Frisian Frillies

Honestly, forced I was! There was no free will involved here at all. No bidding by myself on Marktplaats on a small-ish (table) loom, no jealous looks whenever I was over at Giny's place for spinning group, who has a beautiful loom in her living room... Really, I couldn't help buying it... A 4-shaft, 70 cm loom, to try and see if weaving is for me... After watching a YouTube video on warps and wefts (once) and putting my thumb up in the air to calculate where to pull the threads through the heddle, I got weaving... As just starting wasn't difficult enough, I decided on doing herringbone instead of linen stitch. Using a cheap sock yarn (losing quite a few on the sides on the way, as they just rubbed and rubbed and then broke), with my lovely Borealis handspun yarn. A small scarf, or something to wrap around my hair. Looking good... And because it's a 30% silk blend, the shimmer is soooo nice! But look, looms are worse than rabbits... Blink and...

Last weekend, we enjoyed a few days away, and because I (almost) always get my way, I got to choose the destination. We went to Avifauna (birds) on the first day and the second day was totally dedicated to Archeon. In this park, they have sections dedicated to the Prehistoric period, Roman times and the Middle Ages. For me, the Prehistoric was just one big salivating trip. Yes, they didn't have electricity, yes, the houses were tiny, they slept with their animals ánd the smoke would suffocate anyone sitting next to the fire, but look at this for a place to spin, weave and craft! You can see the loom on the left and baskets with wool scattered about, with spindles inside. There was nobody to demonstrate at the time, and I just sat there and breathed in the atmosphere. They had a fashion show, showing what amazing clothes they could make even before we invented sewing machines and carding drums. Here you can see fashion in chronological order (from right to left): seal and bea...