Pillow Tops Saturday

This past weekend we spent some time learning about ice fishing, as well as practicing the traditional Newfoundland craft of making pillow tops.

Our finished Pillow Tops

On Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early to participate in a pillow top-making workshop at The Rooms. Pillow tops are square-shaped textiles traditionally made in various places on the island, but were often made by Newfoundland lumber camp workers in the 1950s. On Sundays, their only day off, they didn’t have many options for things to do if they didn’t want to play cards, so some of them picked up the craft of making pillow tops. They would make these for their wives, girlfriends, or mothers, who would then sew them onto pillows or use them as place mats or pot holders.

During the workshop we learned about the history of pillow tops as well as how to make our own. First we were each given a small wooden frame meant for pillow top weaving, and picked out a few different colours of wool. The wool to be used for the base layer, which isn't seen in the final product, was tied onto one of the corner nails to start everything off.

The first step was to bring the wool to the opposite side of the frame and let it go all the way around two nails before bringing it straight across to the original side. That wool was then wrapped around two nails on the original side and brought back to the opposite side, and repeated. When we came to a corner nail we used that as our “second nail”, wrapping the wool around it, and just kept going, bringing the wool over to the opposite side. The wool should be pulled tight all the time.

Pillow top weaving is a continuous process so once we completed five layers, we tied the wool off on another nail and then continued with a different colour. One main tip was to avoiding tying the wool off on the same nail. We then continued to repeat the process until the wool filled up the nails.

Then it was time to use a netting needle to tie off the backing. We used fishing twine and a stitch that is used to mend fishing nets, so we killed two traditional skills with one stone! Tightening the knots was a bit tough on the fingers but using the needle to pull them tight reduced the strain.

Then we had to cut up our creations; it was so counterintuitive! We had to cut through most of the layers in a methodical way, leaving the base layer and twine backing intact. Finally we cut the ends off the nails carefully, making sure we cut off the knots in the process. Et voilà:

We were pleased with how our masterpieces turned out and, similar to when we learned how to make felt, it was great to learn a new, traditional craft. 

On Sunday we continued the traditional theme by attending an ice fishing session at the Fluvarium! We learned about what to wear, safety precautions, regulations, and we even made our own handmade ice fishing rods. We attended the last session of the day and unfortunately a larger child had jumped on the ice and went through it earlier on, so they weren’t allowing any visitors to go on the ice after that incident. However, the instructor did go out on the ice and showed us how to use an auger to drill a hole in the ice as well as how to test the thickness of it. We were surprised to learn the recommended ice thicknesses for use: 4-6” for one person, 8-10” for a group, and 10-12” for using a snowmobile on the ice.

It was especially interesting to learn about ice fishing at the Fluvarium because we could see below the ice from inside the Fluvarium and could observe the fish’s sleepy wintery behavior. We also learned that the clearer the ice is, the thicker it usually is. We’re hoping to go out ice fishing sometime soon if the weather permits, but Elizabeth is admittedly scared of actually catching a fish. Here are a few more pictures from our weekend: