Like I wrote in the previous post, I decided to weave a cloth with a similar number of warp threads/cm to the mid-14th century Bocksten tunic: 8-10 threads/cm. During weaving, the fabric naturally shrinks a little as the weft is introduced and the process of fulling of course shrinks it even further. So my chosen sett of 7 threads/cm in the loom would result in a much closer weave when finished. To get a general idea of what the cloth would be like, I wove a short piece to use for sampling.
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| In the loom. I weave 2/1 twill with the weft-faced side up to avoid raising more threads than necessary for each shed |
The test piece had 8 threads/cm when it came off the loom, which was a bit too loose to keep as it was, but probably perfect for fulling. I cut it in two, pressed the first half while damp to keep as a reference and fulled the second one on a washboard in the bath. After fulling, the piece both looked and felt a lot nicer with a handle I was quite happy with. And it had ended up with 9-9.5 threads/cm, which was pretty much spot on! That meant I didn't need to adjust the sett in the loom and could just go on weaving, knowing that a total shrinkage of 10% was what I was going to aim for at the fulling mill later on.
A couple of threads' difference might not sound like a lot, but it is. It becomes really clear when comparing the samples.
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| Fulled piece at 9-9.5 threads/cm and untreated piece at 8 th/cm |
It didn't take long for me to realise that grey isn't the most exciting of colours. My spools of weft looked like fat little woodlice lined up on my pretty but plain fabric...
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| It's a nice fabric, but...grey... Over 12 metres of grey. |
I already have a natural grey medieval dress, so the idea of dyeing the finished fabric became more and more appealing... While running a madder dye bath with some yarn for a future weaving project, I chucked one of the samples into the pot too to see how the grey yarns would fare. I'm by no means a particularly skilled plant dyer, but madder has never let me down. The colour was amazing and while weaving the rest of my grey fabric, I pictured it bright red like the sample:
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| Madder madness! |
Next time: Weaving Vadmal III - Interlude
3 comments:
Love it!
Where did you get your madder?
/ Maria
Zenit: http://www.zenit-konst.se/
Their madder has always been first class, and the latest batch was no exception. A lot of plant dyers seem to have trouble getting good madder, but I've been lucky with Zenit so far.
that must be the brightest red madder i have ever seen! my madder dyed fabrics always have more orange shades.
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