Surprising Word Origins from the Textile Arts | Kirtle Project [CC] 

In my opinion, using whatever is on hand to create a tablet weaving set up feels like the most historically in spirit thing I can imagine. When I tried out tablet weaving, I measured my threads by wrapping them however many times around chair legs and then tied everything to my stairs railing and leaned into it in a makeshift back loom setup. And of course my cards were made of playing cards

My favourite textile-craft-word-used-for-something-else is that we in Swedish say that a cat "spins" when it purrs.

You might be interested to hear that 'yarning' has been taken up by a lot of indigenous peoples in Australia as an English word to describe the traditional way they communicate, share knowledge and make decisions through group discussion & storytelling/listening to others' stories.

I must admit, the walking "barefoot and the needle will find you" gave me a good giggle, so thanks for that!🤭

The Norwegian word for “clue” is “ledetråd” - literally “leading-thread”.

The lacing on your kirtle reminds me of the etymology of ‘straight-laced’ I heard from Toni Mount in ‘How to Survive Medieval England’. She said that cross lacing, which can be done and undone quickly, was favoured in the sex trade, whereas spiral lacing, which takes longer and produces straight lines across the opening, was associated with being morally upright, hence straight-laced

Ooh, both historical costume AND etymology! You spoil me! One really good word you didn't mention is 'to warp' - which has migrated away from its original meaning to psychology and Star Trek. It's from the tension which warp threads are under on a loom, and the way that tension distorts things spatially. English has taken that notion of spatial distortion and run with it!

You are a wonderful storyteller. Etymology is not only weird, but intriguing. Put these two together in the same video and it is amazing. Thanks so much for teaching me something new today. Take care.

In Australia, the saying is “to have a yarn”, and it is incredibly common, and hasn’t fallen out of use even a little. “What took you so long?” “I was havin a yarn with old mate” (old mate being that person you know, who you can’t remember the name of, like old mate at the bottle-o who served you every week, and you always have a bit of yarn with when you go). Also, I recall having a very lovely illustrated book of the Arachne myth as a child. Even the spider in it was pretty. I wish I knew where it went to.

I’m from New Zealand, we still use “having a yarn” to mean having an conversation or telling a story. Usually it comes with the subtext of being long winded and wandering

Cool, the story about the "clue". In Dutch the word "kluwen" is used for a ball of yarn.

it thrilled me to no end to hear you reference the distaff side of the family. despite the word distaff being one i regularly use and hear used, i've never heard anyone else use this phrase. my grandmother presented me with my great great grandmother's porcelain cocoa set when i was married, with the instructions that it must always be passed on to the next bride on the distaff side. but i have to admit, it threw me every time you said distaff. pronouncing it die-staff just did not connect in my brain and i had to do a double take each time to figure out what you were talking about. i'm a spinner and hear it a lot in the spinning community and it is always pronounced diss-staff in my memory. no idea if this is the original way it's said... just odd to hear it another way.

One of my personal favourites is that you can describe something as being "warped" and how it's often used in science fiction of all places "time warp" "warp speed"

In school I translated a lot of Seneca’s work especially his Epistulae morales. Weaving appeared often as a metaphor for your unchangeable fate. Wherein fate is a weaver, who weaves with the weavers shuttle (time) the tapestry, that is your life. So the threads that make up your life are already in place and are being locked together over the passing of time exactly like your fate foretold. I hope this makes sense. Loved the video.

A spindle is found on a great wheel (A.K.A. walking, high or wool wheel). It's what the fiber is spun from the tip of and then wound onto. Dyed in the wool is dyed before it is spun. The dye is throughout the wool where yarn spun dyed wool isn't as completely dyed.

The history of language and how it changes is so fascinating!

Etymology and crafting both, in one video? We must be soul sisters! Thank you, from a fellow Canadian, for a lovely video.

I love your description of how language changes! So very true. Also, I still enjoy the naming of chaos demons. I mentioned it to my spouse, who then decided to name mine...

