Francis Cooke, Mayflower Passenger, Wool Carder by Trade

Looking into my genealogy I have found mostly farmers, blacksmiths, sugar makers, florists, mechanics and factory workers in my past. I did find a potter connection in Vermont in the 1800s. Just recently, after 16 years of working on my family genealogy, I finally came across a Mayflower ancestor, Francis Cooke. His occupation was listed as a Wool Carder. What does that mean in 1620 New England?

Cute girls in linsey woolsey fabric dress

How much need for a wool carder was there in Plymouth MA in the 1620s? Born in England about 1583, Francis was living in Leiden by April 1603, when he worked there as a wool comber. 

The only animals for certain on the Mayflower were two dogs, an English mastiff and an English spaniel. There were probably a few chickens, there was talk of giving given chicken broth to an ill Wampanoag native American. Five more ships brought more Pilgrims and more supplies, including cattle to the Plymouth colony between the 1620 Mayflower till the mention of sheep in 1628. In 1623 there were listed on a following ship, six goats, fifty pigs and many chickens. No sheep. In 1628 there were exchanges of lambs for cows going on, but it is not certain when the lambs first showed up. 

Francis was there to show them all how to comb and card the wool. What is the difference between combing and carding.  When did people shift from combing to carding and why? 

"Before the arrival of hand-carders, only combs were in existence, and it is possible that short-staple wools were simply tease by hand before spinning. However it may also be that combs were used in a more general way on all fibres." 
"English Medieval Industries", edited by Blair and Ramsay

For worsted yarn, simple wood combs were used to separate and straighten the fibers. The teeth of the combs might be wooden or, as the Middle Ages progressed, iron. A pair of combs were used, and the wool would be transferred from one comb to the other and back again until fibers had been straightened and aligned.

combs

In the central Middle Ages cards were introduced. These were flat boards with many rows of short, sharp metal hooks. By placing a handful of wool on one card and combing it until it had been transferred to the other, and then repeating the process several times, a light, airy fiber would result. Carding separated wools more effectively than combing, and it did so without losing the shorter fibers. It was also a good way to blend together different types of wool.

cards

William Bradford wrote that there were ordered on board the Mayflower 125 yards of Kersey, 175 [ellons?] of linen cloth. In 1636 there was an order for every householder to plant one square rod of flax or hemp per year. Cotton was unknown in those days. It is not written, but we can assume at least one spinning wheel was on board, although perhaps, they only brought the necessary metal parts for wheels and looms and assembled them with Massachusetts wood when they were able.  Or maybe they brought or carved drop spindles? It is more likely that spinning wheels were brought over on the Fortune or Anne(1631 and 1623). In England and Holland, many pilgrims were engaged in the fiber trades and occupation. William Bradford was a weaver of a course fabric named Fustian. 


Kersey...
A coarse woolen cloth with a dense twill pattern and napped on one side.

kersey

Linen...

flax plant

flax fiber

linen fabric

Canefas...

The Dutch made a light fabric out of hemp they called canefas, derived from the Latin word cannabis. It resulted in or word 'canvas". Canvas was originally a hemp product.

Hemp in the field

Hemp fibers

Canefas fabric

Linsey-woolsey...

A fabric with a linen warp and woolen weft. The linen is a strong fiber and the wool is warm... a great combination for durability and warmth. (In the Torah, Jewish law forbid wearing it, so it has been around for a long time). I am sure that the Pilgrims started weaving this as soon as they started shearing the sheep. 

linsey woolsey

Fustian...

As far as I can research, is a textile blend of cotton and linen, a hard wearing stout fabric with a short nap.

Fustian

Teasle for creating the nap

the teasel flower

And then came the looms. 

I feel pretty certain that the simple tape loom was soon carved out from a slab of New England wood. They are so easy to make, just the simple plank with holes and slots for the warp.  Soon pilgrims would be weaving narrow bands of cloth for clothing and bags from the wool, flax and hemp my ancestor Francis Cooke had carded. 

English tape loom, Deerfield MA

Want to learn more about tape looms? Search my blog at the top of the page for more of my tape looms blog pages and visit my web site, www.eastknollpottery.com or Amazon to find my book on the history of tape looms and how to weave on them... "Tape Loom Weaving... simplified" 

And for fun... google images for Tape Looms and see the hundreds of individually carved tape looms from all over the world! They are all amazing works of folk art... that worked!

A line-up of funny looking Men... Face Jugs are Fun to make!

Jugs are head shaped! There is a face trapped inside the clay... waiting to come out!











