Your final thread looks fantastic! I'm thrilled I got to help you get started, and I can't wait to see what you spin up next. Happiest of happy spinning! 😊🧶🧵🪡✨💖
Evie is why I finally started spinning, too! It was something I always wanted to learn, but educational resources are so hard to find. So glad you're out here sharing your knowledge ❤
Thank you for sharing about the flax seed water! I'm going to try that out. Even though I've been spinning for 20+ years, I'm just starting to learn how to spin flax and I also want to spin thread.
Sometimes, when I stop to think about how, from the time of the earliest drop spindles we know about (~30 *thousand* years ago) until industrial spinning factories, Every. Single. Thread: every warp thread, every weft thread, in every piece of fabric -- from the clothes on people's backs, to the *sails on every sailing ship* -- was spun by hand, my mind kinds of shuts down at the magnitude of that.
Welcome to the world's second-largest historical industry after agriculture! And that's not even counting the stuff nearly every family made for their own use, I mean stuff made purely for sale.
@@floresilla a medium quality wool is usually best. Wool naturally grabs onto itself, and the rougher it is the more it'll do so, which makes it easier to draft without the fiber breaking!
@@alyssaking4628 Don't go for the fine wools first. They take much more skill in drafting. Jump to them too quick and your thread will be full of slubs. Of course if you are wanting a character thread then jump in. As you go along and get good you may occasionally want character thread for a special project and be real annoyed that you can no longer spin "bad".
I so feel this. I taught myself knitting on socks, thinking "oh, they're small, that should be easy". So sure, flax. Why not? Even I started spinning with coopworth and romney!
When you mentioned getting a really strong ankle from treadling, I remembered an old German fairytale which is a bit like Rumpelstiltskin in that a girl is supposed to spin a seemingly impossible amount of thread before she's allowed to marry the king, but instead of a demon gnome she gets help from three experienced spinsters. One has an enormous foot from treadling, one has a sagging lower lip from wetting the thread, and the third one has a huge flat thumb from flattening the thread. All that they ask for in return for their help is to be invited to the wedding. The king notices their deformities and asks them why they look like that, they tell him it's from spinning flax all their lives. The king is horrified and tells his new wife never to spin flax again, and she's happy to comply.
I heard a similar one! But in my version, one of them helped her weave the thread into fabric, and had a broad, humped back from scuttling back and forth, bent over her loom, and the other had helped her sew the fabric into clothes, and had huge, bug eyes from staring at her sewing all day every day
As a spinner, I'm quite impressed by how quickly you picked this skill up! There's a popular saying that every new spinner starts by making "novelty yarn," and I see that it holds true for linen as well, but you've given me new inspiration to learn to spin flax now! Excellent work, Ms. Banner
😂 And then you talk to experienced spinners and they have mastered the spider web thin yarn and wish they could go back to making art yarn 😂 But their hands have learned the craft and it's hard to go back to wholesome chunky oatmeal yarn full of character ❤❤❤
As a crochet fiber artist, I respect the hell out of you all, but please, lace weight kills me and my hands, so badly. Love the doubleknit and aran weights.
My husband who is so not a crafter became quite enthralled watching Bernadette spin her own thread. When it came to the use of saliva,I started telling him that a lot of us who knit with wool do something called spit splice to connect wool when we’ve run out. Then all the questions started😂
@@johannageisel5390If you're going for aesthetic as well as practical use, I bet you could find one of those fancy little plant misters. I have a plastic spray bottle (for a completely different purpose) and it doesn't quite fit the vibe I'm going for, lol.
That thread is perfect for hand-stitching leather! A chunky 2ply linen thread is exactly what I use to sew 18th century leather accoutrements--first I punch a hole through the leather and use two thick blunt needles with the thread coated in cobbler's wax and beeswax. It's great watching you learn how to make the materials I overlook when sewing.
I use a slightly finer flax thread to create lace patterns (called Klöppeln in Germany). It's better because it has irregularities (looks handcrafted) and naturally wants to stay in the shape you draped/ knotted it into. Doing the spinning is such vibe - I still think of fairytales even if Disney lied to the world 😂
In Finnish the sound of a cat's 'purr' is called 'spinning yarn' (kehrätä). I don't think we've got another common word for it, or if we did at some point, at least we don't anymore. It really sounds exactly like a spinning wheel whirring away :)
That's so cute. I'm learning Finnish and your language feels very cat friednly. I keep finding words that would make good cat names, like Mukava, Kuka or Hauska.
I work as an audio technician. What you said about many sounds from the past getting lost really resonated with me. Thanks for keeping craftsmanships like this one alive. Thank you.
There's so much more lost than you'll ever realize. In everything. And more will be lost in the future too, even as it appears for the very first time. That's the nature of everything. It all ends. Missing it, or trying to hold on to any of it, is weakness.
Yes, hearing a sound from the past that was lost but was brought back almost gives a shutter. One of the more powerful videos to watch is the first and to my knowledge only time since it’s voyage the RMS Titanic’s steam whistles were actuated for a group at a museum. It wasn’t quite the same as they were using compressed air instead of steam but it was truly a haunting sound. Another one is the recovery of the bell from the Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald. As soon as it broke the surface of the water it began ringing out in the waves.
I love the end comments about the online community being fundamentally the same as the communities we used to learn from in person. Such a poignant observation on how social media isn't just mind-dumbing content isolating people and making them feel lesser-than. It is a community hall where all sorts of interactions happen including exchanges of skills, passions, and stories. It's nice to know that while we might only get to hear the "voice" of the spinning wheel generations ago, future generations will be able to hear your voice and admiration for it. Thanks for making the moment to appreciate modern society while learning about historic society.
I have to say as somebody who attempted wheel spinning years ago, I was VERY impressed by how Bernadette basically went straight to treadling correctly & keeping the wheel from accidentally reversing direction! 😆 All her hours on the antique treadle sewing machine really, really paying off there.
That is why I have never had any difficulty treadling my wheel. My mother made soft furnishings as a profession for hotels. All done on an old Singer treadle machine and I used it to make clothes from when I was very young. I knew all that treadling would come in handy!!
For anyone who got excited by this and feels like giving spinning a go, here are a few tips: 1. Look out for a local spinning guild: They have a wealth of knowledge, will be super welcoming to newbies and often have old wheels lurking around that could become yours (that's how I acquired my first one) 2. A spindle takes a lot less space: Consider trying spinning with a hand spindle. You can even 3d print one! 3. Spin as traditional or as wild as you like: Incredible dyers and makers produce colourful fibre packs (see Hedgehog Fibres for example), so you can start with some soft and easy bluefaced leicester that will spin like butter, try flax if you feel bold. Or if you hate yourself, spin silk. IYKYK. 4. There are no stupid questions: We all started with the same bird's nest of overtwisted, breaking fibres. Ask away! 5. Keep your first thread: Doesn't matter if it looks like garden twine, it's a precious thing! And most of all, have fun. Oh and relax your shoulders! ;)
Because of seeing this comment, I googled it and I am shocked to find I have a local fiber arts guild! Thank you for bringing this up, I never would have thought of this otherwise.
Don't forget to condition your thread after you've spun it. Basically, you run it through a flax seed bath to smooth down the fibers. That might help to make sewing easier in the beginning of a new thread, since it has already been smoothed down and the fabric doesn't have to do that part. My teacher showed us to take a small pot lid with the kind of handle that's not a knob. Then you make enough of the flax seed water to cover the pot lid in a bowl large enough to hold the lid and you run the thread under the handle. That way you can just roll it from bobbin to bobbin while smoothing the fiber that comes out of the water, as the lid takes the thread under the water for you.
@froggydoodle808 I'd probably do it before plying, to get the smoothest threads, so yes, also in addition to spinning with flax water. I'd still wax, though, as that adds protection and strength for the thread to pass through the fabric many times without starting to fray too much. But as Bernadette said, after several initial passes through the fabric, it did become a bit easier since that smoothed the thread somewhat, and that's the smoothing you should be achieving by the pass through flax water after spinning to make it easier when you start sewing.
When I was taught to spin I told my teacher I wanted to spin angora rabbit and cat fur. They told me to start with wool. I did, but didn’t get very far before I gave up. 20 years later I came back to the hobby and started spinning cat hair and this time I stuck with it long enough to become proficient (and I can actually enjoy spinning wool now). I’m glad you persisted and started with what actually interested you.
Something I've picked up from years of crocheting is that Alaskan Husky, bison and yak hair are the warmest when fashioned into a garment. I'm now wondering if Maine Coon and Siberian cats produce denser fur that would have the same effect.
@@gayleklein7243I'd suspect Norwegian forest cats or Maine Coons can definitely make fine thread, don't know how warm it'll be, but worth testing. If you have a zoo nearby that houses Manuls/Pallas cats, asking them for a measure of shedded fur could also be interesting to try as they have the densest fur of ALL felines, big and small! 😊
In 1995, Tasha Tudor, American author, illustrator, and heirloom crafter, released a book titled Tasha Tutor's Heirloom Crafts. In it, she tells the story of weaving and sewing a linen shirt for her brother. She started by planting the seeds, and 3 years later, she finished the shirt. A picture of it can be seen across from the title page. You do such beautiful work.
There's a TH-cam series called How To Make Everything that does that sort of stuff to highlight how much work it takes to make one thing. A turkey sandwich, with this method, took 6 months and $1500.
I went to a workshop on weaving with linen yarn which was great fun to do and so interesting. The tutor told us that was her favourite children's book. Aimed at children but so informative for any age.
I love that you had to have an actual human being to show you how to do it. Skills used to be passed from one person to the next, not just from books. Books were there as a guide, but having an actual skilled mentor was always the better way to learn things.
Its like how it wouldve been taught in the past Seeing it in this video makes me feel a weird sense of nostolgia, or a connection to the countless generations this skill was passed down between
That is such a validation for me. Back in the 1970s and 1980s the teachers in elementary and high school expected us to "learn" by memorizing and accepting on blind faith. Even with above average intelligence I just barely managed to graduate high school in spite of the teaching system. And then I "failed" in university. Since then I have realized that I learn best, and get long term retention of what I learned, by hands-on-training. The so-called hands-on learning. A patient mentor is so important to achieve the best learning (at least for me)! Training manuals will only go so far. But the interactive brain-storming with a mentor just elevates the skill retention to a whole new level. Unfortunately the learning-by-doing skills I achieved have no documentation to back them up, so "marketing" myself in a society suffering from title-itis is virtually impossible. Because I have been told way too often: "If you do not have a paper to certify you learned the skill, you do not know anything. Good bye!"
Heathcliff is absolutely marvelous. I love how chill they are. My first spinning projects looked like a unicorn vomited on the bobbin because I was using waste wool fibres to learn. All my Gran's spinning explanations to me are fraught with the phrase "it'll just feel right" getting bandied about with frustrating regularity. 😂
This is perfect timing. My siblings & I recently inherited our great-aunt's small spinning wheel. I'm the only one who remembers watching her spin, but that was decades ago. A practical video is just what we needed!
It just makes me so happy that Bernadette's little corner of the InterWebs exists so that geeks like us can totally geek out over learning how to do something thousands of years old!
I keep wanting to come into the screen and help you! For flax, you'll want to mist your fiber and keep your fingers moist. You'll also want to use a smaller whorl on your spinning wheel. The double drive wheels are labor saving devices, by using a smaller whorl, you can get a faster twist on your yarn while maintaining comfortable treadling. Your first yarns are probably going to be thick and uneven, it's part of the process, but I would still encourage you to find a use for them. It's so empowering to be able to look at where you started and see how far you've come. The first cotton I spun, I crocheted into an ornament I hung by my desk. The first wool I spun I knit into a trivet and use it almost every day to protect my table, it's almost felted from use, but I know it was the first thing I ever made from fiber.