Loved this! You may be interested in a book I'm reading at the moment - The Golden Thread (How fabric changed history) by Kassia St Clair. She also mentions spinsters as well as the fact that the more derogatory context is more recent as you did. She says that a single woman spinning could earn as much as a weaver.... who were usually men and in guilds. So quite a good choice for career if the whole marriage/tons of babies were just not your thing. And I now know that weft comes from an old word meaning to weave so I will never get warp and weft confused again

There's a fairytale (I don't remember if it's an H.C. Andersen tale or a folk tale) in which a girls brothers all get turned into swans. In order to lift the curse, she has to spin and either weave or knit (or it's not specified) shirts for all her brothers out of stinging nettles (that are untreated) within a certain timeframe. She almost manages, but she doesn't finish the final sleeve, so one of the brothers has a swan wing instead of an arm.

commenting on your rant. In North America, as you know, we've really tried to change our speech concerning natives/indigenous people of the Americas. Well, it's so freakn hard now that I live in France and the older French people in my life still use words like "indian" to refer to native peoples of the Americas, and every time I tell them "you know you can change it to something else, right", they get all huffy and say, "but those are the only words we can use", and I show them French wikipedia and say, nope, there are other words in French you can use, and I tell them how I change my language all the time when I learn something new, the French Academy be damned!!!! (there are no linguists in the French Academy by the way, so I usually never listen to what they say)

Funnily enough, aumônière is still fairly intuitive in french--at least if you've hung out in christian spaces, have any interest in medieval-vibe media, or even watch old Disney classics. That aside, thank you for the energy and bright smiles you put into these videos, they are uplifting in these dark times. Good luck with future tablet weaving endeavours!

A video from Liz with etymology and fashion history?? Sign me up for three of my favourite things! If you frequent TV tropes, you may have come across the phrase "Distaff Counterpart" which is how I learned the term. It's used to describe the female equivalent of a male character. The male version is a Spear Counterpart, because of course the male version is a weapon and the female is a craft tool. *eyeroll*

I have a loom named Penelope and a spindle named Ariadne. This video was definitely my kind of content!

absolutely wonderful

I love this whole subject!

Love the video, as always; etymology is such a joy! English being my second language, and knowing just enough French and German to get in trouble, I'm always fascinated by all the cognates. I found it interesting that in Spanish we do not have the same textile words for stories, so that there's no equivalente of yarn for story; however, the word for plotline, "trama", refers to the "weft", and so on. Also fascinating to me is how many expressions/proverbs/saying have almost direct translations in meaning, if not in the words used. (Example, "between the rock and the hard place" becomes "entre la espada y la pared" -between the sword and the wall). Goes to show that humans are humans everywhere we are, and usually find similar ways to thrive in our environments. (thank you for putting our ko-fi link in the description; for those of us who can't quite commit to a monthly donation, may I suggest you also mention your ko-fi in your videos? That way, those times we can help, we'll know where to go.)

So interesting! I try hard to let the ads run since I am not a patron. Your channel fills a unique niche with all the literary morsels mixed with costuming! Thank you!

The phrase, "To take the measure of a man.", comes to mind in this context.....

This was incredibly interesting and I applaud you for putting this all together - no small feat!

What an super informative video. I knew quite a lot of the terms, being a crafter and a medievalist but I was not aware of clue/clew so thank you for that, and for the Greek mythology stuff. Also way to go on the accessories, great job! And the tablet weaving will make an awesome strap.

Thank you for referencing my two favorite mystery films!

Very interesting words! When you started in on the story section, I immediately thought of the Scarborough Fair verse that talks about making a shirt (Tell him to make me a cambric shirt; parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme; without no seams nor needle work; then he'll be a true love of mine).

I love linguistics and etymology - thank you so much for this

Good job, Jeff! Getting Liz to try tablet weaving!!! My loom is made up from a discarded Ikea board (I think from a crib) and some scrap lumber I found in the garage, and it's tied together with neon orange yarn. I actually bought thin crocheting thread for it and my friend ifted me with 3D printed tablets but I warped the loom despite the help of my rabbit, who as it turns out, likes to nip threads, chew wood AND steal tablets... and my shuttle/beater is two layers of cardboard from ice cream sandwiches. The pattern (thanks to Weaving with Elewys) is the simplest one I've seen, I think tenth century and you turn all the odds, pass the shuttle, turn all the evens, pass the shuttle, that's as hard as it gets... eventually I'll have a belt. I hear you about the critical thinking thing... and thanks to another commenter on another sewing youtuber, have developed a new motto. "Sewing. Because murder is wrong."

My favourite fabric related word is "shoddy" a fabric made from recycled clothing. In common speach however it means something cheap and of poor quality.

Clew also referred to the rattle inside the ball of yarn.

How do you do this?!? This, being; entertain and educate me at the same time. I’m not usually interested in many of the topics you talk about but you make me interested. I’m completely sucked in to what you are saying. I even rewind sometimes to make sure I understood what you were saying/meaning. Mind blown! Thanks!

Super fun and educational as always Liz. Thank you for sharing!!

