A knock at the door distracted me from my thoughts.
"My lady?" A familiar voice called. "A raven has arrived."
"Come in, Maester Luwin," I called.
The somewhat portly man opened the door and approached me.
"It's from your Lord husband," he noted as he held the letter out to me.
"Thank you. If you would place it on the table?" I asked.
"Of course," he nodded, and did so.
"I've been a bit occupied lately," I told him, gesturing at Robb while giving the man a wry smile. "And I haven't been attending to my responsibilities. Could you tell me how things are going around Winterfell?"
"You are still recovering from childbirth, my lady," he gently chided me. "Your first duty is to young Robb and your own health; no one expects you to also shoulder the running of Winterfell until you have recovered."
"To be honest, Maester, I've been growing restless," I half-lied. I was still recovering, physically, from giving birth. But, on the other hand, I was in a whole new world . One at a medieval level of technology and societal development to boot; this was a historian's fantasy come to life! And, I reasoned, attending to my duties around Winterfell (at least, those I was capable of) would give me an opportunity to explore this culture and society first hand. "I think getting out and getting some fresh air would do me some good, and if I can help out a little around the castle at the same time? All the better."
"If you are sure, my lady…?" He hesitantly asked. At my firm nod, he reluctantly began reporting on the state of the castle.
The Maester spoke of the training of the new household guards to replace those that had gone south with my husband, of the organization of supply shipments to the army, of the state of the local citizenry, of the stores of food to prepare for the coming winter, and so on. For the most part, everything was progressing smoothly; Vayon Poole, the castle's steward, was more than capable of keeping my husband's demesne running smoothly, and my Lord husband's youngest brother, Benjen, was more than capable of making decisions when necessary.
"-demand for wool has decreased; I expect we'll see a drop in prices and a loss of revenue as a result-"
"Pardon me," I interrupted. "But, with a war on, shouldn't the demand for wool increase?" I asked. "Soldiers will need tunics and cloaks, won't they?"
"They will," Maester Luwin acknowledged, "but with so many men serving in the armies, the womenfolk have had to take up much of the slack at home. They simply do not have the time to spin the wool into yarn. As such, while the demand for yarn and cloth remains high, our usual buyers simply do not have the labor available to spin it."
"... Forgive me, Maester, but… why do we not simply spin it ourselves?" I asked.
"The North's population is rather sparse compared to the other Kingdoms, my lady," he answered. "Local wives and widows spin the yard needed to clothe our own people, but we simply do not have the available labor needed to spin it on a large scale."
"I see…" I murmured.
The first thing that came to mind was a Spinning Jenny, and a few other early innovations in the Industrial Revolution. I knew, from my studies of history, how spinning wheels and drop spindles had been used for centuries to turn fibers such as wool, cotton, and flax into thread. However, there was only so much that a single spinning wheel or drop spindle was able to accomplish.
A Spinning Jenny was a relatively simple machine that could do the work of four or more spinning wheels. Larger industrial scale models could do the spinning of dozens of workers in a fraction of the time, but those required a water wheel, steam, or electric power. But a smaller hand operated design could multiply the output of a single spinner by four to six times.
"I may have a solution to that," I stated.
"A… solution to our lack of labor?" The Maester asked, somewhat taken aback.
"Of a sorts," I replied, a tiny smirk on my face. "I will need to speak with a carpenter, though."
"A carpenter? Whatever for?"
"To help me build a better spinning wheel, of course," I replied. "Do you know of any reputable carpenters in Winter Town?"
"Well, Old Garalt is quite skilled in his craft…"
"Then let's go pay him a visit," I replied, doing my best to keep a lid on the growing enthusiasm that was welling up inside of me.
I wasn't a mechanical engineer, so I didn't harbor any delusions of industrializing this entire society overnight. But, on the other hand, I had learned about more than a few labor-saving devices that could be put to good use. The Spinning Jenny was one such device, and a simple carding machine and the addition of a flying shuttle to a large hand loom could save a lot of labor when it comes to making cloth. If the other Kingdoms didn't want to buy our raw wool, well, I would just have to figure out how to efficiently produce yarn and cloth. And yarn, Luwin said, was in high demand. If they didn't want to do the work themselves, well, I would be happy to sell them cloth… for a considerable profit, of course.
"As you wish," the Maester replied, a hint of long-suffering not quite hidden well enough.
"Yeh want me to what?" Old Garalt asked, a bemused expression on his face.
"I need you to help me build three different machines," I explained again.
"I heard yeh th' first' time," he grumped. At Maester Luwin's prompting cough, the old man hastily added, "milady."
"Well, what seems to be the problem, then?" I asked.
"I 'avn't the slightest idear where t' start," the man admitted. "A cardin' machine? Flyin' shuttles? Spinning Jenny? Yer speakin' nonsense, milady."
"It's really not so difficult to understand," I replied, a bit of heat in my voice. "Look, I'll draw it out for you. Maester Luwin, did you bring any parchment?"
"Of course, milady."
I took the offered roll and the short stick of charcoal and began sketching. I wasn't an artist by any means, and these drawings wouldn't be technically correct blueprints that were accurate down to a fraction of an inch, but they would be sufficient to convey the concepts I was talking about. As I drew, I carefully explained what each part was supposed to do.
"This part here are supposed to be carding brushes, but arranged like a pair of barrels, rather than as flat brushes," I explained. "The wool gets fed into it here, while someone turns this handle here. The drums spin, and the motion cards the wool. Once the larger of the two drums is full, you can extract the wool by sliding in a stick here and wrapping the carded wool around it, just as a carder would do."
"I see," Maester Luwin murmured. "And I suppose that this would expedite the carding process, milady?"
"Of course," I replied with a bright smile.
Moving on, I began sketching out a Spinning Jenny.
"This machine is much like a regular spinning wheel. I trust you know how to make those, Garalt?" I asked. If my tone was a bit biting, well, I was a noble lady; neither of these men would call me out on it. Garalt gruffly nodded in reply. "This machine allows a spinner to do the work of eight spinning wheels at once. They spin this handle here, which in turn spins all of these spindles. This part locks the threads in place, and the guide bar helps to tighten the twist, allowing for a stronger thread. As you can see, it would allow one person to do the work of at least four spinners."
"If it works th' way yeh say it will, milady, then aye, I suppose it will," the old carpenter reluctantly nodded along.