I once worked in a museum with a “great wheel” or “walking wheel,” which you have to spin with your hand (no treadle), and do it standing up. They are a lot older than the seated treadle wheel. The bobbin ends in a point and the fibre kind of slips off that point to create twist. I was told Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on this type of wheel.
I think it was Tudor Farm that had a demonstration of the walking wheel in practice. It was a first for me, seeing a walking wheel as we only use sitting ones back home.
At a local SCA event someone was doing a class on spinning and they were talking about how the typical medieval thread was around 30/2 which feels super thick to us modern people, but is super reasonable when you know they were spinning by hand!
As someone who once went through the entire process from raw sheep’s wool, scouring, combing and finally spinning it - what you did there after only days of practice is amazing. Btw. you motivated me to get a sewing machine. A Singer from 1900 ^^
Everyone I know who spins does so to make worsted, chunky, or bulky weight yarn. It's wild to watch someone throw themselves into the deep end on flax spun to thread weight! Very impressive, Ms Banner.
I think it’s great. I never understood the chunky stuff. I wondered, does hand woven stuff look so awful because people can’t make fine thread anymore? Nope, they just don’t care enough to go at it this obsessively 😆
Personally, I run hot, so I spin very fine. Not exactly frogshair, but I make a light fingering-weight yarn out of 2-3 plies. That way, once woven or knit, it won't be excessively warm and I might actually wear the garments I make. I've only spun wool so far--and there are so many delightful breeds to explore that I haven't even ventured into the realm of cellulose fibers yet. I like to buy fleeces and wash and process them by hand to prepare them for spinning. I feel very connected to the past when I do that.
@@heatherduke7703 You go through phases, not drafting so everything's a clump, over-drafting so everything's brittle, then discovering clumps happen, until you start carding properly so your feedstock isn't on a spindle, but lies in loose floofy rolags which will never clump, but produce gossamer thread. The next stage is to ply, so she'll be using a hank winder to free her bobbins, then a winder to make a centre-feed ball, and finally a lazy kate while she learns how to make the wheel turn backwards. However, don't forget this is linen thread, and she's at heart a sewer, so needs lace in copious quantities. Linen lace is far better quality.
It always fascinates me how before there was mass production of simple things we take for granted like a spool of thread, people had to make from scratch.
I ripped a hole on my jeans, and it took me 15 minutes to fire up the sowing machine, fetch a patch of clothing and spindle of thread and fix it up. In olden times that process, especially if you didnt have the spare cloth and thread, or could not buy it, might have taken an entire day. Its hard for us modern people just how much of their spare time people "wasted" on domestic chores and other things that takes us moments
I will NEVER wear a linen blouse again without respecting the wisdom and effort and skill that goes into it’s history. Just thinking about what that phrase “fine linen” actually means is so humbling! Thanks again Bernadette for broadening my mind ❤
And this is just the spinning process! Growing the flax and then preparing the fibers for spinning is also a very long, arduous process. The Egyptians excelled at producing very fine linen, and some of their skills have been lost. But linen is a wonderful fabric, and it's a shame we don't use more of it.
@@amylenertz1953 Spinning wheels apparently originated in India between 500 AD and 1000 AD. Europe got them in the 13th century. Ancient Egyptians used drop spindles.
Just in time to join the Tour de Fleece! Welcome to the world of Spinsters! When I taught spinning, I once had a student who absolutely wanted to start with flax because she wanted to spin and weave a linen canvas to paint upon. Yes, she struggled more than the folks using wool, but she got a good start on her end goal. As a side note for easier learning, the flax fibers have their own natural twist which means that twisting them S will be much easier than Z. (The wheel spins counter clockwise for a S twist.)
I've been spinning for 40 years. Usually, I knit with the resulting yarns, since it's nearly impossible to spin a yarn as fine as today's industrial yarns used for the clothing industry. I think we often forget that most people wore coarser fabrics necessarily before the mid-19th century because the yarns were thicker - unless you were rich, and had imported fabrics, especially silks. I've spun many exotic fibres - silk, cashmere, angora, even yak. My camel-cashmere blend scarf is the warmest thing I've ever owned, and this blend allowed me to get a reasonably fine yarn! Using garter stitch to knit it up gave me a flat scarf that tucks nicely into the neckline of coats without much bulk. I have a lovely, modern Lendrum wheel, but I've spun on many antique wheels, as well, that our guild owns. Many are worn/warped from long use, or the tensioners are not as sophisticated as modern wheels, so it can be difficult to get your yarn as fine and even as you might like. But they are great for demonstrations. Yes, I think yours is a 19th-century wheel, probably a home spinner in a rural area, because later in the 19th-C due to the industrial revolution machines were producing the fine, even fabrics we are now used to (the Luddite rebellions, for those not "up" on their British history, were a vicious example of factory owners firing all of their skilled, human workers almost overnight in order to replace them with machines - a piece of history that feels eerily reminiscent of the threat AI poses today for the human work force in many other industries).
I love how you view these kinds of crafts as a way to connect with so many generations before us, doing the same work, hearing the same sounds and sharing the experience - a very humbling and wholesome perspective I can’t help but marvel at
It is inspiring and beautiful! Making things with your hands feels so good, and it does connect you to humanity. You realize that humans have been making incredible things forever, that ability to create is a big part of us. I’ve recently started my sewing journey, and it makes me think about the fact that people have been making these things forever. Sometimes when I get discouraged with my sewing progress, I remind myself it’s a skill I can and will learn, and I will be able to make my clothing like people have done for generations before me and hopefully generations after me. It makes me sad when I think about all of the amazing trades and art forms that have been lost to time. Every time I see some beautiful, intricate object that was made by someone’s hands however many years ago, I feel this huge sense of awe and admiration. There are some really impressive pieces that sometimes baffle me like how in the world did someone make this hundreds of years ago? It’s even more impressive if we aren’t able to replicate it to the same level of quality today. It would be so cool to do intense research and experimentation to try recreating these past skills & techniques, while using modern equipment and technology to our advantage. Imagine relearning these trades and teaching people, training more talented craftspeople, and passing on the knowledge to keep it alive!
I have been waiting for a spinning video for a long time, because the spinning wheel has been in the background in Bernadette's videos for some time! Also, I appreciate how she is not afraid to show herself learning, rather than filming only when she has acquired the skill already.
just think. Some person in the past also struggled with this. and seeing you "spin your skirt in" probably happened a million times. i love history and history-bounding. Your videos give me a sense of wonder and nostalgia.
@@leemasters3592 i love reading old brit lit because of how often home crafts are mentioned and talked about at length. I especially love reading about characters who are sewing or spinning and become lost in thought only to realize they've sewn/spun themselves or their clothing into their work. i recall reading a book where someone was spinning and spun a lock of their long hair into their yarn, and ended up having to cut a good chunk of it off their head 😆so goofy so relatable
@@georgeharrisonfricklas7927 I have long hair, and once, while trying to fix the treadle connection on a spinning wheel, my long braid got caught in the hooks on the flyer. Luckily, I didn’t have to cut my hair, but I did require help to free myself.
the excitement from making a simple thread is palpable and infinitely relatable :D i haven't spun thread/yarn myself but this is how i felt after knitting socks for the 1st time :D
its so sweet how when u are sewing at the end you can see you fighting back such a genuine smile for the sake of the experiment but you are so clearly overjoyed at the creation and use of your own string its adorable!!
As someone who has been spinning for over a decade now, I am very impressed with your progress :). You did very good and made some high quality thread in the end with a very feisty material at that. To be honest starting spinning right with a wheel is veeeery hard. So for everyone who would like to learn this I would recommend using a hand-spindle, because you can easily "pause" the rotation at any time and concentrate better on the tention you are letting into the fibres :). The wheel will just rip the thread out of your hand if you are not fast enough. That said another thing that is worth mentioning with spinning wheels is that the circumfence of the spindle itself, will influence how much tension goes into the thread. This is not so much an issue with the historic wheel, because there is only one spindle size available, but modern hand spindles and wheels will often come with different spindle sizes. That's something to be aware of when you first start. Also the tention gauge on you wheel will not only determine how hard you can treddle, but on some wheels it will also determine how fast the thread gets pulled in, and get wound on the bobbin. That is if the wheel has a "bobbin-break". I really hope all this terms make sense though since I am translating from German :). Anyway this is a very cool video on spinning. I never heard about the flax-water, I only ever used tabwater. So this is something new I learned and will try out, thank you❤. PS: Netflix and relaxing Spinning will be eventually forever entwined, don't you worry bernadette. Just takes time and practice. I am currently working on spinning some weaving-yarn, while watching old medical-detectives episodes. A gril needs her murderous-grandma antics❤😂
Yente from the TH-cam channel Mijn Wolden calls those grandma antics ‘fibre shenanigans’. I love that. Netflix and spinning is a winning combination. It takes a surprisingly short time to graduate from hyperfocused inchworming yourself through a braid to relaxed spinning while binge watching. I’d start with rewatching something rather than an entirely new, gripping, toe-curling and butt-clenching episode or movie though. Especially on a treadle wheel. After a bit, it doesn’t matter so much. But that first time or two? I’d recommend it.
@@eddavanleemputten9232 Absolutely 👍. Rewatch Ing something you have seen a few times helps you to divide your attention better between Netflix and spinning. Also, I am german but I watch a lot of english content. So.... I could never watch Peaky blinders while spinning because of the strong accents so thats something to keep in Mind 😅. Never watch anything where you would need subtitles for 🤣
@@blackhagalaz - I’m Belgian (Flemish), and am lucky enough never to need subtitles for anything in German, English, French or Dutch. But you’re right about subtitles: they’d definitely be a distraction that’s highly incompatible with spinning when starting out and perhaps even for an experienced spinner! Unless you’re a VERY fast reader! I’d also advise to stop spinning in a public place where you can hear conversations between others and the conversation you happen to catch goes sideways. Waaaaaay too easy to get over-invested and the result can be fiber-barf on your spindle or bobbin. Been there. The result wasn’t pretty. The impromptu real life drama was entertaining, I have to admit… but was it worth the fibre disaster? Not so sure. 🙈
This is so fun to watch! I live in a region of Sweden that used to be famous for growing and refining flax so it is a big part of our local culture. There is a project to lift this heritage even more, where anyone can get seeds to grow a square meter of the special flax for weaving and then meeting up with others to learn how to process it like back in the days. I’m so excited to see you really going back to basics with flax 🤩
I spin my own alpaca and sheep wool. I adore my own spinning wheel. Her name is Gert. Once spun, the yarn I crochet into blankets. Everything done on our farm. From my own alpacas and sheep. So well done on starting your spinning journey Bernadette ❤️
My big wheel is named Sleeping Beauty, she looks like the wheel from the story. My travel wheel doesn't have a name yet, I have only had her for a few months.
@@loewenalia I love your big wheels name 😀❤️ I am at the stage in my life now at 54. I would love a smaller travelling one, that I could pop in my horse drawn cart for country ambles. I feel it takes time finding the right name. It took me about 2 years to find Gert’s name. She certainly has a cheeky spirit about her. I am sure some days she doesn’t think I should be spinning. As when I start it just seem as comfortable. So I move to my crochet. I am sure her old wood sighs thank you 😀❤️
@@loewenaliaMy big wheel is Dolly, my travel is Betty, and I have a non-functional gal who goes by Millie. I love that we're out here naming our inanimate objects we spend so much time working with! PS My sewing machine is Ethel.😂
@@cathcoll7961 My big wheel does not like to move. When I move her to vacuum I have to spend time adjusting her after moving. She is on the mat and I just pull the mat across the carpet. I need to spin more but my corgi seems to think that when I sit at my wheel she needs ALL the attention.
