[Ansteorra-textiles] Introduction

[Cindy Rogers]

Greetings to all you good gentles,

I am Rhiannon Redwulf of the Shire of Mooneschadowe in the far far north of
Ansteorra. I have done some amount of reading about period fibers, fiber
preparation, spinning and weaving. (Enough to teach an introductory class on the
subject of "What you'd want to be spinning, if you're trying to reproduce a
medieval cloth".)

I favor my drop spindle over my wheel because of it's portability, but own both.

I have been teaching myself to spin flax from a distaff most currently. It seems
sensible to spin a fiber that I would perhaps want to wear in Ansteorra, but oh
my, does the spindle fill very slowly. (I also planted some flax a few years
back, but it didn't come up. --And here I had been told it is very hardy in
Ansteorra.)

Reading all of the posts was very interesting. It raised several old dreams that
I've had. I would love to attend a "sheep shearing" at an event. Done in garb
with someone who could tell us all what is going on, and done with hand shears
rather than electric clippers.

Another dream I've had, is of teaching a walking song to a group of women, and
"walking" a hand spun, hand woven wool cloth to full it. ("Walking" a cloth is
done by a group of women kneading the warm wet cloth until the wool has lightly
felted. There are many work songs that the women would sing while they walked
the cloth.)

The discussion of period sheep breeds warms my heart. I would love to see
samples of them someday.

I will be at Steppes this weekend.

Very best,
Rhiannon