FIRST: You didn’t miss anything, tatting has nothing to do with early 17th century fiber arts – Kate is just interested in almost ALL the fiber arts, whatever their origin. She doesn’t tat on site here, either as an interpreter or in the Crafts Center.

The day in pictures:

Here is the workroom, which is a beehive of activity, photo courtesy of Robbin.

The Mayflower Sampler Guild came this morning, partly to see the jacket work but especially to see the EC sampler, which they gave $1000 to help conserve. They really enjoyed their visit, but because I didn’t think to ask their permission, I can’t post the photos Robbin took. Five of them bought embroidery kits, and there’s talk of organizing a stitching session for them to come as a group. We’ve had a couple of sets of friends come together to stitch, and they (and we) have really enjoyed that. Don’t be scared, just sign up. Bring your sampler if you want help, and we’ll help you figure it out. I never did a bit of this kind of embroidery until last winter, and now I’m stitching the detached pieces that will be sewn over the pea pods. A little practice and you won’t want to stop.

Lacey took on a very ambitious project a couple of days ago. Beth, one of the interpreters in the 1627 English Village, needed her stays altered. The front cups weren’t comfortable for her, so Lacey took out the stitching, extended it to the top edge, and reboned the fronts. It was also too big around, so Lacey cut the back down, redid the boning and put in new grommets. It was ambitious because it all had to be done on Beth’s weekend; she needs to wear it tomorrow morning. And here it is finished!

Because it is our anniversary session, Marcia made us a special dessert. When I mentioned that, several people said, aren’t all her desserts special? How much more special does it get? This much specialer. It’s as delicious as it looks – chocolate ricotta cake, or as Marcia’s son-in-law calls it, cannoli cake.

And speaking of old friends, look who came today! Laura, “our girl Friday”, last year’s intern, without whom I never would have made it through last summer. It was so good to see her. The four of us here, Robbin, me, Wendy and Laura, were also here for the very first stitching session last summer. There will be no cake with a “2″ on it, believe me.

Laura got very interested in the bobbin lace, and here is Robbin giving her a first lesson on the starter pillow Carolyn has left here for that very purpose.

It was a good day.

Courtesy of Betty (who took them) and Penny (who scanned them) I’ve got some pictures of the party Penny organized for Shaina last week.

Here’s Shaina being surprised. She was looking here and there, so this one’s a little blurry, but you can still see how pleased she is.

The next one is Penny and Shaina with their party hats on. In addition to taking the pictures, Betty, who is Penny’s mom, also put up all the decorations and generally set up the party.

Next we have a group photo – from left that’s Kate, who wears two hats, one as an interpreter in the English Village and one as the interim intern coordinator for Plimoth. Our new intern and volunteer coordinator, Denise, just started a week or two ago so Kate is passing the reins and getting ready to begin graduate school in the Winterthur museum studies program later this summer. Next to her is Kelley, who has been working in the Colonial Wardrobe department since January. From January to March she was working full time with us, mending and hand finishing garments. Starting in March she went back to work as an interpreter in the English Village and aboard Mayflower II but continues working with us one day a week helping to get the clothes ready for our child volunteer program, which we’re expanding this summer (sorry, you have to be the child of a Plimoth employee). Next are Ruth and Meredith, long time volunteers with the Colonial Wardrobe department. They’re all admiring photos of Shaina’s wedding dress, a Victorian tour-de-force she is making herself (it’s almost done). No, can’t show you till after the wedding. You never know, Shaina’s fiance might check in.

One last picture. These two are having just too much fun.

Justin sent some pictures of the loom he’ll likely use to weave the silk lining. Right now this loom is holding some reproduction Calimanco, a worsted, satin woven wool textile produced mostly in Norwich, England in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century.

Kate and I used all natural dyes to obtain the brilliant shades that become that much brighter after the cloth is finished by hot pressing in the calendaring press.

Here’s a link to a video on youtube of a Scottish woolen mill which includes someone making a warp which might help to explain the process.

It’s also a great example of people maintaining traditional workways and their local heritage. http://youtube.com/watch?v=8w4O1pSltcY This aspect of the work is the most important one to me in what I do at Plimoth Plantation and at Eaton Hill.

This came from Justin today:

Here’s the latest jacket lining update-

First off is a shot of the scarn holding all of those spools Kate and I have been winding. From here we’re able to warp nine ends at a time, not as many as we would have liked, but the skeins of silk were exceptionally difficult to work with. More on how the scarn works and how the warp is made in a minute.

Here’s Kate winding spools. We made the warp at the barn in Marshfield, Vermont where Kate and Eaton Hill Textiles is based. The ground level of the barn houses Kate’s dye studio where the silk was dyed, and the calendaring press for hot and cold pressing fabrics. Upstairs are a dozen looms and other equipment; antique barn looms, small modern looms for tapes, two warping boards, several scarns, a great wheel, a quill wheel, a dobby loom with a jacquard head for pattern weaving, and too much more to mention.

Ok, back to the warping- Here you can see the warp running on the warping board to the left, and the spools held on the scarn on the right. The width of the board is six feet/two yards, so each horizontal pass adds two yards to the length of the warp. As you can see, the warp makes four passes and runs half a yard down to make the lower cross. Thus, the warp is eight and a half yards long. The jacket will require around six yards of finished cloth so why the extra? Some of this will be lost to the loom, and whatever is left over will be peace of mind. Better too much than too little especially on a project like this!

I’m going to attempt to explain how all of these threads are kept in order and become something useful. The scarn divides the spools into two sets, in our case vertically, left and right. When making a warp, each and every thread needs to be kept in its proper order, and this is done by crossing them while the warp is made. If you look at the picture, you’ll see that the top horizontal beam of the board has two additional pegs. Imagine that we’ve taken a single thread and tied it to the top left peg of the board, where the warp starts. That thread then passes over the top of the first of the two extra pegs, and under the second, before making the four passes down the board. Once at the bottom, the thread loops around the last peg and returns from the bottom back along the four passes to the top. At the two extra pegs, this thread now passes over the top of the second peg and under the bottom of the first peg. These two threads cross now at the pegs and when pulled off the board will stay in just the order they were put on in, since they can’t shift over each other and out of order with the cross in place.

Now, if we were to progress in this manner, I would have to repeat this whole process over 1,100 times to create all of the individual threads needed in the warp. Thankfully, somebody, at least six or seven centuries ago, (probably longer), figured out that you don’t need to go through all of this trouble. By setting multiple spools on a scarn, you can warp multiple ends at the same time. We’re only using nine spools, but you could do as many as 48 with the scarn we are using. In this picture you can see how we pick the cross in all of these ends at once. It starts by splitting the ends vertically with the right arm and then holding that split with the let thumb. Now the right hand picks out every other thread by starting at the top right end. Under the first thread on the right, and picking the left thread, then under the second end down on the right and picking the second thread down on the left, all the way down. In the next picture, every other thread on the left has been picked through every other on the right and pulled to the side.

There are two more posts with pictures from Justin to come over the next couple of days. Thanks, Justin!