Preparing the Fibre for Spinning

Although I have been continuing my Hordewearde research my blogging is way behind where my research is up to. My production is ahead of my blogging but also well behind my research. Currently my production includes; 30+ balls of yarn, I lost count somewhere. 6 drop spindles worth of white yarn to be dyed for the tablet woven boarders and two bobbins worth of silk for the headband if I decide to do it and actually get that far. I have also woven almost a meter of cloth.

So my yarn is being done with both a drop spindle and a spinning wheel depending upon what part of my garment I am spinning. But aside from explaining my reasoning for what I am spinning and why I have not actually spoken much about the construction of yarn and what decisions I have made as far as constructing my yarn goes.

The notation for spun yarn is usually given in the terms Z or S. Z twist is when the spindle or wheel on a spinning wheel has been rotated in a clockwise direction. S is when the spindle or wheel on the spinning wheel has been rotated in the anticlockwise direction. (Walton Rogers. 2007:66-67).

There are a number of different ways to prepare wool for spinning. During the Early Anglo Saxon period combs were used to comb out the fibre so that it could be spun. Very few early Anglo Saxon combs have been found but they were probably very similar to the Roman combs that are found on many Roman sites where textiles are manufactured. Using this is a guide it was probable that wool was prepared during the Early Anglo Saxon period in the same way that it was prepared during the Roman period where a handful of fibre was pulled through the teeth of a short toothed comb of the type displayed here http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/graphics/roman/roman507.jpg (Walton Rogers. 2007: 15).

There are two main types of spun yarn that are produced depending upon the type of carding and spinning that are done. These are worsted and woollen yarn. Worsted is a smooth and strong yarn that is durable and long wearing. Woollen yarn is a softer yarn and does not last as long (Robson and Ekarius 2009:19). The type of yarn that is produced depends very much on the way that the fibre is prepared in the combing or carding stage. Combing helps to align the fibres so that they are parallel to each other. This produces a worsted style of fibre (Robson and Ekarius 2009:24)

During this project to save time I have used pre-carded wool. Pre-carded wool aligns all of the fibres together and produces a worsted wool similar to the process of combing during the Anglo Saxon period.

When weaving the most common sort of cloth found in Early Anglo Saxon burials is what is known as a ZZ tabby. Tabby is a very simple weave structure where the weft passes under and over individual warp threads one at at time. This is the type of weaving that most people will have seen or done in Primary School.

Diagram produced by Jauncourt http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tabby1asm.png 

A ZZ tabby is one where both the warp and the weft are spun with a Z twist and the yarn is not plied. Plying is the process of spinning two yarns together usually using the opposite twist so the way the singles (single yarns) were spun. For example if I had two Z spun singles I would ply them together using an S twist.

Next blog I will discuss more about weaving in particular the type of weaving that I am doing and why I have made the choices to use the tools that I have chosen to use.

Robson, D and Ekarius, C 2009. The Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook: More than 200 Fibres from Animals to Spun Yarn. Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA. USA

Walton Rogers, P. 1997. Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate. The Archaeology of York The Small Finds. Volume 17: The Small Finds. General Editor: P.V. Addyman. http://woeka.no-ip.org/byfrost/AY17-11-Textile%20Production.pdf (accessed 15/02/2012)

Walton Rogers, P. 2007. Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England. AD 450-700. Council for British Archaeology, UK.

Spinning and Wool Preparation

Once the fleece has come off the sheep it needs to be prepared. During the 6^th Century Anglo Saxon period this was probably done by using an upright comb. At this stage there is no archaeological evidence for exactly how this was done during the early Anglo Saxon period (Walton Roger, P. 2007:15). However it is known that the Roman's used an upright woolcomb fixed to a table or stand or just held as can be seen in the photographs on this site http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/aa04/aa062304.htm

Once the fleece was combed it could be used for spinning. Wool spinning was done using a spindle and whorl. There are lots of examples of Anglo Saxon spindle whorls. They are one of the most common of grave finds and always associated with women (Walton Roger, P. 2007:.23). To get an idea of the size of a spindle whorl go to http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B83F49AD-64E1-4917-B8D6-CDA5FF798D67/0/SpinningandWeaving.pdf this pdf gives 1:1 drawings of grave finds used for spinning and weaving during the Anglo Saxon period.

Spindle whorls have been found in Anglo Saxon graves made from a wide variety of materials such as bone, clay, lead and antler (Crowfoot, E. and Hawkes, S. C 1967:69, 75, 79, 80) crystal and glass (http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/HistoricalBeads1.html). The most commonly found spindle whorl, as can be seen by the embedded movie are lead. This is not because this was the most commonly used material as this short piece incorrectly observes but because these are the easiest for us to find because they can be found through metal detection, for that reason this clip focuses on them.

Spindle whorls are classified according to their shape and when they were used. A good overview of the shape of spindle whorls can be found in Walton Rogers book (2007:25). The spindle whorls I use for some of my spinning are based on the A1, B2 and B3 categories which were all common during the 5^th and 6^th centuries. They have a spindle shaft made out of Mulberry. I have used Mulberry because it was available during the Anglo Saxon period as can be seen by its use in medicine during that period (Delacourt, J. 1914:On the Mulberry Tree). It is extremely rare for spindle shafts to be found, this is thought to be because they were made out of wood and so decompose easily leaving just the whorl as part of the grave finds (Walton Roger, P. 2007:23). 

Replica Spindle whorls showing shapes that were common during the Anglo Saxon 5th and 6th Centuries.

Replica Spindle whorls showing shapes that were common during the Anglo Saxon 5th and 6th Centuries.

 The whorls were made by Flamming Gargoyle Pottery http://flaminggargoyle.multiply.com/

It seemed reasonable to assume that any wood that came to hand could be used as a spindle. So when making my spindles to be used for SCA events and for spinning the fibre for my tablet woven bands I have used a wood that was commonly available during the 5^th to 6^th century Anglo Saxon period.

Completed drop spindles. Using Mulberry wood for the spindle shafts.

Although spinning wheels were not introduced until 1287 (McNabb, W.J. 2004¶5) I have utilised a spinning wheel for this project. For the smaller amount of spinning that will be used for the tablet woven bands I have used a drop spindle. This is because I can do a finer thread using a spindle and because I need a lot less thread to make the tablet woven bands. However for the majority of the outfit that I am creating I need a large amount of thread. With my non-cloth making commitments I simply do not have the time required to make all of that thread using a drop spindle.

Spinning the bulk of my thread on the modern spinning wheel.

1. Crowfoot, E and Hawkes, S. C. 1967. 'Early Anglo-Saxon Gold Braids' Medieval Archaeology, 11 (1967), pp. 42-86.
2. Delacourt, J. (Ed) 1914. Medicinea De Quadrupedibus http://www.archive.org/stream/medicinadequadru00delcuoft/medicinadequadru00delcuoft_djvu.txt (accessed 1/11/2011)
3. Kornbluth Photography 2011. http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/HistoricalBeads1.html
4. McNabb, W. J. 2004 'Spinning and Spinning Wheels: A Brief History of Machines for Making Thread and Yarn' http://www.crofters.org/personal%20essays/spinning.htm (accessed 1/11/2011)
5. Walton Rogers, P. 2007. 'Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England: AD 450-700'. council for British Archaeology, York, UK.