The Most Important Tool in Human History & Why No One Knows About It (ft. misogyny)
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
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Dr Jennifer Beamer, Expertly Dyed Art by Science
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Dr Michèle Hayeur Smith, Author of The Valkyries' Loom: The Archaeology of Cloth Production and Female Power in the North Atlantic
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As someone with ADHD who is constantly fidgeting I find this really affirming. Maybe humans aren't meant to sit still!
As a neurodivergent chaos goblin, my spindles, e-spinner and knitting needles have become my fidget spinners of choice. Much better than stimming as I produce something. And the tactile satisfaction of fibre running through my fingers is an extra reward.
I've been wondering about that, too. Along with spinning, our early ancestors also spent immense amounts of time grinding grain by hand, which is also a very repetitive motion.
And, making a few assumptions about what work men did (they would have had to do _something,_ after all), there were plenty of men's jobs, like working stone or polishing stone or metal, or sharpening blades, etc, that would have also called for similar fidgety qualities.
@@resourcedragon
I had a neighbor who liked woodworking and I'd often see him in moments of stillness pull a small piece of wood out of his shirt pocket and work on sanding an edge on it, so there's my bit of anecdotal evidence to back you up! 😅
Neuro spice analyzed as a survival adaptation is a paper I would gladly read
Did you know that they found out that neurodivergence has an evolutionary advantage?
Recent studies show that while neurotypical food gatherers will focus on harvesting all of the fruits, berries, grain, what have you, on a single bush etc, it's the neurodivergent ones (ADHD specifically in these studies) in the group who lose focus on that and explore wider, finding new and better food!
So it's not a 'malfunctioning' glitch in our brains, it's an essential, core part of what helped our early communities thrive and survive. Something else we've lost the ability to appreciate and value.
Schools really miss out on using spinning, sewing, exc. All these things are physics, regular math, history, science, and so much more. To have a physical way to interact with these concepts would be such a powerful tool for teaching. But nooo we have to be all theoretical and “academic” about it.
And yet making clothes has math all over it! It's all geometry and visualizing 3 dimensional shapes. Plus history, if you want.
@@FrogsForBreakfastYes, 3D indeed, and not nice flat surfaces, everything is rounded.
Well, there's always shop for the boys....
@@FrogsForBreakfast Yes it’s practically architecture!
@@hecate235except they got rid of that (shops) right after I graduated, about 30 years ago. It’s all standards and common core. No art, no home economics, no auto, wood or metal shop, no drivers ed, nothing that the kids actually can use in life.
There’s opportunities in the trades, but schools disregard them in favor of the school to college pipeline. (Gotta make sure we saddle them with student loan debt), even if it doesn’t result in a career that can pay the debts.
It’s insane. 🤪
I sometimes wonder if this is where the urge to fiddle with phones comes from. We developed as humans to have busy hands, to have to be working on something even as we rested or socialised and now that necessity isn't there for many of us. Perhaps that is one of the roots of the comfort that crafters feel, something in the back of your ancient brain is worried if you aren't making something!
Well put. When I put down my phone, I seem to immediately replace it with sewing or some other small scale activity.
So we are being distracted?
@user-rn3rn6nl3h I do not know about distracted. I am always accomplishing something, personally. Sewing, repairing, crafting, cooking, gardening... my hands are always moving... especially when it is time to scratch the dogs. Hehe
I like to knit while watching tv or embroider while listening to a podcast, just like I’d do my homework with the radio on. The hyperactive part of my brain needs to be kept distracted to prevent me from getting bored with tv, podcast or homework.
I can crochet for hours with something in the background. I just got a late diagnosis of add. I’ll take something with me if I know I’m going to be sitting for a while.
But it does make sense because that’s how our brains evolved.
There is a German proverb:
"Spinnen am Abend, erquickend und labend.
Spinnen am Morgen macht Kummer und Sorgen."
"Spinning in the evening, refreshing and invigorating.
Spinning in the morning do grief and worry. "
It describes how spinning during "free time" was perceived very positively, everyone did it.
While spinning during working hours was a burden, as it was wage labor that was poorly paid.
Funny thing, since in German Spiders and to spinn are homonyms, most people nowadays think the Proverb is about spiders.
I remember reading that in Germany, women who made a living by spinning were also granted permission to beg!
Anja, you don't know how right you are! My native language is French, and we have a saying that doesn't make much sense: "Araignée du matin, chagrin. Araignée du soir, espoir.” "Araignée” means spider, and maybe this senseless proverb actually comes from a confusion with German, where the same word means spider or spin: "Spinning in the morning, sorrow. Spinning in the evening, hope.” Who knows?
Interesting! It reminds me of the legend of Arachne.
@@AnjaDittmann that would be a super weird proverb that seeing a spider in the evening would be refreshing and invigorating, lol.
I love this lil tidbit. Thank you
There’s a great moment in one of Aristophanes’ comedies where a husband is complaining about his wife because she packs the weft too tightly when weaving and thus costs him too much money. One of those rare peeks in literature into like, the daily life of ancient women.
Dude wanted lower quality to save dough. Always b!tching! 😂
Doubly funny because they would almost certainly sell the cloth produced and a tight weft would sell for much more, so he's complaining about her doing something well that could make him money.
@@jillscott4029no, he wanted to sell a looser weave for the price of the tighter weave but his wife was too honest
Which play? The only one I can recall from Aristophanes is “The Clouds” and only because it presents such a different portrayal of Socrates.
@@MinionofNobody Thesmophoriazusae?
I saw a brief bit of video on the British Antiques Road Show once, where a young girl brought in large ceramic beads, somewhat flattened and with colorful designs and a female name painted around the flat edge of the circumference. They turned out to be antique Italian spindle whorls, often given by a young man to his fiance, with her name painted around the edge. I went online and exhausted Pinterest AND the internet in about 45 minutes! 😅 There a few great photos of these spindle whorls in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and a few other photos... otherwise information is slim pickings.
As I live in Italy, I began to seek out these wheels at antique fairs and shops, with no luck. I hope to search further in towns known for ceramic production, but in the meantime attempted to make my own at a local ceramic studio. It has been a fun project, that is still underway. Wish I could share some photos with you!
Maybe look for "beads"? Maybe others are mislabeled?
I've known about Sir Leonard Woolley for about five minutes, and I have beef with him now too. Thanks for the video!
If Sir Leonard Woolley has a million haters I'm one of them. If he has one hater it's me. If he has 0 haters I have died. If the world is against Sir Leonard Woolley I am with the world, if the world is for Sir Leonard Woolley I am against the world.
Plenty about him to not like. Though the particular quote here is being used a bit unfairly. Whorls often aren't of much value archeologically in a similar way amphora sherds are pretty useless at a lot of roman sites. They are a simple common commodity item which was optimized a long long time ago. Sure, in some contexts they can tell you more than just "people were spinning here", and there are some ornate and/or just interesting variants... But by and large, the 10th or 1000th example of the same thing you already know about is pretty much junk ;)
@@travcollier My original comment was just continuing the bit from the video; I have a genuine appreciation for what you call "junk". It's beautiful, and lucky, that we have such a large collection of artifacts to learn from. Seeing that portion of the historical record continue to be dismissed is disappointing. History loves to slip away through our fingers! Anyways, to get back to that silly, not-serious bit, I have beef with you now too. Thanks!
The Three Fates of ancient myth (and their many variations) come to mind now. The imagery is SO much more powerful now when it is put in this context. I used to think of it as merely a clever visual representation of the potential longevity and fragility of life. But I imagine now how much more shocking the moment of cutting such labor-intensive threads would. What I previously considered the mere symbolism of the thread is suddenly vivid and literal because string made almost all things in life possible.
I doubt this idea that the folks spinning wouldn't be "hanging out" or socializing... I hear stories of grandparents on the schoolyard tatting while walking about and socializing - I can't imagine they would not also be doing this while spinning.
Yes, textile work is imho inherently social and still is. I think the idea is that they didn't socialize to just socialize aka "hang out", they socialized while working with their hands.
I wonder what thier conversations were like? I bet there was some really juicy gossip in the spinning circle.
I chat while embroidering with my kids and sing them folk songs. My son makes requests 😊
Before the steam/petroleum age, society was survival. People hung out because it was both safer and more profitable to do so. They raised houses and barns together, put out crops and harvested together, attended each other in sickness and emergency.
People, given the choice, would have spent much more time in close association even with people they didn't necessarily like very much.
And, yeah, the tea was probably hot, hot, hot a lot of the time.... 😉
The tea and sass is hot hot hot and juicy in my CURRENT knitting circle so I'm certain it really was eventful in the past as well! 😂
My grandfather, who was a WW1 vet, knew how to knit. Socks, mostly. In fact, since the machines didn't exist yet, knitting socks for "the boys in uniform" was a way for women to support the troops in WW1. The Red Cross would send you a box of wool, needles, and instructions, and your knitting would be evaluated. If you were any good, you'd get another box.
WW2 did the same thing, but with watch caps, navy sweaters, mittens, etc.I have a pamphlet with patterns from 1942. Everything had to be done according to military codes.
Sock knitting machines did exist. The first one was invented in the time of Elizabeth I. But they were frightfully expensive and not as good as a skilled knitter.
They had knitting machines long before WWI.
@@kimberlyperrotis8962 They couldn't keep up with demand during WW1. Hence women on the homefront stepped up.
I'd love a copy of that pamphlet from 1942. That's an awesome treasure to have❤ Thank you for sharing!
I worked as a temp for a charity called Direct Relief and their OG volunteer was a lady named Edythe Kirchmaier. She was 107 years old when I was there, and she told stories of knitting for WWI when she was a child. She specifically made 'nitty' catchers--- I band of fuzzy wool you'd put on your head. In the night, the lice on your head would go into the wool, and in the morning you'd burn it (and the little parasites it'd caught) in the fire.
I was told years ago that the spindle was possibly the first ever use of a wheel.
Hahahhahahhahajhhhahahhaaaa.
🤔 thought provoking.
@@lindinle why is that funny?
@@cathleenc6943 because the odds of that being accurate are hilarious.
@lindinle the spindle for spinning yarn, thread, and rope were common as early 9000 B.C.E.
The pottery wheel was first created in 4000 B.C.E.
Rotary and disk shaped querns for grinding grain aren't found in the archeological record until around 500 B.C.E.
A wheel to move carts or other similar things was first used in Mesopotamia around 4000 B.C.E. and in China around 2300 B.C.E.
A quick search of "first use of a wheel" it generally brings up the potter's wheel.
However, if you consider the spindle to be a mechanical wheel type tool, it predates the transportation wheel and the pottery wheel by roughly 5000 years. The probability that it is not commonly considered the first use of a wheel may well have to do with the frequent discounting of women's tools by modern male archeologists as illustrated in this very video.
So I'm not sure why you think that's so laughable, as it's entirely plausible. I can't think of any rotating or wheel like tool that was used earlier. Can you?
There's a comment from someone else on this video about how spinning and such was a social activity, and I'd like to add on that. I like to hand sew. It's the hobby i took up during covid, and it's my favorite hobby. However, when I do so, I NEED people speaking for the right amount of stimulation. I can't listen to music or anything, I need to watch youtube or a show. I just think it's really interesting connection, the fact that i need talking to focus and how people have spent down time making together for hundreds of thousands of years. Maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe it's not. I'm not a scientist, but I think it should be studied.
I've almost always had to be doing 2 things at once- I understand the need to be productive.
I hope to find a sewing bee near me as I moved recently. I d been hand quilting and I’m in love ❤
"Magic" wands and rods. Cloth weaving goes back at least tens of thousands of years, far earlier than most people seem to think. One of the first signs of civilization.
