weaving-lnks

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weaving-lnks - 7/19/04

A set of web links to information on weaving by Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

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Thank you,

Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous

Stefan at florilegium.org

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From: Lis <liontamr at ptd.net>

Date: June 16, 2004 11:57:42 AM CDT

To: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>

Subject: Links: Tangled webs--medieval weaving

Hallo, my faithful readers!

This week's Links List is on weaving--from finger weaving, to weaving for

kids, to beginner weaving links, and even some pages related to

loom-building.

As always, please "payit forward" to those who will find an interest in

this Links List, and use these links to update your own Links pages.

Cheers

Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon

(m/k/a Lisbeth Herr-Gelatt)

Riverouge

Aethelmearc

The Medieval Technology Pages

The Horizotal Loom

http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/loom.html

(Site Excerpt) The horizontal loom appeared in Europe in the 11th century.

The first reference to it seems to be in the Talmudic commentaries of Rashi,

who lived in Troyes. He indicates that such a lom was being used by

professional weavers. [Mokyr 1990 p 52] By the 12th century it had been

mechanized. [Gies & Gies 1995, p 119] This loom was probably adapted from a

Chinese version already extant. Old looms had been vertical. The new one was

horizonta and was operated by foot-treadles. Instead of weaving the heddle

bar through the warp threads as had been done on the vertical loom, now the

weaver had only to pump his treadles and every other warp thread rose up

above the work. He then passed the heddl bar through the opening. On the

next pump of the treadles, the other set of warp threads rose.

Weaving on the Warp-Weighted Loom: Some Source Materials

Books and Individual Articles

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/wloom.html

(Site Excerpt) Barber, E.J.W. "The Peplos of Athena," pp. 103-118 in Jenifer

Neils, ed., Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens.

Hanover / Princeton: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College / Princeton

University Press, 1992

Postulates the weaving of a figured tapestry peplos on the warp- weighted

loom as an annual gift to the statue of Athena Parthenos. More generally,

continues the history of weaving in the Aegean begun in her Prehistoric

Textiles. Fascinating for Classicits, even though Barber apparently

misunderstands some technical issues such as the attachment of long warps.

13th Century Spanish Loom

by Forest Butera, Summerisle Spinners and Weavers, Inc.

http://www.avalonrecords.com/summerisle/oldloom.html

(Site Excrpt) Summerisle Spinners and Weavers, Inc. has embarked on its

biggest project yet - building a replica of a 13th century Spanish floor

loom! The original loom can be seen at Medieval Life Village adjacent to the

Medieval Times dinner theater in Kissimmee Florida. The loom is now

finished and ready for demonstration at the South Florida Renaissance

Festival in February, 2000. Our loom builder is Allen Jones of Harpers

Ferry, West Virginia.Click on any of the following pictures to see an

enarged version.

pun, Warped, and Twisted (Atlantian Fiber Arts Newsletter)

http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/guilds/swat/index.htm

(Site Excerpt) Texture! Color! String and Fiber! S.W.A.T. stands for Spun,

Warped and Twisted. We're a fiber group with the goal of spreading andsharing knowledge of the textile arts of the Middle Ages and the Current

Middle Ages. We're not an official group of the Society for Creative

Anachronism, Inc.; however, most of our members are SCAdians who enjoy

researching and recreating the ideals of te Middle Ages. Basically we like

to play with string & take great pleasure in learning about/creating new

fiber works. Welcome and Enjoy! Want more information on S.W.A.T.? Contact

Lady Tangwystl ferch Dafydd (tawnykat at aol.com).

Regia Anglorum Textiles

htp://www.regia.org/textiles.htm

(Site Excerpt) The other type of loom was the two-beam loom, which worked in

a similar way to the warp weighted loom, but instead of weights, a bar was

used to hold the bottom of the threads taut. Unfortunately it is hard t

tell how widespread this type of loom was since it leaves little or no

archaeological trace. By the early eleventh century it is likely that

professional weavers were using simple, flat treadle looms, although the

warp weighted and two beam loom would hae continued to be used in the home.

