Thursday, October 8, 2009

Back to Basics/Zurück zum Ursprung

Sorry to have kept you waiting again - of course I've been doing some textile things inbetween, but somehow, I was in the mood where nothing seemed worthwhile writing about or interesting enough to show ...

I'm not even sure about it now, but I'll share it with you anyway:

At the moment, I'm back to basics, re-reading books like "The Good Life" and "Simple Food for the Good Life" by Helen and Scott Nearing, "Gardening When it Counts" by Steve Solomon, "Spinning in the Old Way" by P.A. Gibson-Roberts and "Wer wandert, braucht nur was er tragen kann" by Anne Donath.

I've finally got my high-whorl handspindle, which I use for spinning a thick, yet soft single yarn out of quite harsh and rustic, 'original' fibers: the dark one is Mongolian sheep, the light one a Russian Karakul sheep blended with camel undercoat fibers.



This is truly slow work, spinning small amounts on the handspindle, then knitting the yarn in 10 stitches small squares, using my chopsticks, in a pattern similar to the one of Scandinavian birchtree bark basket weaving.

Although these are sturdy and archaic fibers (except the camel undercoat), the yarn still turns out quite delicate and comfortable through the handspindle and the loose knitting.

I just felt that I needed a break from all those soft and softest modern silky yarns in pastel colours - and as a friend told me of a journey to the Indian mountains, where she had seen a very basic way of spinning and knitting right out of a basket of raw wool, I knew that I wanted to try that out, too.



As this is a very basic wool, it will certainly be possible to felt it too, if I'd like to.



I haven't decided yet if to use it for a wrapping or for a garment - it has a touch of stone-age to it and might not be everyone's cup of tea - but it is basic, for sure ...

(German summary: Ich experimentiere gerade mit sehr ursprünglicher Wolle - grobe russische und mongolische Schafwolle und teilweise noch sehr fette Lockenwolle, die ich unkardiert direkt verspinne und erst danach wasche ... Es ist eine angenehme Abwechslung zu dem supersoften, pastellfarbenen Designergarnen - und irgendwie brauche ich das jetzt!)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello! i have been in a similar mood - things have been happening so quickly, by the time I think about writing about them it seems old news (and not very interesting old news at that!) AND I have been reading about the good life too (we must live our lives in parallel) - not those books specifically, but similar.

I like the stoneage wool very much - but with the weather starting to heat up - wool is the last thing on my mind at the moment.

Clare Wassermann said...

you are always discovering - thank you for sharing it all

Sara lechner said...

ich liebe die bücher von der good life. ich muss sie wieder lesen, morgen suche ich sie. nach der kunst des stilvollen verarmens bin ich sehr spartanisch worden...
deine wolle sieht so schön aus. die vielen naturfarben sind eine wucht.

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Thank you so much for your encouraging comments, all three of you! :-)

Julie said...

I am catching up after being away on holiday :) I like your stoneage wool a lot too, it's colours are soothing somehow.

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Thank you, Julie! Yes, it's quite fantastict how 'colourful' these natural blends turn out - I'm spinning, washing, drying, knitting ... and my sweater is growing steadily!

Catherine V. Bainbridge said...

Hello, I am new here. Love that grey and cream 12-patch. I can tell I'm going to enjoy this. :)