredmose, it is a hairnet found at Haraldskær.  It is in fragmentary condition.  The pattern looks to be mainly holes used all across the warp, given by Collingwood in The Techniques of Sprang starting on page 132.

I ran the text of that museum webpage through Google Translate.  Part of it states, "Sprang [is] prepared in a frame where the clamped warp threads are twisted with each other in various patterns. Trend pattern is held in place by a single line, and without the use of a continuous element [weft]...Textiles in sprang technique associated primarily with headdresses for women."

Chief's Cape Image on Textile Museum (U.S.) Website

This chief's tunic or cape from nineteenth century Africa looks like it might possibly be constructed as språng, http://www.textilemuseum.org/totm/October2011.html

The shape is rather graceful.  The tunic stands out a little from the body, I assume because the raffia fibre is somewhat stiff.

The Story of George Washington Carver

I picked up a used copy of a slim children's book, Eva Moore's The Story of George Washington Carver.

When I was a child, Carver was a hero because he invented peanut butter.  He was also a hero to the grown-ups at church because he combined faith and intellect in his approach.  He prayed to God asking for revelation so he could understand the purpose and potential of materials in his experiments.  That is, "what is the peanut for?"  Then he did systematic scientific experiments, lots of them.  Carver was also considered admirable because he had gotten a good education in the face of racial prejudice and limited opportunities.  That's pretty much all I knew as a kid.

I know more now, from the biography, and someday I should read one written for an adult audience.  I respect Carver's commitment to teaching people how to cultivate and use natural materials in practical ways that made their lives better.

There are mentions of yarn, needlework, and dyes in the book.  Moore writes that Carver owned his mother's spinning wheel, meant for cotton, and could spin yarn himself.  He could also knit, crochet, embroider, and sew.  He made rugs out of dried okra stalks and taught people how to make them.

Carver taught a system of compost and crop rotation to increase cotton yields.  He taught farmers to make yellow paint from clay.  He developed dyes from sweet potatoes and peanuts.

Naturally-dyed Tees at J.Crew

Nice to see that J.Crew is offering t-shirts dyed with madder, logwood, indigo, lac, and chestnut mordanted with iron.  www.jcrew.com/mens_category/polostees/layering.jsp and www.jcrew.com/mens_category/polostees/indigo.jsp

Handspun in My Real Wardrobe

I've thought about what concerns I have about my proposed språng pullover, the concerns that hold me back from starting.

I fear that I will find the result somewhat unwearable, ill-proportioned, and not for me.

I know I should start anyway since my chance of getting something wearable increases when I make things to wear.

Still, out of everything handspun I've made, I've only kept and used the Susie's Reading Mitts as part of my real wardrobe.  That's not much.

after two winters' use

With the mitts, I had the advantage of a pattern to follow.  For a språng pullover, I know of no pattern.  All I have are an understanding of general principles and techniques, some practice on small pieces, and exposure to a handful of pictures from books and websites that show finished interlinked pullovers.  I don't want interlinked språng, I want interlaced.  Anyway, it is not much but it is enough to go on.  I will remind myself that two years ago after some dithering I got up my nerve and knit two matching mittens for the first time.

Wearability isn't my only criteria for success but right now it's in the fore.

I'm looking for that crossover point where you can tell by looking at me I've acquired and applied skills congruent with my opinions on pollution, biodiversity, sense of place, resilient systems for meeting basic needs, fair trade, owning the means of production, and such.

I'm also looking to wear beautiful white linen and natural white, grey, and black wool.  I recently saw a photo of grey Wensleydale wool handpun in Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot.  Just lovely.

Path of Least Resistance and Least Glory

I am half-heartedly working on the narrow bit of York språng, and I am knitting blue cotton dish cloths for another family member who commented favourably on my photo of the last batch.

I took a half-finished dish cloth to a lecture so I could knit while I waited for things to start, and I saw someone else there knitting.  That was a pleasant surprise.  I am often around knitters at fibre meet-ups but am rarely so otherwise.

I'm delaying the start of my big project of a språng pullover, and not for any good reason either.  There are reasons, but not good ones.  I feel flighty.

My large woven linen Ms and Os towel is on the go.  Almost all of the warp is threaded through the heddles, and that is some consolation.

I am waiting for a mail-ordered ratchet that cinches up stretched cord.  I was displeased with the way the thick dowel at the bottom of the frame left a good chunk of the språng bog hood unworked.  I want to put a thin cord across the frame in the Nordic manner to stretch the warp.  That allows the twists to go right up to the end of the warp, leaving less unworked.

This missing tool doesn't excuse my lack of handspinning for the pullover, though.  No dauntless hero, me.

There are advantages to knitting dish cloths instead of working toward the glory that shall be mine when I make the pullover.  Mostly, dish cloths are easy for me.  There is no gauge to figure out.  My knitting gauge is consistent; by contrast, handspinning, weaving, or språng require attention.  I've memorized the pattern.  I can sit down and be comfortable in an easy chair.  I can look up from my work and keep stitching.  I know how long it will take me to finish, and I come to the end of a dish cloth quickly.  Also, knitting is portable and fairly unobtrusive.

I'm going to have to get over it.  I will tell myself that the handspun språng pullover is the smart project to work on now.  I'll assure myself that it's okay if I botch the job through inexperience, and swatches will help.  I will ask myself what else concerns me about a språng pullover and puts me off.

I might make a Tegle-pattern språng scarf first, as a warm-up exercise.

Cedar Bark Hats article

I am reading a stack of secondhand Wild Fibers and Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot magazines.  They're great, if you can get over feeling insignificant because you are not herding yaks in remote places and promoting your artwork to galleries.  I copied out several quotes defining art, design, and craft.

There was an article on harvesting, processing, and using cedar bark for fibre, Carol Ventura's "An Ongoing Haida Tradition: Cedar Bark Hats," Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, Spring 2002, p. 40-45.

Cedar bark is a topic I've paid attention to previously because it is a naturally-occuring fibre source on Vancouver Island (where I'm from) that is used for clothing and I am interested in local fibre, what is around that can be utilized.  I am more concerned with flexible cloth, though.  This article presented the fibre used un-spun for the stiff hats I associate with the traditional dress of the Nuu-chah-nulth and Haida.

Over Christmas I got to read most of Edlin's Woodland Crafts in Britain and was surprised there were references to various wood fibres commonly twisted and used for cordage and clothing.  When I was in school, bark cloth was presented as peculiar to First Nations culture.  Presented as entirely peculiar, really.  Not according to Edlin.

Busywork

I have a long narrow warp on a språng frame.  The yarn is knitting yarn I picked up cheaply secondhand.  I put it on the frame so people could try språng but no one did, so it was just sitting there.  I am using it to try out the York stocking pattern from Collingwood's book.  The pattern is similar to the Skrydstrup pattern I used for the bog hood and it needs a much wider warp to do it justice.