Take this message to my brother
You will find him everywhere
Wherever people live together
Tied in poverty’s despair
Oh, you
Telling me the things you’re gonna do for me
I ain’t blind and I don’t like what I think I see
Takin’ it to the streets
Takin’ it to the streets
Having come of age in the 1960s and 70s, the current protests feel all too familiar to me. Most of the images we are seeing coming out of Portland, Oregon and elsewhere have been hard to look at, but Mason Trinca’s NY Times photo of this protestor really caught my eye. I would never have thought to make a plague mask in lace, but I thought it was genius.
There are two plagues at work here in the US — racism and Covid-19. The phrase, “may you live in interesting times,” (purported to be a Chinese curse), doesn’t even begin to cover it.
I recently found a response that made me better understand how to explain why the statement Black Lives Matter cannot be All Lives Matter. And that is, “no lives matter until black lives matter.” Both statements are a short-hand for something extremely complex, but it is a good place to start the discussion.
The BLM protests in Portland morphed into something else that is a little hard to define. I’m not sure anyone would have a consensus except for the fact that this protest was a very important 1st Amendment fight of citizens against a mercenary army (there were some federal agency folks, but most were actually private security firms trained for violent confrontation). Fortunately, the mercenaries left, but I felt like I had been catapulted back into my youth, where — with very few exceptions — the marches I saw and participated in were completely peaceful until the peace officers arrived.
Because of the very sad passing of Civil Rights icon John Lewis and my recent writing about the spindle from folk/protest singer Pete Seeger’s boat Clearwater, I can’t get the words of protest and memories of resistance out of my mind.
“If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?”
This quote has a long history, and in addition to John Lewis is also attributed to John F. Kennedy and many others. A great example comes from former Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu speaking at the United Nations, “If not now, when are we supposed to act in unity? And if it is not the United Nations, who is to lead? If it is not us, then who will shoulder the responsibility to protect the innocent civilians?” He could have said that today and it still would be spot on. The statement itself actually is much older and comes from the Hebrew scholar Hillel the Elder, said to have lived between 110 BCE and 10 CE. He also is credited with stating what we know as the Golden Rule: “what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.” It’s sad that we continue to need it to remind us of our human responsibilities.
Knitter Gayle Glasspie (GGMadeit) has more than one excellent post about trying to knit after the death of George Floyd and through the pandemic. I think it is worth understanding that while I feel both anger and sorrow at what has unfolded, she speaks of a more personal wrenching and consuming pain. Pain that I will never understand — and my empathy seems quite insufficient. I think that is why although I do appreciate what the Wall of Moms and Wall of Dads (with leaf blowers against the tear gas) were doing in Portland, I hope that the BLM protest isn’t co-opted by white people, and that while trying to protect free speech, we don’t lose sight of the fact that no lives matter until black lives matter.
Photo courtesy of Gaye Glasspie.
Pete Seeger, who gave voice to many of us during the 1960s and 70s, was also an environmental activist who brought public attention to the state of the Hudson River on his boat, Clearwater. Having been introduced to one of the spindles made from wood reclaimed from Clearwater during its restoration, I started reading about Sheila and Jonathan Bosworth and asked if I could visit them at their studio in Acton, MA (about 50 miles from me via lovely back roads through farms and woods) to talk about their spindles.
We need to step back a little in time to understand that spindles are just one of the newer iterations of Jonathan’s relationship with wood. His parents, Edward and Helen Bosworth, were weavers, and Ed also made weaving tools and furniture in upstate New York. Together with his father, Jonathan made his first Indian-style charkha spinning wheel in 1957 and entered it in the NY State Fair (where it won a prize). What is absolutely remarkable about this is not just its construction, but the fact that it was made solely by looking at an old black and white photograph. When Jonathan eventually acquired a charkha from India, it was within fractions of an inch of the same size.
Left: Mohandas Gandhi (also known as Mahatma–meaning venerable) with a floor charkha, photographed by Margaret Bourke White in 1946.
The book charkha didn’t arrive on the scene until 1929 when Gandhi held a contest to develop a small, light-weight, and portable wheel. His idea was to make the spinning wheel more easily available to more people. Ranging in size from a book (about 10″ across closed) to a briefcase (about 16″), these little wheels were a significant contributor to the independence movement in India. Spinning and weaving cloth for khadi, the cotton fabric used to make the simple traditional Indian clothing, gave people a way to resist the British occupation. The British were exporting Indian cotton to England for spinning and weaving, and then returning it to India at huge cost to the population. Local production promoted self-sufficiency and patience. The patience of “slow making” is a quality of spinning, weaving, knitting and sewing that creators today also understand very well. The introduction of both efficiency and portability is also something creators appreciate.
A young Gandhi pictured in traditional khadi clothing. Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Susant Purohit
The charkhas Jonathan is making these days are housed in a lovely cherry box, and have several improvements over the original that make them both user-friendly and unique. First, the three tahkli spindles snap into place in the mousetrap with the aid of a magnet that keeps them firmly in place during the spin. Second, those tahkli fit side-by-side into a built-in lazy Kate, and third, the box also holds a skein winder that fits on the accelerator wheel. Unlike the charkhas made in India, the Bosworth charkha components stay in place when the box is opened, with the aid of small swiveling tabs that fasten across the storage boxes and tahklis in the lazy Kate.
A Spinning Journey
By the 1970s, Jonathan had expanded the idea of portable spinning to a full-sized wheel in a box. The first easily portable wheel and still the only one of its kind, his Journey Wheel has been credited for saving a number of marriages because it can easily be folded up and strapped to the back of a motorcycle for a road trip. It also holds the distinction of having been listed in the Whole Earth Catalog, a compendium of tools and product reviews often called “The Bible” of the counter-culture movement.