7:27 I can’t agree more with how important and interesting listening to the “sounds of history” is, it’s such an important thing that I don’t think many people stop to consider when they see old photographs or paintings and stuff like that
Watching this is a good reminder of just how much we take for granted - even those of us who sew usually can buy whatever thread and fabric we want in any colour, which is mind boggling when you consider how hard it would have been to do the most basic things.
@@parkerbrown-nesbit1747 Now we would call it dirty blonde, which I never liked. flaxen sounds much better. It was assigned to people with light brown hair that easily sun bleached to blonde on top. Not to silver grey hair, which seems more appropriate.
@@rich1051414 IIRC, linen fiber can have either warm or cool undertones, depending on the water used during the retting process (rainwater vs. well water.)
Tow head (someone with extremely white blonde hair) comes from flax, also. There are two types of fiber that come from flax, line flax that is spun into fine linen threads, and the shorter fibers are called tow, that usually make a coarser twine or yarn
Videos like this are why are you THE Victorian Mob Boss of the Internet!!!! I am literally watching this while I sew false buttons onto a victorian inspired skirt I am making from a bedsheet I dyed. Which BTW I wouldn't have had the courage to try without your videos. Thank You!
Your reflections on the historical connections felt by participating in the fiber arts really resonated with me. My mom taught me how to crochet but I never really had a community where I could gather resources and learn about innovative techniques but now that I've moved to the UK I'm finding loads of resources, communities, and even the local knitting groups are a source of knowledge and community that I cherish. I hope you enjoy your new spinning journey!
As someone who has been spinning for about 15 years, this is going to be so interesting to watch! I run an ethical yarn shop with a victorian/cozy vibe and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you get on with flax! It's a very fun but challenging fibre to work with :)
There was line flax and tow flax (still is). Line flax is the long, very nicely behaved stuff, and then we called the fabric line-in, or linen. The tow flax is short and coarse, and was used to make rope- then we called it "tow rope". From that we get "tow headed" kids, and "tow" as a verb as well as the rope.
@@yalissa73 It depends on how it's retted (rotted). If it's kept in standing water, it turns one color, if it's in a river, it turns a different sheen- one of them turns gold, the other silver and I can't remember which is which.
2023: Bernadette spins linen thread 2028: Bernadette mines the ore, smelts the iron, fires the blooms, and carbonizes the steel which is forged into the scythe that mows the flax.
@@bernadettebanner I hear ya buddy, I hear ya. I started off as a good honest wastrel with nothing on my mind but the next wench and the next drink. And look at me now! A steady job as a tradesman, and about 65 vintage sewing machines. Madness, I say, madness.
A trick for smoother plied thread: re-wind your singles before plying so the first fiber you ply is the first section of singles spun. Now your hands will be smoothing down the plied thread in the same direction that it smoothed the singles!
The natural progression of her channel is eventually creating her own historically accurate materials, so I’m unsurprised, but VERY HAPPY SHES DOING IT. love to see it. ❤
My mother took a trip to New Zealand many years ago and brought back an Ashford Castle wheel. She took some lessons, but she never really pursued it. After she died, I spent some time with an elderly neighbor who knew how to spin & she encouraged me to learn. It seemed silly since I didn’t know how to knit and what would I do with the yarn if I couldn’t knit, so I had to learn both crafts at the same time, lol. I do remember being quite tense, as I was initially learning to spin, and that advice to relax your shoulders? Stellar! The other thing I noticed is, when I first started out, I spun quite a bulky yarn, but as I got more experienced, I got so that I could spin a much finer yarn so that by the time I double plied it, it was a worsted weight yarn. However, I was never able to go back and spin a bulky yarn again! I finally gave it all up when the wheel got out of alignment & wouldn’t spin correctly. I took it to a local spinning guild, and they worked on it, but could never get it to work right again. It was something that I enjoyed & I made a few garments out of the resulting yarn, which was very satisfying. This comment is nine months late, so I have no idea if you kept up with the spinning, but I hope you did.😊
I never fully appreciated the sheer volume of human labor it took to produce textiles until I watched this. Just imagining someone making all the thread and all the fabric to create a single dress... that would be the work of weeks, for one garment. Amazing to see. Thanks for helping me learn that!
Oh, that speech about the sounds and the language of the past still living through the machines and tools that have survived really hit my heart good. And very interesting note about how saliva affects the fibers, I was wondering about it being used instead of plain water just because of this story I was told as a kid, titled something like "The Three Spinners" (about three old spinners, each one of them with a physical modification caused by decades in the trade: one with a big foot after pressing the pedal, another with big thick fingers from twisting the fibers... and one with a big lower lip from licking the fingers so as to wet the fibers!) so the use of saliva to spin is definitely part of folk tales! This is a world I know nothing about but I loved the little taste you gave us , and of course the presentation is lovely and aesthetically pleasing while still being clear and informative. P.D. please tell Heathcliff I love their vibes and I'm a big fan of their hair style!
Beatrix Potter uses this in a story in "The Fairy Caravan" where an old fairy helps a lazy youg girl with her spinning so she can marry her love. Quite suggestive story in many ways, although it goes over the heads of young readers, I'm sure. If you can get a copy of this book, with illustrations by Miss Potter (it's quite rare) you will love all the old stories of her beloved Lake District. It's way overlooked and I think one of the best of her books.
Saliva is traditionally used in many fiber arts. When working with wool and your yarn breaks, one of the easiest joins you can do is a spit splice. I'm not sure of the science of it, but for a prettier join, intertwine the plies and spit on them. Then rub it firmly between your palms and it will felt together. You can just overlap the yarn ends if you don't care about the look of the join. It holds well enough to keep working and makes for fewer ends to work in.
salivary enzymes are extremely useful in pretty much all fiber art, as it helps immensely with the breaking down of the actual molecular bonds in the fiber and bonding them together. salivary activated paints, dyes, and glue (think stamps!) have existed for literally thousands of years.
I learned in the first metal smithing class I took that saliva is a useful lubricant to use on the saw blade when sawing through a piece of metal. There are commercially available lubricants, too, of course, that are "more hygienic." If the piece is going to be soldered in a gas flame, any germs, whether viral or bacterial, are burned off in that process.
As always I am incredibly impressed not only with your passion to learn new skills and document that learning process, but with your dedication and perseverance in the learning process! Time and again you keep going despite set backs and frustrations in the learning, creative, or construction process, and that is just such an inspiration for the rest of us who also struggle with the process! If Bernadette doesn’t give up, than neither will I! ❤
If I may add my advice: Keep your beginning spinning! You'd be surprised that you will find a use for it eventually even if it's slubby and whatever. And it's a good reminder of how far you have come! I think you'll find it pleasing to spin your own yarn too if you knit or weave. Happy spinning!
I knitted a baby cardigan with my first spun yarn. No baby could have worn it as the fibre was far too scratchy. I was so pleased with it and was keeping it but my sister, bless her, was helping me when I was recovering from surgery and put my precious knitting in the washing machine and when it came out it was just a felted mess!
All I can say with tears in my eyes: Congratulations. You have such a great new skill! Bernadette you bring me so much joy and encouragement! You have rejoiced the heart of an old man! Thank you!
Your smile when you saw your first plied thread is priceless. I’m a long time spinner and I love watching others learn to spin. There is something so magical about turning a cloud of fiber into something wearable or functional in a whole new way. I love that social media allows us to share these moments. 🌸🙏🏼🌸
I taught myself how to spin from books when I was a teenager, I am thoroughly impressed how quickly you picked this up. I’ve been spinning for 20 years now and I haven’t touched Flax because I’m intimidated by it, and I love the feel of wool and silks, and working with them. I just happen to be reading some of the history on flax spinning. Ancient Egyptians were best at this art, the finest linens, The threads are spun one fibre thin. They had a bowl with a loop at the bottom where you would put your linen inside and the fibres would go through the water under the loop as you spin. They used a drop spindle, I understand it was spun by rolling it down the thigh, but there was a very specific reason for the kind of drop spindle they used in the way that the fibres go so that they’re less likely to come apart. Personally I find it easier to make a really fine things on a drop spindle versus a spinning wheel.
Spinning is such a cool skill. Spinning whorls are found in every archeological site, this is something people were doing for hundreds of years. They were spending long winter days with spindle, and then waving and sawing it together. It gives a very new level of appreciation for their work - how many hours have to go into the simplest garment even, when you have to go through all this process. Fun fact, in (older) Polish you can have relative by sword (your father side), or by distaff (mother side). I remember learning what distaff actually is and having this "ohh, I get it now" moment :D
Sidebar: for anyone looking to buy a used wheel, watch out for decorative ones from the 70s. My dad got me one from a garage sale, and I _could not_ figure out how to get it working. I eventually dragged it out to the park to ask the local SCA, and they explained that it had never been made to function. It didn't have an orifice for the yarn to pass through, and it could scarcely treadle.
Really anyone looking to buy an antique should ask someone knowledgeable to look over the wheel. There are many out there that are intact, but so many that are missing vital parts. Some of those parts can be remade by a talented woodworker (and some people have been experimenting with 3D printing), but there are a lot of bits where if they are gone, the wheel is pretty much no longer functional.
Some sellers think a wheel is working because the treadle turns the wheel. If the seller can't tell anything about the wheel and how it spins then it is best left alone. I have seen many adverts saying 'Working Vintage (or Antique) Spinning Wheel for sale' but it can be seen in the photograph that there is no flyer or bobbin! I expect many have found themselves in the same position as you did. I would always tell anyone wanting to buy one to buy from someone knowledgeable, or get them to help you but they might not think of that if they knew nobody who spins. It reminds me of The Good Life, a very funny comedy series here in UK where a couple decide to live simply, making and growing their own food. When their next door neighbour was going to buy a spinning wheel they got excited at the prospect of spinning yarn but were so upset when it turned out to be a musical ornament!
Whenever I think of spinning, I always think of Spirited Away and Zeniba's warm/cozy cottage in the swamp. It's so beautiful to watch something so delicate and though I know how much effort goes into it (as a fellow craftwoman), it always looks so... effortless and calming. I can just imagine how much focus goes into making sure whatever you're spinning works and doesn't just fall apart. I also have to say I love the sound of the wheel as well
You are literally who i wanna be when i grow up evwn tho im closer to 40 than 30 lol. Literally discovered u randomly and your fashion, sewing, spinning, everything i dream of
My mom used to learn how to spin and weave, it was very cool seeing her explore such an ancient craft as a hobby. Sadly, nowadays the spinning wheel sits unused, but everstime I see it I remember her joy and pride of learning how to do it, the hours spent reseaching and then telling me about it, her pure exitement over it. Sewing and knitting (and soemday, hopefully spinning and weaving) makes me feel really close to her 😔
Oh, I'm excited, a video about traditional spinning. Watching this brings back memories with my grandmother. She owned a spinning wheel which she used to make yarn from raw wool from the sheep she was keeping. I once tried it when I was a little girl but I didn't manage to get an even thread out of it. You could call my produce 'effect wool'. Spinning is an art. For her, it was a form of meditation, for me, it was stressful. She passed away in 2008, aged 94, but I still remember her sitting at her spinning wheel, murmuring some prayers under her breath as she spun the woollen yarn on cold winter evenings. I'm really impressed that you go for fine threads for starters. I found wool pretty difficult when I was 10 years old. Kudos to your assistant for helping you. They do a great job :)
I’m currently teaching myself how to use my great great aunt’s 1904 singer treadle sewing machine. There are days I want to cry because I wish I had an older person to help me with it. It’s crazy to think about how, once upon a time, you not only would have learned to do these sorts of skills from your mother or grandmother but often times on the machine she would have been using for years. The years of experience on a machine that they know intimately would be such an amazing way to learn. So much ancestral knowledge was lost to history with the dawn of the industrial revolution. I love seeing people returning to these skills to help preserve and renew them.