As for whorls, spindles, strings, and that sort of technology ... those were the early power tools. You would use the same concepts for wood working (lathes, drills) and the pottery wheel. Strings were likely used daily for measuring things and to calculate basic proportions (by folding the string). From there you rapidly progress: a bow is a spring and a string, add a lever or pedal and you can get easy repeated motion. From there you may add a clutch, and that leads to gears, as seen in windmills and waterwheels. Whorls are part of engineering, and spindles are axles.
@ninthheretic2498 Homo sapiens have been around over 150,000 years. The arts of civilization go much farther back than our archeologists are prepared to accept.
my greatgrandmother spun. she wasn't a spinner, but she spun. she'd borrow a spindle wheel from a neighbour (cause she didn't have her own, there were probably only a few wheels in the village that the peasant women were borrowing and lending) and spend a week day and night spinning up the wool she got as part of their share from the manor house to have yarn. i need to investigate what she did with the yarn after, whether she dyed and wove it, or knitted it, or someone else in the family knit (i know my grandfather was a cousin who did knitting, she had a physical disability but she would knit very fast and earn her living at home knitting for sale, so maybe she was involved?). and i was standing at a church conference spinning during break (and lectures too) and one pastor's wife came up to me and said her grandmother used to spin the exact same way my grandmother did - she lived in a shepherding mountain village, and at shearing time, every shepherd would get a share of fleece from the owner of the flock, and the wives or mothers would prepare it and spin it - also borrowing and lending their spindle wheels.
Thanks for this story. I have no spinning stories that have come down to my generation. I asked my aunt once if her mother did any weaving & she answered "Only rag rugs", so at least I know that. Another textile art.
I tell people we had to have spinming before we could tie a belt or bag, fishing net or spear head. We spun cordage for our shelters too. A tool that makes nice string would be most prized.
Not necessarily. You can cut cords from the skins of animals, and there are plants that form natural cords. Of course spun string is better than both, but I suspect that the idea of string is older than spinning itself.
Cordage is done differently - often rolled across the thigh.
@@Julian_Hopf I'd still consider it spinning, just not with a spindle
Then you have been telling people lies. Cordage is far older than spinning. In fact, even without knowledge of plant fibers you can use vines as stiff ropes. Belts are just a length of leather which certainly predates spinning, a bag is just a piece of leather closed on itself and tied with a leather cord and certainly predates spinning (or willow basket weaving), attaching spearheads was done with animal intestines/ sinew and pine glue and certainly predates spinning. I don't think large fishing nets were made out of leather but fishing traps were made of willow branches and certainly predates spinning and I'm sure they made handheld fishing nets since they made dreamcatchers and a handheld fishing net is really just a loose dreamcatcher.
Spinning is FAR from being the most important skill in human history. Kinda worried for the field of archeology if people in it think things like this... not much better academic thinking than the 19th century archeologist she quoted in the video...
I've made string from bare plant fibers and my bare fingers. And rope or string are not necessary for spears.
But woven fabric clothes are awesome. Especially compared to their predecessors.
Depending on climate, wool felt is REALLY AWESOME!
People are disconnected from this knowledge and history. It is one of the joys of re-enacting to teach this to others.
Absolutely. I've demonstrated the steps from combing to spinning to dyeing to weaving and most people are stunned by the amount of work to get a few metres of cloth.
When I went on my first training excavation in an early Anglo-Saxon rural settlement, the first artefact I found was a beautifully simple clay spindlewhorl. As the excavation went on we found clay weights for warp-weighted looms, bone beaters for tablet weaving, stones for processing cloth, and enough sheep bones to put together a herd. It's impossible to overstate the value of wool and all the different crafts it needed to get from fleece to clothing in the middle ages. I'm also a reenactor and I try to tablet-weave, sew, dye and nålebind as much kit as I can, and I think I'll need to give spinning a go too, to experience the full range of activities needes to make everyday life possible! My auntie is a member of our local spinners, weavers and dyers guild and many of my reenactment friends spin, so much like a historical person I know I'll have a lot of knowledgeable ladies to teach me if I pick up this craft
The arts of women are perishable and undervalued. Thank-you for hitting it head on!
Men freed you from spinning and washing clothes in the river. I guess it will never be enough :(
@@Willy_Tepesoh thank you my hero!!!!!
Seriously chum, without women making twine and weaving out of plant fibres, there wouldn’t be baskets to gather food for your dinner, or fish nets and traps. You know, while you were getting around to fetching home some mammoth
@@jandrews6254 If you wish to spend your entire day working instead of watching netflix and over eating, please stop using what we men invented.
@@jandrews6254 you are free to not use things men have invented in order to ease your work load.
@@Willy_Tepesi’m not going to list the whole catalogue of what you’d qualify as an invention, but they literally taught us in school that a woman invented the washing machine to lighten the workload. so your argument is kinda invalid.
I loved this. I think about this all the time. It is my Roman Empire.
this is such a good video, textiles really are such an underrated technology. we don't always recognise that especially now because we have fast fashion where tshirts cost hardly anything and you can buy several of them in a year without blinking an eye. that calculation of almost a year just to spin the yarn to make enough clothes for 4 people - never mind to weave the cloth and construct the garments - really highlights that. there's a reason the industrial revolution started with textiles.
The female side of the family is often called the "distaff side".
Interesting!🤓👍
yup, in my language is ancestors "of the sword" and "of the distaff"
I just always assumed that "staff" was like a euphemism for a male body part and distaff was the opposite. When she mentioned the name of the tool I backed up and checked like 3 times to be sure I heard it right. Mind. Blown.
In French, it used to be said that an estate "fell into distaff" (tomber en quenouille) when a family had only female heirs left. As, back in the day, women could not inherit land or title in France, it meant they were going to be lost.
When I was a kid I read an article in a science magazine where people shared what they thought was the greatest invention of all time. Fire didn't count because it's a "discovery."
One guy chose the wheel, which irked me because not all civilizations used wheeled carts. The only other invention I remember, because it surprised me and made me think, was the needle.
