TEXTILES

RAW MATERIALS

Although most wool comes from sheep, goat-hair is used for coarse cloths such as those used for making cloaks and rugs. Beavers and rabbits are also used as a source of hair. The first step of preparing wool is to remove any damaged portions of the hair and sort it out into coarse, medium and fine fibres. The sorted material is then washed in lye (the water taken from leached wood ash) to remove the grease, and left to dry in the sun. Any soil or dirt is removed with fine forceps, and the fibres are untangelled by 'carding' with metal and wooden cards. This produces a springy roll of soft wool ready for spinning.

Linen is obtained from flax fibres. After dirt and seed pods are removed, the flax is washed in warm water until the bark comes loose, and then dried in the sun; a process known as 'retting'. The resulting material is beaten with wooden blocks and combed out. In the mid fourteenth century, the blocks are replaced by flax-breakers, which consist of two long pieces of wood hinged together between which the flax is crushed. Any left over waste can be used to make sackcloth and rope.

Cotton is prepared by stretching out the fibres on a frame and heating them with rods. They are then separated out with a vibrating bow, carded out, and boiled in lye.

SPINNING & WEAVING

Traditionally, fibres of all kinds are spun on a spindle but this was superceded by the spinning wheel in the mid thirteenth century. The yarn is spun directly from the prepared fibre.

After spinning, the fibre is wound onto spools and inserted into a loom. The horizontal loom was developed in the late twelfth century and produces plain or 'tabby' cloth. By using multiple heddles and treadles on the loom, diamonds, twills and herring bone patterns can be produced. Flyers to wind on the thread, and treadles for easier operation of spinning wheels are both introduced in the Renaissance.

The woven material is next 'fulled' by being trampled in a suitable substance such as natron lixivium, Fuller's earth, soapwort juice or stale urine. Water powered fulling mills render much greater amounts of material to be produced in the Renaissance than previously. Finally, the fabric is washed, beaten with sticks and dried before being turned into garments.