Fibre to cloth

Choose by climate and by what already grows or grazes nearby. Wool is the one to have in a cold, wet place: a wet woollen garment still insulates, where wet linen or cotton draws heat out of the body.

1. Sow thickly in spring — dense stands grow tall and straight with long, fine fibre and few branches.
2. Pull, do not cut, about 100 days later, when the lower third of the stems has turned yellow. Pulling keeps the full fibre length, which runs into the root.
3. Ripple — comb the seed heads off through a coarse comb. Keep the seed: it is next year's crop and linseed oil.
4. Ret — rot the soft tissue that glues fibre to the woody core:
   • Dew retting: spread stems thinly on short grass and turn them every week or so for 2–6 weeks, until the stems turn silver-grey.
   • Water retting: sink bundles in a pond or slow stream for 1–2 weeks, faster in warm water. Quicker and more even — and the retting water stinks, strips the oxygen from water and kills fish downstream, which is why medieval towns banned it near their rivers.
   • Test: snap a stem. When the fibre peels cleanly away from the woody core in long strands, it is done. Over-retted fibre is weak.
5. Dry the retted stems thoroughly.
6. Break — crush the stems in a wooden break so the brittle core shatters.
7. Scutch — beat the broken stems with a wooden blade to knock the woody chaff (shives) out.
8. Hackle — draw the fibre through combs of increasing fineness. The long, fine line flax spins to linen; the short tow left in the combs makes coarser yarn and cordage.

1. Shear once a year, in early summer, when the new growth lifts the old fleece. Shear close and in long blows, so the fleece comes off whole.
2. Skirt — spread the fleece and pull away the dung-matted, short and stained edges. They go to the compost.
3. Scour — wash in hot water with soap, soaked, not agitated. Stirring or rubbing hot wet wool felts it into a solid mat. Change the water until it runs clear; dry in shade.
4. Tease — pull the locks open by hand to release dirt and vegetable matter.
5. Card or comb:
   • Carding between two brush-like cards makes a soft, airy rolag — fibres jumbled, for warm, lofty woollen yarn.
   • Combing aligns the fibres parallel and removes short ones, for smooth, strong, hard-wearing worsted yarn.

The natural grease, lanolin, can be left in for some spinning and for water-resistant outer garments.

Twist is what makes yarn. Loose fibres held in a line pull apart; twisted, they grip each other by friction and the yarn becomes strong. Spinning is just adding twist to fibres while drawing them out to an even thickness.

The drop spindle — a shaft with a weight, the whorl, near one end:

1. Tie a length of spun yarn to the shaft as a leader, wind it on, and take it up over the whorl and round the tip.
2. Set the spindle spinning with a flick of the fingers and let it hang.
3. Draft — with one hand holding the fibre supply and the other just below it, draw fibres out into a thin, even strand. The twist runs up from the spindle into the drafted fibres and locks them.
4. Keep the twist out of the fibre supply by pinching above the drafting zone until you are ready to let it in.
5. When the spindle nears the floor, wind the new yarn onto the shaft and start again.

The whorl sets the yarn. A heavy, wide whorl spins slowly and long, for thick yarn; a light, small whorl spins fast, for fine yarn.

Plying. A single yarn is unbalanced — it twists back on itself. Spin singles one way (Z twist), then twist two or three singles together the other way (S twist). Plied yarn is balanced, stronger and more even.

Every loom does the same four things: holds the warp — the long lengthwise threads — under tension; opens a shed, a gap between alternate warp threads; passes the weft through the shed; and beats it tight against the cloth.

The backstrap loom is the simplest real loom and still in daily use in much of the Americas and Asia. One end of the warp is tied to a post or tree, the other to a strap round the weaver's back. The weaver tensions the warp by leaning back, and opens the sheds with a shed rod and a heddle rod — a stick with loops of string lifting alternate threads. It packs up into a roll and needs no frame.

Warp-weighted looms hang the warp from a beam, tensioned by stone or clay weights; floor looms add treadles that lift shafts of heddles, so the feet open the sheds and patterns become possible.

Warp first. Most of the work of weaving is measuring and setting up the warp: every thread the same length, the same tension, in order. A badly tensioned warp weaves into cloth that puckers and pulls.

Weaves:

• Plain (tabby) — over one, under one. The strongest and simplest.
• Twill — over two, under two, stepped along each row, giving a diagonal. Denser, drapes better, hides dirt, and wears longer: work clothing and blankets.

Fulling turns loosely woven woollen cloth into dense, windproof, water-shedding fabric. Soak the cloth in warm water with soap — historically fuller's earth or stale urine — and pound, tread or rub it. The wool fibres lock together and the cloth shrinks — often by a quarter or more — and thickens. Stop when it is dense enough; it cannot be undone.

Dyeing. Most plant dyes wash out unless the fibre is first treated with a mordant, a metal salt that binds dye to fibre.

1. Scour the fibre first — dyes take unevenly on greasy wool.
2. Mordant: simmer the fibre in water with alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) at about 10–15% of the dry weight of the fibre — 10–15 g of alum per 100 g of wool — for an hour. Alum is the safe, standard mordant.
3. Dye: add the prepared fibre to the dye bath and heat slowly.
4. Cool slowly, rinse, and dry in shade.