Sword and Spindle (On Learning Your Protagonist's Trade)

[dr_pretentious]

My journeyman weaver protagonist probably started to learn drop-spindle spinning when she was five years old. I started learning it about five weeks ago. Here’s one of the earliest human technologies, something our forebears figured out how to do with rocks — literally, rocks — and it is kicking my butt. And that’s okay, actually. When you take up in your fourth decade a thing that Peruvian peasant girls are taught when they’re toddlers, you will not get Peruvian-quality results in five weeks, no matter how simple the task.

It’s a little late for me to take up the kind of hands-on martial arts research M. Harold Page puts into his fiction (I reviewed one of his books here). When his protagonist notes how the weight of a weapon shifts on uneven footing, I know Page is writing from the body’s memory, not just from the medieval treatises he’s read. My own brief time as the Worst Varsity Fencer at Vassar may add up to more swordplay than most fantasy writers have done. My absurd but earnest efforts at Tai Chi have served me in good stead as a writer of combat scenes. Still, a writer who writes from a state of total immersion stands out.

I’m so grateful to writers who share what they know from that state. Sue Bolich’s series of blog posts on horses in fiction gets my full attention every time. There are arts, trades, and survival skills I have no business taking up, especially as a parent of young children, and horseback riding is one of them. When I first set out to write the Stisele novel, I spent several days hanging out at a dressage stable, trying to observe and note absolutely everything. The owner of the stable had studied under one of the last Chilean cavalry officers with actual horseback combat experience, and I got to pick her brain a little. Just when I was about to talk myself into getting serious about learning to ride, a friend who’d been riding regularly since childhood had a life-threatening riding accident. To avoid being thrown by a panicked horse, she threw herself, which is probably why her skull fracture left her comatose for a couple of weeks, instead of killing her instantly. Verisimilitude in fiction is a virtue, but not one worth dying for. My friend recovered, thank goodness. I haven’t been back on a horse since, though, and with the kids in the picture now, I probably never will be.

The drop-spindle seems to be a keeper. It helps that the spindle doesn’t require a pasture, or stabling fees, and that the spindle is unlikely to kill me. Fairy tales aside, I’m not that worried about spinning wheels, either. I get to try one of those out tomorrow, and I’m almost as excited about that as I was about getting on a horse for the first time. The drop-spindle requires no special time set aside for it, which is a blessing, since, right now with our relocation almost accomplished, I rarely have time to catch my breath. Spinning is highly compatible with listening while my six-year-old practices reading aloud and my three-year-old builds block towers. Practicing longsword form would be less so. When I’ve read enough about botanical dyes and early mordants to avoid frantic calls to Poison Control, I may follow my tapestry weaver heroine further into her trade.

Comments

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Very cool. Did I miss a post where you got a new house?

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

I am excited beyond words at this, because I am a spinner - I have been for 17 or 18 years - and spinning is - ok, I will spare you. Either spinning has transported you, or it hasn't, but it transports me.

I have two wheels, numerous spindles, a collection of literature and possible answers, if your local sources do not (which they probably do,) You're an accomplished researcher so I suspect I would be of no particular help, but if you think I could be, please, please ask...

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

It seems like spinning is one of those exercises, like walking, that can work the gears within the mind that help with writing, in addition to helping you understand your character's world.

Ah, I need to get out and walk,

If I had the time and budget for it, I would like to study capoeira for a while to get into one character's head.

[dragonsong.livejournal.com]

I just bought a spinning wheel in January, after being a drop spindle user for years. I loooooooooove my wheel. I love spinning in general, but the wheel adds such a soothing, meditative aspect to the art. Much more than I ever got with the drop spindle, which usually left me cussing as the thread broke and all my work when tumbling to the floor. :P

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

Yay spinning. Talk to me about spinning. I know a goodly amount about spinning. What are your preferences thus far regarding spindle, materials, prep methods? Do you want to join me in doing an indigo session this summer? Want to borrow a small tapestry loom? Do you want to learn one or more prep methods and/or follow along from sheep to useable yarn? I was planning on getting at least one fleece this spring...

Bounce bounce bounce!!

