Spinning
This page is dedicated to all the women in
our direct line who spun and toiled to keep their families
clothed and warm.
At age five Sarah started spinning wool on
a drop spindle.
After she became proficient at spinning
wool she learned to spin a fine thread of flax.
Sarah's 6th great grandmother was Martha
Lyon, wife of Eliakim May. As with Martha, Diane and Sarah have
inherited a natural ability for turning fiber into thread.
The Lyon Memorial, Massachusetts
Families says: The Hartford Courant, Jan. 6, 1766,
had this item: Miss Levina Lyon, daughter of Capt. Nehemiah Lyon
of Woodstock, and Miss Molly Ledoit carded and spun in one day 22
skeins of good tow yarn and a few days after, Martha Lyon, sister
of Levina, spun 194 knots of good linen yarn in one day.
The Descendants of Edward Morris,
by Edward Flynt Morris, touts Martha's accomplishments in the
following way: As instances of the industrious habits of this
family, Miss Larned, in her "History of Windam County,"
quotes from the Connecticut Courant of Jan. 9, 1766. Miss Levina
with Miss Molly Ledoit, spun and carded in one day twenty two
skeins of good tow yarn. Miss Levina was then "sweet
sixteen." A few days afterward, her sister Martha Lyon, the
oldest child of the family, then twenty-four years of age, not to
be outdone by her younger sister, spun one hundred and
ninety-four knots of good linen yarn in one day. Perhaps this
inspiration of labor came from the double quantity of Morris
blood in their veins.
Diane and Sarah have "triple"
Morris blood in their veins. They descend from Edward, Grace, and
Martha Morris, all children of Edward & Grace (Bett) Morris.
Martha (Lyon) May's gravestone in East
Woodstock, Connecticut.
With the flyer whirling Sarah sets about
the task of spinning wool. We usually spin the wool in the grease
from flicked locks. We use the hand cards or a dog comb to flick
the wool. Flicking takes out hay, chaff, and the shorter wool
fibers. The resulting yarn is of the smoothest, most even
quality! After filling two bobbins we ply the yarn together,
spinning in the opposite direction from whence it was originally
spun. We then measure the yarn into a skein using a niddy noddy.
The skein is then washed and rinsed several times. It is very
important to get all of the grease out if you want to dye the
skein. Before washing the skeins that are spun in the grease are
tan. After washing skeins are a nice snowy white.
Much like generatons before Sarah grew up
watching her mother spin and weave. Sometimes when demonstrating
spinning her pa comes along and spins too.
Photographs by Diane Shepard Johnson
Photographs copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006: Diane Shepard Johnson
Web site copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006: Diane Shepard Johnson & Sarah E.
Johnson
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this web site may be reproduced
in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard
Johnson & Sarah E. Johnson.
