Spinning and Weaving in Winter

Because early housewives had so many extra chores to do regarding gardening, gathering, and storing food during the other three seasons, activities, like spinning and weaving, might be saved to do in inclement weather or during the winter months. In more populated areas, some families may hire some of the clothes-making tasks done, but in remote and frontier areas, like in the Appalachians, the family members did it all.

The process was lengthy. Beginning with the raw material they grew (sheep for wool, flax for linen, cotton, or some combination of these) the lady or children would prepare the fibers. Wool would be cleaned, flax hulled, and cotton deseeded. Then, they all needed carding to straighten the fibers and get them going in the same direction.

After going through the processes to make them usable, the fibers were spun into thick threads or yarn. There were two types of spinning wheels in America, the high or walking wheel and the smaller one where the spinner sat beside it. Cooler regions tended to use more of the high wheels, because it seemed better for wool. Europe used more of the smaller, seated type. Coastal areas and more settled areas used both, although those who lived more to the east tended to use the smaller wheel, and those in the west tended to use the high wheel more.

After the spinning came the dyeing. Some kept records of their dye recipes with natural ingredients and mordants, and others went by memory. The range of colors could be extensive, but true blues and a bright red were hard to achieve. Women usually grew a small patch of indigo for the blue. Burgundy reds could be found in nature, but for a bright red, the main ingredient had to be ordered. The best early one came from a small insect indigenous to places like parts of Mexico. Needless to say, not many people had a bright red.

To get cloth, the threads had to be woven. It took skill and patience to string the loom, but the weaving was more fun, especially when weaving patterns. Women kept and shared patterns. This happened in my second novel, Sown in Dark Soil. Emma, Leah, and Patsy, not only saved the weaving until winter, but Emma taught Leah and Patsy some of her patterns. The plaids were Leah's favorite to weave.

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