I also use the treadle machine my great-great grandmother used, and her mother, and her mother back to the 1860s when it was made (patent is 1861). My grandmother and great grandmother did not sew on it, but they kept it to pass down. I'm the first to make anything with it in over 50 years. Its an interesting feeling to be connected and yet not connected at all to your family through heirlooms.
A few years ago nobody wanted old sewing machines and market stalls had so many for a very low price. Now everyone wants them and there are none for sale, at least where I live anyway. I learned to sew as a child on my mother's treadle sewing machine, so, when I bought my first spinning wheel, I had no difficulty treadling. When I was at school and we were sewing all the bossy children grabbed the electric sewing machines and my friend and I were left with one hand wound one and one treadle machine. The snooty teacher told us she had no idea so we would have to work it out for ourselves. She was amazed when we just settled in and got on with our work. I'm sure she thought we would sit there doing nothing while she paid all her attention to the others.
it is so fun to spin your own yarn and thread. I find that my love for my garments are twice as extreme when i know that i have made my own thread. I show the craft on a medieval market and all that i have made can then be past on to another person who weave or sew with it. Its so fun!
In an earlier video you made you told us all to never stop learning. I love how you back up your words with actions. I can't imagine how stressful it must have been for you to learn something new in front of millions of viewers, but you did it! You are a very strong person. Thank you for being vulnerable and so humble. It really displays your inner strength. Thank you also for demonstrating to all of us not to be afraid of failure. It's a learning opportunity. You are a wonderful teacher 🤗
The spinning wheel does make a very relaxing and satisfying sound. And congratulations on creating usable thread in only a few weeks! I've only used spindles and still struggle to make yarn after a lot more than a few weeks of trial and error. :)
Bernadette: has been sewing all her life, made a career of it Also Bernadette: Wow! It’s thread!!! Really, one of the best things about learning a new craft is the sense of new appreciation and wonderment about the most common things.
I was taught by an old Savile Row tailor to iron my linen thread after waxing it, it makes a world of difference to how it then handles when subsequently sewing with it, in a good way.
Huh, that makes sense for a few reasons.You're resetting the way the fibers want to set within the twist itself, addressing kinks, AND melting the wax to force it to soak in deeper and more evenly.
I loved watching you learn this wonderful skill! One thing I didn't see in any comments as a fellow antique wheel user, it is very important to be gentle with your wheel and oil it frequently just the way you do with an older sewing machine. I actually use sewing machine oil for this. It makes spinning so much easier (and quieter), especially on a double-drive wheel. Every point where something moves should be oiled regularly, like every 40 hours of spinning or so, and giving the wood some love and care once or twice a year is a good idea too. I use a beeswax/coconut oil mix on my wheel, take it apart, wipe the pieces down with a damp cloth, let them dry, cover them in the wood conditioner, let it sit for a while, then rub in with a dry cloth. This will keep the oil from drying out and breaking.
You did amazingly well, especially as you’ve chosen probably the hardest way to learn to spin. You broke all the rules, not starting with a drop spindle, starting with a second hand antique wheel instead of a modern one and spinning flax straight off. Yet you made some really good thread from day one. I’ve been spinning for about 15 years so I have an idea of what I’m looking at and I’m really impressed by what you have accomplished. Keep spinning, you have a natural affinity for it I think. 😊
I remember my Mom spinning wool as a kid. She always made it look so easy haha We did start to finish; shearing the sheep all the way to knitting the wool socks. Thanks for reminder of fond memories 😊
Lovely wheel, great spinning! And excellent advice from JillianEve! What helped me a lot was preparing the flax on the distaff carefully. I always re-hackle a new strick, or comb it with a dog comb. And I separate out the fibres carefully before winding them onto the distaff. Also, making a smaller bouffante on the distaff helps. Advice from a very experienced flax spinner was not to prepare more fibre than you can spin in a day.
Im sure others have mentioned that preparing a distaff with well combed very carefully laid down fiber is very important to getting a very smooth thread. also the speed of spinning to achieve a workable yarn or thread is much higher for cotton, flax or silk. this why one learns on wool, Bless your soul for jumping to advanced skills Very bold
I know nothing about sewing or spinning. I'm just a curious onlooker amazed with the ingenuity of humanity. Watching this video makes me think of one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. It's called, "Clothesline." It's about 30 minutes long and is about the overlooked minutiae of washing and drying and caring for clothes before the invention of the washing machine. Without "women's work" we would not have civilization.
So sweet to see!! My grandmother taught me to spin when I was about 5-6, and I still have our family spinning wheel that has been passed down through 7 generations of women.
I just have to say: I absolutely fell in love with this channel and creator. It’s big channel production value with a small creator coziness and quaintness. I really feel like I’m sitting with a friend when I watch this videos while handsewing. And SO EDUCATIONAL 💝💝💝
I also love how much she respects history and how people connected through textiles. I'm not a fashion oriented person, but I enjoy watching a quirky yet classy person create historical items and explore the resources that make the items.
I have been teaching myself how to drop spin tooo! My grandmother used to spin her own yarn, then weave it into fabric. She also dyed her own thread with garden vegs.
Wow. I never really understood how tricky it was to use a spinning wheel. I have much more respect for those who did this throughout history, and for those who keep this amazing skill alive.
Great to see how it works. A friend of mine has tea towel made of linen which was woven by her grandma (the granny also made the thread) Its her most precious heritage 🤗
A tip for your friend: if the wheel is turning back the other direction, chances are you aren't pushing the treadle all the way to the bottom. The footman has to go all the way to the bottom of it's rotation or it'll swing back the other way. Their drop spindling looks amazing! Great job to you both!
I look forward to the day where you craft an item of clothing completely by hand, fabric, needles, and even the stitching techniques. Amazing work as always Bernadette :3
As a spinner and teacher for 15+ years (learned from TH-cam after age 30), it's really nice to see spinning handled in a somewhat mainstream arena! And hurray for some crossover with JillianEve!
This was SO soothing to watch! It's incredible to watch you learn it so quickly - I kept thinking how necessary apprenticeships must have been for these types of things, learning from others, like Jillian taught you. As someone who studies sociolinguistics, I loved your reflections on the sounds, the "languages" of time past, and how we've lost them to time. Thank you for sharing!
I once made this journey, and the (lack of) differences between spinning flax and spinning hemp.... Made me quite happy once the US stopped its ban on hemp cloth so I could simply buy what I needed😅 Bird sounds and rain in the background make almost all tasks easier, arthritis and fibromyalgia have changed my hobbies however. Thanks for another great video Bernadette!!! (Please let your sibling know that the editing is continuing to evolve and exceed expectations)
I teach spinning, and always tell students to minimize the number of battles they are fighting at one time; concentrate on your own learning curve, and don’t add the battle of bad materials to that. I was so pleased to see how quickly you got to that point on your own! Nicely done indeed.
I have never thought of watching crafting videos on TH-cam or other social media platforms as part of the tradition of handing down skills. But it is absolutely that! Even if I never spin flax myself I do know something about it and have a huge appreciation for those that did and still do. Someone needs to give you a tv series!
I'm so happy you've decided to learn how to spin! Its a dying art, and the old ladies in my spinning guild were happy that somebody young wanted to learn lol. Look around in your area to see if you've got a spinner's guild nearby. Its really fun to get together and spin with other people! There will most likely be experienced spinners there who would be happy to answer any questions you have, and to show you all sorts of tips and tricks! Also, an interesting video to see would be you dyeing the thread that you've spun!
Bernadette you have NO idea the joy my heart had when you decided to learn how to spin with flax. It's secretly my wish to grow and eventually weave into my own fabric.
Your final thread looks fantastic! I'm thrilled I got to help you get started, and I can't wait to see what you spin up next. Happiest of happy spinning! 😊🧶🧵🪡✨💖
I'm so lucky to have had your help! ✨
I was going to suggest Evie as a resource! So glad you connected already
Evie is why I finally started spinning, too! It was something I always wanted to learn, but educational resources are so hard to find. So glad you're out here sharing your knowledge ❤
Thank you for sharing about the flax seed water! I'm going to try that out. Even though I've been spinning for 20+ years, I'm just starting to learn how to spin flax and I also want to spin thread.
I was about to tell her to check out ur vids 😂
Sometimes, when I stop to think about how, from the time of the earliest drop spindles we know about (~30 *thousand* years ago) until industrial spinning factories, Every. Single. Thread: every warp thread, every weft thread, in every piece of fabric -- from the clothes on people's backs, to the *sails on every sailing ship* -- was spun by hand, my mind kinds of shuts down at the magnitude of that.
Enormity, gosh
Welcome to the world's second-largest historical industry after agriculture! And that's not even counting the stuff nearly every family made for their own use, I mean stuff made purely for sale.
And it touched everyone. From the first person who twisted to now we are connected
It was also one of the main respectable occupations for unmarried women.
Yes. Spinster.
As a self-taught spinner, the amount of stress I felt when Bernadette said she was going to learn to spin on flax was immense
When I saw the Instagram promo reel for this video I was like, "of course she's starting with flax."🤣 Well done!
What would be a good material to start spinning?
@@floresilla a medium quality wool is usually best. Wool naturally grabs onto itself, and the rougher it is the more it'll do so, which makes it easier to draft without the fiber breaking!
@@alyssaking4628 Don't go for the fine wools first. They take much more skill in drafting. Jump to them too quick and your thread will be full of slubs. Of course if you are wanting a character thread then jump in. As you go along and get good you may occasionally want character thread for a special project and be real annoyed that you can no longer spin "bad".
I so feel this. I taught myself knitting on socks, thinking "oh, they're small, that should be easy". So sure, flax. Why not?
Even I started spinning with coopworth and romney!
When you mentioned getting a really strong ankle from treadling, I remembered an old German fairytale which is a bit like Rumpelstiltskin in that a girl is supposed to spin a seemingly impossible amount of thread before she's allowed to marry the king, but instead of a demon gnome she gets help from three experienced spinsters. One has an enormous foot from treadling, one has a sagging lower lip from wetting the thread, and the third one has a huge flat thumb from flattening the thread. All that they ask for in return for their help is to be invited to the wedding. The king notices their deformities and asks them why they look like that, they tell him it's from spinning flax all their lives. The king is horrified and tells his new wife never to spin flax again, and she's happy to comply.
+
Oh I think I read this once but I never would have remembered on my own. This really dragged up memories from abandonded parts of my brain 😅
There's a Irish or Scottish version in which the three sisters live underground in a mound and are implied to be supernatural beings
I heard a similar one! But in my version, one of them helped her weave the thread into fabric, and had a broad, humped back from scuttling back and forth, bent over her loom, and the other had helped her sew the fabric into clothes, and had huge, bug eyes from staring at her sewing all day every day
The Three Spinning Fairies by the brothers Grimm
As a spinner, I'm quite impressed by how quickly you picked this skill up! There's a popular saying that every new spinner starts by making "novelty yarn," and I see that it holds true for linen as well, but you've given me new inspiration to learn to spin flax now!
Excellent work, Ms. Banner
😂 And then you talk to experienced spinners and they have mastered the spider web thin yarn and wish they could go back to making art yarn 😂 But their hands have learned the craft and it's hard to go back to wholesome chunky oatmeal yarn full of character ❤❤❤
As a crochet fiber artist, I respect the hell out of you all, but please, lace weight kills me and my hands, so badly. Love the doubleknit and aran weights.
I started by making yarn plies thin as thread and then had to learn to not sping things so thin and tight and to just let loose
My husband who is so not a crafter became quite enthralled watching Bernadette spin her own thread. When it came to the use of saliva,I started telling him that a lot of us who knit with wool do something called spit splice to connect wool when we’ve run out. Then all the questions started😂
I carry a small spray bottle with water in my needlebinding bag so that I don't have to rely on my salivâ. ^ ^
@@johannageisel5390If you're going for aesthetic as well as practical use, I bet you could find one of those fancy little plant misters. I have a plastic spray bottle (for a completely different purpose) and it doesn't quite fit the vibe I'm going for, lol.
