I spotted a couple of these on Pinterest this morning and had to dig deeper. Unfortunately, I can’t really dig very deep at the moment, but they are yarn samples saved by an early-20th-century weaver named Ethel Mairet. Images from the archives at VADS; yarns from R. Greg & Co., Stockport (UK). This may be perfectly typical and I just don’t know about it (having failed to study fiber arts) but the way she’s catalogued these — weaving them in simple but regimented fashion through slits in card stock, carefully annotating the specimens — makes me a little bit dizzy with love. I mean, it’s like art, design, library science and yarn all rolled into one!

As soon as I get a chance, I’ll be looking into this Ethel Mairet, maker of “hand woven stuffs”.

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