History of Women Stitching-Thread Podcast, Ep. 1
Listen to my first podcast on Kelly Lewis Podcast or read below. Either way check out all the wonderful Art and some of the books I’ve been reading linked below…
It seems fitting that my first podcast was published yesterday on the summer solstice, the first day of summer because by no planning on my part my first Moonflower Musings video vlog- was posted on the first day of Fall nine months ago. But here is it- accessable on my kellylewis.net writer’s website and on several hosts apps like spotify, iheartradio and podcast addict. Again all accessed from my writer’s website.
And here are the notes from Episode 1 on Thread…
Most of my post on all my blogs and vlogs are really mostly about women and what our positioning in the world has been and is now.
Since the history of women is in so many ways the history of stitching, I have decided to start with a subject that surprisingly can go back to the beginning of time and it is there, by subject, the thread, the cloth, the dyes, the needles, the charts, the samplers that we shall start, so ….buckle up Buttercup!
Want to focus on the actions our great great great back to the beginning of time grandmothers did, not what they stitched. This is about the energy and time they spent using a needle and thread to make what they did, contributing just as much to the shaping of our culture as their male counterparts.
so here we go…
A few summers ago, pulling our little clamshell trailer, my husband and I did a circuitous trip from SW Colorado, up into the Dakotas, across to Wyoming and back down through Utah and home. As I often I do I had a few audible book loaded up on my phone to either listen to together or for me to listen to through my blue tooth. It turned out a neighbor of ours in the Four Corners, Craig Child’s new book Atlas of a Lost World, Travels in Ice Age America
where Childs reminisces of his exploration of the lands up through the Bering Straits between basically Russia and Alaska was a pretty perfect read for the trip. Although now not thought as the only way “people” made it to the Americas, the land bridges were certainly where many traveled from Asia trough the Steppes and northward and then down south, following the migration of the great wooly mammoths…
Child’s book became an amazing read when we realized that the areas we were traveling around, Northern Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota were some of the same areas Childs was mentioning , often very near to where archeological digs of the first people’s hunts has happened and we saw for ourselves the gigantic bones of these hairy cousins to the elephants at Wyoming’s welcome center on 1-25 leaving Colorado and then again at The Mammoth Site in Dakota Springs, South Dakota. Pretty crazy traveling around the geography a writer is expounding away about.
The most interesting thing for me was Child’s trip up toward the Bering Straits with his mother and watching her pull the left behind hair of a muskox, fiber very similar to that of the extinct wooly mammoth…
from the scrubby brush they were walking through and then take that clump of fiber and rolling them down her pant leg- forcing the long strands to coil around themselves and thus make a cord. The same technique used thousands of years ago is still the one used today to make cordage, rope and thread and yes just like a Mac or an Apple computer, was an invention, a discovery that changed the world from the way the first people knew it.
Strips from long pieces of bark and animal hides or from the animal’s internal organs-sinew were the first string used by ancient peoples but those were limited by the size of plant and the animal. Then across the world, at different times- we discovered that organic fibrous substances- animal fur, the inside of trees or plants could be wrapped around themselves and lengthened. Then we discovered rather quickly that “plying” those twisted strands against each other made for a stronger cord not easily ripped apart- ever read Ecclesiastes 4:12?
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Of course the new invention had utilitarian purposes first, that of tying things together, animals together, people together, skins together to make garments and on a larger scale stitching skins together to make places for habitation. Macrame, or the tying of knots is a more ancient invention then weaving. Fish nets, animal traps, lead ropes for domesticated animals or to fashion some sort of drag sled to bring back the hunt, all needed a system of knots. It surprises me there was such a lag before anyone seemed to get the idea of weaving string into cloth. It can get confusing but evidence of plied fibers could be dated back to 40,00 years ago where evidence of weaving could be only 27,000 years ago, but more on that subject next time.
A fantastic Instagram/youtube account to follow to see these prehistoric crafts in action is “experimental” Archeologist Sally Pointer which I have provided links to on my blog post.
It is not surprising that the invention of string and the earliest knot crafts, found in Egypt, according to wikipedia.com HERE were used for much needed or utilitarian items such as sock, tights, shoes, hats, scarves, mitten, gloves. The same things we need today. Other knotting techniques like crocheting or nalebinding using only one needle and somewhat between knitting and sewing, can create such a thick dense cloth they were preferred by people such as the Vikings, read HERE.
