SPINNING IN FAIRY TALES by K.C. Shaw page 3/3
Spinning Tales
Spinning can be a boring task, but it can also be done in company. It was common for women to spin together, and naturally they would also talk and sing. Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman contains the famous "Spinning Song," and some nursery rhymes mention spinning in company:
Cross patch, draw the latch,
Sit by the fire and spin.
Take a cup and drink it up,
And call the neighbors in.
In addition to singing and gossiping, spinners told stories--and naturally, they often told stories about spinning. We're lucky that we still have record of some of these stories. They're a window onto a time that is long gone and a task that is now no more than a hobby.
K.C. Shaw learned to spin over ten years ago, which is why her spare
bedroom is piled with wool. Her articles and essays have appeared in such magazines as Sheep!, Backwoods Home, and Spin-Off. She lives in East Tennessee. Visit her at Rain Daisy Handspinning.
References:
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, ed. Jack Zipes, Oxford Univ. Press, 2000.
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales, Pantheon Books, 1944.
Carding, Spinning, Dyeing, Elisabeth Hoppe & Ragnar Edberg, Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1975.
Recommended reading:
The Joy of Spinning, Marilyn Kluger, Simon & Schuster, 1971.
The Whole Craft of Spinning, Carol Kroll, Dover, 1981.
A collection of general spinning links is also available at textile links.
Spinning magazine Interweave is also a great resource. It's also got a great list of spinning guilds.
Classes:
If you're looking for local spinners, a good place to start is your local yarn shop or knitting group. Many knitters also spin."
A Few Other Tales Involving Spinning:
The Three Spinners
The Lazy Wife
The Seven Ravens
Whuppity Stoorie
Duffy and the Devil
King Thrushbeard
The Twelve Hunstmen
The Golden Spinning Wheel
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