Today’s challenge is to photograph my spins to date from the highest point I can, so after redding up (for I am not a domestic creature), here is my handspun from the top of my staircase:
That’s it, in the green box. Whaddaya mean, you can’t see it!?!?!
I am continuing to spin from my Tub of Joy today – nothing more to say on that.
I got an email via Crowdfunder about a project I supported, Fibre to Fabric, which aims to bring back the Northern Irish linen industry. They’ve achieved their goal, but are continuing to collect donations if you fancy supporting them too.
I’m a wee bit peeved at the use of the term “Northern Ireland” in their blurb, as it was more correctly the Ulster linen industry brought to Ireland originally by Huguenot refugees, so it predates Northern Ireland by a couple of centuries. Many farmers all over Ulster and further afield grew a little flax that went into these linen mills. In my genealogical researches, I found that my father’s ancestors were amongst these suppliers, probably to Herdmans’ Mill in Sion Mills. In fact, we employed a couple of women to pre-process the flax: the census lists Cathrine (sic) Cavaney/Cavanagh/Kavanagh (they weren’t too worried about spellings back then) and her daughter Ellen, employed as scutchers. I should have realised there had been some flax grown on our farm, as there was until recently a pond called the “linsteep” at a distance from where the houses were, clearly to be handy for retting the flax whilst simultaneously keeping the smelly process away from the occupants. Though they don’t seem to have been concerned about smelly byres, henhouses and piggeries they built on the farmyard right next to the houses…
Allons-ew…
thornmaiden.com 