How to Use a Distaff While Sitting

15thcenturyspinning

A common sight in medieval manuscripts is ladies standing while spinning, like this lady spinning wool amongst the sheep.

Also common, is the lady taking a break to spin, like this lady spinning wool amongst the sheep.

Royal 2 B VII f. 307v Margaret spinning

Which sometimes raises the question “How do I use a distaff while sitting?”

Well, there are many answers and the right answer is what works for you.

This lady has a beautiful standing distaff.

Grabow Altarpiece, Bertram von Minden, c 1379-1383

Sometimes the lady clasps the distaff between her knees

1380, Mary spinning

I would love a standing distiff, but I don’t have one yet.  People have asked how I sit with my distaff and as it’s hard to explain I decided to do a video.

This is simply how I sit with my distaff, what works for you may be different. Please feel free…

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Banana Fibre Silk

Seaford Spinners and Weavers

Banana fibre is totally sustainable and  environmentally friendly. Fabric made from banana fibre and banana fibre silk is gaining in popularity as we increase our awareness of how to produce sustainable clothing. Cathy had spun some banana fibre silk into her art yarn and it gives it a sheen . It is a silk substitute and has been in other cultures for quite some time. We weren’t sure about banana fibre and how it was made. Christine , our fibre expert, pointed us in the right direction by sharing the link to the fibretofashion site which is a very handy site to know if you want to know about fibre! The link explains the history of banana fibre and cultural uses because ti is both a strong , reliable fibre and one which can be decorative as well. The video gives you an insight as to how it is converted from…

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I’m joining in with a CAL

Eleanor over at Coastal Crochet blog is very busy person but as a stashbusting project she has started a CAL (crochet a long) this week with only four rows of a blanket to complete each week. Quite achievable don’t you think? I ummed and ahhed and have decided to join in as it will help deplete my acrylic stash  collection plus create a Christmas gift. Win win  😃

I’ve never participated in a CAL before as I feel they are too restricting and I would lose interest. (That’s just me!) But this one fits nicely with my goals this year (see this post Happy 😊 New Year .)

Fancy learning more about it and perhaps join in? Take a look here .

I’m off to choose some yarn

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Misdiagnosed with anxiety, panic attacks or agoraphobia, when you have sensory processing disorder?

Actually Autistic London

Image : https://eatingoffplastic.wordpress.com

Do you cover your ears when the fire alarm goes off? Do you find fluorescent lights unbearable? Can you feel the seams in your clothes and cut the tags off? Does someone smoking a long way away make you feel like you are suffocating? Take the tests below because you might have sensory processing disorder.

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) disrupts the way the brain takes in, organises, and uses the messages received through your senses – sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, balance and body awareness.

You might be hypersensitive and become overwhelmed by what you see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Or you might be hyposensitive and seek out sensations through your senses.

For many years sensory processing disorder was seen as a “symptom” of autism, but sensory differences did not become part of the diagnostic criteria for autism until DSM-5 in 2013. In DSM-5, sensory differences were…

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UFO Confession time 😆

Bekki over at Dartmoor Yarn Company blog confessed to some ufo’s (unfinished objects) in a recent blog post and I foolishly commented that I had one from the 1980’s …Well, you can guess what was said next…!

I do keep my promises, so here we are ready to ‘fess up.

I can’t quite remember when in the eighties it was but probably the middle when my daughter was still little. I had already made her a grandma doll and a matching dress for my daughter for her second Christmas. She loved it and I actually still have it…

She’s a bit tatty and needs her face sponged.

Anyway, better get on with showing the confessional UFO… The pattern…

As far as I got…

Cute face huh?

I doubt I’ll finish it now but I can’t throw that face away. I was so careful with all that stitching. Any suggestions?

💐🌸🌼💐🌸🌼💐🌸🌼💐🌸🌼💐🌸🌼 💐🌸🌼💐🌸🌼 💐🌸🌼💐🌸🌼

Autism and Burnout

Reblogging for me 🙂

I Don’t Know, Sink Crazies Maybe?

Calling aging aspies and auties…

A History of Shawls

For my fibre and textile enthused followers 🙂

julz crafts

This is a really interesting piece I found recently, by Jen of Roving Crafters written in 2016 – I’m not sure if she is still blogging as it seems she was having problems with her eyes in the last post I can find on her site – but there are plenty of free tutorials and other interesting pieces on rovingcrafters.com, and if you want to read the original of this unashamed copy click HERE

Technically the shawl as a garment and as a word comes from 14th century Persia. They were woven rectangles worn over the shoulders and made from kashmiri goat. That’s significant I think because Kashmir was a major trade center. Knowledge and supplies and all sorts of other goodies coming out of India had to go through Kashmir to get to the western world. In fact I personally believe its very likely that the shawl as a garment originated in…

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Cyxus Blue Light Filter Glasses – Review

I thought this could be helpful to some of my followers. Thanks Ever The Crafter for the helpful review 🙂

Ever The Crafter

I don’t think anyone would argue that looking at screens all day isn’t so good for our eyes. For me this is amplified by my illness. Bright lights are difficult for me and within about ten minutes of looking at my phone screen (on the lowest brightness setting) I start to get a headache. Last year whenever I went on my phone I would wear a pair of sunglasses which meant I could go on my phone for about an hour or so before a headache started building.

Well a few weeks ago this happened :

I may have left the glasses on my bed and then leaned on them. They snapped and I was irrationally heartbroken about it. (I get very attached to my things, okay?) especially considering I had about three other pairs of sunglasses lying around but they weren’t the right pair!

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There Is No More Shame In Having Mental Illness Than Having Tonsilltis

Fighting for a Future

The problem we have with talking about mental health is that we still don’t think of it as an equal priority with physical health. This is wrong not simply because it leads to less money being spent on mental health service provision by governments, but also because it fails to see that the whole idea of mental health shouldn’t be an isolated one.

As a species, we love to divide things up. We draw a straight line in a map between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans while the water remains oblivious. We also draw a line between the mental and physical and base our entire system of healthcare on that false division.

Once upon a time, the medical world detailed the makings of the human body by saying there were four distinct humours. Every single health complaint could be explained as an excess or deficiency of one of four distinct…

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