The humble, extraordinary needle exists essentially unchanged for tens of thousands of years, if not longer. The person described the needle as a gateway to the entire textile industry, from which we get clothes, boats, nets, art, etc. which allowed us to expand to places and activities we could only dream of before, all thanks to the ability to connect two pieces of fabric/fur/bark/seal skin together.
Anyway, your video reminded me of that article!
I am imagining the detailed process it would take to drill the holes in those old needles. I lose needles regularly. I can just grab another slick prefab one. I am betting in the past, everyone helped search when one was dropped?
I think needles are amazing as a sign of technical skill to create in the first place.
You're right of course, not all civilizations used wheeled carts, but tell me how that disqualifies the wheel as an all-time greatest invention?
You don't need needles for nets or boats. Nets are a series of knots and many early boats were dug out from logs so required fire to soften the wood and some kind of adze to cut the wood out. I'm thinking there were two main avenues of tool production. The stick which evolved into the needle and other point related tools and the rock which evolved into cutting and hitting tools. Where things like combs come into I'm not sure.
When you start to look at how things go together you realise how much technology prehistoric people had and which can be seen in those primitive tribes living similar lives today such as the use of animal sinew for things like bowstrings and various glues.
Would sinew sewing thru leather require a needle? I am imagining stabbing a series of holes then forcing stiff tendon material thru? Talking about the earliest way to sew?
I am seriously envious of that Amber spindle whorl and big wood spindle! Wow!
right!? would be a very light spindle and i like heavier ones, but gosh it was so pretty and special
Plus, imagine the fun you could have « charging » the amber with static electricity & making your distaff wool « dance » as a parlor trick. 😂MAGIQUE!😂
I feel for all those old arthritic hands helping clothe the family
Good reason to feed ole folks. 😊
I was thinking about this, actually...I find that knitting or spinning for longer sessions, or sometimes even shorter ones, hurts my hands and arms. But my mom finds it relieves her arthritis. I wonder about how arthritis manifested/was documented in history...obviously it'd be a huge problem for a spinner of any gender to have arthritis or injury in their hands. Heaven knows I can't imagine a life without mine. But did these spinners have more robust digits and hands and wrists due to long lives spent on their craft? Or did their ligaments give up?
Curious ponderings from somebody currently dealing with arthritis (albeit in my ankle, which is bad enough!).
Oooh, I have a chunk of kauri gum (a kind of amber) somewhere that I didn't have any particular plans for, now I know what to make with it.
There was also the work of shearing wool from sheep, harvesting linen, etc., and the laborious preparation of the fibers, before spinning could even begin. You’re right, it’s misogyny and patriarchy involved in archaeology, women’s work was extremely important throughout our history and still is.
I am a woman & this complaining about misogyny, & patriarchy & self- pity has to stop. Childish.
I have missed you and your vlogs. YOU ARE BACK IN YOUR TRUE FORM EVIE.
BRAVO!!
Yay! Thank you so much! 💜😊
I just finished the book East by Edith Pattou, it's a young adult fantasy novel where the main characters favorite thing to do is weave. It talks about different looms and even briefly about fibers but never talks about spinning. It's a great book but it's interesting how you talk about spinning and spinning whorls being overlooked as not important and even in fantasy media it's also overlooked. Seriously though great work on talking about the importance of spinning.
Tamara Pierce's Circle of Magic books have a stitch witch who starts with spinning! Spindle craft is definitely not overlooked there
Some Neanderthals had triple braided string! Incoming quote...
' Bruce Hardy at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. “Twisted fibres are a foundational technology.” '
"Abri du Maras caves in south-east France where Neanderthals lived for long periods. Three metres below today’s surface, in a layer that is between 52,000 and 41,000 years old, it found a stone flake, a sharp piece of rock used as an early stone tool.
Examining the flake under a microscope revealed that a tiny piece of string (pictured top right), just 6 millimetres long and 0.5 millimetres wide, was stuck to its underside. It was made by twisting a bundle of fibres in an anticlockwise direction, known as an S-twist. Three bundles were twisted together in a clockwise direction - a Z-twist - to make a 3-ply cord. "
Wow wow wow. Not just because the evidence still exists but also that it is so dang old! Some archeologists have suggested that the term "stone age" is misleading. Maybe call it the wood and fibers age? Or the bone and grasses age?
It’s funny because my son just learned this online a week ago and I wasn’t sure what he meant, he just said they could knit, but that really is very impressive
@gisellelabonte3206
Agreed. Plus the "glue" they used to make that fragment stick for all this time? Wow. Chemistry. They had to do multiple steps with heating, cooling, separating, getting the right temperature, etc. They/ we were great long before we modern apes give credit.
From the time I studied anthropology and archeology in the 1970s, I've suspected our long-ago ancestors knew a lot more than those who call them "primitive".
So good to see evidence.
I’ve missed your posts and it’s lovely to see you again. Thank you so much for this whorl special. I love mine, especially my Turkish cross spindle that actually creates the ball of yarn as you spin. Lately I’ve been using a supported takhli and making my own threads. And thank you for bringing Jennifer Beamer to my attention and explaining the physics of the various spindle designs. And also the historical experimenters and their calculations by Dr. Smith showing the vital core labor of textiles. Yes, spinning was engaged in by people of all ages and genders at all times. It was truly a ubiquitous occupation and because it was so common it was basically ignored.
On an upside, sort of, one can find truly ancient whorls still available at bead, gem and mineral shows for incredibly cheap prices.
I've been a medieval re-enactor for almost 30 years. Also neurospicy with Autism/ADHD. The thing that has hit me over and over is how ubiquitous spinning is. It is something you did all the time and frequently while doing other tasks (like nursing babies). I think I would not want to do much spinning of hemp and other fibers for rope, even though they were needed just as much and threads for weaving. The other thing that has struck me is just how much weaving is part of the everyday tasks. Not just weaving cloth, but also weaving baskets, mats and other items. The mental catalog of how to weave different things would have been common knowledge where today it is specialized knowledge for the most part. Another thing that has impressed me is the large amount of knowledge needed of where, when and how to harvest and prepare plants for basketry, dyeing, food and medicines. I am a person who needs to have something in my hands to work on, even to just watch TV or I'm climbing the walls. I derive a great deal of satisfaction of seeing the products of my work and creativity.
