Perhaps you are wondering: what ELSE did I do on my vacation? I saw people SPIN at the Pioneer Village in Spring Mill State Park. I talked for a while with a very nice lady who was baking corn bread and beans in a fireplace. The house she was in had several skeins of her handspun hanging around on the walls and several had been dyed with natural dyes. We talked about the cochineal sample, which was pink, and I asked her why the sample in the Nature Center weaving was so red. She said for the red sample, they mixed in STALE URINE and the acid turned the dye red. The pink was just the straight insect matter. As if that weren’t quite gross enough.
However, she told me she prefers wool that is sheep-colored and pulled out several balls that she had spun. She told me what kind of sheep each came from, and some of the sheep she knew on a first-name basis. She had knitted many of the shawls and things I had noticed in the displays all over the village. The shawl in the Gardener’s House was done at a HUGE gauge -- about 1.5 sts/ 1 inch. She had combined two yarns she’d spun bulky because the curator (I’m not sure that is the right term) had told her she wanted something really big and heavy for that room.
There is a Mercantile in the Village where they sell stuff made there by the re-enactors but there was NO handspun yarn. Frankly, I think that is an opportunity going to waste.
Oh, oh! Something else -- in the museum part there were displays of antique objects under glass, including a pair of lace baby stockings and child’s mittens. The stockings were a cotton blend, I think, and the lace pattern was very simple, just bands of stockinette alternated with rows of eyelets at a gauge of about 10 or 12 sts/ 1 inch. The heel looked like a Dutch heel and the toe was round with a swirl pattern.
The mittens were done in wool at about 14 sts/ 1 inch with a plain stockinette cuff and a “sore thumb.” I don’t know what kept the cuff from rolling unless it was the stranding of the color pattern. The color pattern was simple but very pretty -- an allover windowpane pattern with the “windows” pale pink and the “panes” white.
However, she told me she prefers wool that is sheep-colored and pulled out several balls that she had spun. She told me what kind of sheep each came from, and some of the sheep she knew on a first-name basis. She had knitted many of the shawls and things I had noticed in the displays all over the village. The shawl in the Gardener’s House was done at a HUGE gauge -- about 1.5 sts/ 1 inch. She had combined two yarns she’d spun bulky because the curator (I’m not sure that is the right term) had told her she wanted something really big and heavy for that room.
There is a Mercantile in the Village where they sell stuff made there by the re-enactors but there was NO handspun yarn. Frankly, I think that is an opportunity going to waste.
Oh, oh! Something else -- in the museum part there were displays of antique objects under glass, including a pair of lace baby stockings and child’s mittens. The stockings were a cotton blend, I think, and the lace pattern was very simple, just bands of stockinette alternated with rows of eyelets at a gauge of about 10 or 12 sts/ 1 inch. The heel looked like a Dutch heel and the toe was round with a swirl pattern.
The mittens were done in wool at about 14 sts/ 1 inch with a plain stockinette cuff and a “sore thumb.” I don’t know what kept the cuff from rolling unless it was the stranding of the color pattern. The color pattern was simple but very pretty -- an allover windowpane pattern with the “windows” pale pink and the “panes” white.
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