I demonstrate early American pottery at fairs in the Carolina's and Tennessee.  People always stop to ask me if I have been to Seagrove, North Carolina to see the potters there. It is a pottery mecca. You can spend days looking at over 100 potteries in the area today. There was a good quantity of good workable clay so English and German potters started making earthenware in and around Seagrove before the American Revolution. No, I have not been there. Although I have been near it, I have not had the opportunity to stop by. Also, I am usually in a hurry to get to my next gig. And, I am a potter. Although we potters do get together and talk shop, admire each others wares and share information, joys and failures... and a little whining, I don't usually go out of my way to seek them out.  No offense. I will stop by someday when I can.

Many people ask me the origins of face jugs.  I suppose the southern tradition is that they were effigies for slaves to mark their graves. There is a great explanation by a modern potter who makes face jugs in Ashville NC. Jim McDowell, http://www.blackpotter.com. Check it out, very interesting.

I found one old face jug made in New Hampshire. As many potters did not mark their wares, I cannot tell what the history behind it is.

Looking down their noses

Look at a jug. It looks like a head. It is begging to see, hear and talk!  It's just fun to make a face on it. "Put a face on me!"

Some people call them ugly jugs. Some are pretty ugly, some are downright scary.  Were they meant to scare away demons?  Some are silly.  I like both. Deformed ones not so much, realistic ones are creepy too. Sometimes at fairs I ask children to help put faces on my little jugs.  These are about 1" tall and kids come up with great faces. Two of my granddaughters love putting faces on jugs. At 4 and 6 years, they can see faces in the little pots just like I do. The faces just emerge.

little jugs... about 1" tall

"See, we made these, it was fun!"

So here is a new batch of jugs. The corn cobs made fine corks and they are cheap, plentiful, hanging around and pretty cool. If they fall in they will eventually rot and you can get them out again, unlike real cork corks.













I mostly sell at shows, but occasionally sell my jugs on Ebay. Check the jugs below for the most recent postings. If you like them and are interested in seeing more, add me to "follow this seller" and you will receive updates and listings on your Ebay homepage.

Big or small, I like them all.

LF1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331214328540

Lovable faces...

LF2

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331214326614

Creepy faces...

CF1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331214329832

CF2

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331214330804

Weaving... Big Time in Lowell, Massachusetts

Every ethnic group in early America had its weavers to weave the carded and spun wool and linen across America.  In the 16th and17th century, whole families got involved in weaving. Men would travel to area towns and weave on a families loom or bring his own loom on his wagon and stay at ones house for a few days as he wove their cloth.

In the late 1700s, weavers would pick up their yarn at spinning mills and bring it home to weave.  Soon, the power loom was developed and water power was harnessed to produce fabric more efficiently.

Boott Mill 1870s

Lowell, Massachusetts...

Three enterprising men opened the first mill in Lowell in1823. By 1840, 8,000 workers were employed at the mills. On farms and in small towns jobs were hard to find. Young women were lured to the mills for the jobs and pay they offered.  Twelve hours days, 6 days a week, the workers made a salary on the average of 50 cents per day running several machines at a time, carding, spinning, weaving and finishing yards and yards of cloth. In 1851, 362,000 yards of cloth per day where cranked out in the Lowell mills. Three dollars a week was a lot to send home to their families on rural farms.  The Industrial Revolution changed the life styles of many small trades.

Cotton Fiber

Warping spool

Spooling

The Weaving Room

Boott Mill Today

Roger and I stopped by Lowell a few weeks ago on a rainy Monday afternoon. We took the Boott factory tour and after that, we went through one of the restored boarding houses run for the mill girls.









The mills put many small time weavers out of business. Now in the 21st century, hand weaving on a foot powered loom is coming back into style again. Like knitting and crochet, weaving is a very enjoyable skill to learn.

Today, there are thousands of men and women who enjoy weaving on the old style floor loom using foot power instead of water power. A whole new crop of weavers are joining experienced weavers of the past to recreate old patterns and come up with some exciting new ones. You can never run out of patterns to try or things to make from your weavings.

I found a video with narrow bands being woven on a modern loom in China... a little choppy video, but beautiful music...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28BgUS5wXF8    

And, the Ekelund weaving technology in Sweden, a patented color pixel modern machine to create the beautiful patterns below.

www.linnevaveriet.se/production/weaving

I weave on simple Tape Looms. This weekend, Saturday, May 24th, I will be at the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival in Commington MA. I will be selling my book, Tape Loom Weaving... simplified and also doing a demonstration on some of my looms.

