Homespun charms

When Chrissie Freeth invites you to meet Boris you imagine a boisterous Labrador or a well-fed tom cat. It turns out he’s an enormous weaving loom that dominates her dining room.

“I’m not mad. It’s traditional and quite normal to name a loom,” says Chrissie, who also has two spinning wheels, Morag and Inga.

Her home in Saltaire is a hive of activity for cottage industries that were widely practised in past times, pre the industrial revolution. She spins her own wool from raw fleeces that are stuffed in bags around the living room waiting to be washed.

“You have to be very careful when you wash them because you don’t want them to felt. So you do a couple of handfuls at a time water with a bit of washing up liquid so you don’t destroy the lanolin. I dry them on the washing line,” she says.

The next step is to brush or card the wool to get the fibres facing the same way and then you can spin it into a bobbin, which takes about an hour, then you have to ply two bobbins together before making it into a hank with a niddy noddy .

“Then you can dye it if you like. It is all quite laborious and it’s not easy but it’s very relaxing and rewarding,” adds Chrissy, who uses the wool to knit and crochet throws, cushions and blankets.

Boris demands finer wool, which she buys and weaves into cloth that is used to make fabulous scarves, purses, hairgrips and earrings. It takes a day to make the warp and put it on the machine and another day to weave around three metres of fabric.

She learned how to weave 20 years ago on a replica Viking warp-weighted loom and has been since honed her techniques at the spinning wheel and loom with the help of her friends Sonia O’Connor and Rob Janaway, who are renowned textile conservators.

Chrissie recently added rag rugging to her repertoire and puts her fascination with old crafts down to her love of history. She has a PhD in archaeology and is and is an honorary research fellow at Bradford University.

“I’ve always made things and been interested in old textiles and what I do is a way of learning about and preserving heritage skills, which are in danger of dying out,” she says.

Crafting has become Chrissie’s new career and her Victorian terrace home in Saltaire is her HQ. She bought the property after renting next door and never dreamed she’d end up living in what she regarded as “the house from hell”.

She and others had campaigned to have the nuisance neighbours evicted but when they left and the landlord put it up for sale, she decided to put in an offer, adding: “No-one could believe I wanted to live there after all I went through.

“I saw it just after the tenants left and it was in a terrible state, but even then I knew it was the place for me.”

It is a fine example of the Italianate-style homes in the Victorian model village built by Sir Titus Salt for his workers at Salts Mill. It still has its original arched, stained glass 
windows, which look better than 
they perform.

“They’re draughty and you can’t put curtains up or you’d destroy the look of them,” says Chrissie. “But I’d rather be cold and look at those arches.”

She has made the house her own and has decorated the interior with heritage colours that have made it feel cosy. The dated kitchen/dining room now boasts handmade patchwork curtains and the old units and tiles have been painted. It’s fresh but full to bursting thanks to the four shaft counterbalance floor loom and its associated paraphernalia.

“I did have a dining table but it’s hidden away to make way for Boris. I love him and from the get-go we were a team,” says Chrissie.

“I love weaving so much. The patterns are very mathematical but it’s very meditative and there is something very visceral about creating your own cloth.

“It has also given me that link to the past which, as an archaeologist, I have always craved. When I use the loom I know I am making the same moves and decisions others have made for centuries before me.”

Her love of all things old is evident in her choice of furniture. Much of it is vintage. The comfy art deco sofa was 
£30 from an auction and her pre-war table was just £3. The walls are full 
of pictures in a variety of antique 
frames and most of her of her 
lighting comes from a collection of old standard lamps.

Upstairs, there are three bedrooms and two of them have been repurposed. One is a second sitting room/study and includes her favourite chairs, given to her by a friend and treated to a new look with hand-crocheted loose covers. The other is a sewing room, where she spends a lot of time preparing for fairs and fulfilling orders for her work.

“I enjoy working from home,” she says. “I had a ‘what the hell have I done’ moment when I first bought this house but after putting my own stamp on it I’ve fallen in love with it and it’s given me the space I need to be creative.”

Chrissie is taking part in the Saltaire Arts Trail from May 25-27, which includes open houses, a makers’ fair and family events, www.saltaireartstrail.co.uk. For more details visit www.chrissiefreeth.wix.com/weaver. Her rug kits are available at Salt’s Mill.