I wholly agree about spindle whorls. We make so much from string!! From clothing, bedding to sails for the Viking ships. Btw, one way to know where women traveled whorls! The 1962 discovery of the Viking settlement on lans aux meadows in Canada proved the Vikings were there in year 1000. Women and men! Love all your Scandinavian data, I am Danish American.
I have a beautiful ceramic whorl for my drop spindle, I just love it ❤
Woven cloth and spun fiber is as important to humanity as our control of fire and tools for the hunt.
I'm giggling at the modern tools in your grave photo (wrench, socket, hammer, modern scissors) Also: Great presentation!
Yes!! I LOVE the selection of tools in her "grave"! Very practical, very valuable.
Wow, electric wires as an offspring of fiber crafts. Love it
Computer programming has weaving in its history. The first computer programs were "written" on punch cards, which were designed from cards used in weaving machines.
Knitting is also global….still. I am in a knitting group that meets every month on Zoom from Canada to California through Boston, near where I live. We donate to hospitals, hospice, etc. we need much more of all of this.
Oh, Jillian, this was just beautiful. Reflections like these inform my spinning, also, this realization that I'm holding human history in my hands. All our ancestors are with us when we do this work, even while we're spinning firestar, and neon pink, and using our electrified spinners. We're still part of one of the most ancient human traditions. It fills me with joy, as do your videos.
As a new spinner and longtime historian, I adored this video (& I share your beef). It's stunning how skewed our perceptions of history - across cultures - are. I love your deep dives. So happy to see you again!
Ages and ages ago I coordinated a student theatre group. It was a paid position akin to a teaching assistant. I was totally overwhelmed and not really happy with it. In one production I helped the director with the costumes, actually sewing some of them. Never will I forget the look of sheer contempt in the look of my boss when I took out sewing machine in the office to do alterations and be still on campus to attend to other problems as they arose. I knew how much I helped the actors and actresses embody their roles by giving them the right feel and the director to present a cohesive world.
That is why dress is still a frivolous distinction and cars are taken seriously.
Thank you so very much for this video!
i bet a lot of our ancestors are spinning in their graves as they watch us being so very disconnected from ourselves.
i am in awe of all the spacetime spun into the threads that constitute our world. and much of my time flows into tying knots, weaving structures of treetime, finding my way into the depth of these most ancient of technologies. the marlinspike always by my side, ready to do and undo what needs doing and undoing...
Oh, so that's why they were buried with spindles. So they could spin on their graves.
I don't know if you did it on purpose, but I loved the joke, seriously
@@taiyoqun in my whirling world, all spun is intended, circumtextually
@@HaileISela I'm glad we were able to unravel the mistery, I had a knot in my stomach hoping you had spun the joke intentionally. Humour and puns are an important thread in life, it helps weave the fabric of society tighter, and I'm currently weaving from laughter. Seriously, I'm in stitches.
Aight, I'll stop, I'm spinning out of control, I need to weave jokes for other people and I don't want to leave you against the ropes thinking of more spuns.
@@taiyoqun it is all good
very happy to meet a likemind
This makes the Jule Cat myth in Iceland more understandable. You had to be done all your textile work before Christmas.
I got do a little presentation on spinning art yarn and spinning in general at a fiber arts supply store yesterday and I mentioned whorls and spindles and may have made gotten overly emotional 😭 about whorls in ancient grave and spinning and how important it was to human history. Your ears might have gotten warm because I mentioned your videos and channel more than once ❤
Awesome video! And all so true, the necessary activities of everyday life were not what those early archaeologists were interested in, sadly. But, at least that is changing a bit more recently. Spinning has given humanity so much.
As someone with no connection with fiber arts, I still found this very interesting. I came across the concept of how much work pre-industrial textiles were in the book "Children of Ash and Elm," where many viking groups ended up in a raiding treadmill, where they needed slaves to weave for sails, but the sails got used up while raiding, which required more slaves.
That bit about Woolsley is just wild though. How big would your cultural blinders need to be to discount the importance of textiles in people's life?
Woolsey completely underestimated his clothing. I bet he looked down on those who made them. For a man like that, why would he learn the difference between a tailor verses a cutter?
As a young man, he should have been made to work "common" jobs so he learned the value of hard work... and the brains, patience and time it takes to make a single thread. Spoiled dork.
I could bet he had no idea where his clothes came from (other than "his tailor"), and no idea how much work had gone into them, even in his early industrialized time.
@@OublietteTight it seems hard to credit him as even being a well-read individual of his day. Adam Smith and John Stewart Mills talked extensively about the textile industry as bettering all of society.
Oh, I just realized, he must have been a Torry who would "not read Such Things." It's easy to take the great books of a time, and assume they made up the whole zeitgeist. Honestly, that makes me dislike him more.
@gregcale5388 It feels like history can be so vague and dismissive. For instance, Caesar did not conquer Gaul. He lead, made choices, but his army and of so many other factors existed and definitely did the heavy lifting. The "great man" doing things alone is ridiculous.
@@OublietteTight Yes, like architects that "build' things !
I was so happy to see your new video notification, especially with it being about spindles and spindle whorls! That being said, burnout is awful, and while we've missed you, please take as much time as you need to recover, and protect that lovely crafting joy as it comes back!!
In the 80s and early 90s truck loads of Pre Colombian spindle whorls hit the fiber/craft stores as 'beads'. I cry now when I think of it
I bought some of those not really understanding what they were/are.. I still have them, one is jade - they were dirt cheap ! I've collected stone age artifacts for over 60 years.
