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Published by Suzy Brown
Arlene Thayer and Suzy Brown bring you a monthly episode of fiber stories! In each episode we dive down a story filled fibery rabbithole to bring you tales from the the past about fiber heroes, villains, mythical characters, and events that helped shape the fiber world as we know it. We obsessively bring up the fibery past to inspire you with lore and legends, real and mythical, that bring to life the inner lives of spinners, weavers, tapestry makers, and yarn making. This is the other side of fiber, a world in which pirates and privateers smuggle wool across the English channel, where womanly wartime spies knit secrets into garments and send vital information to their allies in their knitwear, where mythical beings monitor your spinning efforts throughout the year and bring judgement on your productivity, and also, well, we will have some fun chatting fluff and fiber!
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In which we learn about a woman called Christian Shaw, who as a child of 11, 'rid' her Scottish County of 7 witches, and then went on to singlehandedly improve the quality of Scottish Linen! There may have been some espionage involved, definitely a curse, and the famous linen 'bleaching fields' in the Netherlands. What a tale! References & Further Reading: 1. Levack, Brian P. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe – A broader look at the social and political climate that led to cases like the Bargarran Witch Trials. 2. Beveridge, Craig. Scottish Industrial History: A Study of Textiles and Innovation – Examines the development of the Scottish textile industry, including early industrial espionage. 3. Wikipedia: Christian Shaw – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Shaw https://www.paisley.org.uk/famous-people/christian-shaw/ JOURNAL ARTICLE The Genesis of the Linen Thread Trade H. C. Lawlor Ulster Journal of Archaeology , Third Series, Vol. 6 (1943), pp. 24-34 (11 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/20566424
Arlene and Suzy travel back in time to discover the role of the Fates, the three women more powerful than the gods, who spun the fate of all.
In this episode we delve into the murky world of wool smuggling! We meet some interesting characters and discover just some of the tales and legends they created. It is amazing to think of wool as such a valuable commodity that its trade was protected and limited, and contraband wool bales clandestinely shipped to other countries! (You can also watch the video version of this episode on the Fiberygoodness YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/-gRgl48AqAk ) If you are interested in following up these stories with some more reading, here are some great links to get you started: Rattenbury wrote a complete dairy which became his memoirs (published 1837) can be read here: https://archive.org/details/memoirsasmuggle00rattgoog/page/n2/mode/1up Wadhurst History Society — Wadhurst History Society | The History of Smuggling in Sussex and Kent wadhursthistorysociety.org Mysterious Britain — Brede Place – Mysterious Britain & Ireland mysteriousbritain.co.uk Clare Flynn — Smugglers of Sussex | Clare Flynn clareflynn.co.uk
In this Episode, Arlene shares the dark tale of Frau Perchta, a legendary figure who would observe the work of spinners through the year, and bring punishments to those who did not spin enough for the warping of the looms on the 6th of January. Further reading: Arlene recommends the book "The Old Magic of Christmas" by Linda Raedisch Transcript: https://share.descript.com/view/iRGexvhAcY2
In this episode Arlene and Suzy talk about how trends come and go, a bit of history of yarn crafting, and figure out if Suzy is anti-trend or on-trend!
Arlene and Suzy talk about the gift of handmade! All the things to think about when you are planning projects as gifts, some ideas on things to make, when to start, and how to plan your projects to avoid a last minute rush!
This episode is all about how Arlene and Suzy treat their handspun yarn and knit or woven items to 'finish' them, aka set the twist and 'full'. There is also a video to go with this episode in which Suzy demonstrates a method for removing the twist energy from a single to permanently stabilise it and improve its durability: https://youtu.be/ItevBWY6maQ
We talk about the history of some of our most used fiber preparation tools, and compare old to new!
Suzy and Arlene talk about colour, working with it, using multiple colours together, how to create new palettes, and general 'we love colour' fiber art stuff! Resources mentioned: Book - Confident Color by Leland Recommended to Arlene by an art teacher who taught classes on color theory New Pantone app: Pantone Connect RGB to CMY
In this episode we are talking about 'exploration' as fiber artists, with special guest and Fiberygoodness Artist in Residence Charan Sachar, spinner and potter from 'Creative With Clay" (USA). We talk about how we approach our fiber art through the lens of exploration, experimentation, and discovery.
This is the first episode of our new monthly tinyStudio Fiberygoodness podcast: Tiny Talks! We introduce our aims for the podcast, and spend some time talking about how to organise creative time, and reflect on our crafting. Spinning, knitting, stitching and staying inspired!
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