On Sunday, May 25th, I will be demonstrating pottery and weaving at the Comstock and Ferry Heiritage Festival in Wethersfield, CT. Comstock and Ferry Seed Company is over 200 years old! The festival will be located on beautiful grounds, with musicians, food, crafts, costumed demonstrations and SEEDS!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Comstock-Ferre-Co/138213372871383

Come out and enjoy Spring and Planting Season in New England at two of the first festivals of the year!
http://www.lowell.com/city-of-lowell/lowell-history/

Eric Sloane Museum and the Connecticut Antique Machinery Power Up... Pottery, Wooden Ale Bowls and History!

Roger gets set up to turn his bowls as museum host Barbara admires his work.

Roger comes out from Minnesota in May and this year we were invited to demonstrate at Eric Sloanes Museum in Kent CT.  Roger built a Norwegian style pole lathe last year here in CT, and got to show it off at this wonderful museum.  I brought my tent and my wooden pottery wheel. I made some miniature pots, always in demand at my upcoming fairs and events, the 30 I made today I will add to the thousands for my customers to purchase and cherish this year.  (Still only $3 each, check my web site demonstration page for upcoming events).

My grandchildren love to help display and rearrange my wares! Isobel and Meta 6 and 4, already make little pots on my potters wheel... continuing the love of making simple things with your own hands with slow, meditative methods!

My grandchildren came along with their mom.  The Museum and the adjoining Antique machinery and the wonderful weather we had made it a memorable day for all of us.  We met some new people and inspired many to learn our trades and share their experiences.

Wood carving enthusiasts learn the ancient technique and simplicity of a foot operated pole lathe.

If you missed this years Power Up, sign up for this blog and come visit us next May! We will be there again to enjoy a bit of old fashioned family fun in the foot of the Berkshire hills. Join us!

Anne Dixon's Inkle Pattern Adapted to Old Tape Loom... Makes a Nice Bag Strap!

I waited till after I finished my book, "Tape Loom Weaving... simplified" before I went out and bought Anne Dixons Inkle Pattern Directory.  I did not want to be influenced or overwhelmed. With 400 warp-faced patterns, Anne's book is a treasure trove of exciting patterns... I will not have enough life time to make them all!

I weave on traditional paddle, gate and box looms, but her patterns are easy to transfer. I found a lovely place mat at a thrift store, and thinking of some goldenrod threads I have in my stash, I bought the mat for a hand bag.

The pattern below is a Pick-up pattern. It is also known as a Baltic-Style pattern with 7 pattern threads plus border.  I used 8/2 cotton, which is about the same weight yarn as crochet cotton.  My band came out 3/4" wide. Check below for specifics.

This is an example of just what you can do with these fun, colorful bands.  Any pattern, from Anne's book and other books, to old patterns you find on the web, can be broken down, mixed up and reassembled into your own pattern mix.  I find that a head band, bag strap or belt, can use a particular pattern worked half way, then add a special motif in the center of your band, and work the first pattern back down the other side of the piece.  Many times this can be reversed for symmetry, which is what I did for this bag strap.

Patterns may have repeat sections. If you have Anne Dixons book, I used combinations on page 60.  She has several pattern features on this page. I picked the two diagonal bars on the right middle section. I had to make my own chart for the turns and because I repeated and reversed the pattern after my center motif

The charts below may look confusing at first.  If you are acquainted with pick-up patterns it will all make sense. Also, I repeated each bar pattern twice moving toward the center motif and twice after the center motif to make my strap 40" long.  (My warp was cut to 54" which gave me room for the rope twists on the ends.)

Any questions? Visit or email me through my web page at www.eastknollpottery.com

Have fun mixing and matching patterns!

What do I do with all those yards of woven tapes and woven bands?

I started weaving about 15 years ago on Nathaniel and Olive Birges' tape loom that they left in my attic in the 1800s.  I was going to re-enactments and the Storrowton Village at Eastern States Exposition in Massachusetts.  I made plain bands to use as ties for my hats.

While in Minnesota this February, I made yards of tape with the intention of making some apron ties for this years exhibits and shows.

Two waist aprons have the Scandinavian style trim on the bottom and around the waist to be tied behind my skirt.  I looked into my stash and found a large spool of linen/cotton yarn I purchased at Webs a few years ago for making socks on my sock machine.  It turned out to be a little thin and also the uneven lumpy yarn did not work well with the machines tiny needles.  This yarn takes commercial dyes well and so I have dyed some and woven these lovely simple stripe weaves.

The bleached linen apron is just a rectangle of cloth, gathered just above the bust, tape added for tie and straps and hooked in the back. These bands make a colorful and extremely strong addition to a plain apron.

The simple bands shown are set up on the tape loom as a simple stripe pattern. With only 2 sheds, the slot threads and the hole threads, many patterns can be made just by the simple placements of the colors.