But being us and being human, “string” in almost all cultures also became a thing of adornment rather quickly.
In Art School, we studied the Prehistoric Venus figures, which I am not going to describe in great detail or show on my blog because I like to keep my website PG, Google them if you are curious, but you have been warned. There are many of them- the Venus of Waldorf probably the most famous. Small put in your pocket stone carvings of big busted, big back sided women who usually have very little other characteristics, often are faceless and as usual the expert are still not in agreement what they were used for. We seem to think that our forebears were way more spiritual then we are. I lean towards there are some things that do not change and attach the meaning to the prehistoric Venus figures more like a stone version of something you might find in Las Vegas.
But looking past the buxom nature of these stone dolls, as pointed out by Elizabeth Wayland Barber in her fantastic book…
Women’s Work-The First 20,000 Years- Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times, women have always adorned ourselves for other reasons then being cold. What other reason could there be? To draw the eye- the reason for all creations of art, to draw attention.
Strings, like adorning the hair, seen in the remains of a Venus figurine found in France, I can put an image up on my post or suggest you look at because only her head is left- shows a fancy headpiece made of string.
More Venus figures show knotted strings hanging down from the waist, suggesting the swaying of chords, with bones, handmade beads, feather attached as the women danced to drew the eye - all but screaming “Look Here! It is amazing to think that from the beginning of time or when we were forced out of the garden…
and responsibe to cloth ourselves, hunt for food, toil the soil and create places of shelter we have also expelled more energy than necessary to make them pretty. The history of fashion and the decorative arts is a long one.
Going back to prehistoric times, what is discussed in Barber’s book is the division of labor.
I can imagine a discussion with my husband with our first child on my hip, leaning on the rocks at the entrance to our cave about who is going to what work.
So…. who is going to get us food? Me looking at him, with his extra fifteen inches of height and arm span and large hands and know when I have to chop wood or open a jar, not that there were jars in prehistoric times, I’d rather it be him to go hunt the wooly mammoth and butcher it. I have butchered wild game and I hate it. Him looking at me with my fresh supply of milk and the hungry baby on my hip and well, that would not have been a hard decision to make. I stay near the cave and take care of the young and he goes out and finds food and harvests it.
To take this all further- I am not handing my baby to my husband, grabbing the spear, at five feet and two inches tall and running out of the cave to defend my family. That would be stupid. Again he has way, way more upper body strength than me, is a foot taller, with longer arms. I will stay close to our cave. What is close to our cave? Safety for one thing and Well, small pieces of wood, kindling, harvesting of berries and other grains, all done with baby in tow, eventually in time, small domesticated animals, turkeys, dogs, small gardens that can be easily watered and food preparation. Somebody has to watch the fires smoking the whooly mammoth jerky.
When our world gets bigger, who is gonna stay home and who is going to travel to trade. Again, I’m a homebody and possible usually pregnant, with tending small children, I can spin the cloth, possible weave it with baby in tow. I can launder it pretty easy down by the creek and watch my children, except in early Egypt where washing was done by the men because of the danger of crocodiles.
While today we are looking at division of labor in an era with automation of about every task to keep a house we need to remember that throughout most of history these divisions of labor were very logical. Women- if you disagree go out to the wood shed and swing a dull ax over your head, not once but multiply times and haul that wood to your deck just in your arms to keep your house warm. I know you Can do it, but why would you want to with a burly guy with longer arms and stronger muscles across the fire from you… at that my friends is is all about anatomy. Men are physically stronger than us, if it wasn’t than women would not be in fear of being raped. Enough said.
But there is more reason why women got the work we got from the beginning of time…
Barber discusses another writer, Judith Browns, “Note on the Division of Labor by Sex” in her book, I quote…
that “such activities, she means women’s activities in the home- have the following characteristics: they do not require rapt concentration and are relatively dull and repetitive; they are easily interruptible and easily resumed once interrupted; they do not place the child in potential danger; and they do not require the participant to range very far from home.”1
Well that defines spinning.
Women’s ability to be interrupted and not take the regal attitude that we should not have to be interrupted has been implanted in our DNA since prehistoric times.
