October 16, 20205 yr My wife is a spinster and has been teaching spinning for 50 years now; she can probably answer your spinning questions! As for the term it originates in the gender based occupational nouns; mostly gone from our language save that Actor/Actress is fading away in our lifetime. However there used to be a lot of them in use: Brewer/Brewster, Poet/Poetess, Spinner/Spinster, Hammer/Hamster---yes that was a subtle social ranking insult in Monty Python's "Holy Grail"! As the eldest unmarried daughter was generally in charge of the spinning to provide for clothing for the family back before the Industrial Revolution; the term began to be used for an older unmarried woman in a family and hence to the modern usage. Most fiber spinsters will not object if you call them a spinner these days; but traditionally you would be casting aspersions on their gender...
October 16, 20205 yr lol that was meant as a joke. I did not know the association with spinning. i have associated it with times long ago when it referred to an older unmarried female. thus, i thought being married to a spinster was rather punny,, you might say. I've made a few skane(sp) weights here and there.
October 16, 20205 yr Several Steel/Wool couples are represented here on IFI as well as a wealth of esoteric knowledge hiding in the heads of the smiths posting here!
October 17, 20205 yr Ive heard that steel wool comes from a hydrolic ram,,, or from that space between the ears of one who hammers too much iron.
October 22, 20205 yr On 10/15/2020 at 10:32 AM, ThomasPowers said: Close but no cigar; The weasel is a hand cranked tool used to measure "yarn/thread" for warping a loom or making equal length skeins. It has a built in counter that you set for the length needed---when it's all hand spun you don't want any wastage! Anyway when it gets to the proper number of turns indicating the proper length of yarn/thread; it makes a little pop sound to tell you that's enough. My wife's a spinster and has a couple of them. A niddy noddy is a simple hand held variation where you have to keep track of the wraps yourself. So you are saying it isn't a loom tool? My input is from a character actor at the Hoxie House of Sandwich Mass.
October 23, 20205 yr "The weasel is a hand cranked tool used to measure "yarn/thread" for warping a loom or making equal length skeins." How you got it that I was saying it was not a tool used with looms is a puzzlement. My input is from someone who has been teaching people working at living history venues for over 50 years.
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