See also Braid Weaving page at http://www.regia.org/braids.htm

Coptic Style Tapestry by Bronach Nålbrjótr

http://www.armageddon.org/~deimos/tapestry.html

(Site Excerpt) This is a tapestry woven in imitation of Coptic tpestries

from the later period of Coptic textiles ranging from the 6th to as late as

the 15th century. I designed it as a wall hanging, although most Coptic

textile designs functioned as clothing decoration.

Cotton in the Middle Ages

Date: Fri, 31 Mar 9512:25:16 EDT

From: drickman at (address masked)

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/cotton.html

(Site Excerpt) A term used to designate certain woolen cloths from at least

the fifteenth century, so one must be cautious in reading the term...the

explanationof the use of the word cotton may lie in the fact that it had

also the sense of nap or down, and the process of raising the nap of woollen

cloths was called "cottoning" or "frizzing"...At the end of the sixteenth

century, Manchester was "eminent for its wollen cloth or Manchester

cottons"..." An 1822 source quoted by this same author notes that in America

and the West Indies, cottons made of wool were chiefly used as clothing for

slaves...though some were worn in Great Britain by "the poor or labouring

hubandmen." This source speculates that the word could have been a

corruption of "coating" i.e. fabric meant for coats. The point of this is

not to say that what we call "cotton" didn't exist in the 14th century, but

that when we look for evidence of its us in the written record, we need to

know that, until well into the 19th century, the word probably means wool,

not cotton.

Textile Resources for the Re-enactor by Þóra Sharptooth

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/textileres.html

(Note: I had the opportunty to learn how to use a warp-weighted loom with

Mistress Thora, who also has the Weaving on the Warp-weighted Loom article,

above. She's not called "sharptooth" for nothing, 'cause she owns scissors,

but rarely uses them when a quick thread needs snippin. What a wonderful

and knowledgeable lady! Here's a site excerpt:) Here you will find links to

some articles, bibliographies, and weaving drafts I have produced on the

subject of Western textile history that may be of interest to Dark Ages,

medieval, and enaissance re-enactors. Some of these are reprinted from

various group newsletters inside and outside the re-enactor community;

others are teaching aids from classes I have taught. Now that the website's

been here over five years, though, many of the work here have been produced

Priest-Dorman.(See also: Just What Exactly Is "Whyt Samyt" Anyway? being a

handweaver's bibliography of sources for technical information on divers

weave and setts of the Roman Empire, Middle Ages, and Renaissance at

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/textilebiblio.html as well as

Bibliography of Sources for Information on Period Tablet Weaves

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/tweavebib.html, and many oter of Mistres

Thora's terrific fiber pages)

Real Medieval Fabric

Always wanted to know what those splendiferous fabrics in the

Fifteenth-Century paintings were like? I had a chance to find out. Here's

a travelogue. Subject: 1400s Fabric: Art Institute f Chicago by Cynthia

Virtue aka Cynthia du Pré Argent

http://www.virtue.to/articles/real_fabrics.html

(Site excerpt) I'm sure many of you have seen the various paintings and such

during this period that show very large brocades -- by which I mean fabrics

hich appear to have design elements fully a foot across, and "repeats" of

several feet (for those of you who don't 'do' fabric, this means 'how often

does the pattern repeat itself'). I had often assumed that this was because

the painter or tapestry weavr didn't want to paint umpteen little

medallions, so they went for the overall effect. Judging by the actual

fabric I saw, the painters were painting entirely to scale. They did have

and use as clothing, fabric with larger motifs than we'd even put on a ofa

today..... The second thing that struck me was the actual composition of

some of these brocades. Many of the paintings appear to be a yellow gold

background with some sort of rich dark motif on them. This type of fabric

is well represented in the exibit; they are woven with a heavier metallic

gold cord in the background (near the weight of a thin "couching" cord), and

the dark bits are velvet. Some of the items were velvet of two colors; the

one that comes to mind was of an entirely eye-popping brigt red and bright

blue -- colors of the sort you normally only see in books about optical

illusions.

