I haven’t had much time to spare recently for this blog, but I haven’t forgotten it! I’ve got some wonderful comments to reply to still so no, I’m not ignoring you if you’re asked me a question, just waiting for the chance to answer it properly and not rushed.
This weekend I’m heading back to the 15th century again and I hope to be taking a video camera with me. The event is a reenactors only event so we can use cameras openly as long as we don’t leave them lying around when they are not in use. If I can take a video camera I should get the chance to take some videos of me spinning.
Are there any requests on what you’d like to see in the videos? Anything you’d like to see closer up? Let me know and I’ll try my best to make it happen.
In the meantime, happy spinning!
15thcenturyspinning 
What source do you use for the patterns for your lovely gowns and robes?
Thank you for your kind words about my clothng! I create my patterns based on the depiction of clothing from the artwork of the period and by looking at extant garments from the 14th and 16th century and extrapolating forward and backwards to work out how the clothing of the 15th century may have been cut. There is very little in the way of clothing from the 15th century at all in the archaeological record so most of it is educated guesswork.
Most of it is just triangles and rectangles except the bodices of my gamurre which are fitted and supportive 4 piece bodices.
I’ve been having a play following your instructions and I *think* I’ve finally got it (or, at least got it to the extent that it’s just practice now to improve the fineness, consistency and amount of twist in the thread and to prevent the occasional thread-snapping and spindle-dropping). I need to get around to writing a blog post…
There’s lots of things I’d love to see photos/videos of. These are the main ones:
– video or photo tutorial for loading a distaff with wool (or, even better, several tutorials based on if you are working with rolags, commercial roving, combed fibre, etc.)
– video with close-up of your hands when:
– spinning with spindle in-hand
– spinning at the end of one length, with the spindle suspended just beneath the hand
– putting the half-hitch on and off
Also, if you don’t mind, I’d like to know what you use to tie your wool to your distaff when reenacting. Most videos I see use synthetic satin ribbon but obviously that isn’t appropriate for medieval Europe!