Fibre, thread and cloth

Fibre flax is grown for tall, unbranched stems, so sow it thickly — far more densely than for seed — on fine, weed-free ground in spring. Weed early.

Harvest at about 90–100 days, when the lower third of the stem has turned yellow and the leaves have dropped from it. Pull the plants up by the roots rather than cutting, because the fibre runs all the way down. Tie in small bundles, roots together, and dry standing. Hemp is the same crop in other clothing: harvest when the male plants are flowering for finer fibre.

Ret until the fibre separates from the woody core — dew retting on grass 2–6 weeks, water retting 1–3 weeks — testing daily once it starts. Dry. Break the stems on a flax brake, a hinged wooden blade that crushes the core. Scutch with a wooden knife to beat out the broken woody pieces. Hackle through progressively finer combs of nails to split and straighten the fibre.

The long fibre from the hackle is line, for fine thread; the short tangled waste is tow, for coarse thread and cordage. Keep both.

Skirt the fleece: pull off the dung-soiled and matted edges. Scour to remove the grease: soak in hot water at about 60 °C with soap, without agitating it, and rinse in water of the same temperature. Agitation plus heat plus a sudden temperature change is exactly how felt is made — do that here and the fleece is ruined.

Dry in shade, then card — brush between two combs of fine wire — to make a fluffy rolag for woollen yarn, or comb to align long fibres for a smoother, stronger worsted yarn.

A drop spindle: a straight shaft with a whorl. A lighter whorl, around 20–30 g, spins fine thread; a heavier one, 50–60 g and up, spins thick yarn. Draft fibre out of the mass steadily and let the twist run up into it.

Single yarns are spun one way and plied the other. Test a single yarn: let a length hang doubled — it should twist back on itself moderately. Plied yarn hung doubled should hang still.

Record metres spun per hour. Spinning is the bottleneck — historically several spinners kept one weaver supplied — and a spinning wheel is several times faster, worth building as soon as an axle can be turned.

The warp — the lengthwise threads under tension — must be plied or more tightly twisted than the weft, or it breaks on the loom. Start with a backstrap loom or a warp-weighted loom, both needing almost no timber; move to a four-post horizontal loom with heddles and treadles for width and speed.

Measure warp length as finished length plus 10–20% for take-up plus about 50 cm of loom waste. Keep the tension even across the whole width, and beat the weft down evenly — an uneven beat shows as bands in the cloth.

Fulling wool cloth: work it in warm soapy water, pounding and turning, until the fibres lock together. It shrinks — commonly 10–30% — and becomes dense, windproof and shower-resistant. Measure before and after, and stop when it reaches the density you want; over-fulled cloth goes stiff.

Linen: boil in weak lye or ash water, rinse, and spread on grass in sun for days, wetting it repeatedly. Sun and moisture bleach it and it softens with every wash.

Most plant dyes do not bind to fibre without a mordant. Alum — potassium aluminium sulphate — is the safe standard: about 10–15% of the dry weight of the fibre, dissolved, fibre simmered in it at 80–90 °C for an hour, then left to cool in the bath.

Then dye: weld for yellow, madder root for red — kept below about 80 °C, or the reds go brown — and woad or indigo for blue, which work differently: they are dissolved in a reducing vat and turn blue on contact with air. Iron as a later dip darkens any colour. See Vegetable Dyes.

Foot injuries are a serious problem in a world with no antibiotics, and they come from blisters, wet feet and bad shoes.

Prioritise: wool socks — knitted or made by nålbinding — and a second pair for every person so feet can be kept dry; darning before holes form; sturdy footwear with a leather sole — see tanning. Check feet daily for blisters and cuts, and treat them early — see wound care. Then needles, thread and buttons.