Page 23 - Mary Red Dan Smith and a Spindle

ISSUE : Issue 22

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1979/6/1

can see the twist run up the lengths of yarn from the spindle to the hand. One spin might be sufficient. Sometimes two or three spins are necessary to get the tightness desired. When that is achieved, the loop is taken off the tip, the yam comes out from the bottom of the spindle, and the twisted portion is wrapped round and round the body. Then down under the bottom, up to be looped over the tip and held there snug • and the spindle is spun and dropped again, creating another sever? al inches of twisted yarn. Again the loop comes off the tip, the yarn from under? neath, and the twisted portion is wound on the body of the spindle. Under the bottom, looped at the top • and the process goes-on and on until the entire ball is twisted and wound around the spindle. Then it is slipped off the spindle and wound into a ball, ready for knitting. "I never found it boring. I wouldn't find it boring even today, if I sat down and someone told me to put those two balls to? gether and knit something of them. I wouldn't wish for any better fun. (Was work like this appreciated?) Well, you just had to do it. But it was work, it wasn't play. It was useful work. We weren't doing it for pastime at all. (You didn't feel • trapped?) No, no, no way. And I think if they were doing more of it to? day, the country would be better off, that's for sure. (And what's replaced this?) As far as I can make out, it's not replaced. The ones that were making and twisting yarn with those things • most of them are in their grave. And the young people didn't take over • a lot of them anyway." Preparing this article, we looked up spin? dles in the altogether excellent book a- vailable from University of Toronto Press, KEEP ME WARM ONE NIGHT. They show phoioj- of two spindles, which they call farsadh; and the text says; "It was probably twirled like a dropped spindle (used for spinning raw wool into yarn) but to date no one has been encountered who actually used one." With Mary Red Dan Smith, some? one has now been founds We Specialize in Camping Bquipment and Clothing of All Kinds as well as Hardware, Plumbing and ??lectrical Supplies Reuben McEvoys General Store Ltd. XNGONISR mSCtt Open all year sit the entrance to the beautiful Cape Breton Highlands National Park

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