October 2022

Studio views, technical fabric, and wool.

In this newsletter you’ll find:

• Studio Views

• Technical fabrics project by Kerstin Neumüller

• Coming next!

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Studio Views

I realized this week that I haven’t taken the “real” camera out of the closet in a few months.

I made some simple cloth for my friends at Secret Tea Time — plain linen, plain weave. Very satisfying.

With my willow pals I learned a new way of making baskets with willow bark.

A compelling old photograph my partner added to his collection last month; I’ve been calling them the ‘broom boys.’ Look at the improvised background! What are those curious flaps above the boy on the right’s knees? Don’t even get me STARTED on the handwriting on the back of another postcard. That E!

When not trying to duplicate this person’s handwriting, I have been trying to clear up loose ends and tidy the studio. I accept that I am feeling tired and burnt out from the furious pace of studio work on my chair project, so I am taking it easy and letting all the things I want to do percolate a bit longer. So far there are a few small things in the work; perhaps some teaching, definitely at least one batch of handwoven things for sale.

I finally used up some of the small triangles cut from my last rag rug project to dream up an abstract quilt.

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Technical Fabric

I’ve really enjoyed reading about Kerstin Neumüller’s Technical Fabric project on her blog this summer. Supported by a craft grant, she’s been making a technical fabric using the unique dual coat of the Icelandic sheep. Kerstin has hand-spun and woven a material that combines the best aspects of this fleece: something weather-proof and tough on the outside but soft and warm inside.

The finished fabric with its two surfaces. Photo by Photo by Kerstin Neumüller, used with permission

Thinking about fabric dovetails nicely with some of my recent reading: Worn; A People’s History of Clothing, by Sofi Thanhauser, and Unravelled; The Life and Death of a Garment, by Maxine Bédat. (I hope to be writing a review of Unravelled in the next issue of the Bulletin of the Guild of Canadian Weavers — stay tuned.)

As you likely already know, our society’s addiction to synthetic textiles is has terrible consequences for our present and future, whether it's from their extraction, use, or undying end-of-life in a landfill somewhere¹. Yet we still insist on 'needing' them! Even I get stuck into this idea that I 'need' to have X to do Y when I have and use perfectly good alternatives everyday. ²

As an all-year all-weather cyclist, I rely on some ‘performance’ and synthetic textiles to keep dry in the rain and snow, but for warmth, I rely on 100% natural fibres like wool. Utilizing the unique properties of heritage sheep breeds like Icelandic sheep makes good sense — sheep grow wool which needs to be sheared for their health and safety, and there’s an astounding range of textures, softnesses, and colours available.

A specific learning experience introduced me to this range. While I was at the Icelandic Textile Centre I was able to dedicate time to learn how to spin. There was a big box of washed fleece and two hand carders, and I learned so much while engaging with the different qualities of tog and thel (let alone the minute variations between different fleeces!). This opened a whole new way of looking at something I’d only ever known as a generalized “wool”.

From Kerstin’s project: Left: The ‘combined’ fleece, Right: Tog (top) and thel (bottom). Photo by Kerstin Neumüller, used with permission

I remember the director of the Textile Centre saying that, back in the day, Icelandic postmen would soak their wool socks in glacial streams — something about the water + body heat helping to generate and retain heat! I don’t know if this is an apocryphal tale or not, though it certainly fits in to the heroic myth of Icelandic postmen.

After all of that thinking about fleece I had to pull out my Icelandic hand spun!

All of that to say that I have found Kerstin’s project very interesting! Perhaps there is some handmade wool rain gear in my future? And that there’s no need to ‘improve’ wool by adding plastic — it’s the original high-performance material.

Read more about this project on Kerstin’s blog — and thanks you Kerstin for letting me share some photographs here.

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Coming Next

Next month I’ll be joining the Guelph Guild of Weavers and Spinners to present on my practice — I’ll be zooming into the meeting (alas not in person!) but I’m looking forward to meeting their members.

There is also a new article coming to the Gist Yarn blog — we took a break over the summer to recharge, but there’s some new stuff coming!

Until then,

Amanda

1. I find it particularly disturbing that micro-plastics are now being found in human blood.

2. Not to mention this article I read in the Guardian about Uniqlo’s 'HeatTech’ range, which, spoiler alert, isn’t so much about having the most advanced poly-whatever fabric, but more about following basic principles of layering and choosing the right materials — things our ancestors have understood for hundreds of years-! https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2022/oct/11/uniqlo-heat-tech-does-it-work