What I Do Not think any of the sources I have been pursuing have really emphasized is the sheer Amount of time it took to make thread. Processing animal hide takes some effort but processing organic fibers to be turned into anything useful takes even longer. Consider the vast amount of time and people power it took to make string, thread, cord.
Time is a huge, possible the largest factor in the History of Women Stitching whether for necessity or for pleasure.
Sven Beckert in Empire of Cotton, A Global History…
declares that throughout history developing weaving technology in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Egypt could be shared by men and women, Spinning almost exclusively expect by a few cultures like my neighbors here in the Four Corners of the US, the Hopis, was done solely by women, of all social ecominic classes.
In her book The Golden Thread, How Fabric Changed History…
Kassia St. Clair retells the Chinese proverb…
“Men plough; women weave.”
There is a reason so many of our fairytales have some sort of spindle or distaff in them…..
Distaffs are long sticks elaborately decorated that the prepared fiber was wrapped around ready to be pulled off to spin. Spinning was so ingrained in the matrilineal side of society that diststaffs and other spinning tools are the symbol of womanhood and are often found in gravesites just as swords and shields are found in patriarchal graves. You all know what a spinster is? One who has all the time in the world to spin.
In our “Early History” our calendar year was dictated by the sun, by our need to look upward and attach meaning to it all and we used the notion of spinning to understand much of it.
In Greek mythology, our destiny, our very lives are a single thread spun by the Moirai or the Fates …
The three Fates are sisters and are the Spinner, the Alotter and the Inevitable and by a simple snip of the thread our lives are over.
In many countries, when Christianity spread across the globe and the Church held peoples fate in their hands, the Celebration of Christmas or Ephiany ended on Janruary 6th, when the Maji was believed to have visited the baby Jesus. Men depending on how the calendar year fell after Epiphany, were ordered back “to the plough” the Monday after the next Sunday. Women, needed to get back at it no matter the weather outside - Janruary 7th was Distaff Day- the Churches idict for all women and it was all women to get back to spinning. I qoute from wikipedia.com
Women of all classes would spend their evenings spinning on the wheel. During the day, they would carry a drop spindle with them. Spinning was the only means of turning raw wool, cotton or flax into thread, which could then be woven into cloth.
I vividly remembering studying philosophy in my 6th grade class and when we got to the idea of “Utopia”, what wikipedia decscribes as…
an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members.[1] coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, which describes a fictional island society in the New World.
Hearing this crazy idea, I raised my hand and asked, “But who cleans the toilets?” and Mrs. Hailey reluctantly answered, “well, Slaves”, but I, in my eleven year old mind thought, “or women”
Why don’t we give credit where credit is due?
In The Fabric of Civilization, How Textiles Made the World…
Virginia Postrel does a little math and concludes, one pair of hands- tending, shearing, carding and spinning the length of sixty miles of wool yarn required for one standard Viking sail would take almost three years of labor or over 985 days. The sails were more labor intensive than the wooden boats the men built, all done by women who were probably also watching their children, tending to household chores and feeding everyone in site.
That women were the ones to prep the thread needed for everything up until the industrial revolution but so often not documented or overlooked , like Moore not wanting to admit his perfect Utopian society needed slaves makes me think of JK Rowlings characters, the House Elfs in the Harry Potter series that Harmony tries so hard to bring some equality to. Magically the students of Hawqwarts clothes are washed and put away and wonderful meals just appear out of nowhere. I often tell my husband and children there is no such thing as “fairydust” or Santa. when they are amazed there is clean laundry, food on the table, new underwear in their drawer and presents under the tree I remind them that a house elf does not reside in our home, but I, a wife and mother does. There is a reason that so many of our fairytales center around a spinning wheel…
Spinning wheels are believed to have originated in India between 500 and 1000 A.D. By the 13th century, they were seen in Europe and were a standard piece of equipment for those making fiber into yarn.
Until the mid 1700s when water powered mills in England started the Industrial Revolution making cloth, somebody had to spin the the thread that would make “fabric of our lives” as the popular Cotton industry campaign of the 20th century burrowed in to our heads. Well, that somebody was probably a woman, possibly with a baby at her breast or a toddler hanging off her skirts.
