Nerdy, history geek yarn love....

I was digging around the internet yesterday and, for a couple of different reasons, ended up on the website for Plimouth Plantation: 
http://www.plimoth.org/.

After looking around the website, being me, I had to check out the on-line shopping to see what they had available.  Imagine my surprise (not to mention my excitement!) when I found this:

"Details

Plimoth Plantation is pleased to introduce our exclusive line of 100% wool yarn. “New Plimoth Worsted” is spun in the National Historic Landmark village of Harrisville, New Hampshire by Harrisville Designs. The color palette is designed by Plimoth Plantation matching colors produced using natural dyestuffs of the 17thc. Period colors names such as gray “Rat’s Colour” and yellow “Maidenhair” describe each shade. packaged in 2 oz, 100 yd skeins."

Ok, I am a true history geek because I nearly squealed out loud over this.  Yes, I know I can get similar colors with natural dyestuffs in my own backyard, but this is from Plimouth Plantation!  In historic colors!  Spun by Harrisville!  Omgomgomgomg!!!  I have GOT to have some of this.  It may have to wait until after Christmas, but I still MUST have this yarn.  Along with the historical patterns they have for sale on the same site:
I can probably live without the sock pattern but would really love to have the cap and stocking patterns.  I hope they work with the new yarns.... maybe I'll make the stockings in Goose Turd green ~ lol! 

Linen and the Dead Sea Scrolls

I discovered this news article about how pieces of ancient linen found with the Dead Sea Scrolls has sparked a renewed debate over the possible authorship of the scrolls:
http://news.yahoo.com/mystery-dead-sea-scroll-authors-possibly-solved-122406229.html

I find this fascinating for several reasons.  One is that I have had the privilege of viewing portions of the actual Scrolls and appreciate their historic significance.  I also find this particularly interesting because the authors, at the end of the article, even go so far as to speculate whether or not there were women living at Qumran based on the lack of spindle whorls and/or loom weights found at the site.  I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read:  

"This is very, very important, because this is connected to gender," Shamir said, "spinning is connected with women."

So very true but so very often missed in archeology, at least in the past.   What first made me aware of that was Elizabeth Wayland Barber's fabulous book, Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years, subtitled:   Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times.  Even though this was published in 1995 the information is still fascinating and relevant to anyone who is interested in textile history.  It's available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Womens-Work-First-Years-Society/dp/0393313484/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321975122&sr=8-1.  Everyone serious about textile history should have this book on their shelf~ after having read it, of course!  I've posted the link to it on Amazon because all of the reviews, both publisher and reader, are themselves worth reading.

I hope you enjoy the article and also consider reading Dr. Barber's book.  What grabbed me about the Dead Sea Scrolls article was the connection to linen.  I love weaving linen and can't wait to get back to it.  Now, it's looking like it will be at least another couple of months before I will have access to my textile tools and supplies and, let me tell you, I sure miss it!  I immediately made a connection to Dr. Barber's book when I read the line:
"The textiles are of high quality and, based on the archaeological finds at Qumran itself, where there is little evidence of spindle whorls or loom weights, the team thinks it's unlikely they would have been made at the site."
The fact that they were even looking for that, let alone acknowledged it, is a huge step forward in archaeological research.  In fact, in reference to Dr. Barber's book, I found this on the Amazon site:
"it seems clear that until now descriptions of prehistoric and early historic cultures have omitted virtually half the picture".  Good for Orit Shamir, curator of organic materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Naama Sukenik, a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University for publishing research on the missing "half of the picture"!

Oh, my.....

Time does fly.  I'm sorry I haven't been very good at keeping this up, and can't promise that I will be any better in the future, but I won't abandon you altogether without telling you, I promise!  That being said, a quick update on the cashmere socks:  they were completed on time (just!) and gifted in July as planned.  They were short ankle socks but were well received by the one they were made for, so I was happy.  Unfortunately, no pictures!  Suffice it to say that they were beautiful and soft and I wish they had been for me! 

I did it!

I jumped in, abandoned all reason, and bought two skeins of beautiful Cashmere Sock Yarn by ArtYarns from Webs.  It's truly wonderful stuff ~ I just hope I bought enough!  Expensive, yes, but this friend deserves the best and I am not going to skimp on this project.  Here it is, in all its glory:

The colors in the photo are pretty true to real life - I love the subtle shading in the yarns.  It's producing some really neat variations in the knitted fabric, too:

Right now some stripe-y effects but we'll see how it looks over all once it's done.  I am MUCH happier with this project!  These are going to be a gift I will be happy to give.  They're not going to be very long in the leg, though, as I am watching with some alarm as the ball quickly diminishes as I go along.  I am kicking myself for not using a toe-up method but now that it's begun I don't want to rip it out.  I've never done toe-up socks before so I just didn't even think about it until I realized that my little ball of yarn seemed to be shrinking more quickly than I was hoping.  I may end up making a slightly panicked trip back to Webs to buy more...but we'll see.  I'll keep you up to date on the progress so you can see how it goes.  I did stop at Northampton Wools, too, but didn't see anything there that really caught my fancy for this project.  Plus, Webs had some lovely Kid Seta from Cascade Yarns on Closeout sale and I was planning to get some of that, too.  I did, but will wait to tell you about that some other time 'cause I really want to get back to these socks..... I need to have them done for the second weekend in July so there's not a minute to waste!

Moving on....

I've decided to abandon the Big Softie project for now and move on to another yarn.  Every time I look at that finished sock the though of giving it to the person I was making it for makes me feel bad, and I find myself avoiding working on it.  I'm taking that as a sign that I need to do something different.  I'll finish the other sock and keep them around here - I think, maybe, that they would make good socks to wear while I'm weaving in the winter.  That being said, I am off to Webs (http://www.yarn.com/) and, possibly, Northampton Wools (http://www.northamptonwools.com/).  I've never been to Northampton Wools, so it will be a new experience.  I'll let you know how it goes and post pictures of what I get.  Wish me luck!