( BTW - You never know what you might find at a GUN SHOW !!! )
Thank you so much for this fascinating video! All my life I had seen art of spindles, especially Greek vases, but could never figured out how they worked. Your video gave great examples as well as a history lesson that I had never even heard of and I LOVE history. I guess it unfortunately shows the impact of representational erasure as you are probably absolutely correct that everyone spun. I had read accounts of kids walking to school spinning as they went and I looked at the gear and am kind of embarrassed that I hadn't figured it out myself. Women's tech is so fundamental to human culture and we need more people like you bringing it to light in creative and cozy ways. Thank you again, it was a treat to watch!
Wow! Great essay! I’ll sit and watch as many of these as you want to do. 🥰
This was such an interesting video! Thank you! I’m so happy you are back teaching us ❤
Absolutely fascinating! I found learning on a drop spindle to be more challenging than a spinning wheel. This video inspired me to perhaps give it another try! 😊💕
I HIGHLY recommend the book "Respect the Spindle" if you give it another shot! It's a fairly short read but epic for information about the history of spindles, why they're still great, & how to use them.
I started learning under a week ago, and having that book to show me all the intricacies of what to do and helpful tips was SO helpful.
Have you tried a supported spindle? I found a drop spindle really hard and frustrating. Within days I switched to a supported spindle thanks to the advice of a fellow spinner. It was months before I got my spinning wheel. Within a few tries I was merrily spinning away.
I've been spinning for 37 years, and I STILL don't have a spinning wheel.
My sister and I are half Coast Salish and she carved me a Salish wooden spindle whorl :) it's a real piece of art, only slightly smaller than a dessert plate, and I have it hanging on my wall.
and now, today, to own a spinning wheel, to have the leisure time
to sit at said wheel... not always "workin"
I just got my first drop spindle, I got it in a museum where they demonstrate a lot of daily tasks and daily living from around the middle ages until now, including spinning. The lady working there saw that I was very interested in spinning so she gave me a drop spindle they make in the museum. Then I saw this video, I am so excited to watch and learn a lot more about spinning!
if people are interested, it was 'het openluchtmuseum' in Arnhem in the Netherlands
Your spindle collection is gorgeous ❤!
And so interesting thank you!
My mom was a spinner. The only part of the craft that I learned from her was spinning with a distaff. I still have her drop spindle.
So glad to see you back! And thank you for the collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Beamer from Expertly Dyed. Your styles are very different but I thoroughly enjoy the content you both make!
Take care and be kind to yourself. 💖
I like what you said that at some point we all have ancestors that spun.
i need to get my drop spindles unpacked...
honestly the advantage to me of a drop spindle is, much like knotting, its something to DO when i would otherwise be waiting.
About 35 years ago, I watched a video travelogue (on VHS) devoted to Greece. I only remember one thing about it:
A little old lady, all dressed in black with a babushka on her head, was traveling along a country road, riding sidesaddle on a donkey. Over her shoulder was a distaff full of wool, and she was spinning with a drop spindle. She didn't have to guide the donkey; he'd been over the route so many times he knew it by heart. So she was able to give her undivided attention to her spinning.
I’m so glad to have found your channel.. it’s always a joy when you find another person who has some of the same overlapping interests 😁 because ancient/pre history and crafting is rather niche 😅 lol ..
I really enjoyed this video! And I’m going to go see the catalog of previous ones next..
When you mentioned the whole concept of everyone has an ancestor who spun/wove it reminded me of explaining to those who ask about my garden..
I say that “I’m a 3d generation trained, diehard gardener.. if you go back farther than that, EVERYONE had a garden, it wasn’t something of note, unless you were really really GOOD at it..” 😆 lol
Thanks for sharing this, the work that these videos take to make and to post is not easy… it’s appreciated.. ATB!
Didn't the archeologists also refer to spindle whorls as hag stones and declare that it was part of women's witchcraft?
It wouldn't surprise me. 🙄 I did try spinning with a hag stone once. It was terribly wobbly. 😵💫😂
Thanks for this video! I have learned so much from you!
I have been experiencing crafting burnout this week as well, but I attribute that to the fact that I’m going through a miscarriage. I was so excited to spin yarn to make things for my baby, and now I’m in rut. I have been spinning yarn that was on my wheel, but I haven’t been enjoying it as much. I am sure I will get my passion back eventually.
I am so sorry for your loss. I hope in time your spinning will give you comfort. Hugs to you.
Lisa
@@SoulfulSpinning Thank you. I have some yarn on my wheel that are my favorite colors, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out.
Sending you love, hugs, and thoughts of peace and healing and peace.
So sorry you lost your baby. Take your time with your art and do what brings you joy. Grief has no time limit
"Who is this person living in your house and denigrating the hard work I do?" 🤣👏🤣👏🤣
I can only thank you for this lovely video. It doesn’t surprise me that these learned minds so openly shun the things that they see a less or don’t truly understand or see the true value in. Sadly this is still happening today. Fibre and cloth are so entangled with humanity, from the blanket we swaddled in the moment we are born, a scarf to keep of winters chill and our final cloth the shroud. We spend our entire life In contact with it and now people have no idea how it got there. 😢
...and how dependant we are on animals too, to provide enough fibre.
I am not an expert in any field but I have a question: Before the more modern age, I'm thinking perhaps middle ages and before, would spinning be everyone's work and not just women's work? Like tending a farm, growing food, raising animals were universal jobs. The sheer amount of string needed for anything like rope, or sails, fishing net or lines, to home goods and other textiles like sacks and blankets. Only part of the population creating fiber on spindles between other tasks wouldn't be enough to supply the demand for string/yarn/thread.
My impression, and I'm not an expert, is that there was a lot of cultural variation. In some cultures both genders spun (I recently saw a re-colourised photograph from about 1900 of a Turkish man who gave a thoroughly blokey impression but he also had a spindle that he was working on), in others, women spun yarn for textiles but men spun to make rope or cordage or netting or whatever.
