{"id":759,"date":"2023-09-02T21:59:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T21:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/?p=759"},"modified":"2023-09-03T22:21:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T22:21:28","slug":"a-flaxen-journey-to-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/?p=759","title":{"rendered":"A Flaxen journey to Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I managed to find a little time to have a break to Scotland, to see the Burrell collection in Glasgow and also a rather special exhibition at the V&A in Dundee.
I almost always take a spindle with me when travelling and this time I decided to take a strick of 90 year old flax from Austria just to see how much I could use up, and whatever I made would be used within my teaching in the London Schools. I spun whenever I was travelling or waiting, but it was a holiday as well, so it wasn’t an intensive spinning marathon. I had many, many very interesting conversations, quite a few surreptitious photographs, and even a video, but it was all good and never a problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very memorable moment, I was spinning the train, sitting in an aisle seat, and a small boy saw me and virtually came to a standstill, mouth open and transfixed, I caught the glance of his mother who was delighted, we had a quick chat about the yarn and he returned to his seat. I suspect he might have been 5 or 6 years old, but it is the first time that I’ve managed to cause anyone to freeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


A very interesting discussion on board the last ocean going steam paddle ship with a New Zealand lady whose grandfather, an entrepreneur I was told, used to have a flax farm over there, it transpired that it was actually New Zealand flax\/Phormium and he mainly made ropes and she was unaware that there was a difference with the true flax that I was using, or indeed that it is considered an heritage source of fibre by the Maori. She was fascinated an delighted to find out a little more about her history, and it was lovely way for me to while away some time with her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst visiting the Burrell Collection, a first for me, to see a wonderful collection of a somewhat eclectic man spanning thousands of years, I saw a tapestry which called out to me, a woman ridding a donkey through a woodland, holding a child, carrying cooking pots, all whilst spinning on a hand spindle with distaff, wearing a hackle from her belt, leading the domestic animals, all while riding side saddle, with her dog running behind her. There are several interpretations of this, perhaps a woman is good at multitasking, or perhaps doing too much of anything is a bad thing, either way it was a wonderful image from 1470, woven with naturally dyed wool and fine white linen yarns, in remarkably good condition, it might have been the one object I might have taken away with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a lovely break of just a week but got to see a lot of different things, a lot of travelling on public transport which worked very well, and a lot of spinning achieved, not onto the next part of the job – weaving
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starting off with 2 empty spindles and a strick of flax<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Each strick is comprised of several bunches of fibres which need to be separated and loosened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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spinning has begun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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a brief pause on the long train journey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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en plein air – on the sea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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a pause to enjoy the martime landscape<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I can spin even when walking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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a kilt apron is very good for catching the debris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I wonder how many people have spun on the Glasgow Subway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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even in small spaces I don’t waste a chance to spin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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First spindle full, time for the second one<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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second spindle filling nicely<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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spinning in front of a tapestry from 1470 with a multitasking mother<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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an aisle seat is an advantage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Outside the Cathedral, enjoying hte sun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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and time to leave<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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two almost full spindles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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the singles on the niddy-noddy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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finished skein of almost 600 metres<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I managed to find a little time to have a break to Scotland, to see the Burrell collection in Glasgow and also a rather special exhibition at the V&A in Dundee.I almost always take a spindle with me when travelling and this time I decided to take a strick of 90 year old flax from … Continue reading “A Flaxen journey to Scotland”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,20],"tags":[19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":801,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions\/801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}