HAND SPINNING

Franklin Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 21, 23 February 1940, Page 3

HAND SPINNING

AN ANCIENT INDUSTRY SPINNING AND WEAViNG BY ilAN'I.i (By B.A.D. in Sculsman) From Dial remote time when llie Homan introduced LI it* knowledge oi' spinning and weaving into these islands. and until, within the last century, machinery and steampower replaced human skill and human power iii these arts, spinning and weaving were among the main occupations ot' our countryside. Even yet, in some remote Highland clachans, the art of spinning by hand is not lost; even yet, in some villages of Linarkshire and Renfrewshire, the creaking of a handloom at work may still he heard. There has, of recent years, been a revival of interest in the old crafts of our country, and it might be worth while to give some account of the different processes employed in handspinning and weaving. The wool, having been cut and washed, has first to be carded. For this purpose two small wooden boards covered on one side with teeth and lilted with handles are used. The wool in its rough stale is placed between these boards, which are drawn in opposite directions. By ttiis movement. - the wool is arranged lengthwise. By moving one board across the other sideways the wool is released from the teeth of the boards. The carded wool thus lifted out is condensed into a loose but uniform round pipe or ••carding" by rolling on Hie back of the board, and these eardings are now ready for spinning.

Former Use of Tar In olden times, shepherds were liberal with tar, which they applied to protect the sheep during the cold winter months. N'o doubt that gave rise to the following song, which Sir Walter Scott sang on a festive occasion at Galashiels:— Tarry woo, 0 tarry woo, Tarry woo is ill to spin; Card it weil, 0 card it well, Card it weil ere ye begin. When it's cardit, row’d, and spun, Then the work is haflins done: But, when woven', dress’d, and clean

It may be cleadin' for a queen.. In the earliest form of spinning the spindle was Fixed horizontally in bearings, and was rotated by a band from a large wheel, passing round a small pulley or “wliarve” Fixed on the spindle itself. in this form of spinning, by the “muckle wheel" as it is called, thespinner rotates the wheel with one hand, and with the other holds the carded wool which is being spun on to the rotating spindle. An important development was made when a treadle motion was applied, with connecting-rod and crank-axle to drive the wheel with the feet alone. The wheel used was much smaller, and some that have survived show very considerable artistic skill. By

using Ihe treadle the spinner was able to use both bands in spinning the wool on to the spindle or bobbin. In some spinning wheels the carded wool was wound round a stick above the spindle; in others it was held loosely in liie lap and paid out on to the spindle, through the lingers. When both hands were free tjie spinner could even work two spindles simultaneously, one with the right and the other with, the left hand. Much the same

processes were employed in spinning flax into linen thread.

Shetland Knitting When once it was spun on to the spindles or bobbins the wool was ready for weaving. Wool from the Shetland sheep, however, is so fine and soft in texture that it is rarely used for weaving. It is almost entirely worked up into delicate yarns for knitting the well-known Shetland shawls and oilier articles of the kind. The women of Shetland have always been great knitters —a heritage from their. Norse ancestors. In olden times every village had its weaver, and to him the spun wool was usually taken. There was an old Scottish song, to which Burns set new words, and the chorus of it ran: — To the weaver gin ye go, fair maids, To the weaver gin ye go; 1 rede ye right, gang ne’er at night, To the weaver gin ye go.

For the last hundred years at least most weavers in Scotland have used the Jacquard loom. This loom, often a large, • eubrous, unwieldylooking assembly of heavy posts and beams, is capable of producing the most intricate and extended patterns with the same certainty and with almost the same speed as plain cloth. The loom was invented by a Frenchman, Joseph Marie Jacquard, of Lyons, whose attention was drawn to the need of such a loom by Napoleon himself in 1801. The pi’inciple of the Jacquard loom is too involved for explanation here, but it might be pointed out that the key to the pattern being woven is provided by pasteboard cards (Jacquard cards) punctured with holes which pass over the

top of the loom as the pattern is woven The most modern mills still use these Jacquard cards for patterned cloths.

Village Weavers The village weavers usually lived by doing “customer wart:” —that is. they made up cloth for their customers* from their home-made wool (or linen yarn). They were as a rule notable personalities, and played a prominent part in the old Scots rural and burghal life. Power looms seem first to have been used in Brechin in 1810. Their coming foretold the extinction of hand-loom weaving in Scotland. But though machinery came and rendered their craft obsolete and their skill valueless, the weavers struggled on for years in the face of direst poverty. Again and again among old people in country places, one hears traditions of how the weavers turned night into day in their efforts to make a living. One such place was Kirriemuir, whose old weavers appear in many of the early writings of the chronicler of “Thrums.”