18th-century American colonial flax-spinning demonstration
This is part of a continuing series of email letters exchanged with my Swedish friend, Absinthia. To see the whole series, start with Living a Simple Life.
Things to Make at Home: Clothes
Dear Absinthia,
It seems like a
constant battle to have enough time to cook from scratch, keep the house clean
using natural materials, and still get all my money-making work done. I wish
life in America wasn’t so expensive, but we’ve got to bring in enough money to
pay for the required things where we live… like taxes, wind and flood insurance
at the coast, health insurance, and more. It’s like running around in an endless
circle.
What do you make
for yourself that other people buy--foods, clothing, home items, skin care
products, cleaning products, etc.?
- amanda
Hello!
Oh
boy, this took some time for me to think about. Since we seriously consciously
started making our own stuff, we have lowered our costs for living quite
considerably!
Ok,
let´s start with clothes that I make for us (mostly knitted and crocheted).
-
socks: both thin socks to wear in regular shoes, and heavier socks to wear in
winter boots.
-
skirts: I knit and crochet skirts, and sew some. Knit skirts in flax for the
warm part of the year, and ankle-length wool skirts for the winter. Warm and
cozy :-) By the way, the old traditional underskirts in wool were crocheted
with lovely colorful tapestry crochet borders.
-
t-shirts: mostly knit in flax yarn.
When
I knit or crochet with flax yarn, I often use handspun flax yarn in approx.
fingering weight, and I knit with needles in between 1.5 to 2.5 mm. When I
crochet I go up some in size, to maybe 3.0 mm.
-
sweaters
-
shawls, big and small
-
hats
-
vests
-
dresses
-
mitts and mittens
-
legwarmers and armwarmers
-
cowls
-
slippers
-
felted boots: knit wool. Yes, they
are actually felted wooly boots. We only use them when there is cold snowy
weather. I knit them kind of like the old ugg boots, and then I sew on a number
of layers of felted wool soles. If I feel really ambitious I make the outmost
sole a crocheted one in rope. But mostly I just make it like the traditional
regional “Ludda,” a low-cuffed winter boot in felted wool. When a sole wears
out, I remove it and sew on one or two new ones. If you put on a nice warm wool
sock, and maybe an extra felted inner sole, it is the perfect footwear for
walking around the garden during cold winters. They form so nicely to your
feet. The ugg boots originate from
Australia--they use this kind of boot in the desert. Wool protects very well
from heat, so well that it is used as protective inner layer in firemen's
gloves!
-
felted soles to wear in boots
-
longjohns
-
yarn: we make it ourselves--flax and wool yarn. We buy wool from the local
sheep farmers, comb it, wash it, spin it, and dye it with herbal dye or with
food colors. We spin flax too. It
is quite a lot of work to make flax into yarn. You have to let it rot in a
controllable way to soften the fibers, then crunch it, and then comb it. It is
hard work, but worth it! :-)
-
jewelry: I have been trained in gold- and silversmithery, so I make what I need
myself.
That’s
all for now, there’s more of the list to come!
