As with most things, settlers had to make their own clothes. Most of this was from wool or linen. Wool came from the sheep, and linen came from flax that was grown. There was a popular homespun also known as linsey woolsey- obviously a mixture of the two fibers. Sometimes they were fortunate to be near enough to a merchant to purchase the very coveted COTTON cloth! This purchase was huge because of the often times lack of cash or coin in the "wilderness" of the times - that could be the dark deep woods of southern and eastern Indiana, the vast prairie lands north, or the muck of the south western swampy Ohio river area.
Spinning wool into thread was one of the first steps of making wool cloth. A spinster was the one who operated the spinning wheel and kept the family in thread for all uses. Most often the spinster was an older daughter or an unmarried female in the family. This work also was ideal to allowing for child care. So usually a teen aged daughter would be called upon to watch the younger children churn the butter in the churn as she spun wool into thread, and the youngest would play at her feet. When all the daughters were either too young for this duty or had grown, gotten married and left the family nest to make their own, this duty fell upon the ever present unmarried female relative that families supported. Before public aid this was one of the only ways, in addition to school teaching, that an unmarried woman was allowed to be acceptably employed, or of use to society. So, naturally over time a grown woman who was still in the position of spinster in a family quickly became pitied as an unmarriable woman with no hope of ever acquiring the status of "the woman of the house". As the ever broadening push west continued, and the aftermath of the Civil War left many widows and young women with no hope of a husband to provide for them and the family, spinning became a marketable skill in the communities that grew. But even now, hundreds of years later the image that comes to mind when "spinster" is mentioned is the lone woman, unwanted in marriage. (How far HAVE we come along baby?)
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/web_exhibits/museum_studies/anderson/anderson_cori_essay_files/image004.jpg
The next step in cloth making was the weaving together of threads. Weaving is merely the meshing of those threads in different directions to make cloth. The crosswise threads are weft, while the lengthwise threads are the warp. A tool called the "shuttle" carries the thread back and forth along the weft to cross the warp. The accomplished weaver will literally throw the shuttle back and forth from one hand to the other to speed the process along. This fast movement of thread back and forth became known as shuttling. It was not long before the term was applied to people movers of all types. Some examples include: shuttle service, shuttle train, shuttle bus, and even the space shuttle fits this category!
http://fiberjoy.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/blues-3-shuttles.jpg
Anyone that has attended a live comedy performance has probably heard a "heckler" in action. This is where an audience member will give the comedian or performer a hard time about their performance as it is going on. Today this is considered rude and a disturbance. Back in the days of Vaudeville this was viewed as an added component that would fine tune and clear out the snags in a performer's routine. It was certainly not a welcome experience for the performer! Well, where did the term heckler come from? It's from the device used in making linen. Flax is the fiber grown to make linen. Linen is not as widely used today, but up until about the WWII era linen was one of the more choice fabrics for summer wear, clothing for baby, or for use in such things as bandages and cheese cloth. A heckle is a board with nails sticking up so that the flax could be pulled through the nails and thus clearing out the broken pieces and tangles. To heckle means to tease. Teasing out the fibers in flax quickly became teasing out the snags in a comedic or theatrical performance.
http://www.maritimeheritageeast.org.uk/archive/heckle-or-hatchel-ref-200343/image/maxi
We all know someone who is very opinionated and obstinate in holding onto those opinions. A person whose opinions are said to be "dyed in the wool" is being called stubborn. The only hope of them changing is with the wear that time brings in life. Sometimes cloth is dyed after it is woven, but color being dyed in the wool will last much much longer. Usually wool would be boiled in a pot that held a solution of liquid that would steep the color into the very fibers. Berries, roots, bark, blossoms, leaves, tea, and coffee grounds all were used to dye color into wool. Since this time of year is just about election time a good example would be a saying such as: "Old Sam is a dyed in the wool conservative." This person is saying that Sam has had conservative ideas so long it seems he was made that way down to his very fibers! Now that is a strong stand!
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The last saying today involves the general store and cotton fabric. With the advent of the cotton gin and the other industrial age machines coming into farming and manufacturing processes early into the 1800's many newer items were available to those that had the means to purchase them. The most notable for our purposes would be cotton fabric. Cotton manufactured was a much finer grade than rough spun wool, linen or linsey woolsey. As now, every advance in technology made it better and less expensive. The difference for the general store merchant or trading post dealer and the technology giant Apple of today is that most of the consumers did not have much cash real (or electronic!) back in those days. Bartering was a real and viable way of doing day to day business. This made each transaction a bit confusing and complicated. Each person in the deal had to feel that their goods were being measured appropriately against the other's goods. Remember: it was only after the late 1800's that standardized measurements were in wide use throughout the United States. The merchant would hammer into the counter top brass tacks in order to establish a standard for the transactions across his counter top. Brass tacks were very durable and so would hold up to the abuse of everyday trade. No matter if you were purchasing wire, hemp rope, chain, or cotton cloth you knew you were getting the full measure in length. So, with the haggling over prices in the bartering process through it was time to "get down to brass tacks" or get to the business at hand - measure the length of good to be purchased. So when your teacher or your boss ever says "Let's just get down to brass tacks!" they mean to say: "Let's just stop discussing this and get on with the work!"
Now, it's time for me to get on with the work outside rescuing my precious stash of walnuts from the crazed squirrels!
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