A spindle is actually one of the oldest ways to spin yarn they were used way before a spinning wheel was invented. Jillian eve who spins and weaves did a video on her Chanel debunking the sleeping beauty myth but there are some spindles out there that might be able to harm you but most of the spindles you will find are not sharp at all and mostly made of wood (there are so many types of spindles too) I actually got myself a spindle and plan to spin yarn on it once I get some other projects finished 😊

I'm gonna have to rewatch this several times! Very interesting!

Language, and sewing, and mythology, Oh My! Many of those words live in my present vocabulary due to my hobby, the SCA. It's difficult to dive into history without the vocabulary to support it. Other words like nostapin, niddy-noddy, weaving sword, or lucet took a bit more investigation. This was a short, sweet yarn that wrapped things up in a nice skein.

love the stories and etymology, and appreciate the resources!

Thank you for this I find these kind of videos fascinating !! Ps I love how the pattern of your kirtle it perfectly aligned!! I also wondered how your sleeves(if separate ) stay on

Thank you thank you thank you! I sew, knit and spin (I do *not* weave - I don't have the space, either physical or mental, to take up another craft), and I'm a history/literature/mythology nerd. I tell you all this to explain why this video is EVERYTHING. Also, cute accessories, and isn't Opus Elenae a delight?

Thankyou. I love starting my day with a little bit of 'learning'. Very well researched. I cannot do the Patreon but I faithfully sit through the adds to give you income that way. All the best to you.

Oh t his is a fantastic video, Liz! Well done

A sweet and short informative video

When you said at the beginning of the video that historical dress research can improve your life?! I felt that. Im in the process of saving money for linen or hemp fabric for remaking ALL OF MY UNDERGARMENTS. Mostly because my laundry situation in my apartment building is crap and hemp or linen fabric are naturally anti-hold-body-funk but also because my fashion clothes are hard to clean. The historical method of keeping their outer clothes from unnecessary laundering is the way in needed to embrace. Unless im out For the ENTIRE day, the the clothes dont need to be cleaned. There are times where i have only left the house for no more thab 15 minutes. Are those outer garments dirty? Do they need to be fully laundered? If they touched my body? Yeah, they kinda do. I have a sweating condition. But like, what if i DIDNT have to wash the outer garment? What if i could just refresh it instead? Modern methods with steaming, but also historical methods with alcohol spray and wearing undergarments that keep my skin from touching my outer garments?. I could preserve my outer clothes from unecessary washing? I could save so much money (as its paid washer dryer) i dont have to spend so much on laundry additives and pretreatments and i would be, theoretically, cooler as linen keeps you cooler than cotton. Harder wearing fabric means i can possibly boil things if absolutely necessary. And linen and hemp last for a LIFETIME. Historical research. Specifically historical fashion research is about to save me SO MUCH. I could cry. I HAVE to wash my clothes TWICE to get them clean because our washers are THE ABSOLUTE WORST and it takes them 2 washes to get what a normal washer from the 1990s would have offered. Like, its so bad that washing them with a washboard is worth the work. And a laundromat is out of the question because of a bus ride and walking up hill. I overshared to basically say, i felt that line in ways you may not understand Its amazing what rabbitholes can change. It will take me 3 months to save up the money for the fabric cause I plan on banging them out. I also have wool and linen socks on the list as im told they take are easier to clean as well. I can buy a few packs at a time over the course as well. Historical people understood things we've lost... so im bringing some of their basics to the future.

Well done, interesting and informative! Go support her on patreon! Isn’t this content worth buying her a cup of tea each month?

There were actually a few terms and origins in here that I did not know of yet. Thank you. :}

Loved everything about this video! Thank you so much for sharing all of this research. Etymology is so fascinating. Also, this looks like a rabbit hole I need to move into for a while. :)

If you haven't read it already, I suggest "Womens Work the first 20,000 Years" a wonderful history!

Found your cap 🙌🏻love the way you dress

im at the alberta university of the arts. i have weaving this semester, guess what I have to try, yup tablet weaving. i think I have jeffs big brother hanging with me. I'm on tenterhooks about it. the modern wheel has a flyer not a spindle so we know when sleeping beauty was first told, I think around the 14th century. (not a historian, just a spinner)

Doesn’t “dyed in the wool” mean dyed before spinning?

Just to help educate, a distaff is usually used with flax, and the spindle is usually what the yarn winds onto, so a spindle being sharp enough to prick your finger on would be incredibly difficult! There is a style of spindle that could end up sharpened via use but most are impossible to sharpen!

Thank you for the very interesting video. Some of the words I knew but I definitely learned a few new ones too.

