I have long been fascinated by the way language changes over time. Words come in and out of fashion and new words are invented as a shorthand for a movement or new invention.
The phrase I’m doing the Hoovering is a perfect illustration. Hoover is of course a brand name that has become a verb over time.
When I was looking for a name for this newsletter I wanted something that had several meanings and a history.
Woolgathering instantly felt right.
Dictionary definition
woolgathering (noun)
indulgence in aimless thought or dreamy imagining; absent-mindedness:
"a vacant daze that leads to formless wool-gathering"
I think it is fair to say that I am prone to a little aimless thought. It however feels like a necessity rather than an indulgence.
The origin of the word woolgathering is as straightforward as it sounds. The gathering of fragments of wool left as sheep passed by bushes.
In the Middle Ages when sheep would graze on common land. Poor women would collect wool from the bushes and spin it into yarn to sell at the market to earn a few pennies.
One assumes that these women would chat and pass the time in dreamy flights a fancy. No doubt much to the disgust of men who observed it. These frugal and resourceful women turned a free resource into a means of keeping body and soul together.
As someone who has gained so much from free resources, I am keen to keep this content free with an option to donate if you wish to. Here I will share my flights of fancy plus some of the knowledge I have gained as I try to create a simple joyful life full of creativity and wool.
Gorgeous Gotland
My first Substack article
Some wool I have been gathering this week.
This summer’s greatest delight was finding a fellow hand spinner who is also a small-scale fibre farmer within walking distance of my home.
After years of vowing that I was done with preparing raw fleece for hand spinning, this summer I found myself up to my elbows in wet fleece remembering why I had made that vow but loving the process anyway.
My fibre arts practice is about the process more than the finished product. My output of finished knitted and woven pieces is very low and I think that I have to shift the way I think about my art. I am slowly accepting that the yarns I make are my finished pieces. Maybe I need to pass them on to someone else to knit or weave and transform into something else. A thought for any other day.
So what tempted me away from the convenience of the mill-prepared ready-to-spin fibre?
A beautiful Gotland fleece silver and grey and oh so curly.
The Gotland Sheep is a handsome beast with lots of interest for the Hand spinner. They originate from the Island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The breed is popular worldwide and you should have no problem finding mill-prepared fibre or raw fleece. The fleece is silky with a high lustre and wavy locks.
Gotland falls into two wool groups it is a long wool and a coloured fleece breed. The grey fleece is very attractive and can be used undyed. However, over-dying produces a dark muted tone adding interest to any project.
picture from left to right , dyed with marigold , dyed with yarrow , undyed
Unlike many long wools, it tends to felt, so unless you are aiming for felt then wash and process with care.
Gotland has been one of the staples of my hand spinning for many years I love its look and texture. I have until now only ever worked with mill-prepared tops. So preparing it from raw fleece was a first for me.
Long wools can be very time-consuming to prepare at home as the staple length makes them unsuitable for drum carding. For the small-scale fibre artist flick carding or hand combing is recommended.
One of the things I did when I moved to a small living space (450sq feet) was sell everything but the bare minimum of spinning equipment. I don’t own a flick carder or wool combs which is normally recommended for processing long wools. Yes, I could have ordered a flick carder however my once neat and empty tiny studio space is now overflowing with STUFF and I have no desire to add to it. With a bit of lateral thinking and experimenting I have found my perfect tool. A dog comb, it works brilliantly on wool.
I have been refining this process over the last few days and I have arrived at a method that works for me.
I pull out the naturally formed locks by the tip end then hold the tip and comb out the cut end. Once free of tangles and VM vegetative material I hold the cut ends in a clothes peg until I have built up a handful of prepared fibre which I then spin.
This is very time-consuming and I don’t care to calculate the time it took to create my test ball of yarn. For me, hand spinning is and has always been my way of relaxing. When I hand spin my swirling messy neurodivergent brain finally stops. My thoughts no longer feel like they are tangled in an ever-turning noisy tumble dyer. I can catch hold of them and find clarity.
The clarity that came to me while spinning this fleece is, that after a year of posting my quirky YouTube videos, (my audience’s words not mine). I have come to a realization. My making and creating is seasonal. I don’t work with wool very much over the summer. I garden, cook, paint in my sketchbook, and look after my bees. I walk on the beach and enjoy the long days of summer sunlight.
The YouTube algorithm is not so seasonal it likes creators to produce the same sort of content on the same sort of subjects week in and week out. I on the other hand like to go on detours take the long way around and celebrate the process over the result. When I started writing my blog and newsletter to go with my channel I kept it very focused of hand-spinning and knitting. I had made the error of listening to experts. The experts who are teaching you how to gain more followers or sell more stuff. In other words, always aiming to reach an end goal.
What if the process is the end goal?
No one wants to sell you a course on that subject.
Both in life and art, I want to take the long way around and explore flights of fancy. I want to write on subjects near to my heart. This will of course include fibre arts but other subjects too.
Maybe these written pieces will not be for you. Maybe you will feel you need to “unfollow”. In which case I thank you for your time and bid you a fond farewell. However, if you stick around I hope you will enjoy the detours and indulge me in my aimless thoughts and dreamy imagining.
Until next time may your yarns be soft and needles be swift.
Becca.
The process, oh, the process. Being in my hands, my hands in the wool, the wool in my heart. The product is there to remind me of the process. As simple as that.
I have just recently learned the meaning of this expression and am in love with it.