Roan Creek Weaving

03/22/2026

I love this picture of Queen Victoria spinning. Before the Renaissance period queens, princesses, as well as their surfs all spun and woven. It was part of life to create yarn and fabric.

12/14/2025

Here's a detail of a painting that's probably well known to my historic costuming followers, but was new to me. This is a bleachfield, a designated place where women lay their white linen clothing and household goods on the grass to be aired by the fresh air and bleached by the sun - without a whiff of modern chemicals in plastic bottles. Towns that are today named Whitefield or Whitfield were likely at one time known for their bleachfield.
What I especially liked was the geometric pattern of the linen on the grass. Textiles were costly and much valued at this time, and everyday clothing like shirts, shifts, and kerchiefs were all cut to maximize every inch of the linen cloth, without any curves or waste. Everything is flat and straight. This style of clothing and underclothing was universal at the time, and worn by rich and poor alike; the differentiation came in the quality of the textile, and extra embellishments like lace or embroidery. While this painting shows a scene from 1620, the practical cut of this kind of clothing had already existed for centuries before, and continued well into the 19thc.
Detail "Flemish Market and Washing Place" by Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel the Elder, c1620, Museo del Prado.

06/02/2025

Baby blanket update.... Looks like spaghetti now but will be ready and orderly shortly....

11/07/2024

Give us all a peek into a WAULKING.... fulling of the cloth. Complete with waulking songs!

11/03/2024

A friend posted this and I loved it. So enjoy!

Tasha often said she felt at home at her spinning wheel, working wool from her own ewes and rams when she had the opportunity. There was, of course, a time when she had to be rid of them.

For in her own words they were too foolish, a pronouncement they earned from their "addiction to lying in the middle of the road".

But the wheel she so often found herself at was one that had been in her family since the 18th century, worn down and smooth with generations of labor. The wood, she said, was soft as satin.

Photo by Richard Brown
Tashatudorandfamily.com

06/13/2024

01/01/2024

I am so proud of this young man. Proud mamma moment:

BrightInspiredTraditional ValuesTraditional Blacksmith Forges in the Olden Ways to Glorify God—Passes on Skills to Homeschooled Sons(Courtesy of Axe and Anvil Hand Works)By Michael Wing12/30/2023Updated: 12/30/2023Print0:00Far from the throngs of the big city, the Goodwin family look almost lost i...

03/10/2023

02/23/2023

I learned to embroider by hand when I was a kid... its a way of decorating and personalizing items to an individual. Takes more time, and effort but thats the difference between "keep or pitch". Not to mention its on handwoven cotton.