How To Build a Frame Loom

http://www.hallnet.com/build.html

(Site Excerpt) Take one of the 16" pieces of wood and clamp it to your work

bench. If you don' have a work bench clamp the wood to a table but make

sure you have a thick piece of scrap wood underneath it because we're going

to be drilling all the way through....

Toli's inexpensive inkle/cardweaving loom design

http://anvil.unl.edu/toli/loom.html(Site Excerpt) The loom looks a lot like your regular inkle loom except it

has two sides. The sides are made by cutting a cheap particle board shelf

into two symmetrical parts. A hardwood board can also be used, but that kind

of negates the part about beig inexpensive. Do NOT use a soft wood like

pine, the sides will just crack and break. A happy side-effect of the design

is that the loom is amazingly sturdy. You can put more tension on this loom

than any warp thread can withstand(at least so far). A brie

history/justification of the loom design.

Phiala's String Page

http://www.stringpage.com/loom/loom.html

A source of a great deal of fiber information--not a ton on loom use, but

other types of weaving are represented. See espescially her page on Viking

extile Tools at http://www.stringpage.com/viking/viking.html

Stefan's Florilegium: Textile Arts

http://www.florilegium.org/files/TEXTILES/idxtextiles.html

A font of information, some articles and some gathered from email and

newslist messages. There are currently 60 files of missives on textile arts.

Tournaments Illuminated Index: Textiles

http://www.sca.org/ti/topic.html#textiles

Recreating period fabric production.

By Maggie Forest and Silvia Ravinet Being an ongoing record of an attempt to

weave a relicated fabric from Early Mediaeval northern Europe. This is the

background for the project.

http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Warp/WARP.HTML

(Site Excerpt)

For the last few years, the idea of trying to recreate a fabric of a quality

and type typcal for the 'Dark Age' Scandinavian sphere had become the dream

project for myself and Silvia. We are both interested in the technology of

fabrics, spinning, weaving and dyeing, and both of us had been researching

the history of it. The quality that our acestors attained using simple

tools and enormous skill was simply mind-boggling to us. In 1997, we decided

we'd focus our efforts on learning enough to be able to replicate a real

fabric, rather than samplers and trial pieces. Recognizing that this would

e a very long-term project, we began looking at the options. Not trying to

be too fancy, a simple tunic-type cloth, woven on the upright warp-weighted

loom from homespun yarn was our goal. We could spin, we had a loom that

Silvia had built. All we had to o was spin enough yarn and set it up... It

turned out to not be quite as simple as we thought.

Ravensgard Bibliography of Embroidery, Textiles and Weaving

http://www.ravensgard.org/gerekr/costumef.html

(Site Excerpt) Brown, Rachel. The Weaving, Spinning,and Dyeing Book. New

York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. new 7/7/97

Brunello, Franco. The Art of Dyeing in the History of Mankind. Cleveland,

OH: Phoenix Dye Works, 1973. new 7/7/97

Buchanan, Rita. A Weaver's Garden. Loveland, CO: Interweave Press, Inc.,

1987. nw 7/7/97

Cameron. Woad

MOUNTFITCHET CASTLE weaving and dying house

http://www.gold.enta.net/tourpg6.htm

This link chiefly valuable for the photo of the warp-weighted loom in situ.

The Weaving Mailing List

http://www.quilt.net/weaving.html

(Site Excerpt)There are 2 formats for subscription: digests or individual

messages.