@@johannageisel5390 More practical, less personal. :-)
That thread is perfect for hand-stitching leather! A chunky 2ply linen thread is exactly what I use to sew 18th century leather accoutrements--first I punch a hole through the leather and use two thick blunt needles with the thread coated in cobbler's wax and beeswax. It's great watching you learn how to make the materials I overlook when sewing.
I was thinking it looked like the twine I use for my heavyweight leather stitching and I would use her thread for something like that.
I was also thinking it looked a lot like welting thread used to stitch shoe welts.
I use a slightly finer flax thread to create lace patterns (called Klöppeln in Germany).
It's better because it has irregularities (looks handcrafted) and naturally wants to stay in the shape you draped/ knotted it into.
Doing the spinning is such vibe - I still think of fairytales even if Disney lied to the world 😂
In Finnish the sound of a cat's 'purr' is called 'spinning yarn' (kehrätä). I don't think we've got another common word for it, or if we did at some point, at least we don't anymore. It really sounds exactly like a spinning wheel whirring away :)
Same in Swedish.
That's so cute. I'm learning Finnish and your language feels very cat friednly. I keep finding words that would make good cat names, like Mukava, Kuka or Hauska.
Same in Czech (spins = přede)!
Can confirm for German, too
Same in Dutch
I work as an audio technician. What you said about many sounds from the past getting lost really resonated with me. Thanks for keeping craftsmanships like this one alive. Thank you.
There's so much more lost than you'll ever realize. In everything. And more will be lost in the future too, even as it appears for the very first time.
That's the nature of everything. It all ends. Missing it, or trying to hold on to any of it, is weakness.
@@DoremiFasolatido1979 - Nostalgia is a powerful emotion.
heh, resonated.
Yes, hearing a sound from the past that was lost but was brought back almost gives a shutter. One of the more powerful videos to watch is the first and to my knowledge only time since it’s voyage the RMS Titanic’s steam whistles were actuated for a group at a museum. It wasn’t quite the same as they were using compressed air instead of steam but it was truly a haunting sound. Another one is the recovery of the bell from the Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald. As soon as it broke the surface of the water it began ringing out in the waves.
I love the end comments about the online community being fundamentally the same as the communities we used to learn from in person. Such a poignant observation on how social media isn't just mind-dumbing content isolating people and making them feel lesser-than. It is a community hall where all sorts of interactions happen including exchanges of skills, passions, and stories. It's nice to know that while we might only get to hear the "voice" of the spinning wheel generations ago, future generations will be able to hear your voice and admiration for it. Thanks for making the moment to appreciate modern society while learning about historic society.
I’ve learned so so much online. I even managed to change the lock on ky front door by following a TH-cam video. So many free tutorials! I love it
I mean it's definitely both. Lots of good educational stuff... but also literal tons of garbage.
I have to say as somebody who attempted wheel spinning years ago, I was VERY impressed by how Bernadette basically went straight to treadling correctly & keeping the wheel from accidentally reversing direction! 😆 All her hours on the antique treadle sewing machine really, really paying off there.
That is why I have never had any difficulty treadling my wheel. My mother made soft furnishings as a profession for hotels. All done on an old Singer treadle machine and I used it to make clothes from when I was very young. I knew all that treadling would come in handy!!
@lunasmum6869 Sounds like a remarkable workout for leg muscles & brain/foot coordination! 😆
For anyone who got excited by this and feels like giving spinning a go, here are a few tips:
1. Look out for a local spinning guild: They have a wealth of knowledge, will be super welcoming to newbies and often have old wheels lurking around that could become yours (that's how I acquired my first one)
2. A spindle takes a lot less space: Consider trying spinning with a hand spindle. You can even 3d print one!
3. Spin as traditional or as wild as you like: Incredible dyers and makers produce colourful fibre packs (see Hedgehog Fibres for example), so you can start with some soft and easy bluefaced leicester that will spin like butter, try flax if you feel bold. Or if you hate yourself, spin silk. IYKYK.
4. There are no stupid questions: We all started with the same bird's nest of overtwisted, breaking fibres. Ask away!
5. Keep your first thread: Doesn't matter if it looks like garden twine, it's a precious thing!
And most of all, have fun. Oh and relax your shoulders! ;)
I live in a smaller rural town and we just got a fiber and yarn store which has spinning supplies. I’m so excited.
I've knitted for over a decade, and spinning my own yarn is something I've always wanted to give a try. Thanks for sharing these suggestions.
Bonus tip: if you're afraid to committing to a wheel, grab or make your own drop spindle! They're tiny, cheap, and extremely effective
Because of seeing this comment, I googled it and I am shocked to find I have a local fiber arts guild! Thank you for bringing this up, I never would have thought of this otherwise.
Yes, all of this!
At what point does a loom show up and we have an ever-ambitious Bernadette weaving the linen she spun into cloth? 😂
I would hope a clock reel aka spinning weasel would show up before the loom
You don't even technically need a loom, some cultures weave without them
@@StonedtotheBones13 Finger-weaving's the natural next step.
You think you're joking, but this is how it starts.
2024. It's obviously one of the next steps 😂
The world 100% needs an ambient soundtrack of that spinning wheel
It's so soothing
ASMR track would be ❤bliss❤. CONGRATS Bernadette for taking up & conquering a new skill🎉.
Don't forget to condition your thread after you've spun it. Basically, you run it through a flax seed bath to smooth down the fibers. That might help to make sewing easier in the beginning of a new thread, since it has already been smoothed down and the fabric doesn't have to do that part. My teacher showed us to take a small pot lid with the kind of handle that's not a knob. Then you make enough of the flax seed water to cover the pot lid in a bowl large enough to hold the lid and you run the thread under the handle. That way you can just roll it from bobbin to bobbin while smoothing the fiber that comes out of the water, as the lid takes the thread under the water for you.
Great advice!
You do this in addition to using flax water during spinning? Do you do it before or after plying? And does it take the place of waxing the thread?
@froggydoodle808 I'd probably do it before plying, to get the smoothest threads, so yes, also in addition to spinning with flax water. I'd still wax, though, as that adds protection and strength for the thread to pass through the fabric many times without starting to fray too much. But as Bernadette said, after several initial passes through the fabric, it did become a bit easier since that smoothed the thread somewhat, and that's the smoothing you should be achieving by the pass through flax water after spinning to make it easier when you start sewing.
When I was taught to spin I told my teacher I wanted to spin angora rabbit and cat fur. They told me to start with wool. I did, but didn’t get very far before I gave up. 20 years later I came back to the hobby and started spinning cat hair and this time I stuck with it long enough to become proficient (and I can actually enjoy spinning wool now). I’m glad you persisted and started with what actually interested you.
that is so cool!!! do you make something with your amazing thread?
Something I've picked up from years of crocheting is that Alaskan Husky, bison and yak hair are the warmest when fashioned into a garment. I'm now wondering if Maine Coon and Siberian cats produce denser fur that would have the same effect.
That's amazing! I never would have thought that you could spin cat hair. Isn't it too short?
@@gayleklein7243I'd suspect Norwegian forest cats or Maine Coons can definitely make fine thread, don't know how warm it'll be, but worth testing.
If you have a zoo nearby that houses Manuls/Pallas cats, asking them for a measure of shedded fur could also be interesting to try as they have the densest fur of ALL felines, big and small! 😊
:O
In 1995, Tasha Tudor, American author, illustrator, and heirloom crafter, released a book titled Tasha Tutor's Heirloom Crafts. In it, she tells the story of weaving and sewing a linen shirt for her brother. She started by planting the seeds, and 3 years later, she finished the shirt. A picture of it can be seen across from the title page. You do such beautiful work.
That's impressive, just getting the retting right for good quality could take that long if doing dew retting ...
There's a TH-cam series called How To Make Everything that does that sort of stuff to highlight how much work it takes to make one thing. A turkey sandwich, with this method, took 6 months and $1500.
I know that name... She illustrated one of my childhood books....
Edit: I found it! The Secret Garden (and also A Little Princess)
I went to a workshop on weaving with linen yarn which was great fun to do and so interesting. The tutor told us that was her favourite children's book. Aimed at children but so informative for any age.
I love that you had to have an actual human being to show you how to do it. Skills used to be passed from one person to the next, not just from books. Books were there as a guide, but having an actual skilled mentor was always the better way to learn things.
Its like how it wouldve been taught in the past
Seeing it in this video makes me feel a weird sense of nostolgia, or a connection to the countless generations this skill was passed down between
That is such a validation for me. Back in the 1970s and 1980s the teachers in elementary and high school expected us to "learn" by memorizing and accepting on blind faith. Even with above average intelligence I just barely managed to graduate high school in spite of the teaching system. And then I "failed" in university. Since then I have realized that I learn best, and get long term retention of what I learned, by hands-on-training. The so-called hands-on learning. A patient mentor is so important to achieve the best learning (at least for me)! Training manuals will only go so far. But the interactive brain-storming with a mentor just elevates the skill retention to a whole new level.
Unfortunately the learning-by-doing skills I achieved have no documentation to back them up, so "marketing" myself in a society suffering from title-itis is virtually impossible. Because I have been told way too often: "If you do not have a paper to certify you learned the skill, you do not know anything. Good bye!"
I love that it looked like Heathcliff just popped out of nowhere, like a magical godparent here to help you figure out spinning.
Oh gosh yes. You *can* learn from videos, but there's nothing quite like learning from an actual human teacher.
This is still true today IMO. We rely on the convenience of learning from home, but I hope we revert back to in-person learning.
Heathcliff is absolutely marvelous. I love how chill they are.
My first spinning projects looked like a unicorn vomited on the bobbin because I was using waste wool fibres to learn.
All my Gran's spinning explanations to me are fraught with the phrase "it'll just feel right" getting bandied about with frustrating regularity. 😂
😂😂😂😂
This is perfect timing. My siblings & I recently inherited our great-aunt's small spinning wheel. I'm the only one who remembers watching her spin, but that was decades ago. A practical video is just what we needed!
It just makes me so happy that Bernadette's little corner of the InterWebs exists so that geeks like us can totally geek out over learning how to do something thousands of years old!
Use of a spinning wheel is not thousands of years old.
@@direfranchementThere are Egyptian murals that show them being used. They wore gauze looking garments.
@@reavanante2160 Not likely.
Plus, for many of us Bernadette is super Hot.
I keep wanting to come into the screen and help you! For flax, you'll want to mist your fiber and keep your fingers moist. You'll also want to use a smaller whorl on your spinning wheel. The double drive wheels are labor saving devices, by using a smaller whorl, you can get a faster twist on your yarn while maintaining comfortable treadling. Your first yarns are probably going to be thick and uneven, it's part of the process, but I would still encourage you to find a use for them. It's so empowering to be able to look at where you started and see how far you've come. The first cotton I spun, I crocheted into an ornament I hung by my desk. The first wool I spun I knit into a trivet and use it almost every day to protect my table, it's almost felted from use, but I know it was the first thing I ever made from fiber.
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What awesome ideas!!
My first chain ply is my favorite winter hat!
I once worked in a museum with a “great wheel” or “walking wheel,” which you have to spin with your hand (no treadle), and do it standing up. They are a lot older than the seated treadle wheel. The bobbin ends in a point and the fibre kind of slips off that point to create twist. I was told Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on this type of wheel.
The BOOK CHARKHA an Indian(country) spinning machine works similarly
That makes a lot more sense than the Disney bastardization.
That makes a lot more sense than the Disney bastardization.
Disney changes everything.
My brother read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to his kids before he let them watch the Disney animated version.
I think it was Tudor Farm that had a demonstration of the walking wheel in practice. It was a first for me, seeing a walking wheel as we only use sitting ones back home.
