The Archaeology Podcast Network
11 episodes listed below
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Hosts Rachel Roden and Heather Boyd bring you a unique podcast organized by seasons. In each season you'll learn about yarn or pattern styles from around the world: where did they come from? What's the history? Then you'll be able to grab the pattern for a custom design based on the topic from either Rachel or Heather. Each episode's first half discusses history and the second half discusses the pattern.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Historical Yarns makes textile history tangible by connecting archaeological traces and regional lace traditions to the practical decisions behind their construction.
Historical Yarns treats knitted fabric as evidence of how people worked, adapted, and carried knowledge across generations. Rachel Roden and Heather Boyd move between material history and practical construction, tracing lace traditions in Estonia, Orenburg, and the Faroe Islands…
Neanderthal cord, Estonian lace, and your knitting basket: suddenly the stitches have a backstory.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A small textile clue opens a larger argument about how Neolithic craft changed.
Historical Yarns and The Archaeology Show turn a scarce archaeological clue into a tightly focused look at Neolithic textiles in Scotland. Chris Webster and Rachel Roden spend much of the episode setting the new textile evidence against the older Glen Luce shirt from Flint Howe,…
Orenberg lace is framed as a cold-climate tradition tied to goat down, workwear, and careful shawl making.
The episode presents Orenberg lace as a Russian knitting tradition shaped by southern Russia's place on the Ural River near Kazakhstan and by a harsh climate.
A clear, well-paced introduction to Estonian lace and the culture around it.
The episode moves from Shetland to Estonia and uses that shift to show how strongly place shapes lace knitting. Rachel Roden and Heather Boyd outline Estonia's geography, early development, and materials before turning to the stitches and construction, so the discussion feels…
A fiber question becomes a grounded look at Neanderthal fiber technology and the study's terminology.
A headline about Neanderthals and yarn sounds playful, but the episode takes the subject seriously, treating it as a look at prehistoric fiber technology and cognition.
A small knitting tradition opens into isolation, climate, and the stubborn life of patterns.
Historical Yarns treats Faroese lace knitting as a tradition shaped by isolation, a harsh climate, and the Faroe Islands' place between Norway and Iceland.
Estonian lace is presented as a construction-first tradition, with its structure explained clearly.
Historical Yarns treats Estonian lace as a construction-first tradition, and that angle gives the episode its focus. Rachel Roden and Heather Boyd walk through the stockinette foundation, the purled wrong side, and the way that structure sets it apart from garter-based Shetland…
Art historian Tamar Avishai interviews critics, curators, and writers about single paintings and ideas.
Russell Tovey and Robert Diament interview artists about their materials, biography, and process.
Cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Deakins interview film crew about the craft behind specific shots.
Robert Bound interviews artists and reviews new film, book, and music releases with critics.
Sound art from places, recordings, and memory.
Estonian knitters would exchange samplers and each woman would add a new stitch before returning it - knitting as community.
Host Rachel Roden and guest Chris Webster explore a 2020 article about Neanderthals creating yarn from plant fibers 40,000 years ago, discussing its preservation, spinning techniques, and implications for understanding Neanderthal cognition and technology.
Faroese shawls shaped like butterfly or angel wings with three-part construction are both practical and beautiful.
Historical Yarns crossover episode 103 of The Archaeology Show covers a Current Archaeology issue 365 article about Neolithic textile evidence from the Ness of Brodgar on the Orkney Islands.
Historical Yarns episode five centers on Orenburg lace knitting in southern Russia, near the Ural River and Kazakhstan.
Historical Yarns episode three of season one ties Estonian lace knitting to Hapsaloo, the Greta Garbo stitch, and the Zetland shawl pattern.