Both, if you wish.

to: majordomo at quilt.net

(subject is ignored)

message: (un)subscribe weaving-digest

--and/or--

(un)subscribe weaving

end

Medieval World Library: Medieval Weavers

Written by Carissa Thomas, February 24, 2001.

http://www.geocities.com/MedievalWorld/LibraryWeavers.html

(Site Excerpt) Weavers either worked out of their homes, or ere part of a

weaver's guild. If a weaver worked out of his house, a wool merchant would

sell him clean wool, and the weaver's wife would spin it into yarn with a

spindle and distaff. Then the weaver would sit on a high backed chair or a

stool and weave te cloth on a loom. If the weaver was poor or from a town

where the wool industry was small, he would probably have an upright loom,

which was more compact but produced lower-quality cloth.

Wool manufacturing

http://www.sheepcentre.co.uk/wool3.html

(Site xcerpt) The two main types of woven cloth are woollen and worsted.

The yarn for woollen cloth is usually made from short-fibred wool and during

processing the individual fibres are thoroughly intermingled. In the worsted

process, which uses the longer-fibed wools, the individual fibres are

separated and laid approximately parallel to each other.

Museum of ANCIENT INVENTIONS

The Warp-Weighted Loom, Worldwide, 7000 BCE

by Kristy Beauchesne, Sun Eoh and Kate McClosky

http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_nventions/hsc00b.htm

(Site Excerpt) The warp-weighted loom uses a system of holding the warp

threads parallel under tension by tying them in small bunches to weights

made of stone, pottery or metal. From the beginning of Western history until

the Middle Aes, the main weaving tool was this type of loom. Loom weights

have been found in Catal Huyuk, an ancient city in Anatolia that dates to

7000 BCE, and use of the warp-weighted loom persists to the present day in

part of Norway. Although its particular formhas varied through the ages and

by locality, its essential parts remained the same.

Medieval Sourcebook:

The Regulations of the Weavers' Gild of Stendal, 1233

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1233Weavers4.html

(Site Excerpt) 1. If any of our burgesss should wish to practice the craft

of weaving he ought to have one spindle or as many as two, and he should

place them in his house, and for every spindle he should pay three solidi on

entry into the fraternity. But if he should not pay the denarii withi the

said time and he afterwards cease to be of the craft he cannot regain it

except with twenty-three solidi. 2.Whoever is not of the fraternity is

altogether forbidden to make cloth

Medieval Textile Study Group:

Partial Cumulative Index 1994-2003

http:/www.medievaltextiles.org/medindex.html

Continuous Warping on a TWinkle Loom

http://www.halimal.com/WWW/TWinkle/TWinkle.php3

(Site Excerpt) A TWinkle loom is an inkle loom being use for Tablet Weaving

(TW). It was affectionately christened this on the tablet-weaving e-mail

lists, after a first posting by Jean Birch.

This document shows a fast way to warp an inkle loom for tablet-weaving,

using the same yarn colors in all cards (but ee "Changing Colors", after

you understand the basic process). It's sometimes called "the 10-minute

warp". After that, it goes into advanced topics related to tablet-weaving on

inkle looms. A TWinkle loom is my favorite set-up for tablet-weaving

(sometime called card-weaving), but it's important to find out what works

well for you. Many people swear by inkle looms; others may swear at them.

See "Is an Inkle Loom for You?", below, for details.

Jacinth's Infomine: Textile Arts

http://users.ev1.net/~jacinth/extiles.html

Constructing a Warp-Weighted Loom

http://www.housebarra.com/EP/ep02/20wwl.html

(Site Excerpt) The warp weighted loom is a vertical loom with an upper beam,

the warp held taunt by weights (hence the name) and the weft beaten up

toward the bea. It was used by most early European cultures and even

survived into modern times in northern Europe.

Warp-weighted Loom

http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/cmot/blloom22.htm

Warping and weaving on a warp-weighted loom

http://vt.essortment.com/warpingweving_rkpp.htm

(Not sure of the validity of this information---weaving from the bottom on a

warp-weighted loom? FWIW, Site Excerpt) Instructions for warping a

warp-weighted loom and weaving the warp. A recipe for sizing is included

along with directions fo striking the warp.