At a local SCA event someone was doing a class on spinning and they were talking about how the typical medieval thread was around 30/2 which feels super thick to us modern people, but is super reasonable when you know they were spinning by hand!
As someone who once went through the entire process from raw sheep’s wool, scouring, combing and finally spinning it - what you did there after only days of practice is amazing. Btw. you motivated me to get a sewing machine. A Singer from 1900 ^^
Everyone I know who spins does so to make worsted, chunky, or bulky weight yarn. It's wild to watch someone throw themselves into the deep end on flax spun to thread weight! Very impressive, Ms Banner.
When has she ever taken the easy path on anything
I think it’s great. I never understood the chunky stuff. I wondered, does hand woven stuff look so awful because people can’t make fine thread anymore? Nope, they just don’t care enough to go at it this obsessively 😆
Spinning fine is easier for most people than spinning thick.
Personally, I run hot, so I spin very fine. Not exactly frogshair, but I make a light fingering-weight yarn out of 2-3 plies. That way, once woven or knit, it won't be excessively warm and I might actually wear the garments I make. I've only spun wool so far--and there are so many delightful breeds to explore that I haven't even ventured into the realm of cellulose fibers yet. I like to buy fleeces and wash and process them by hand to prepare them for spinning. I feel very connected to the past when I do that.
@@heatherduke7703 You go through phases, not drafting so everything's a clump, over-drafting so everything's brittle, then discovering clumps happen, until you start carding properly so your feedstock isn't on a spindle, but lies in loose floofy rolags which will never clump, but produce gossamer thread.
The next stage is to ply, so she'll be using a hank winder to free her bobbins, then a winder to make a centre-feed ball, and finally a lazy kate while she learns how to make the wheel turn backwards.
However, don't forget this is linen thread, and she's at heart a sewer, so needs lace in copious quantities. Linen lace is far better quality.
It always fascinates me how before there was mass production of simple things we take for granted like a spool of thread, people had to make from scratch.
'Make me a sandwich' has a whole new meaning when everything has to be made in-house or isn't mass-produced.
@@julietfischer5056 "Go plant some f*cking wheat first"
I ripped a hole on my jeans, and it took me 15 minutes to fire up the sowing machine, fetch a patch of clothing and spindle of thread and fix it up. In olden times that process, especially if you didnt have the spare cloth and thread, or could not buy it, might have taken an entire day. Its hard for us modern people just how much of their spare time people "wasted" on domestic chores and other things that takes us moments
@@ealusaid- The guy who wanted the sandwich does that part, at least where farming uses plows.
I will NEVER wear a linen blouse again without respecting the wisdom and effort and skill that goes into it’s history. Just thinking about what that phrase “fine linen” actually means is so humbling! Thanks again Bernadette for broadening my mind ❤
And this is just the spinning process! Growing the flax and then preparing the fibers for spinning is also a very long, arduous process. The Egyptians excelled at producing very fine linen, and some of their skills have been lost. But linen is a wonderful fabric, and it's a shame we don't use more of it.
Linen is a magical fabric. I hate working with it, but the finished results are always worth it
Riiiiiiight! A whole new appreciation! I love historical learning.
And spinning wheels are relatively recent.
@@amylenertz1953 Spinning wheels apparently originated in India between 500 AD and 1000 AD. Europe got them in the 13th century. Ancient Egyptians used drop spindles.
Just in time to join the Tour de Fleece! Welcome to the world of Spinsters! When I taught spinning, I once had a student who absolutely wanted to start with flax because she wanted to spin and weave a linen canvas to paint upon. Yes, she struggled more than the folks using wool, but she got a good start on her end goal. As a side note for easier learning, the flax fibers have their own natural twist which means that twisting them S will be much easier than Z. (The wheel spins counter clockwise for a S twist.)
I've been spinning for 40 years. Usually, I knit with the resulting yarns, since it's nearly impossible to spin a yarn as fine as today's industrial yarns used for the clothing industry. I think we often forget that most people wore coarser fabrics necessarily before the mid-19th century because the yarns were thicker - unless you were rich, and had imported fabrics, especially silks. I've spun many exotic fibres - silk, cashmere, angora, even yak. My camel-cashmere blend scarf is the warmest thing I've ever owned, and this blend allowed me to get a reasonably fine yarn! Using garter stitch to knit it up gave me a flat scarf that tucks nicely into the neckline of coats without much bulk. I have a lovely, modern Lendrum wheel, but I've spun on many antique wheels, as well, that our guild owns. Many are worn/warped from long use, or the tensioners are not as sophisticated as modern wheels, so it can be difficult to get your yarn as fine and even as you might like. But they are great for demonstrations. Yes, I think yours is a 19th-century wheel, probably a home spinner in a rural area, because later in the 19th-C due to the industrial revolution machines were producing the fine, even fabrics we are now used to (the Luddite rebellions, for those not "up" on their British history, were a vicious example of factory owners firing all of their skilled, human workers almost overnight in order to replace them with machines - a piece of history that feels eerily reminiscent of the threat AI poses today for the human work force in many other industries).
I love how you view these kinds of crafts as a way to connect with so many generations before us, doing the same work, hearing the same sounds and sharing the experience - a very humbling and wholesome perspective I can’t help but marvel at
I feel that way whenever I'm kneading dough by hand or making my own pasta. I never feel more connected to my ancestors
It is inspiring and beautiful! Making things with your hands feels so good, and it does connect you to humanity. You realize that humans have been making incredible things forever, that ability to create is a big part of us.
I’ve recently started my sewing journey, and it makes me think about the fact that people have been making these things forever. Sometimes when I get discouraged with my sewing progress, I remind myself it’s a skill I can and will learn, and I will be able to make my clothing like people have done for generations before me and hopefully generations after me.
It makes me sad when I think about all of the amazing trades and art forms that have been lost to time. Every time I see some beautiful, intricate object that was made by someone’s hands however many years ago, I feel this huge sense of awe and admiration. There are some really impressive pieces that sometimes baffle me like how in the world did someone make this hundreds of years ago? It’s even more impressive if we aren’t able to replicate it to the same level of quality today. It would be so cool to do intense research and experimentation to try recreating these past skills & techniques, while using modern equipment and technology to our advantage. Imagine relearning these trades and teaching people, training more talented craftspeople, and passing on the knowledge to keep it alive!
I have been waiting for a spinning video for a long time, because the spinning wheel has been in the background in Bernadette's videos for some time! Also, I appreciate how she is not afraid to show herself learning, rather than filming only when she has acquired the skill already.
just think. Some person in the past also struggled with this. and seeing you "spin your skirt in" probably happened a million times. i love history and history-bounding. Your videos give me a sense of wonder and nostalgia.
I know accidentally catching your clothing in your embroidery or hand sewing is a struggle as old as sewing itself.
I personally have crocheted and knit my hair into a project, so I imagine it would happen with spinning as well.
@@leemasters3592 i love reading old brit lit because of how often home crafts are mentioned and talked about at length. I especially love reading about characters who are sewing or spinning and become lost in thought only to realize they've sewn/spun themselves or their clothing into their work. i recall reading a book where someone was spinning and spun a lock of their long hair into their yarn, and ended up having to cut a good chunk of it off their head 😆so goofy so relatable
@@georgeharrisonfricklas7927 I have long hair, and once, while trying to fix the treadle connection on a spinning wheel, my long braid got caught in the hooks on the flyer. Luckily, I didn’t have to cut my hair, but I did require help to free myself.
the excitement from making a simple thread is palpable and infinitely relatable :D i haven't spun thread/yarn myself but this is how i felt after knitting socks for the 1st time :D
its so sweet how when u are sewing at the end you can see you fighting back such a genuine smile for the sake of the experiment but you are so clearly overjoyed at the creation and use of your own string its adorable!!
As someone who has been spinning for over a decade now, I am very impressed with your progress :). You did very good and made some high quality thread in the end with a very feisty material at that. To be honest starting spinning right with a wheel is veeeery hard. So for everyone who would like to learn this I would recommend using a hand-spindle, because you can easily "pause" the rotation at any time and concentrate better on the tention you are letting into the fibres :). The wheel will just rip the thread out of your hand if you are not fast enough. That said another thing that is worth mentioning with spinning wheels is that the circumfence of the spindle itself, will influence how much tension goes into the thread. This is not so much an issue with the historic wheel, because there is only one spindle size available, but modern hand spindles and wheels will often come with different spindle sizes. That's something to be aware of when you first start. Also the tention gauge on you wheel will not only determine how hard you can treddle, but on some wheels it will also determine how fast the thread gets pulled in, and get wound on the bobbin. That is if the wheel has a "bobbin-break". I really hope all this terms make sense though since I am translating from German :).
Anyway this is a very cool video on spinning. I never heard about the flax-water, I only ever used tabwater. So this is something new I learned and will try out, thank you❤.
PS: Netflix and relaxing Spinning will be eventually forever entwined, don't you worry bernadette. Just takes time and practice. I am currently working on spinning some weaving-yarn, while watching old medical-detectives episodes. A gril needs her murderous-grandma antics❤😂
Such helpful information!
Yente from the TH-cam channel Mijn Wolden calls those grandma antics ‘fibre shenanigans’. I love that.
Netflix and spinning is a winning combination. It takes a surprisingly short time to graduate from hyperfocused inchworming yourself through a braid to relaxed spinning while binge watching. I’d start with rewatching something rather than an entirely new, gripping, toe-curling and butt-clenching episode or movie though. Especially on a treadle wheel. After a bit, it doesn’t matter so much. But that first time or two? I’d recommend it.
@@eddavanleemputten9232 Absolutely 👍. Rewatch Ing something you have seen a few times helps you to divide your attention better between Netflix and spinning. Also, I am german but I watch a lot of english content. So.... I could never watch Peaky blinders while spinning because of the strong accents so thats something to keep in Mind 😅. Never watch anything where you would need subtitles for 🤣
@@blackhagalaz - I’m Belgian (Flemish), and am lucky enough never to need subtitles for anything in German, English, French or Dutch. But you’re right about subtitles: they’d definitely be a distraction that’s highly incompatible with spinning when starting out and perhaps even for an experienced spinner! Unless you’re a VERY fast reader!
I’d also advise to stop spinning in a public place where you can hear conversations between others and the conversation you happen to catch goes sideways. Waaaaaay too easy to get over-invested and the result can be fiber-barf on your spindle or bobbin. Been there. The result wasn’t pretty. The impromptu real life drama was entertaining, I have to admit… but was it worth the fibre disaster? Not so sure. 🙈
This is so fun to watch! I live in a region of Sweden that used to be famous for growing and refining flax so it is a big part of our local culture. There is a project to lift this heritage even more, where anyone can get seeds to grow a square meter of the special flax for weaving and then meeting up with others to learn how to process it like back in the days. I’m so excited to see you really going back to basics with flax 🤩
Is there tourism around learning the way it was done there and learning your regional style?
@@C.L.Hinton yes!
I spin my own alpaca and sheep wool. I adore my own spinning wheel. Her name is Gert. Once spun, the yarn I crochet into blankets. Everything done on our farm. From my own alpacas and sheep. So well done on starting your spinning journey Bernadette ❤️
My big wheel is named Sleeping Beauty, she looks like the wheel from the story. My travel wheel doesn't have a name yet, I have only had her for a few months.
@@loewenalia I love your big wheels name 😀❤️ I am at the stage in my life now at 54. I would love a smaller travelling one, that I could pop in my horse drawn cart for country ambles. I feel it takes time finding the right name. It took me about 2 years to find Gert’s name. She certainly has a cheeky spirit about her. I am sure some days she doesn’t think I should be spinning. As when I start it just seem as comfortable. So I move to my crochet. I am sure her old wood sighs thank you 😀❤️
@@loewenaliaMy big wheel is Dolly, my travel is Betty, and I have a non-functional gal who goes by Millie. I love that we're out here naming our inanimate objects we spend so much time working with!
