SC - Strainers and Sieves

[Decker, Terry D.]

>Greetings!  What an excellent idea for topics!  As for strainers, I 
>have found references to sifting things through "lawn" and "linen".  
>This is particularly true of sugar.  The chipped-off crystals from the 
>cone would be ground in a mortar and then sifted and re-sifted through 
>successively-fine weaves of cloth, the grains that remained behind 
>being re-ground.
>
>Now, the dratted part of find a sourc is, that when I find it, I 
>haven't developed a uniform way of marking the location so that the 
>_next_ time the question comes up, I'm as stuck as I was the first 
>time.
>
>Alys Katharine

Here are a couple of posts by Gunnora Hallakarva on Norse sieves from
the Ansteorran mailing list a few months ago.

Bear

The discussion on baking, ovens and bread asked about period
sifters/sieves.  I don't know what anyone else was using, but Ican tell
you
what the Vikings used (and in fact, Swedes in the countryside still use
even today)... they used a round, cup-shaped sieve made by naalbinding,
utilizing horsehair fiber.  Such sieves were used for sifting flour, and
for straining milk.  Milk straining is how most seem to be used in the
present day, but archaeological examples have been found with ground
grain
trapped in the fibers.


Wes ?u Hel (Waes Thu Hael)

::GUNNORA::

Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde


Stephan li Rous asked what naalbinding was.

Naalbinding is also known as "single-needle knitting."  The technique
produces a looped fabric, much as true knitting or crochet does.
Naalbinding is an extremely ancient technique and examples can be found
in
almost every culture.  Certainly it existed in the Egypt of the pharohs,
as
well as the Viking Age. 

Mistress Alix Tiburga has been working on developing instructions with
step-by-step diagrams for the technique, which is extremely simple to do
but very difficult to explain without a hands-on demonstration.
ideally,
the technique uses a thick needle with a big eye, often made of antler
or
bone, but a tapestry needle can be substituted in a pinch.

A class in the technique was taught at 3YC.  Baroness Thordis
Hakonarsdatter and Master Ragnar Ulfgarsson brought it back to
Ansteorra.
Thordis taught me, I taught Rhiane and Alix, and Alix has gone nuts and
is
teaching anyone else she can get to sit still long enough.  

You can buy expensive $15 needles direct from Iceland on the web
(http://www.dmv.com/~iceland/tools/nale.html, or see
http://www.dmv.com/~iceland/instructions/gloves.html for a photo of the
finished fabric), but I've been making them from antler from fallow deer
and from whitetail deer for no cost other than the labor.  The best
needles
to work with are curved near the tip.  Mine looks like a finger crooked
in
a "come here" gesture.  If you want to make your own needles, soak the
antler two days in cold water, then boil them for about an hour or so.
Use
a sharp knife to shape and smooth the needle.  It doesn't need a sharp
point, and in fact does better with a rounded one.  Leave the butt end
large enough for a hole up to 1/4" in diameter.  Drill the hole, and
carefully smooth the edges and inside of the hole.  Sand to finish, and
buff well with beeswax.

I notice that Stephan li Rous actually has some information about
naalbinding in his Floregium files at
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/knitting-msg.html

Martinson and Hald both have good photos of strainers... they are made
of
cow-hair, not horse-hair, to correct my earlier post.

Geijir, Agnes.  Birka III: Die Textilfunde aus den Graben.  Uppsala:
Kungl.
Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akadamien. 1938.

Hald, Margrethe.  Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials: A
Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles.
Archaeological-Historical Series 21. Copenhagen: National Museum of
Denmark.  1980.

Hutchinson, Elaine.  Nalebinding: The History, Origins, Construction and
Use of 'Needle-Binding' with Specific Reference to the 'Coppergate
Sock'.
http://www.ftech.net/~regia/naalbind.htm

Ligon, Linda.  "The Ubiquitous Loop" Piecework.  Jan/Feb 1994. pp.
64-66.

Martinson, Kate.  "Scandinavian Nalbinding: Needle-Looped Fabric." The
Weaver's Journal. Fall 1987. pp. 12-15.  

Nordland, O.  Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting.
Oslo.
1961.

Rutt, Richard.  A History of Handknitting.  Loveland, CO: Interweave
Press.
 1987.

Turnau, Irena.  "The Diffusion of Knitting in Medieval Europe." Cloth
and
Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus
Wilson. Pasold Studies in Textile History 2. eds. B.B. Harte and K. G.
Ponting.  London: Pasold.  1983. pp.  368-389.

Wes ?u Hel (Waes Thu Hael)

::GUNNORA::

============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================