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

One develops a habitual style of spinning that requires less attention. Still, one has to be alert to vegetable matter or knots in the fibers, and irregularities in the fiber density; so one unfortunately cannot "trance out" like in _The Mists of Avalon_. I find I am well able to follow sound media and even some visual media while spinning, but I cannot generate high-level creativity on unrelated topics while spinning. I have been spinning for about 20 years.
The more thoroughly the fiber is prepared, naturally, the less attention it requires while spinning.

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

The drop spindle is the "medicine ball". It's almost meant to be frustrating. I was most bothered by having to stop, wind my spun stuff around my fingers, wind it onto the spindle, re-knot, and start again, every minute or less. I would look for the highest possible spot to stand so that my strand could go for longer: like at the top of the attic stairs. My spindle would descend down through the trap door to the bottom floor and then climb spasmodically back up out of sight. Balconies are especially good. One can imagine a nomadic character seeking out cliff edges, not just for the view.

...but oh, drop spindles are so easy to make! And they can be so beautiful!

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

May I suggest

You can develop these thoughts about writing and learning the skills about which you are writing, highlighting spinning as your example, and submit your thoughts as an essay to _Spin-Off_ magazine. I don't know how much they pay.

Oh, and I learned recently the considerable benefit of using a distaff. It puts your fiber supply right where you can get it, without your having to hold it. It requires little more than a forked stick a yard or so long, if you stick it through you belt on the left (if you are right handed).

[peartreealley.livejournal.com]

I adore spinning. (So much, in fact, that it became my job!) I don't use a drop spindle anymore, but I have a couple of wheels. I've found it (along with knitting and weaving) to be excellent meditation motions for when I'm plotting writing/stories and otherwise want to spend some time thinking on a topic.

...or listening to audiobooks. Or marathoning shows on Netflix >_>;

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

In theory, we'll close on the new house on the 27th. After all the delays for the closing of the old house, I try not to get too attached to any particular timeline.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I've got a couple of local gurus, but here's a question I haven't worked around to with them. I read descriptions of spinning off of great heights -- tracyandrook below talks about standing at the trapdoor of her attic and letting the spindle drop to the floor below, and in Respect the Spindle Abby Franquemont talks about her childhood friends in Chile spinning at the edges of cliffs and competing to see who could keep the longest thread from breaking. I can't seem to keep the spindle spinning for more than a few seconds. It's not a matter of the thread breaking, but of the spindle reaching the end of its rotational energy and reversing direction. Clearly I'm missing some key trick. Is it a thing that can be put in writing? Or will I just have to hope I've read right your implication that you might come to Lunacon?

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I've knitted for long enough, and learned young enough, that I can think writerly and teacherly thoughts well while I do it. I don't think I'll ever get to that point with spinning.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I've been reading Abby Franquemont's Respect the Spindle very slowly, because I'm usually reading it with Gareth. He's all about primitive skills. Anyhow, Franquemont's first chapter is about moving from the US to a Chilean village at the age of 8 and learning to spin from elders who were horrified that her training as a spinner had been neglected. She caught up with some of her friends among the village girls, but the best spinners in her circle could spin off of cliff edges without breaking their threads.

And yes, that caught my writing mind's attention!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Yes on indigo!

I don't know yet what I can do with my new living space. It's smaller than the old place, by about 400 square feet, but it's much more sensibly laid out. It'll be at least two more weeks before we get our furniture in there and see what we're dealing with. If the tapestry loom is safe and happy where it is, probably I should just make this an excuse to visit you this summer (yay!). If you need to foster out the tapestry loom to make your current digs work, I'll try to carve out some space for it.

At some point, I would like to follow the whole process from sheep to yarn, especially if we can find a way to involve the kids in the process.

Boing!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool idea about Spin Off. If they pay at all, they're worth considering, just to expand my audience.

I've never seen anyone use a distaff. It certainly sounds like an improvement over the messy improvised arrangement I'm using now.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Your life has changed so much since the last time I saw you. I remember when you were just taking up knitting and you still had a job you referred to as the Money Job, to distinguish it from the work that held meaning for you. Congratulations on rearranging your life so you can do things you love.

