
09/07/2023
It is bread-baking day this coming Saturday, 9/9, and the house will be open for visitors. It promises to be hot still, so I think once again I will just do a low-key demonstration, but how about something different than spinning this time? (Not that I don't love to spin.) I think I will try weaving on a spaltegrind or bandgrind (At the Peter Burr House, I *should* be weaving on a tape loom, but I need to put a new warp on my tape loom, so there's that).
I haven't tried doing a backstrap-weaving technique at the Peter Burr House yet, so we'll see if this idea works or not, but I will plan on being there Saturday about 11:30am and continuing to about 1:30, depending on heat, visitors, and how everything goes with the weaving.
I must mention that the band-weaving I will be doing is not a typical colonial American technique, though 'bands' or 'tape' were crucial to all sorts of ties and fastenings, from holding up your stockings, to tying your aprons, petticoats, stays, etc. and any other manner of uses. Most people in colonial America wove the ever-useful tape on small, portable tape looms, and do not have the kind of 'pick up' designs as pictured in my photo. What I have here is a spaltegrind (what a great word!), a type of rigid heddle that allows a variety of designs that float within the weave, and these were essential tools in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe (and many other cultures do band weaving, but in different ways, as well).
Did the Burrs make bands at home? A tape loom isn't specifically mentioned in Peter Burr's inventory at death, but weaving equipment in general is noted, so it is quite probable that a tape loom was in use. A spaltegrind? No, not at all likely - but would any of the German immigrants in Shepherdstown be using something similar? Possibly. In any event, it is a historic technique that is certainly very interesting (or at least, I think so!)