bone, holly, & wool.

Because Artifacts of a Life is about presenting a collection, I decided that I would spin the thread to sew on the patches… and that I would make the spindle to spin the wool. This was partially driven by my discovery of a doctoral thesis on textile tools found in the Black Earth at Hedeby, and partially because I AM JUST THAT EXTRA.

I used Blue Faced Leicester fiber to spin a lot of the thread, because I had a lot of it. However, it is a modern breed. I also had some Shetland and Gotland fiber, which are ancient breeds, but as the Shetland was carded and therefore made lumpy thread, and the Gotland was very badly compressed and a gigantic pain to pull apart enough to spin, I opted not to use them. I sourced some Manx Loaghtan fiber on Etsy, and it made beautiful thread. It’s now one of my favorite fibers, and I really want to go on a sheep tour of Europe.