So far, I do most of my spinning at the weekly Homeschool Sports Day, where about 20 kids run around a community gym inventing games that can accommodate an age range from 2 to 18, while the moms hang out on the bleachers and talk curriculum. The family that's doing a unit study on the Laura Ingalls Wilder books asks all kinds of questions, most of which I can't answer very articulately yet. The Olympics have been good for my spinning. Yesterday I got to have some time with my mom at a spinners' equivalent of a stitch-and-bitch, and my spinning gurus showed me how to use a lazy kate. It seemed like a five-handed job, but some people do manage it with two. I felt like I was in an I Love Lucy episode -- somebody who does sitcoms should explore the physical comedy inherent in the lazy kate.

I still haven't tried a wheel. Next week, for sure.

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

I might indeed come to Lunacon - everything on Earth is attempting to happen to me that weekend, but I am trying very hard to see if I can make the party. If I manage to get there at all will certainly be happy to help in any way I can, but this might be something I can do from here.

Without seeing exactly what is going on, I can only go on what it sounds like to me, and that is that your spindle is light in relation to the thickness of thread that you are spinning.

If the whorl, which is a flywheel, I am told, is not heavy enough for the thickness of the fiber it can't store enough energy to go twisting that fiber for long.

You have at least three simple choices here.

You can pull the fleece/top/roving so that it is thinner , thus ending up with thinner thread. I could show you how to do this in seconds, and if you are spinning from some fiber preparation you bought that is any thicker than your finger this is probably exactly what you need to do and you may also split it lengthwise if it is wide enough. Fewer individual fibers at the point where the twist hits the fiber equals thinner yarn.

You can get some washers from the Hardware store or the can in the basement or wherever washers hang out near you, put them on the spindle, snug them up to the whorl, and stick them on with some lovely Duct Tape or such. If you do this, try very hard to keep them centered, because the farther off the weight is the wonkier the spin. Not wonky enough to upset the Earth's gravitational force, though, so no need to actually worry.

Or, you can get a heavier spindle. One might think that this involves combing the internet or attending a fiber convocation of some sort, but no, anything that is pretty much regular in shape that you can drill a hole right through the middle of works. This includes children's wooden blocks, wooden furniture knobs, wooden wheels from the craft store, etc. So you could make yourself one, very easily. In fact, I have heard reports of Peruvian spinners making a mud ball on a stick and spinning away with it. (I am pretty sure you have to let the mud dry first...;-))

So, either pull on the fluffy stuff so there's less of it where it twists, or get a heavier tool. If I have diagnosed the problem correctly, this should fix it.

(There are various ways to get the spindle spinning, etc, but basically, if it is going around fast at any point in the process, then how you are getting it going is fine, and the problem is coming afterwards.)

Any info you can give me in addition concerning what you are spinning, how it is looking as it lies there on the table, and what weight of spindle you have would be helpful in fine tuning this, but I am betting a very little experimentation will get you where you need to go surprisingly quickly here..

I have skipped details in the hopes of making this short enough to read - if anything seems confusing either get back to me here or pm me. Once you get over these first bits, you will be amazed how quickly you will be making really usable yarn.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Awesome! LUCK!

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

I do both, and I am personally certain that you will indeed get to that point with spinning, if you choose to stick with it past what's needed for the character.

My being certain does not actually make things so, but still, it will happen.

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

And I'm highly distractable, so I'm a bad example.
(enjoying being a bad example)

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

Lazy kate. Meaning that you were plying. Some of the confundulation could be the type of kate that you were using.
You haven't lived until you've tried plying off a nostepinne. It is an ancient Scandinavian means of making a center-pull ball by hand, so that theoretically you can then use both ends to make two-ply. Good luck with that.
You told the family that factory spinning predates the Little House books. You might also recommend _The Age of Homespun_ by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

Well I have plenty of back issues so you can read what sorts of things they will take.

The author of this site does some of the trial and error for you as regards distaff:
http://15thcenturyspinning.wordpress.com/

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

Indigo is magical and deserves kids around to observe. We can get them some handkerchiefs to tie-dye.