It's an excellent question! I've been a handspinner for over a decade so far, and I've been studying fabric making as a hobby for about that long, so hopefully this can help answer your question a bit:
In many places, it was that spinning for /clothing/ was mainly women's work. From a young age, you were taught to spin in many areas, which led to a muscle memory that lends itself to very fact and precise spinning. Like in ancient Greece, for example (if you were lucky enough to be raised, as they frequently abandoned female infants), there are murals showing women and young girls spinning together on spindles. Also, in ancient Greece, fabric was so valuable that it wasn't cut, more often than not. The most common clothing was just large pieces of cloth pinned at the shoulders and gathered at the waist.
There's also the fact that some/many/all cultures definitely had slaves for the more wealthy individuals, and they could have them make a lot of yarn and fabric to use or sell. When it comes to things like cordage and rope, men can easily do such "tougher" tasks, especially if it aligned with the job of being a fisherman, for example.
There are some areas (like medieval England) where spinning was primarily for the woman, and weaving was for the man, mainly due to the fact that the early looms were very heavy to use. Women could still weave, but it was much easier for her to spin while also tending chickens and dealing with other things, as distaffs and spindles were portable.
There's also the fact that they didn't go through clothing as fast as we do nowadays. They had clothes that would last for generations more often than not, so they didn't constantly need enough yarn and fabric to freshly clothe an entire family every season/year. They just needed enough to either barter at market, or to replace things that got too destroyed to repair/hand down. They also had the option of wearing leather from hunts in many areas, so some people didn't only rely on fiber to clothe themselves.
Yes male work traditions include spinning ... the easiest way to divide works loads was to match hand strength to the task.
Rope, thread for leather work, heavy course fibers matches the strong hands where rough skin didn't matter.
Fine delicate fiber work is much better done by hands with smoother skin, and milder strength.
As a seamstress who is always making and repairing period dress, I totally appreciate those who can spin thread... I hand sew in slow times when working the front gate at renaissance faires.
I can remember reading about whorls and ways to make cordage by hand in pilot survival guides.
A side note I read a handwritten diary by a lady whose husband was in the 1842-1843 US military expedition into Mexico where he ended up being killed. She was living with friends. In the evenings they would sing and read books outload as a to keep spirits up. At least 4 hours each day was spent making new sets of clothing for themselves two sets per year from patterns bought by mail from New York. Most supplies seem to have been from Chicago or New York, but some supplies even came from Europe.
Ok. I usually just skip right over the sponsored ad… but I have to say- it was almost finished by the time I realized you were doing a sponsored ad… and it was enjoyable! I’m going to keep them in mind! Good job.
And I love your teaching!
Sailors used them up till mid 1900s with thin salvaged lines from ropes to make "new" lines for non critical use, my grandfather and his friends taught me how. They were fishermen and sailors of old school, oldest was sent as apprentice to a captain when he was 7, he was born in 1889. So roughly 90 when I was instructed by him mid 1970s to mid 1980s, he left me his sea chest, his daughter was not interested
I LOVE the selection of tools that you chose for the final image! Those are awesome items with which to be buried!
The wealth of pre industrial England was generated in large part by the woollen industry and sheep farming predominated, particularly in up hill areas. Each village community produced excess cloth for market and each household was a cottage industry. The most valuable asset for each household were the young women and girls who did the spinning. These young females were so respected and valued that the honorific "spinster" was used to refer to the nimble fingered wealth creaters and the productivity of every household was determined by the number of spinsters it had. Calling an unmarried female a "spinster" was an indication of just how valuable she was !
Hell yeah! I'm an archaeologist and this is one aspect of human life that always gets a bad wrap for all the wrong reasons. If you read modern fairy tales and folk tales they sometimes portray spinning and all the work that goes in before and after as some kind of prison sentence. It's important to remember that the protagonists in these stories are typically quite wealthy women. It's not hard to imagine why they might detest any work in much the same fashion some contemporary women look at 1950's house wife luxury with disdain. However to my knowledge being a woman who spins was hard work but it was also something to brag about and it was considered a good occupation for women. I would imagine good because unlike other types of work you don't have to get dirty and you get to socialize. The entire history and archaeology of textiles is one of the most under rated areas of study along with food preparation and cooking.
I would love to learn to walk and spin this way but I expect there's a steep learning curve to both learn to hold a distaff and spin and not drop that sort of hand spindle.
Absolutely! Our understanding of pre-history and history is so warped because fiber barely persists in the archaeological record. Enough "Man the Hunter" already, lets hear it for Woman the Weaver as a force of evolution and culture!
Yes, indeed. Every now and then on the internet some guy starts rambling about how men are the inventors, the explorers, etc., and I love to point out that without women spinning and weaving, those explorers would have been rowing alllll the way. Mostly naked.
@@maryanneslater9675Well let’s just take a look at the history of fabrics and thread production, shall we. Here are some key inventors and instigators;
James Hargreaves spinning jenny
Richard Arkwright water powered frame
John Kay flying shuttle
Samuel Crompton Spinning mule
Richard Roberts self acting mule
Edmund Cartwright power loom
Joseph Jacquard Jacquard loom
Thomas Saint sewing machine
Joseph Merrow crochet machine
William Lee knitting machine
Lewis Paul carding machine
What’s the betting that the needle, knitting needles and spindle whorls weren’t invented by men as well?
@@hekatoncheiros208 just like how lots of women throughout prehistory hunted and did other vital tasks that today we stereotype as men's work?
There's a growing sense that chipped stone points (that survive burial forever) were only used where easier options like bamboo were unavailable.
I just found you! I am so charmed by the intersection of physics, survival, culture and lore that you have brought to this subject. And I especially loved your 'burial picture', surrounded by all the things you loved and needed in the afterlife. It was a sweet, beautiful sight.
I got involved many years ago with Navajo style weaving, and made blanket edge cords with a spindle that was rolled from my thigh, with the point on the ground. I still have some of my spindles. I think I'll take up spinning again. It's much more tactile than playing solitaire on my phone when I'm waiting for things to happen. Maybe I can even get good with it.
68 year old male here. This is all new to me and fascinating. Great presentation.
Ofcourse, spinning is where the term spinster came from, because those without a husband had to earn a living. Although the word "spinster" has got many, many negative vibes, even today, I must say I would rather be a working, independent woman than a baby making machine risking death by childbirth, as matrimony without the pill and modern medical intervention undoubtedly was.