Spindle manufacturing came about as a result of sharing a neighborly chat some 20 years ago with another vendor at SOAR, Toni Neil, owner of The Fold in Marengo, IL. She asked Jonathan if he could provide her shop with spindles, and the rest is history. His spindles are modeled on Egyptian top whorl spindles. These spindles are illustrated in ancient frescoes and even mentioned by Herodotus as something the Egyptians did backwards from everyone else (the bottom whorl spindle was the common spinning tool throughout the ancient world).
The spindle is Sheila Bosworth’s tool of choice. A professional musician and Early Music specialist, she met Jonathan at a Contra dance where he proceeded to (in his words) make himself a pest. He asked for every dance, and then turned up again a few days later at an English country dance. This time he was prepared with pencil and paper to get her phone number. After a year of proposals, she finally agreed to marry him.
Sheila already was a knitter, but originally only took up spinning in self defense…she was being asked questions while Jonathan was away from the booth at fiber fairs and needed to be able to do demonstrations. While she certainly can handle the charkha and Journey Wheel, it is the spindle that she most enjoys and that is her constant companion. She put it quite succinctly, “it is contemplative, and you get yarn.”
Photo by Peg Mallett courtesy of the Bosworths.
I am particularly drawn to the Bosworth spindles because they are made from salvaged wood. Like the wood from the Clearwater, these woods not only get new life rather than being added to the landfill, they often have meaning and significance for the spinners who are lucky enough to be able to own them.
The USS New Hampshire (1864 to 1921 when she sank) was built in Portsmouth, NH and had service during the US Civil War and as a gun boat to fight the Barbary Pirates. Wood from this ship can be found in the Bosworth’s studio. Other ship wood includes live oak that came from Boston when Spaulding Hospital was revamping its parking lot. The area where the beam was found originally had been a soaking pond for the nearby Charlestown Navy Yard. While impossible to prove, the wood may have been destined to be used for repairs of “Old Ironsides,” the USS Constitution and other early ships of the US fleet. This wood has special meaning to me as my office overlooked this ship for the 16 years I worked at the Navy Yard for the National Park Service. I also had the honor of sailing with her for one of her annual tours of Boston Harbor.
U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Matthew R. Fairchild, July 4, 2014
American Chestnut, Teak (NW India), and Thuya (North Africa)
The woods that Jonathan and Sheila have collected are nearly too numerous to list, but include everything from Cherry Plum from Denmark, to 30,000 year old Kauri wood from New Zealand, and Pao Santo from S. America (this one is quite stinky). Jonathan wonders if those made from red cedar (which contains a neurotoxin that works only on moths) might render your yarn moth-proof as you spin. It certainly would be nice to think so!
Jonathan is never finished with his spinning wheel journey. When he came across a rubbing of a Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) carved stone depicting a spinning wheel, he had to try to recreate it. The wheel that he saw had two spindles, but other drawings show 4 or even 5 spindles that would have been used to spin silk, and later cotton. A 2,000 year old spinning wheel clearly predates western wheels (thought to emerge around 1200), and that alone was the impetus to make another wheel.
Jonathan’s Han wheel is driven by a footman that moves back and forth (sort of like oars). As you can see, Jonathan has mastered spinning with two spindles.
A video of textile productions on Hainan Island, China from 2009 shows a brief view of a similar wheel still in use.
You also can see Jonathan demonstrating this wheel in 2010 in a video by Claudia Warner, and read much more detail about the wheel in Julia Farwell-Clay’s article, Jonathan Bosworth’s Spinning Wheel Time Machine (Spin-Off, Fall 2011). An illustration of the stone rubbing depicting the Han wheel can be found in Julia’s article as well as in Volume 5 of Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China edited by Deiter Kuhn (Cambridge University Press, 1988).
Jonathan and Sheila don’t go Contra dancing any longer, but together, and with their business, they have a lot of fun, and are a lot of fun to be around. I don’t think I was able to represent 1/10th of what I learned from them in this post, and I look forward another opportunity to talk with them. Most of all I look forward to a time when all of us can meet again at a fiber festival and share in the magic of what we make with our hands while we spin a few yarns.
I so loved reading this blog about Sheila and Jonathan. I know them both well and so admire who they are. Time spent with them is always treasured. Jonathan’s Journey wheel is amazing and I so love the textures of the spindles. I remember how blown out of my sneakers I was the day I saw her walking, talking and spinning all at the same time! Watching Jonathan spin with the Han wheel was amazing! A very talented duo!!
Thank you so much for reading this. I was so captivated with the two of them and can’t wait to start spinning on my new charkha! I have a spinning goal this summer of improving my wheel spinning, and I decided not to start any new spinning projects until I complete my current task. That charkha is calling me from the living room, so it won’t be long. I actually enjoy just looking at it for the moment and trying not to drool!
Hi Sara
So happy to see this blog post and catch up with your crafting story. I have several Bosworth spindles and love using them to spin yarn! Sheila and Jonathan are great people and I’m happy you are spreading their story. I’m sure you have had many crafting adventures since you left the NPS, would love to hear about them.
Jan, it is GREAT to hear from you! I didn’t know that you were a spinner as well as a knitter. I still consider myself a novice spinner, but am really enjoying it. This part of the adventure really started when I was doing the research for my book on knitting and spinning in Sweden (due out in October). So, yes, there is life after the NPS, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s wonderful. Please stay in touch!