PS My sewing machine is Ethel.😂
@@cathcoll7961 My big wheel does not like to move. When I move her to vacuum I have to spend time adjusting her after moving. She is on the mat and I just pull the mat across the carpet. I need to spin more but my corgi seems to think that when I sit at my wheel she needs ALL the attention.
7:27 I can’t agree more with how important and interesting listening to the “sounds of history” is, it’s such an important thing that I don’t think many people stop to consider when they see old photographs or paintings and stuff like that
In fact I’d love to hear a longer (professional?) recording of this spinning wheel
Watching this is a good reminder of just how much we take for granted - even those of us who sew usually can buy whatever thread and fabric we want in any colour, which is mind boggling when you consider how hard it would have been to do the most basic things.
The flax thread looks so much like grey hair, it's like the friendly grandmotherly spirit of all spinners is propped up beside you as you work
Ever heard of a flaxen blondes? That's where it comes from.
@@parkerbrown-nesbit1747 Now we would call it dirty blonde, which I never liked. flaxen sounds much better. It was assigned to people with light brown hair that easily sun bleached to blonde on top. Not to silver grey hair, which seems more appropriate.
@@rich1051414 IIRC, linen fiber can have either warm or cool undertones, depending on the water used during the retting process (rainwater vs. well water.)
Tow head (someone with extremely white blonde hair) comes from flax, also. There are two types of fiber that come from flax, line flax that is spun into fine linen threads, and the shorter fibers are called tow, that usually make a coarser twine or yarn
@@jw8223 You beat me to it. "Tow-headed" also had connotations of unkempt appearance, often a lad who worked hard outdoors.
Wow. Bernadette is taking sustainable fashion to the next level. Making your own thread!
Next level is learning how to dye it. ❤😉
Considering some of the mad experiments she has brewed up in her kitchen, I bet dye work (with natural materials!) is next !
@@m.maclellan7147- A good number of recipes still exist.
Ohhhh, yessssssssss ♥
Videos like this are why are you THE Victorian Mob Boss of the Internet!!!! I am literally watching this while I sew false buttons onto a victorian inspired skirt I am making from a bedsheet I dyed. Which BTW I wouldn't have had the courage to try without your videos. Thank You!
That sounds very cool, well done you ❤
Your reflections on the historical connections felt by participating in the fiber arts really resonated with me. My mom taught me how to crochet but I never really had a community where I could gather resources and learn about innovative techniques but now that I've moved to the UK I'm finding loads of resources, communities, and even the local knitting groups are a source of knowledge and community that I cherish. I hope you enjoy your new spinning journey!
As someone who has been spinning for about 15 years, this is going to be so interesting to watch! I run an ethical yarn shop with a victorian/cozy vibe and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you get on with flax! It's a very fun but challenging fibre to work with :)
So THAT'S what they mean by "flaxen hair". I never knew what flax looked like! I always figured it was more like cotton
There was line flax and tow flax (still is). Line flax is the long, very nicely behaved stuff, and then we called the fabric line-in, or linen. The tow flax is short and coarse, and was used to make rope- then we called it "tow rope". From that we get "tow headed" kids, and "tow" as a verb as well as the rope.
@@sherryhassler5932 Thank you for this information.
Some naturally/ old, old way processed flax can have this golden color with an almost silk like sheen as well.
@@yalissa73 It depends on how it's retted (rotted). If it's kept in standing water, it turns one color, if it's in a river, it turns a different sheen- one of them turns gold, the other silver and I can't remember which is which.
Thanks for this comment. I looked at that and kept feeling like she stole some of Rapunzel's hair. 😂
2023: Bernadette spins linen thread
2028: Bernadette mines the ore, smelts the iron, fires the blooms, and carbonizes the steel which is forged into the scythe that mows the flax.
Look, the crafty life is a dangerously slippery slope…
@@bernadettebanner I hear ya buddy, I hear ya. I started off as a good honest wastrel with nothing on my mind but the next wench and the next drink. And look at me now! A steady job as a tradesman, and about 65 vintage sewing machines. Madness, I say, madness.
But for flax being pulled from the field, roots and all, I can definitely envision it. :)
@@professorrhyyt3689yes 100%! Would love to see a ”field to thread” journey of flax for Bernadette :)))
It's a short leap to the woodworking skills to make the wheel(s) you discover you actually want.
A trick for smoother plied thread: re-wind your singles before plying so the first fiber you ply is the first section of singles spun. Now your hands will be smoothing down the plied thread in the same direction that it smoothed the singles!
The natural progression of her channel is eventually creating her own historically accurate materials, so I’m unsurprised, but VERY HAPPY SHES DOING IT. love to see it. ❤
My mother took a trip to New Zealand many years ago and brought back an Ashford Castle wheel. She took some lessons, but she never really pursued it. After she died, I spent some time with an elderly neighbor who knew how to spin & she encouraged me to learn. It seemed silly since I didn’t know how to knit and what would I do with the yarn if I couldn’t knit, so I had to learn both crafts at the same time, lol. I do remember being quite tense, as I was initially learning to spin, and that advice to relax your shoulders? Stellar! The other thing I noticed is, when I first started out, I spun quite a bulky yarn, but as I got more experienced, I got so that I could spin a much finer yarn so that by the time I double plied it, it was a worsted weight yarn. However, I was never able to go back and spin a bulky yarn again! I finally gave it all up when the wheel got out of alignment & wouldn’t spin correctly. I took it to a local spinning guild, and they worked on it, but could never get it to work right again. It was something that I enjoyed & I made a few garments out of the resulting yarn, which was very satisfying. This comment is nine months late, so I have no idea if you kept up with the spinning, but I hope you did.😊
I never fully appreciated the sheer volume of human labor it took to produce textiles until I watched this. Just imagining someone making all the thread and all the fabric to create a single dress... that would be the work of weeks, for one garment. Amazing to see. Thanks for helping me learn that!
Oh, that speech about the sounds and the language of the past still living through the machines and tools that have survived really hit my heart good. And very interesting note about how saliva affects the fibers, I was wondering about it being used instead of plain water just because of this story I was told as a kid, titled something like "The Three Spinners" (about three old spinners, each one of them with a physical modification caused by decades in the trade: one with a big foot after pressing the pedal, another with big thick fingers from twisting the fibers... and one with a big lower lip from licking the fingers so as to wet the fibers!) so the use of saliva to spin is definitely part of folk tales!
This is a world I know nothing about but I loved the little taste you gave us , and of course the presentation is lovely and aesthetically pleasing while still being clear and informative.
P.D. please tell Heathcliff I love their vibes and I'm a big fan of their hair style!
I'm revising my historical novel about Julian of Norwich, and when I heard Bernadette say that, I spontaneously shouted, "YES!"
Beatrix Potter uses this in a story in "The Fairy Caravan" where an old fairy helps a lazy youg girl with her spinning so she can marry her love. Quite suggestive story in many ways, although it goes over the heads of young readers, I'm sure. If you can get a copy of this book, with illustrations by Miss Potter (it's quite rare) you will love all the old stories of her beloved Lake District. It's way overlooked and I think one of the best of her books.
Saliva is traditionally used in many fiber arts. When working with wool and your yarn breaks, one of the easiest joins you can do is a spit splice. I'm not sure of the science of it, but for a prettier join, intertwine the plies and spit on them. Then rub it firmly between your palms and it will felt together. You can just overlap the yarn ends if you don't care about the look of the join. It holds well enough to keep working and makes for fewer ends to work in.
salivary enzymes are extremely useful in pretty much all fiber art, as it helps immensely with the breaking down of the actual molecular bonds in the fiber and bonding them together. salivary activated paints, dyes, and glue (think stamps!) have existed for literally thousands of years.
I learned in the first metal smithing class I took that saliva is a useful lubricant to use on the saw blade when sawing through a piece of metal. There are commercially available lubricants, too, of course, that are "more hygienic." If the piece is going to be soldered in a gas flame, any germs, whether viral or bacterial, are burned off in that process.
As always I am incredibly impressed not only with your passion to learn new skills and document that learning process, but with your dedication and perseverance in the learning process!
Time and again you keep going despite set backs and frustrations in the learning, creative, or construction process, and that is just such an inspiration for the rest of us who also struggle with the process! If Bernadette doesn’t give up, than neither will I! ❤
Beautiful sentiment, and I agree with you!❤
I want more videos of guests teaching you how to do things! This was so much fun to watch!
Oh, I love a bit of wheel spinning, It’s so much faster than a drop spindle. Go you!
If I may add my advice: Keep your beginning spinning! You'd be surprised that you will find a use for it eventually even if it's slubby and whatever. And it's a good reminder of how far you have come! I think you'll find it pleasing to spin your own yarn too if you knit or weave. Happy spinning!
I knitted a baby cardigan with my first spun yarn. No baby could have worn it as the fibre was far too scratchy. I was so pleased with it and was keeping it but my sister, bless her, was helping me when I was recovering from surgery and put my precious knitting in the washing machine and when it came out it was just a felted mess!
Ahh, so this is the 'threads' everyone has been talking about. Bernadette taking the fight to Elon Musk and winning 😌✊
😂 underrated comment award 🏆
HIGHLY underrated comment.
@@cheekyb71 for sure!!
Lovely
Lol 😂 NOW I understand 😏
All I can say with tears in my eyes: Congratulations. You have such a great new skill! Bernadette you bring me so much joy and encouragement! You have rejoiced the heart of an old man! Thank you!
Wow that is wonderful, you cleaver lady.
Your smile when you saw your first plied thread is priceless. I’m a long time spinner and I love watching others learn to spin. There is something so magical about turning a cloud of fiber into something wearable or functional in a whole new way. I love that social media allows us to share these moments.
🌸🙏🏼🌸
I taught myself how to spin from books when I was a teenager, I am thoroughly impressed how quickly you picked this up. I’ve been spinning for 20 years now and I haven’t touched Flax because I’m intimidated by it, and I love the feel of wool and silks, and working with them. I just happen to be reading some of the history on flax spinning. Ancient Egyptians were best at this art, the finest linens, The threads are spun one fibre thin. They had a bowl with a loop at the bottom where you would put your linen inside and the fibres would go through the water under the loop as you spin. They used a drop spindle, I understand it was spun by rolling it down the thigh, but there was a very specific reason for the kind of drop spindle they used in the way that the fibres go so that they’re less likely to come apart. Personally I find it easier to make a really fine things on a drop spindle versus a spinning wheel.
That is how I spin my drop spindles by rolling them down my thigh. The spin lasts so much longer than flicking with my fingers.
Spinning is such a cool skill. Spinning whorls are found in every archeological site, this is something people were doing for hundreds of years. They were spending long winter days with spindle, and then waving and sawing it together. It gives a very new level of appreciation for their work - how many hours have to go into the simplest garment even, when you have to go through all this process.
Fun fact, in (older) Polish you can have relative by sword (your father side), or by distaff (mother side). I remember learning what distaff actually is and having this "ohh, I get it now" moment :D
The expressoin 'the distaff side" exists in English too, but I don't think there is an equvalent of 'by the sword'. Thank you!
I simply love the way she compared learning a new skill to learning the mannerisms of a pet! It’s such a good comparison!
Especially with a skill like this, you really seem to have learn how to "read" the fiber and thread you're working with
I’m a bad piggy parent. I didn’t learn that much about my cavies.
Sidebar: for anyone looking to buy a used wheel, watch out for decorative ones from the 70s. My dad got me one from a garage sale, and I _could not_ figure out how to get it working. I eventually dragged it out to the park to ask the local SCA, and they explained that it had never been made to function. It didn't have an orifice for the yarn to pass through, and it could scarcely treadle.
