Last summer at Convergence, Marjie Thompson began her lecture with "There were no textile tools on the Mayflower". The first settlers were wealthy people for their time. Spinning WAS probably beneath them - that was peasant work. Already in 1620, the textile "industry" was well established in England, as well as the rest of Europe. (True, the yarn was spun on a spinning wheel by someone and woven on a human powered loom, but in a distributed manufacturing system - each worker plying his/her trade/skill.)
Most people bought their cloth ready to sew in Europe as well as the "colonies". Yes, England had strong ambitions to "supply" the colonies with manufactured goods, but the settlers themselves had no firm ambitions to spin and weave everything they wore. They brought fabric with them to last until the next supply ships could return. A couple I know is working on a book regarding "the rise in spinning and weaving as a response to political/patriotic events" - as they have discovered that flurries of activity in these disciplines seem to have occurred during the Revolutionary War, War of 1823, Civil War - and in recent times, the bi-centennial in 1976. Not to say that there was no home textile production in the colonial U.S. or the 19th century, but the idea that MOST people had textile tools and made their own cloth is wishful thinking. I know that at Sturbridge Village, back in the 80's when we visited, the carding mill spoke of local families bringing their wool to make rolags for spinning rather than card them at home. The first textile mills in the world were in New England. Mill spun and woven textiles were available in the U.S. long before the rest of the world had them. When we visit museums - like the one at Madeleine Island (up on Lake Superior in the middle of nowhere) - the children's clothing from the first governor of the Islands was neatly handsewn from millwoven New England cotton (mid-19th century). Surely if a geographical location would have led the family to produce their own things, this was one. While there are many immigrant spinning wheels and looms in Wisconsin, it is clear from the old photos that when a family landed on the frontier to start a farm, pulling stumps and cutting firewood along with growing enough food for the winter took so much time that store bought textiles were the fabrics of choice. The wool wheel - flax wheel thing is kind of a misnomer. Any flyer wheel spins most anything. Yes, fine knitting wool was spun on "flax wheels" - just because the orifices are not as large as on modern wheels to produce bulky yarns does not mean that wool wasn't used on them. It used to be a sign of poverty to wear handspun articles - the finer and nicer the yarn, the more "professional" the wearer looked. Since flax is difficult to spin single handed on a quill, the great wheels were used mostly for wool. Since spinning wheels are expensive and take up room in a home, it is not to be supposed that a lot of families had more than one, or possibly two spinning wheels. Spinning was always a "lower" occupation - a sideline, if you will, for folks in the country - extra female household members could easily be put to work in a positive manner for a little extra income, as could children and the elderly. Weaving, on the other hand, is a profession and has a longer learning curve. The number of spinning wheels needed to keep one loom in yarn was substantial - meaning that there were far fewer weavers than spinners. And lastly, writing as someone who spent 20 years in another country as an immigrant, many of the spinning wheels and looms found (either brough over on the boat or made here) from old immigrants could have been as much homesickness for something familiar as a tool for necessary production of textiles. I remember how sweet corn took on a whole new meaning when it wasn't available at the produce markets. We started growing our own - something we never do here. Sara von Tresckow Fond du Lac, WI [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit our Web Site: http://www2.powercom.net/~sarav To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
