Suzy Beggin, Shepherdess

                                                                                                                                            Suzy@SuzyBeggin.com

 

 

 

Home
Contact & Events
To Place an Order
Suzy's Biography
My Sheep's Life
The Different Breeds
"Colored" Sheep
The Different Lots
How Much Wool?
How My Wool is Spun
Yarn vs. Roving
Balls of Yarn
Isn't Wool Scratchy?
Simon the Llama
Fred the Lamb
Meet the Sheep
Lambs!
Patterns
Privacy Policy

 

Other Fun Links:

 

1858 Historic Ball

A historic dance in celebration of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debate to take place on August 30, 2008.

 

Suzy's Doozies & Suzy's Musings

My book and weekly articles.

 

Galena Historic Dance Society

A fun group to practice and learn 19th century dance.  We meet on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the ARC in Galena.  All are welcome!

 

Stephenson County Fiber Art Fair

A marvelous celebration of fiber.

 

Freeport Cruise Night Nothing to do with sheep or wool, but it's an event I volunteer at and have a lot of fun with.  J

 

 

 
Text Box: How My Wool is Spun

Text Box: I do some hand spinning, but my hand spun is far too precious to sell!  The wool yarn I sell has been spun at Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill, a small family-run mill in Wisconsin that specializes in spinning small quantities of wool.    Spinning History People have spun wool on handspindles for thousands of years and with spinning wheels for a few hundred years.    Before textile industrialization, a family could easily spin enough wool for their own use.  But the beginning of weaving industrialization made it impossible for spinners to keep up with the needs of a textile mill.  In the 1760s James Hargreaves invented the “spinning jenny,” capable of using eight spindles to spin eight threads simultaneously.  In 1770 he patented the idea for a sixteen spindle spinning jenny, and later models could spin up to 120 spindles.     The main difference between antique spinning mills and modern mills is that newer machines are larger, allowing them to process more wool at a time.  They also have safety devices that weren’t deemed necessary in the days when labor was indispensable and injured or killed workers were simply replaced.    The machines used at Blackberry Ridge were purchased from a mill in Worchester, Massachusetts.  The mill was still in operation when they inspected the machinery in 1987.  The oldest piece of machinery used at Blackberry Ridge is the card, made in 1904 and 1905.  The newest piece is the spinning frame, made in 1954.  The other pieces that round out the process were made in the 1930s and 1940s.    When representing a time period before the 1750s, handspun yarn is more historically accurate.  Milled yarn is authentic for any time period after the 1760s.