And the plaid apron fabrics are cut from the back of a man's 2x large shirt!  Check out thrift stores or your husbands closet. They are great patterns, usually woven colors, not printed, and save the sleeves and fronts for a patchwork plaid quilt.  Some are light weight, some are heavy, most are permanent press.

Their is a museum in Norway that has some lovely old aprons on their web site that I have mentioned before, the Digitalt Museum.  Lovely clothing that gives us an excuse to get out the tape loom!  Below are two of the aprons on their web site.

Don't have a tape loom yet or don't know how to use one? Every day more and more folks are finding these lovely old antique looms used by our foremothers,  are still a valuable way to weave decorations or bands for today's history events or modern clothing.  Check out my other blogs with the search button above for "tape looms". Or visit my web page www.eastknollpottery.com, facebook page, tape loom weaving  or Amazon.com for my book, Tape Loom Weaving... simplified.

Think about it, do you too have a stash of yarns that would make great ties, trims or decorations?

Scandinavian Bodice with Woven Tape Bands

I just spent a month of February in Minnesota!  Some people go to Florida for the winter, I go to Minnesota. Roger is there.  And, this year we spent the first weekend up in Grand Marais. If Minneapolis is not cold enough in February, then go 5 hours north to Grand Marais!

While Roger cut trees for his upcoming classes, I wove.

Next week we spent in Decorah, Iowa. It was a little warmer there.  I met a lot of weavers. We got a tour of the secret archives and I saw some old Norwegian and Swedish Tape Looms. They were wonderful. We stayed at a B&B. The owners of the B&B were farmers. Their Norwegian forefathers have worked the same farm that our hosts own since the mid 1800s.

Roger taught a wooden bowl class at Vesterheim, I wove.

And yet the next week we spent with Tom and Kitty Latane in Pepin Wisconsin.  I got to stay with Kitty as she spun and wove musk ox wool. Laura Ingalls was born in Pepin. The lake, Pepin, a wide spot on the Mississippi, was frozen solid.  More cold temperatures and a rain shower turned the roads into paths of ice and packed snow.  Great for Kittys kick sled.  I found I just had to dress right for the cold weather, 3 layers of clothes lined wool hat and double felted mittens.

Roger taught a wooden bowl class at Pepins' school, I wove.

So I got a lot of weaving on my tape loom done!

Having joined the Connecticut Weavers this year and with some classes to teach coming up, I needed to get some bands done to adorn my clothing. Visitors are always asking... "What do you do with these bands?" My first project home was to finish the Scandinavian Bodice I had started in January.

There is a great web site
http://www.digitaltmuseum.se/

Here I found some Bodices.  The Scandinavians decorated, still do, their clothing in colorful bands of cloth.  When I go to reenactments, I dress in very casual clothes. As a New England potter, I would be wearing plain everyday dresses from the mid 1800s.  When I first discovered my English style paddle loom in my attic, I was satisfied making plain English bands for my hat and apron strings. Then I met Roger the Norwegian, and found these colorful bands.

Norwegians were among the first arrivals in New Amsterdam in the 1600s.  Swedes soon followed.  For some reason, they headed north into New York State and then out west to the new lands in Ohio west to Minnesota, perhaps looking for farmland. Connecticut was originally settled from the Boston area, lots of English. The Germans, Italians and Scandinavians eventually wandered into New England, mostly for the jobs in the new industrial factories.  The statistics for my town of Torrington CT states we are currently made up of 9% German, 1% Swedish, 24% Italian, 13% Irish and only 8% English. When Torrington was first settled in the 1700s, 100% of the population was English.  I am about half German and half English with a wee bit of  Irish thrown in. If one has heard the stories of Vikings conquering England in days gone by, I must have some Norwegian in me! This is all about my own reenacting as a New England potter and weaver in 1840.

I am thinking, perhaps a Norwegian loom or a Norwegian bodice found its way into Connecticut around 1840. In my reenactments I can make up stories. My story this year with my brightly decorated bands on my bodice and aprons will be that on a trip to New York, I traded yellow ware with a Norwegian lady for them!  Or perhaps I met a traveler at one of my fairs that was Norwegian?

Reenactments, dressing up in old fashioned clothes, working with your hands instead of electricity... it is just fun.  Even my pet peeve about people weaving on Inkle looms instead of the hand-carved beautiful gate looms found at the Vesterheim Museum.... well that is ok too.


Want to try a Norwegian Loom? Check out my web site, www.eastknollpottery, check out my book, Tape Loom Weaving, simplified on my web site or Amazon or come see me at my next event.