I began this project in order to explore the different ways in which a very simple warp, set up on a four harness loom could be manipulated through differences in treadling, colour of yarns used, or finishing techniques in order to produce different styles of cloth that are known to have been woven in medieval Europe. These experiments were to be carried out on a single warp of handspun wool. As I continued my research, however, I became interested in some of the unusual structures of linen cloth as described in Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate by Penelope Walton. These structures were compelling enough that I decided to set up a second linen warp to test two of these structures as well. Below is a discussion of the process with images:
The Wool Samples
Spinning: The wool is a single ply yarn spun from Shetland wool. It is fairly tightly spun with a z twist and for the sake of expediency was spun on a spinning wheel rather than with a drop spindle. Shetland wool is a slightly coarse, reasonably long stapled yarn so it is particularly well suited for producing fairly smooth, hard-wearing cloth yet it is still fine enough to be quite soft in comparison to hairier Nordic wools.
Dyeing: Before weaving I dyed a few of my handspun skeins of yarn in three different colours: blue from woad, deep pink from cochineal and purple from a combination of lac and iron. Lac and cochineal were used in Europe in the late middle ages/renaissance, and they are related to other insects such as Oak-Kermes, which were in use as far back as the Roman Empire. The use of woad can easily be documented throughout Europe from at least the Viking age to well beyond the middle ages.
Weaving: To weave the samples I set up a single 3m warp using the wool that was left undyed. The cloth was woven on a modern counter balance loom, which is mechanically the same as the simple horizontal looms which were used during the medieval period.
I used a very basic threading and tie-up which, depending on the treadling can produce either a tabby cloth or a 2/2 straight or chevron twill. The sett of this sample warp was 20 epi (ends per inch) for each of the pieces woven.
The first sample I wove was a straight 2/2 twill using the woad-dyed wool for the weft. Wool twills can be found all over Europe from before the medieval period until well after. It is a common cloth structure which is quite durable while also having a fair bit of natural stretch. Of the samples this cloth had the nicest hand after only a quick wash and I think this particular structure was ideal for the quality of wool, amount of twist in the yarn and sett that I used.
The second sample was a tabby cloth with purple and pink striped weft-faced bands in extended tabby. This sample was inspired by a number of examples of this sort of patterning and structure from London. These examples seem to date from the 14th century and the stripes vary in width, complexity and the number of colours used. I wove my piece entirely from wool although some of the examples had silk in the weft. Most of these examples are woven in what is called extended tabby, which just means that the warp thread passes over and under two threads at a time instead of one. This can be woven easily with my previously established tie-up. Some of the finds from London had weft-faced bands in a mixture of extended tabby and twill and I was very interested to try this. I chose to weave the weft-faced stripes in purple and pink because this colour palette is evident in many of the London examples although it seems to have often been achieved with madder. I had some difficulty weaving the weft faced bands in this sample and no matter how hard I beat I could not get the weft threads to cover the warp threads as completely as they do in the original finds. The sett for this cloth looked quite open prior to washing however in retrospect it’s very clear that it is slightly warp-faced. I would like to carry out further experiments with this structure at a more open sett in order to produce a balanced weave and proper weft-faced bands.
The final piece of cloth that I wove was a plain tabby which I decided to full and then dye “in the cloth” after weaving it. Weaving this cloth went fairly smoothly.
Finishing the cloth: The twill sample and the sample with weft-faced bands were washed in warm water with mild agitation which caused the wool fibres to relax and the fabric to soften slightly. The plain-woven cloth was washed alternately in hot and cold water and agitated considerably: it was stomped on, scrubbed with a brush,and then stretched and dried, prior to being dyed. I am not completely satisfied with the results and I think this is largely due to how tightly spun the yarn was and the previously mentioned density of the sett. If the yarn had been more loosely spun it might have fulled more completely, making the weave structure of the cloth nearly invisible, which was my goal. In future experiments with weaving and fulling I intend to use less twist when spinning my yarn and would also try different breeds of wool. After fulling the cloth I chose to dye it with madder root, as this dyestuff was quite common around Europe throughout the middle ages.
The Linen Samples
The cloth Structures: The two linen samples are woven from commercially spun linen yarn. The structures are ones that are discussed in Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate by Penelope Walton. The first one, “Wabegnewebe” has at times been referred to a “honeycomb weave” although it is rather different in structure and appearance from modern honeycomb woven patterns. Wabegnewebe is an interesting structure; it is basically a 1/3 twill cloth with long alternating warp floats. When the cloth is removed from the loom and washed, the threads relax slightly and there is a zig-zag effect with some of the weft threads.
The other “rippenköpper”, or “ribbed twill “ is a twill cloth which, based on which treadles once depresses, switches from 1/3 to 3/1 twill, creating a ribbed effect to the cloth.
I first set up my sample warp for the honeycomb weave and tested it at 28 ends per inch. With this sett the threads were space a little too far apart and I decided to re-sley the reed to 36 epi, which is closer to the original find in any case. After I had started weaving the webegnewebe sample I was pleased to realize that although the threading for rippenköper was slightly different from the threading for wabegnewebe, that could be compensated for in the tie-up and I could weave this sample on the same warp as well. I did this and wove the rippenköpper with green stripes (dyed with pomegranate and iron) to emphasize the ribbed effect of the cloth. I should note at this point that while it was possible to weave both of these structures on the same warp on a counter-balance loom, it was fairly difficult to do this. This is because the counter-balance loom operates on the principle that when two harnesses are pulled down, the other two will raise up. To weave rippenköpper with the threading I had chosen, I needed to sometimes depress 3 harnesses. This worked against the pulley system of the loom and meant that I had a very small shed to work with. It was still possible to weave, albeit with some difficulty and had I been weaving anything larger than a sample I would have started over with a different set-up.
Finishing: The cloth samples were washed by hand in hot water with soap flakes and vigorously agitated. After drying the samples were smoothed against a flat tabletop by rubbing a glass fishing-float across the surface. This was an attempt to replicate the smoothing properties of the glass smoothing stones and whale bone boards found in both Norway and Sweden and I was quite pleased with the results. After smoothing, the cloth, while still crisp, has a softer hand and bares a more pronounced sheen. This only lasts until the next time the cloth is washed but can easily be smoothed again with the fishing float.
Conclusions
Working on these samples made it clear to me how different cloth structures could easily have evolved from a very basic understanding of weaving as very different results were achieved by modifying only a few factors. This project also illustrates how important it is to take into consideration the specific characteristics and needs of the cloth one is going to produce; while weaving multiple cloth structures on one warp was certainly an interesting intellectual exercise, it ultimately did not result in the best possible version of each type of cloth.
References
Crowfoot, Elisabeth, Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland. Textiles and Clothing C.1150-c.1450. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006. Print.
Greenfield, Amy Butler. A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.
Østergård, Else. Woven into the Earth: Textiles from Norse Greenland. Aarhus: Aarhus UP, 2004. Print.
Söderberg, Monnica. “Smoothing-A Look Back In Time.” Väv Magasinet 2007: 3/07. Print.
Walton, Penelope. “ Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate.” The Archaeology of York The Small Finds. 17/5 (1989): Web. 6 Jan. 2015.
Greta Pepper 