“How to do things (particularly the old way) has always intrigued me. “
I’ve had an interest in some of those things too. We raised sheep for awhile here and for many years thought I’d like to do a “sheep to shawl” before I died. Well, not sure if that will happen or not. There was a store quite a few years ago (not sure if they are still around) that had classes on spinning and weaving. I also thought I’d like to make soap like they do at the historical places. One of my favorite books I purchased many years ago is:
Gene Logsdon’s Practical Skills: A Revival of Forgotten Crafts, Techniques, and Traditions by Gene Logsdon (Hardcover - Sep 1985)
I’ve been meaning to dig it out and have it available for reference again.
>>>I’ve had an interest in some of those things too. We raised sheep for awhile here and for many years thought I’d like to do a “sheep to shawl” before I died. Well, not sure if that will happen or not. There was a store quite a few years ago (not sure if they are still around) that had classes on spinning and weaving.<<<
Now you are talking my language... I used to have 50 Shropshire sheep along with about 120 western ewes.
I have shorn, washed, carded, spun, dyed, woven, and crocheted. We still use nice heavy wool blankets we had made from our own wool in the 50’s. Never was an ‘expert’ in any of them, but I muddled through. World Champion shearer at the time was 56 seconds - best I could muster was 3 1/2 minutes.
Spinning doesn’t really require lots of equipment, you can use a simple spindle and do an amazingly good job - just takes practice. The weaving can be an extremely time consuming project though. I got to know a ministers wife who’s passion was weaving (I have tried to use association to remember names, and hers always blew my method - She was a weaver of shaws and her name was Shaw, and I always ended up calling her Mrs. Weaver.) Anyway, I chose to crochet - made blankets for each of my daughters and for one of the grand daughters.
Probably the hardest part of the job is getting yourself started... The rest just follows along, step by step.
I have done some soap making about 40 years ago - and decided that I would make my own lye (wood ashes filtered through straw as you slowly pour hot water through it.) but never got around to it.