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

Syne Mitchell (Is that her last name? I may be off a bit on it) wrote an article for them years ago about a specific project... They do pay.

If you are in Maryland, as I believe you are now, you should check out the website for the Maryland sheep and wool festival, first weekend in May. Quite likely someones will be there doing a sheep to shawl. I know they always have shearing demos I know there is a sheep to shawl demo at a historic house near me a weekend or two after that...

Are my directions any good so far?

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

One plies to knit, because otherwise one ends up with knitting that skews off in a direction, although a very few talented designers make use of that.

However, if one is weaving, it is not always necessary to ply. Would you like me to see if any of my people knows anything about plying for weaving in ancient Peru?

BTW - A tensioned Lazy Kate may alleviate some of the hilarity. Or not. Depending on where the ludicrous begins...

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

There's such a thing as a tensioned Lazy Kate? I think that would have taken most of the physical comedy out of it. Which is really okay, because nothing's quite as funny the second time.

The ludicrous began when one of my plies started curling up faster than the other, so that I had to try to hold the more over-plied spool still with one stockinged while I tucked the spindle with its increasing load of 2-ply yarn under my chin and used both hands to try to get the plies back into synch with each other. Then, of course, the other spool would start paying out too much, and I'd have the other foot holding it still. Meanwhile, I tried to position one knee between the spools so the spot where the two plies joined would stay within reach of my hands, rather than drifting or zipping down toward the floor.

Now that I think of it, that borrowed Lazy Kate may have been designed for use on a table. Or maybe they're all supposed to be on tables. I'd never seen one before I found myself using it. Somebody told me it would be self-explanatory. It just didn't feel like explaining itself to me.

Would love to know about plying for weaving, anyplace where it is/was done by hand or with minimal tech.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Yes! I've got a finer, more even thread going now, and I'm using a slightly heavier spindle than the first one I tried. Now I can use it while standing, and it spins all the way down to the floor while I gradually scooch my fingers along the draft until my right hand's above my head.

So, um, when people spin off a cliff, how do they get the spindle back up without it unwinding itself the rest of the way down the mountain?

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

Great! You are now a spinner.

Yes, really. A moment to learn, a lifetime to master, but you've learned it, you get the badge.

And I have no idea how people who spin off a cliff get the thing back up without mayhem. None at all. I am willing to bet this may be something you do once, or occasionally, to show you can, but not as a regular diet, because it seems to me whatever time you save not stopping to wind as you go is going to be spent retrieving that spindle and winding it up eventually.

Spindle spinning can be incredibly productive exactly because you do not have to be sitting down at a spinning wheel doing it. Minding kids at the playground? Waiting in line at the Supermarket? On hold with Customer service? You can spindle spin.

Mountain totally not required.

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, that sounds exactly like a tensioned kate would help!

If I knew what your kate looked like I could tell you if it has a tensioning system. But first I have to ask, since you are not spinning onto bobbins, what are you doing with a kate? Do you have spindles with a removable shaft? Are you loading the whole spindle in there? Are you winding on to a bobbin of sorts by hand? It makes a huge difference.

You can probably tension that kate with a few cut up kitchen sponges, but to tell you exactly how in detail I'd have to see what the yarn is on at the moment, and how the thing is set up.

But this is not how I would have you plying, given what you've got there.

I would wind the thread off into balls. I would but each ball in some container - shoe box, soup pot, whatever you've got - but separate. Then, if I wanted to tension this, I would have you run the threads over and under something - I am thinking that the parts that go across under a chair seat would work. If the containers are lower than the cross rungs, put the threads over the back cross piece ,and then under the front one.

If you do not have this type of chair, but you still want the balls somewhat tensioned, maybe just running them under the chair and then up to your hands would be enough. Maybe not.I have not tried it.

Making a tensioner for the two balls would not be difficult, especially if you've got high-tech stuff like knitting needles, shoe boxes, and weights or duct tape around. But I may just take some balls of thread and try to do it myself first, to see what best to tell you...

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

This Rav link is a good start. http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/historic-knitting/2848573/1-25#4 It may not have been exactly as you would have posted it, but I figured it would start us in the right direction, and indeed it has.