Hello and welcome to my blog, 'A Spinster's Life For Me'. This is a blog dedicated to my own journey, personal experiences and frustrations with the fibre arts. I hope for this blog to cover the topics of natural fibres, spinning fibres, tools of the trade, crochet, naalbinding and all other wonderous things related to fibre arts.
I have been on the learning curve of spinning wool for about 12 months and I don't claim to know everything about fibre - in fact, I am a novice on this topic but have had fun learning. I thought that by creating an online space to share my own experience may help others, or if not at least I can have some fun showcasing my own creations :)
I discovered the love of playing with fibre after I wanted to try my hand at naalbinding but couldnt find any wool that was %100 natural and a bulky 1ply (this is not to say that there is no %100 wool around here, as I have since found it but the more major suppliers only provided synthetic or %60 wool/ %40 synthetic). I could have bought some online but I thought that I should spin my own as I had always thought that would be something that I would get around to. I checked out some lovely spinning wheels and realised they were a wee bit off my price range. After doing some research I stumbled across other ancient and traditional methods of spinning wool: SPINDLES! After reading about these other methods of spinning I knew they were for me. I have a somewhat obsessive interest in ancient civilisations, history and ancestry, so primitive methods of spinning just appealed to my interest - and wallet (at least for the initial layout of getting into the fibre arts... I do warn you, once you become obsessed you will want to buy every spindle, wool, wheel, fibre and everything else related to this hobby!)
Now, onto my self proclamation of the spinster lifestyle. Aside from my interest in history, I also enjoy reading up on feminist literature ;)
The word 'spinster' evokes images and ideas of women who are 'unwanted' by men; a woman who is past her 'best years' and who 'can't find a man'. This term 'spinster' has often been used to describe a woman who lives independently and is unmarried, as though the idea of being unmarried is a social nightmare that is best avoided. This attitude implies that a woman is defined by her relationship status, that if a woman chooses to be unmarried then it is obviously because there is something 'wrong' with her so then men don't want her. This mentality is an echo of the religiously zealot dark ages that treated women as nothing but breeding vessels and that their worth was only for marriage, thus if a woman does not get married then she is only worth social judgement and shame because 'no one wants her'. Even though we live in a progressive age and women have many rights today, in Western society and the like, and marriage/conventional relationship unit no longer defines a woman's worth there are still underlying suspicions if a woman is not 'taken' in the sense of a committed relationship. Whispered questions of "Is she a lesbian?", "Why is she still single?", "Can't she keep a man?" and often the idea of spinster is implied or outright verbalised.
Anyway! Moving onto the historical meaning for 'spinster'; it was (and arguably still is) a person who spins wool. Back in yonder, when clothes were not easily accessible as they are today, the women of the village/town/family would have to spin their own fibres to knit/crochet/weave. Cloth, garments and even ship sails were in demand and they weren't created by mass industry until the industrial era where these cloth items could be easily enough purchased - they all needed to be weaved/knitted/felted/etc. It was (and still is!) a time consuming activity - especially when it was highly needed and they couldn't just go down to the local store and pick up a garmet, blanket, sheets and the like for an affordable price.
So as you may have guessed; I like the ironic evolution of the term 'spinster' - for its original meaning of a trade commonly filled as a female role in society to meet the family/community's demand, to its current meaning being loaded with social stigma of an unmarried/childless/independent woman. So thus, with my love of spinning and somewhat radical feminist theory and love of history - I am a proud spinster! ;)
Enough of my rambling, please enjoy my blog. I will try to stay on topic and not go onto too many tangents. But dont be surprised if stories of rural living, animals, cats, mythology, history and feminist thoery make it into this blog from time to time, however, I will attempt to keep it as minimal as possible and related to the fun of fibre!
- Mokosh
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