Better to be a spinster than marry a not that great of a guy, IMO.
This was such a fantastic video. They're all great, but I really enjoyed this documentary type of style. Especially with you out and about.
''monotonous and profitless material''.... Well, mysoginy and capitalism dó go well together... *Deep sigh.
Oh wow that's so weird ahahah, I went to university with Jennifer (MA archaeology, before i droppoed out XD), so awesome to see her unexpectedly pop up here!!!!! Very cool 😅🎉
Great video as always, thanks for your amazing content Evie ❤
Off Santa Barbara CA the channel island of Santa Rosa, burials were excavated in 1901 by Dr Phillip Mills Jones for UC Berkeley with drop spindle whorls and pump drill flywheels made of soft carvable stone. The Chumash people's wove seagrass fibers into cordage, hut roof thatching and sleeping mats. Due to the isolation of the islands seagrass was really the material that they had. They had no milkweed or dogbane plants as on mainland usually for this purpose.
This video gave me chills. ❤ I do have an ancestor who made spinning wheels in the UK. He was Scottish. But I agree 100%. Everyone has spinning in their blood. It was too essential. I also had the same thought that we weren’t made to be still. ❤ and I’m with many of you- crafting is my stimming (ADHD).
Wow, excellent video!
After watching a soulful spinner channel and she showed a Crow native American woman spinning. I was excited to learn how many tribes did spin. Like the plains native Americans even the Flat Heads use dog hair for blankets and wild goats. 😮your husband had to put you in a grave. 😢we'll miss you. Lol 😂! Im glade your back doing videos.
😂😂😂 our entire mastery is summed up in "Amazing advances in string and stick technologies." Fabulous.
I have to say that last shot of you with your tools is totally awesome!👏🏾 I
Lovely video and great whorls.
Does Jennifer Beamer have a wee Golding spindle on the left? I have one like it, but larger.
That's some intense spinning you talk about. I'm spoiled to have 4 traditional wheels and an electric one and even then I couldn't keep a family of 4 clothed!
Your spindles are so pretty! Next ye olde tool to get your hands on: the lucet.
I started to learn to spin on a drop spindle before buying my wheel. It really helped me learn what to do with my hands before trying to throw feet into the mix. And doing it on the bus is really fun cuz people are so curious about it. :)
I use akerworks top whorl drop spindles these days, but started on a mid weight Ashford spindle I found at Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins (rip) in Boulder. And when i want to spin "faster", i have a second hand schacht matchless. I see one behind you... It's a great wheel! 😊
okay for sponsorship thing - all in all it looks really fun but the fact they include needles would get overwhelming for me, and any seasoned knitter, really quickly. like, at some point you don't really need new tools unless the project is reaaaaally specific
Mmm. I'd have to agree with you there. That's what I like about kits from (for instance, these are companies I've dealt with, I'm sure there are lots of others out there doing something similar) Westknits or Jamieson and Smith. You order the kit which has the wool, if you also need needles, they stock them and you add them to your order. That way, you get just what you want and need.
In any case, I think most knitters already have surplus needles, due to forgetting that we already have a particular size in our collection, or buying needles when we're on holiday because there was this wool shop...
I saw a video from Cal Newport today that suggested working on a different creative skill to regain your motivation to finish one you are stalled on.
When I get stuck, I clean my craft area. Eventually, I rediscover something I never finished and I definitely stop cleaning. Haha 😊
Thank you very much for passing on this information! When I was very young, there were still spindle whorls in our household. When I asked my mother what these objects were, she just thought they were tops, which were considered toys. My grandmother (who was born in the 1890s) told me, no, those are drop spindles. They are used for making thread. She briefly showed me how they worked, but she said she was very happy she had access to machine made thread. Cloth was still considered very valuable by her generation because the larger culture still remembered how labor intensive cloth making had been before the wonders of what was then modern machinery. We are much closer to "ancient" times than you would think, and yes, we all had relatively recent ancestors who spun thread for cloth and other uses!
I want to be crafty, but I’m not. I’m very envious of these skills. The history of the whorl is so fascinating.
There are so many ways to be crafty. Maybe you have not found your nitch? Simply decorating a Christmas tree is being crafty.
To get going, maybe Grab a potato, cut in half, dip in paint and press that onto paper... instant craft. By carving patterns in the spud you get repeatable printing blocks.
Order a leather kit to make and decorate a wallet? All you need should be in the package, precut and ready to assemble.
Braid colored yard to make a simple hand strap? Press flowers? Go to a bead store? Sew buttons on an old shirt to create a fun decorative pattern? Hot glue felt sheets together to make hands puppets? Organize pretty rocks along the edge of your walk way? Spray paint ole food tins so they all match? Turn a towel bar into a way to organize necklaces and bracelets?
You might already be doing crafty things without realizing? 😊
Children would likely be working constantly too. I also imagine that many resources were reused constantly.
At the end you say something very interesting. My great-great-great-grandfather was a shepherd and I feel so connencted to him and his wife while spinning. My mum was never really interested in spinning, but one day she tried spinning with my spinning wheel. And it seems so so natural to her! Like she has done it for years, it was absolutly amazing!
I think we all are connencted to our ancestors in some way.
85y/o man who found this enlightening. Now I know why Jesus robe was so valuable!
My Grandma grew up in a working class family in England. She was taught to knit from a very young age, and would walk around knitting. That was common, it was all part of keeping up. Amazing how recent that is!
I didn’t think I’d be fascinated by a lecture on the physics of a spindle whorl but here we are.
Ahhhhh!!! I haven't seen you for a long time!!! Love your videos!!
Fabulous video! As a knitter and quilter I thought I had an above-average understanding of the importance of thread, but this was amazing. I knew a bit about what spinning fiber is about but didn't know about spinning whorls. Very interesting little tools. Thanks for this video!
Remember quilting bees…. Sit, quilt, talk etc