Really anyone looking to buy an antique should ask someone knowledgeable to look over the wheel. There are many out there that are intact, but so many that are missing vital parts. Some of those parts can be remade by a talented woodworker (and some people have been experimenting with 3D printing), but there are a lot of bits where if they are gone, the wheel is pretty much no longer functional.
That's what Evie would call a spinning wheel shaped object. She has done a video on them.
Some sellers think a wheel is working because the treadle turns the wheel. If the seller can't tell anything about the wheel and how it spins then it is best left alone. I have seen many adverts saying 'Working Vintage (or Antique) Spinning Wheel for sale' but it can be seen in the photograph that there is no flyer or bobbin! I expect many have found themselves in the same position as you did. I would always tell anyone wanting to buy one to buy from someone knowledgeable, or get them to help you but they might not think of that if they knew nobody who spins. It reminds me of The Good Life, a very funny comedy series here in UK where a couple decide to live simply, making and growing their own food. When their next door neighbour was going to buy a spinning wheel they got excited at the prospect of spinning yarn but were so upset when it turned out to be a musical ornament!
Whenever I think of spinning, I always think of Spirited Away and Zeniba's warm/cozy cottage in the swamp. It's so beautiful to watch something so delicate and though I know how much effort goes into it (as a fellow craftwoman), it always looks so... effortless and calming. I can just imagine how much focus goes into making sure whatever you're spinning works and doesn't just fall apart.
I also have to say I love the sound of the wheel as well
You are literally who i wanna be when i grow up evwn tho im closer to 40 than 30 lol. Literally discovered u randomly and your fashion, sewing, spinning, everything i dream of
My mom used to learn how to spin and weave, it was very cool seeing her explore such an ancient craft as a hobby. Sadly, nowadays the spinning wheel sits unused, but everstime I see it I remember her joy and pride of learning how to do it, the hours spent reseaching and then telling me about it, her pure exitement over it. Sewing and knitting (and soemday, hopefully spinning and weaving) makes me feel really close to her 😔
I tried to teach my mother to knit. The experience was... not a joyful one.
Well you have a reason to pick it up and learn.
Oh, I'm excited, a video about traditional spinning. Watching this brings back memories with my grandmother. She owned a spinning wheel which she used to make yarn from raw wool from the sheep she was keeping. I once tried it when I was a little girl but I didn't manage to get an even thread out of it. You could call my produce 'effect wool'. Spinning is an art. For her, it was a form of meditation, for me, it was stressful.
She passed away in 2008, aged 94, but I still remember her sitting at her spinning wheel, murmuring some prayers under her breath as she spun the woollen yarn on cold winter evenings.
I'm really impressed that you go for fine threads for starters. I found wool pretty difficult when I was 10 years old. Kudos to your assistant for helping you. They do a great job :)
I’m currently teaching myself how to use my great great aunt’s 1904 singer treadle sewing machine. There are days I want to cry because I wish I had an older person to help me with it. It’s crazy to think about how, once upon a time, you not only would have learned to do these sorts of skills from your mother or grandmother but often times on the machine she would have been using for years. The years of experience on a machine that they know intimately would be such an amazing way to learn. So much ancestral knowledge was lost to history with the dawn of the industrial revolution. I love seeing people returning to these skills to help preserve and renew them.
I also use the treadle machine my great-great grandmother used, and her mother, and her mother back to the 1860s when it was made (patent is 1861). My grandmother and great grandmother did not sew on it, but they kept it to pass down. I'm the first to make anything with it in over 50 years. Its an interesting feeling to be connected and yet not connected at all to your family through heirlooms.
A few years ago nobody wanted old sewing machines and market stalls had so many for a very low price. Now everyone wants them and there are none for sale, at least where I live anyway. I learned to sew as a child on my mother's treadle sewing machine, so, when I bought my first spinning wheel, I had no difficulty treadling. When I was at school and we were sewing all the bossy children grabbed the electric sewing machines and my friend and I were left with one hand wound one and one treadle machine. The snooty teacher told us she had no idea so we would have to work it out for ourselves. She was amazed when we just settled in and got on with our work. I'm sure she thought we would sit there doing nothing while she paid all her attention to the others.
it is so fun to spin your own yarn and thread. I find that my love for my garments are twice as extreme when i know that i have made my own thread.
I show the craft on a medieval market and all that i have made can then be past on to another person who weave or sew with it. Its so fun!
In an earlier video you made you told us all to never stop learning. I love how you back up your words with actions. I can't imagine how stressful it must have been for you to learn something new in front of millions of viewers, but you did it! You are a very strong person. Thank you for being vulnerable and so humble. It really displays your inner strength. Thank you also for demonstrating to all of us not to be afraid of failure. It's a learning opportunity. You are a wonderful teacher 🤗
The spinning wheel does make a very relaxing and satisfying sound. And congratulations on creating usable thread in only a few weeks! I've only used spindles and still struggle to make yarn after a lot more than a few weeks of trial and error. :)
It sounds very much like a cat purring, doesn't it?😺
@@professorrhyyt3689 it does!! That makes it even better.
Bernadette: has been sewing all her life, made a career of it
Also Bernadette: Wow! It’s thread!!!
Really, one of the best things about learning a new craft is the sense of new appreciation and wonderment about the most common things.
I was taught by an old Savile Row tailor to iron my linen thread after waxing it, it makes a world of difference to how it then handles when subsequently sewing with it, in a good way.
Huh, that makes sense for a few reasons.You're resetting the way the fibers want to set within the twist itself, addressing kinks, AND melting the wax to force it to soak in deeper and more evenly.
I loved watching you learn this wonderful skill! One thing I didn't see in any comments as a fellow antique wheel user, it is very important to be gentle with your wheel and oil it frequently just the way you do with an older sewing machine. I actually use sewing machine oil for this. It makes spinning so much easier (and quieter), especially on a double-drive wheel. Every point where something moves should be oiled regularly, like every 40 hours of spinning or so, and giving the wood some love and care once or twice a year is a good idea too. I use a beeswax/coconut oil mix on my wheel, take it apart, wipe the pieces down with a damp cloth, let them dry, cover them in the wood conditioner, let it sit for a while, then rub in with a dry cloth. This will keep the oil from drying out and breaking.
Wonderful that people like yourself, wanting to keep these skills alive.
You did amazingly well, especially as you’ve chosen probably the hardest way to learn to spin. You broke all the rules, not starting with a drop spindle, starting with a second hand antique wheel instead of a modern one and spinning flax straight off. Yet you made some really good thread from day one. I’ve been spinning for about 15 years so I have an idea of what I’m looking at and I’m really impressed by what you have accomplished. Keep spinning, you have a natural affinity for it I think. 😊
I remember my Mom spinning wool as a kid. She always made it look so easy haha
We did start to finish; shearing the sheep all the way to knitting the wool socks.
Thanks for reminder of fond memories 😊
Lovely wheel, great spinning! And excellent advice from JillianEve! What helped me a lot was preparing the flax on the distaff carefully. I always re-hackle a new strick, or comb it with a dog comb. And I separate out the fibres carefully before winding them onto the distaff. Also, making a smaller bouffante on the distaff helps. Advice from a very experienced flax spinner was not to prepare more fibre than you can spin in a day.
Im sure others have mentioned that preparing a distaff with well combed very carefully laid down fiber is very important to getting a very smooth thread. also the speed of spinning to achieve a workable yarn or thread is much higher for cotton, flax or silk. this why one learns on wool, Bless your soul for jumping to advanced skills Very bold
I know nothing about sewing or spinning. I'm just a curious onlooker amazed with the ingenuity of humanity. Watching this video makes me think of one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. It's called, "Clothesline." It's about 30 minutes long and is about the overlooked minutiae of washing and drying and caring for clothes before the invention of the washing machine. Without "women's work" we would not have civilization.
Heathcliff is an absolute gem
So sweet to see!! My grandmother taught me to spin when I was about 5-6, and I still have our family spinning wheel that has been passed down through 7 generations of women.
I just have to say: I absolutely fell in love with this channel and creator. It’s big channel production value with a small creator coziness and quaintness. I really feel like I’m sitting with a friend when I watch this videos while handsewing. And SO EDUCATIONAL 💝💝💝
B is a real gem 💎
I also love how much she respects history and how people connected through textiles. I'm not a fashion oriented person, but I enjoy watching a quirky yet classy person create historical items and explore the resources that make the items.
I have been teaching myself how to drop spin tooo! My grandmother used to spin her own yarn, then weave it into fabric. She also dyed her own thread with garden vegs.
As a handspinner, I found this very fun and interesting to watch. Whoever films for you does a wonderful job. Beautifully done.
When you start doing your own tread, the sense of « homemade » take a new meaning ❤
Wow. I never really understood how tricky it was to use a spinning wheel. I have much more respect for those who did this throughout history, and for those who keep this amazing skill alive.
Having only ever spun wool, I'm more than a little intimidated by linen. It is neat to watch your improvement. Nicely done.
Great to see how it works. A friend of mine has tea towel made of linen which was woven by her grandma (the granny also made the thread)
Its her most precious heritage 🤗
1st time viewer, so happy there are people like you keeping this art alive.
A tip for your friend: if the wheel is turning back the other direction, chances are you aren't pushing the treadle all the way to the bottom. The footman has to go all the way to the bottom of it's rotation or it'll swing back the other way. Their drop spindling looks amazing! Great job to you both!
oh! like the motor in an elliptical machine!!
@@georgeharrisonfricklas7927 I believe so, yes!
I look forward to the day where you craft an item of clothing completely by hand, fabric, needles, and even the stitching techniques. Amazing work as always Bernadette :3
But does it count if she hasn't actually grown the flax?
@@renastone9355 Unfortunately, flax does not lend itself to urban gardening.
As a spinner and teacher for 15+ years (learned from TH-cam after age 30), it's really nice to see spinning handled in a somewhat mainstream arena! And hurray for some crossover with JillianEve!
This was SO soothing to watch! It's incredible to watch you learn it so quickly - I kept thinking how necessary apprenticeships must have been for these types of things, learning from others, like Jillian taught you. As someone who studies sociolinguistics, I loved your reflections on the sounds, the "languages" of time past, and how we've lost them to time. Thank you for sharing!
I once made this journey, and the (lack of) differences between spinning flax and spinning hemp....
Made me quite happy once the US stopped its ban on hemp cloth so I could simply buy what I needed😅
Bird sounds and rain in the background make almost all tasks easier, arthritis and fibromyalgia have changed my hobbies however.
Thanks for another great video Bernadette!!!
(Please let your sibling know that the editing is continuing to evolve and exceed expectations)
I teach spinning, and always tell students to minimize the number of battles they are fighting at one time; concentrate on your own learning curve, and don’t add the battle of bad materials to that. I was so pleased to see how quickly you got to that point on your own! Nicely done indeed.
I have never thought of watching crafting videos on TH-cam or other social media platforms as part of the tradition of handing down skills. But it is absolutely that! Even if I never spin flax myself I do know something about it and have a huge appreciation for those that did and still do. Someone needs to give you a tv series!
I'm so happy you've decided to learn how to spin! Its a dying art, and the old ladies in my spinning guild were happy that somebody young wanted to learn lol. Look around in your area to see if you've got a spinner's guild nearby. Its really fun to get together and spin with other people! There will most likely be experienced spinners there who would be happy to answer any questions you have, and to show you all sorts of tips and tricks! Also, an interesting video to see would be you dyeing the thread that you've spun!
It is not a dying art where I am! Youngsters, oldsters and everything in between at our guild! There are lots of other guilds here as well.
Bernadette you have NO idea the joy my heart had when you decided to learn how to spin with flax. It's secretly my wish to grow and eventually weave into my own fabric.
I think it's absolutely amazing that there are people willing to learn theye skills today and keep these techniques alive today.