Originally Posted by
Jan in VA
I also have a very old quilt which has an interesting quirk about it. The written provenance that came to us with our family quilt dated ca.1790 or earlier (by the Textile Museum at Colonial Williamsburg) includes a statement that the fabric (which turned out to be linen) "was grown, spun, and woven on the plantation through a finger ring." NO ONE in the museum or any antique appraiser has been able to tell me the significance of this.
Yet, as I child I distinctly remember regularly placing a ring over a birthday candle on cakes before the candles were blown out, to make a wish. Mother says she doesn't think we did this at all. I can only assume the idea came form my father's side of the family, from which the quilt also came. And that makes me wonder if this was a regional Virginia idea, maybe Irish or English in origin.
Who knows where these wonderful old traditions originate, as they are so often lost over the years. Sadly.
Jan in VA
I am familiar with Russian Orenburg shawls made of spun goat down, and then combined with silk. A 5’x5’ shawl will pass easily through a ring. Similarly Irish Aran Island baby shawls. I suspect a piece of the linen fabric was thus similarly gauged by this technique. It does not sound at all like a finger weave, but a “fineness” measure of the weave.