Speen Spinners & Weavers

Hand Loom

Hallmark April 1985. Speen Weavers and Spinners by Miles Marshall

I called recently on an elderly but very sprightly little lady with clear blue eyes, Miss Joyce Coleman, who started weaving in Derbyshire in the early nineteen thirties.

She has been weaving ever since except for a short period during the war when raw materials could not be had.

At first she wove with bought-in yarn, of wool, but soon learned to spin for herself. Moving from Derbyshire to Devonshire, she continued her industry there and has held exhibitions in both counties. It was shortly ‘before the last war that she moved to Speen.

Miss Coleman has four looms and a number of spinning wheels. The traditional method of home-spinning yarn, whilst producing a high-quality material with a character all of its own, is nevertheless a very time-consuming process. ‘She told me that as many as eight spinsters are needed to keep an average hand loom continuously supplied with yarn so that, despite the help of a number of friends in Speen whom she has taught to spin, it is still necessary to buy some ready-spun yarn.

Most of our readers will be familiar with the general appearance of the traditional Spinning wheel though their detailed construction varies enormously from one country to another and probably from county to county. Some of you, however, may even be as ignorant as I was of what actually converts a bunch of separate fibres into a strong continuous thread before it winds it on to a spool. A brief demonstration by Miss Coleman soon cleared the matter up.

The vital factor I had been unaware of until now was that the yarn is actually produced in the short space from the spinster’s fingers to the hollow end of the spindle into which it is drawn. This-is the spindle on which the spool-runs and to which the 'flyer' is attached. By the time the fibres enter the spindle they are already being firmly twisted into an endless yarn which emerges through a hole in the side of the spindle, between the frame and the flyer. From here the thread runs through some small hooks along a prong of the flyer which is a fork-like device, carved out of solid wood, having one prong on either side of the spool. Whilst the flyer is firmly fixed to the driving spindle, the spool runs freely on the spindle so that it may be driven a little faster than the flyer. As they revolve, the yarn is gently pulled through the hooks and wound on to the spool. The flyer and the spool are driven separately by their own cord from the treadle-operated main wheel. The spool usually having the smaller pulley to make it run faster.

It is the winding action which also exerts the pull on the yarn which must be resisted. by the fingers of the spinster, controlling the amount of fibre being pulled towards the spindle and twisted at the same time. Skill is needed all the while: to maintain the size and quality of the yarn.

Besides woollen yarn, Miss Coleman spins and weaves a wide variety of raw materials, although silk has long been her first love.

I saw examples of lovely, soft textured cloth woven from dog's hair and even from the hair of the musk ox from Arctic Canada, which is long and silky. The combings of most dog's hair spins well but short or cut hair is no use. One of the best is from the Pyrenean Mountain dog whilst Pekingese, the white Samoyed and the Suleki all have very good hair for spinning. Other materials frequently used besides sheep's wool are goat hair and, of course, silk, linen and cotton. Miss Coleman does not like working with man-made fibres.

All looms work on the basic principle of stretching out long parallel threads, called the warp, and interlacing them at right angles with one or more cross threads, called the weft or woof, in the manner of darning.

Warp threads, even on a hand loom, may be as long as 36 yards or more and must be prepared with the greatest care if a frightening tangle is to be avoided before they reach the loom. They are first wound on to a pegged frame or a revolving structure with pegs on it called a warping mill; by using a figure of eight conformation round the pegs at each end of the warp it may be carefully tied so that the threads maintain their form when lifted off the pegs and may be twisted into a sort of chain for safe handling and transfer to the loom.

Reference to my cover drawing may help to clarify the following necessarily brief description of the loom. The long warp threads are first carefully wound on to the warp or thread beam, sticks or paper being used to separate two layers. The other end of the warp must be threaded back through the heddles and reed, towards the weaver and finally looped on to a long stick by which cords will draw the finished cloth over the breast beam and down to the cloth beam below.

The action of the heddles, which are operated by the pedals in front of the weaver, is to pull up and down selected alternate warp threads to create an opening, called the shed, through which the weft threads may be passed. A shuttle containing a small spool of the weft thread is thrown through. the shed, from one hand to the other. On the weaver's side of the heddles may be seen a kind of giant comb called the reed suspended from the superstructure by the batten so that it may be pulled swiftly and firmly towards the cloth after each throw of the shuttle, to press home the new thread into the vee of the warp. The pedals are operated again after releasing the batten so that a new shed may be opened up and the shuttle or another one with different coloured thread, thrown back again.

As the cloth grows, the weaver. only has to lean over to, the right to reach the wheel on the cloth beam and wind it on. ‘It is necessary to-develop a smooth rhythmic action of throwing the shuttle swiftly with one hand, catching it with the other and with the free hand giving the batten a swift pull, to press the thread home, before pressing the correct pedals to lift and drop the desired warp threads.

Hand-woven cloth, especially if the: yarn has been home-spun, is expensive. But it has very long-lasting qualities, is. warmer than a similar machine-made material and has a distinctive texture and charm which will delight the wearer or user for many years. It will often.be handed down to posterity. Each piece is really a work of art in its own right.

Much of Miss Coleman's work is necessarily made to order but I had the pleasure of looking through a number of most attractive items in a stock chest. It may interest readers to have a brief description of these with an idea of. the price. I suppose what most took my fancy were two beautiful scarlet bedspreads in wool with decorative motifs in white dog hair. Not an identical pair in the decoration but they would go together splendidly. They are so light and warm that. they would double as extra blankets. Sold separately at £70 each. A set of very pretty large table mats in linen costs £36. A most attractive warm wrap in while, cream and dark brown, woven from the hair of a Dutch Barge dog, a Pyrenean Mountain dog and a Chow, on a woollen warp costs £35.

There were hearth rugs too, some on a linen warp, from £25 to £75. For £202 a courageous dressmaker can have a 63 yard length. of lovely coloured silk, 34 inches wide so individual that you can never ‘bump into a ‘look alike' at a party. A silk stole, about two yards by. 30 inches; costs £70 and a smaller silk square £20. These silks are of course all made by-real hard-working silkworms, none of your synthetic stuff here.

Whilst I was there, orders came in for more work and Miss Coleman seemed busy but she told me that, as she had been unwell for some time recently, her output had fallen considerably. However, she is now fully recovered and welcomes new customers.

It is better to telephone first (Hampden Row 303) and afternoon visitors are preferred. It is certainly well worth a visit to see the looms or if only to take a peep at those lovely bed covers!