Stratford-upon-Avon Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers

  INSIDE THE  MEDIAEVAL  WOOLHOUSE     Our January Guild meeting on Saturday, 22nd January at 10.30 am, will be a Zoom talk by Penelope Hemmingway “Inside the Mediaeval Woolhouse, Spinning and Weaving in Mediaeval Monasteries.”   Our delayed talk from last June, so we are really pleased to have Penelope back for this meeting. Screens open at 10.20, Anna will do notices at 10.30 and will introduce Penelope to give her talk at 10.50. After the talk there will be a short break for coffee etc. and we shall then commence with our AGM. Once business is concluded we will have some time for Show and Tell, reminders of what is on the Sales Table and a general catch-up. Don't forget our plant fibre challenge ladies, we are keen to see what we have all been able to do. Invites to the meeting will be sent to members again shortly but guests are welcome at the usual meeting fee.  Contact wsdstratford@gmail.com if you would like to join us.  Looki...

We are very pleased that our Jane Lucas has been asked by Countryfile presenter Adam Henson to prepare a fleece from his flock that will be used in the competition they are running to design a bobble hat for Children In Need. Jane was seen on Countryfile on the 11th December collecting the fleece from Adam at his farm.  She will be preparing the fleece, with the support of our Guild,  by washing, dyeing, carding and spinning it, so that it can be knitted up into a few hats that will be knitted and auctioned off to raise funds.   Final entries for the design need to be in by 16th January 2022, with the winner being announced later in spring.  Details for entries can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3gwF8kgdZVWqTd7kcj4BFtN/countryfile-ramble-bobble-hat-competition   Pleased to report that washing is underway and we await what the final colours required will be and then the next stage will be the dye pots!

In pre-industrial Europe many of the agricultural and household chores that marked the turning of the seasons attached themselves to saints' days. All across Europe, for example, people slaughtered animals and celebrated the harvest on St. Martin's Day ( see Martinmas). In England folk tradition carried this tendency one step further, inventing St. Distaff's Day to mark women's return to work after the Christmas holiday. St. Distaff's Day fell on January 7, the day after Epiphany. On this day folk tradition advised women to return to the daily chores they had put aside during the Twelve Days of Christmas. Before the invention of factory-made cloth, the task of spinning constituted perhaps the most representative of all female chores. Women of all ages, ranks, and incomes spun thread. Thus, English folk tradition commemorated women's return to work ...