Wow so much fascinating history+craft+ language! I used to love reading the Greek Myths as a child ( book number 10 in the Disney Encyclopaedia set I never quite understood why we had…!) always loved the Minotaur story but never knew it was the origin of the word “ clue” ! ( btw “ Minotaur” is the name of a well known independent bookshop here in Melbourne, specialising in Science Fiction & Fantasy!)

I love to tablet weave. I learned it as my "Covid Craft"!

Had to chuckle - had the ‘decimated’ rant from my autistic son about 2 hours before I watched this 😂😂😂

You lost me at the greek myths but this video was fascinating!

Handspinner here to say, whoops, "dyed in the wool" means that the wool was dyed *before* being spun into yarn. This helped assure even color distribution once the fiber was carded and spun. "Dyed in the yarn" means it was dyed *after* spinning. Depending on how tightly the yarn was spun, the dye *might* penetrate to the core of the yarn and strike the inner fibers -- or it might not. There may remain an undyed core that would show through eventually from wear. Kettle-dyeing yarn might also distribute the dye differently on some parts of the yarn compared to others (depending on the skill of the dyer and how fast the dye strikes), a technique that modern indie dyers use to create interesting effects but that wasn't favored in the past.

Interestingly, yarn and yarning are in common use in Australia. Yarn in the fibre sense is not, we refer to yarn as ‘wool’, regardless of fibre content. Among First Nations Australian (Aboriginal peoples), yarning is often used in media/advertising targeting them specifically at is a term they use a lot. ‘Yarning Circles’ are, for example, are like ‘group therapy’. A gathering of people to discuss pertinent issues in their lives. Aussies use, ‘have a yarn’ in general conversation.

love this video!

I really enjoyed this video, thank you! I learned so much. I’ve never heard distaff or Minotaur pronounced with a long ‘i’ - is that a dialect variation? Also ‘rokk’ in Norwegian I believe refers not to a distaff but to a drop spindle.

In my country, you can discuss how many tablets someone else has to work with, as a phrase for how intelligent they are: as in tablet weaving

I'm not gonna lie, I'd totally cheat and sew some fabric onto the ends, because that belt is too cute. Also, I'm always a little sad whenever people don't like spiders.

In Portugal when you get distracted and forget what you are talking about, you loose the thread of the ball of yarn.

Not to mean or anything, but you're mispronouncing the distaff. It's actually pronounced like the dis in 'disin' someone, not like 'fabric dye'

Does fussy come from fustian, some sort of textile word? In Georgette Heyer's books they use the word fustian a lot.

Has anyone here done any research on the old prick-your-finger-on-a-spinning-whee-lore? Because as far as I know, it's not possible on a European style wheel?

Liz I love your videos and research and don't blame you for this error at all because the sources are so abysmal, but...that spinning wheel in the sleeping beauty section (4:27) doesn't have a spindle anywhere on it ;) That's a flyer wheel, invented in around the 16th century*. The predecessor to the flyer wheel is the spindle wheel, invented God-knows-when somewhere outside of Europe, but which you see in lots of charming medieval european illustrations. It generally has a large hand-turned wheel and a horizontal spike that you can murder someone with, magically-enchanted or not - modern tutorials for the larger of these wheels often recommend a prophylactic tetanus shot. You can look at the history of the Charkha wheel in India for a fascinating and well-documented example that is still in use today. Anyways, whether the original Sleeping Beauty fairytale or one of its later versions included a spindle wheel is a question I am not qualified to answer. Memory and Wikipedia tell me there are multiple versions of the story with multiple different cursed objects, but since textile terms are frequently mistranslated by men who can barely tell warp from weft...I have reservations. I could say so much more on this topic but this is already a lot and I don't want to make any errors of my own, so I shall conclude with kudos for decorating your background with cotton bolls, that's a brilliant touch. *Source: Spinning Wheels, Spinners, and Spinning, by Patricia Baines, quoted in theknittinggenie.com/2014/03/05/youre-doing-it-even-more-wrong-or-how-the-great-wheel-survived/ I own this book, and can say that although it is outdated and inaccurate on some things, this particular fact is born out in images/illustrations if you do a bit of googling.

From my place in the “pedants corner” I like that words have meanings that we can convey when we use them. I want you to find another word for ‘decimate’ because it is over used as well as used outside it’s original meaning. It has been hackneyed to death. 😊

PS.many of the Dystaffs you show are holding flax rather than wool…

Is Rosie a Shiba?

The egg comes first. An almost chicken mated with an almost rooster. The egg with hatch a first ever chicken. Does that make sense?

💜❤💚

(psst! -- its "dis-staff" with a short "i" as in "history.")

❤❤❤❤❤❤👍👍👍👍👍

Wait... wait... in-good-nick being the opposite of, say, a nogoodnick?