The warp-weighted loom is one of the easiest looms to warp. Especially when

compared to large floor loom with multiple sheds. These instructions

presuppose a working knowledge of weaving and warping, but there is a brief

glossary at th end of the article.

WARPING THE LOOM

Unlike table and floor looms, the warp-weighted loom does not have

treadle-operated movable sheds and heddles. It is operated with a fixed shed

and three shed sticks with hand-tied string heddles. You weave from the

bttom to the top, rolling the finished fabric around the top beam as you

go.

Weaving on a Warp-Weighted Loom Project #1: Tabby by Karen Peterson / with

help from her partner Neil Peterson

http://www.pipcom.com/~dark/projects/kweave.htm

(Site Excerpt)

I chose to start with a tabby pattern in the weave because it is the

simplest of all patterns. Two sheds create a very simple back and forth in

the weave. If X is over the warp and O is under, it looks like this:

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

used Patons' Classic Wool Merino, because it was cheap and available in

bulk at Len's Mill Store in Kitchener. I chose contrasting colours in

off-white and blue for the warp and weft, because I wanted to be able to see

the weave very clearly. I've since earned that contrasting colours in this

manner isn't at all period to the Norse.

The Art and History of Weaving By Susan Wylly Professor of Art Georgia

College & State University

http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/fap/weav.html

(Site Excerpt) Becase of the perishable nature of textile goods,

information found about the beginning stages of weaving is sketchy, and

tracing the development of textiles is a difficult task and a tremendous

challenge. Due to nature's hazards of erosion, climatic conditios, insects,

and fire, few examples of early woven fabrics survived. Therefore, much of

what is written about primitive weaving is based on speculation. There are,

however, certain circumstances under which remnants of fabrics have

survived: arid regions, og lands, sealed tombs, and extremely cold areas.

Because of these artifacts, we are fortunate to have some examples of early

textiles and weaving tools.

Looms and Weaving Tools (Roman Weaving)

by Kathy Laxton

http://www.unc.edu/courses/rometech/public/cntent/survival/DeRamus_Durham_Laxton/kathy.html

(Site Excerpt) The pieces of Roman fabric which remain for us to study were

either not completely burned by fire or destroyed in other ways such as

dampness or decay.

Keeping these limitations in mind, it ispossible to recreate a great deal

about the process of Roman weaving using the evidence that is left. This

evidence comes from several ancient sources. The ancient evidence is present

in archaeological remains of loom tools, which were often made out of trra

cotta, stone or bone, as well as in the surviving pieces of cloth.

All Fiber Arts

http://www.allfiberarts.com/

(Site Excerpt) Welcome to our new All Fiber Arts website.

You can find over 1000 pages of information, free patterns, resources and

instrucions for weaving, spinning, dyeing, knitting, crochet, felting,

papermaking, needlepoint, sewing, and other textile handicrafts. We also

have a free Discussion Forum and Chat rooms where you can meet with all your

"fiberholic friends".

Handweavers Guild f America, Inc

http://www.weavespindye.org/

(Site Excerpt) We are dedicated to encouraging excellence, inspiring

creativity, and preserving fiber traditions through education.

Celebrate Spinning and Weaving Week . October 4-10, 2004

Easy weaving projectsfor kids (great results)

http://www.montessoriworld.org/Handwork/weave/weaving3.html

(Site Excerpt) With a heavy ball of string, cover the frame. Start at one of

the edges and thread the frame up and around each incision. Then fasten and

cut. You can use ny flexible material, for example, wool, ribbon, yarn,

fabric strips, raffia, twigs, etc. The more variation, the more interesting

the result will be. The children could experiment with twisting yarn

together before weaving, to achieve interesting texturevariations. A piece

of card or a ruler may be used to hold up the thread to make the weaving

easier.

Ebay--How to Weave listings

http://search.ebay.com/how-to-weave_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQsonewuserZ1