Skjoldehamn Weaving Prep

Step 1 will be weaving some samples of the striped fabric. So, first, let’s talk about what we know about the original garment. All information taken from Dan Halvard Løvlid’s excellent thesis (which I would link to if I could still find an active one) [1].

Image Credit: Dan Halvard Løvlid [1]

The striped fabric used in the chest flap and collar is described by Lovold as a 2/1 twill with three different horizontal stripes; one brown-red/olive green (alternating every two threads, always beginning and ending with green), one golden, and one green. The wefts in the brown-red/green portion are thicker than the others, and the green weft in the purely green stripe is the finest. The warp is olive-green and on the finer side. The ppi of the gold and green stripes is considerably higher than the brown-red/olive green stipes (more than double) and these portions look to be entirely weft-faced. The variegated stripes is 2.7-3.8 cm in width, the gold stripe is 0.4-0.7 cm, and the green is 0.3 -0.5 cm. The back top of the collar is the selvedge, giving us more insight into the textile. The outermost three warp threads are tripled, and the fourth is doubled. Not all of the weft threads in the green/brown-red potion interact with the tripled threads. Lovold has provided a helpful diagram to show this, to which I have then appended my own notes in preparation for weaving. He does not discuss the selvedge of the gold and green stripes – but from the one close-up image I have, it appears that this is not the same for the gold and green stripes – but my best guess is they look almost as if it treats the three tripled warp threads as one warp.

Image Credit: Dan Halvard Løvlid [1] (edited by me)

As stated previously, I have some wool and some cottolin to experiment with (I know there’s no blue, but I wanted to see how it looked compared to the green). First up, the cottolin. The recommended epi for a balanced twill is 24. I’m going to start by warping up a 6″ width at 15 EPI to mimic this more weft-faced cloth, and then will adjust from there.

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[1] D. H. Løvlid, “Nye tanker om Skjoldehamnfunnet,” thesis, 2009

Revisting the Skjoldehamn Garb Project

After letting this project simmer for quite some time now (7 years? Where does the time go?) I’ve decided to stop letting the ‘perfect’ get in the way of the ‘practical’.

What does that mean?

At first I wanted to handweave the fabric for the full garment, but pricing that out five years or so ago put the cost at… a couple grand or so iirc (wool yarn is pricey, especially if you are looking for something special/particular). Not to mention trying to match the variation in yarn colours to try to lay out how the pattern would have been cut on a single piece of cloth was a complete bust – doesn’t look like it was? Less of an issue as I could extrapolate and weave the pieces to ‘best guess’. So there the project sat, taking up space in my brain.

Then I thought I would just weave the very distinctive striped elements and use commercial wool cloth for the main pieces. And I may still do this one day, but I’ve been having difficulty finding the right wool, and it’s still pricey. Particularly for an outfit that I would likely find uncomfortable to wear (two layers of wool tunics!). So I put this idea on the backburner as well as a ‘someday’ or ‘if I find the right wool/yarn at a good price’ project.

This, of course, has left me in a ‘still don’t have the outfit I want to wear’ situation. So I have decided to start experimenting and make something ‘inspired by’ rather than focusing on more of a reproduction-level garment. After all, I really just wanted something to wear and love the look of these clothes.

I’ve ordered some cottolin to do some experiments with, and have some wool in my stash to experiment with as well. I’m going to weave the bespoke bit out of both, to decide if the cottolin would work for what I want, or if it really needs to be wool (also sampling both for the embroidery), and do the main garment pieces out of linen. Also trying the extant colours (red-brown, gold, and olive), and one I think I would prefer (madder-red, gold, and a woady blue instead). The wool I have is not the right colours at all (a deep cherry red, canary yellow, slate grey, and bright blue), but it should be enough to give me a feel for texture. If I decide the wool is really what I want, then I will likely need to track down new stuff, but if the cottolin is ‘good enough’ then that’s great because that will make it machine washable, which is a highly desirable trait for SCA garb imo.

And so, having gotten over my analysis paralysis… let’s begin.

P.S. The tea towels I was working on are `on hold` on the big loom. I finished four, but then had to cut back the warp to the back beam and wrap it in a towel… three kittens and a loom do not a good combination make. It’ll sit that way until they are old enough to possibly hurt themselves.

New Teatowels

Since the doggo ate a number (all) of my tea towels, it’s time to make more.

Draft	Keep it Simple Towel (x 11-12 towels) (From Handwoven’s Top Ten Towels on Four Shafts)
Sett	20 epi
Ends	460 ends
Length	44″ per towel + loom waste = 16.5 yards
Warp	7590 yards = 2.6 lbs total
Weft	8096 yards total, 1350 yards per set = approx 1/2 lb per set

Warp: White

Weft: Assorted colours

Starting on towel #2

 

Has it really been three years?

I guess it’s time I start posting again.

Back to the Garden

This year I’ve decided to get back out to my very neglected veggie garden.  I took a few years away from it to focus on other things, and now it needs a lot of TLC.

One thing I’ve wanted to do was change over the pathways to stone. I was using cedar mulch before, but the weeds grew into that like it was soil, making a mess.  Last fall I removed all of that, and now that the weather has warmed up I’m moving on to the next steps.

What I started with this Spring

So far I have dug up the pathway weeds, lay new barrier fabric, and placed a border of stones.

Progress

Tomorrow the peastone arrives and I can start carting that from the driveway to the garden.

Mass Emmelines

I decided to do a batch of aprons as Hogswatch gifts. The pattern is Emmeline by Sew Liberated – my favourite apron pattern.

Sheep Love

Apples and Hearts

BB-Apron

Hawaiian

Seashells

Geese

Adventures in Stretch Fabric: Swimsuit Edition

This summer we were gifted a free ‘just take it away’ hot tub.  It needed some parts so we ended up putting some money in, but not nearly what it would cost to buy one new (or even used in working order).

Of course, I don’t own a swimsuit that fits comfortably.  After looking at the prices those ‘cute swimsuit’ stores placed on teensy fabric pieces, I decided this would be an opportunity to learn to work with stretch fabrics.

My goal, an attractive swimsuit with good bottom coverage.  Enter – The Bombshell Swimsuit.

All in all, this was a good project.  The steps are well explained and the sew-along blog is very helpful.  I found working with gathers in stretch fabric to be the most challenging part – and getting the top-stitching nice and even.  I used fabric I bought at half-price for an inexpensive test run.

All in all, I am very pleased with the result.

My Bombshell Swimsuit

Weave Sample: Weft-Faced Compound Twill

Usually referred to as samite (or sometimes samitum).

In this sample I tested several styles of samite. From the bottom up, we have:

• Plain (unfigured) samite
• Duochrome figured samite (1-2-2-1 weft order)
• Duochrome figured samite (1-2-1-2 weft order)
• Monochrome figured samite (1-2-2-1 weft order)
• Monochrome figured samite (1-2-1-2 weft order)

Weft-Faced Compound Twill

When and where can this textile be found?

• Roman-Era Egypt (1st century to mid-3rd century) in wool [1].
• 9th – early 10th century Pomerania in silk [3].
• Late 9th – 10th century England in silk [2].

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[1] Taqueté and Damask from Mons Claudianus: A Discussion of Roman Looms for Patterned Textiles by Martin Ciszuk (in Purpureae Vestes)
[2] Late Saxon Textiles from the City of London by Frances Pritchard
[3] Fabrics in Medieval Dress in Pomerania by Ann Rybarczyk

 

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Space Dress

I took a break from my medieval sewing to make myself a cute summer dress.

Space Dress!

Pattern is McCalls M3750 (view D).
Fabric is from Spoonflower.

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Skjoldehamn Garb – Finding the Right Yarns

I am not a spinner.  Even if I was I haven’t had the time to learn to do it well – certainly not well enough to even contemplate it for a project of this magnitude.  So, one of the first steps I will need to tackle is finding a commercial supplier of a ‘close enough’ yarn for the project.  So, lets talk about what who know about the yarns used in the extant pieces that I plan (for sure) on weaving – the coloured striped fabric, and the kirtle fabric.

All fabrics used in the garments, with the exception of breast flap and the collar of the shirt (the coloured striped bits), is 2/2 twill weave wool.  The coloured striped fabric is a weft-faced 2/1 twill weave wool.  Both have a Z-spun warp and a S-spun weft.

Hood

• On the body and the back gore there is a strip of lighter-coloured weft.
• Woven with two shuttles, except in the lighter weft stripe.
• Warp contain highly pigmented wools.  Would likely have been dark grey.
  
• Weft contains from white to medium pigmented wool.Would likely have been from grey to light grey.
• EPI (main): 9.4/cm =~ 24
• EPI (front/back gores): 10.5 & 10/cm =~ 26
• PPI (main): 6.9/cm =~ 17.5
• PPI (front/back gores): 7.3 & 7.5 /cm =~ 19
• Warp diameter: 0.8 mm
• Weft diameter: 1-1.2 mm

Kirtle

• Two warp yarns, one lighter/thinner.  Dark warp contains come white wool blended with much darker fibres.  Lighter warp is white wool to white mixed with darker fibres.  The colour difference is believed to have been obscured by light felting and appearing light grey in colour.
• Two weft yarns, with significant variation in size. Weft is white to medium pigmented wool (light grey to grey).
• Pigment source is unknown, likely natural to the wool.
• EPI (main – light warp): 10 – 10.9/cm =~ 25-27
• EPI (main – dark warp): 6.5-6.7/cm =~ 16.7-17
• EPI (sleeves/gores – light warp): 10.2 – 12/cm =~ 25-30
• EPI (sleeves/gores – dark warp): 10.8-12.4/cm =~ 27-31
• EPI (red collar): 11/cm =~ 28
• PPI: 6-7.4/cm =~ 15-19
• PPI (red collar): 7.2/cm =~18
• Warp diameter (light): 0.80 mm
• Warp diameter (dark): 0.72 mm
• Weft diameter: 0.9mm / 1.37 mm

Striped Fabric

• Weave: 2/1 (weft-dominant) twill
• EPI: 14.5/cm =~ 37
• PPI (red/green): 8.2/cm =~ 21
• PPI (gold): 21.3/cm =~ 54
• PPI (green): 27.2/cm =~ 69
• Warp diameter (warp is green): 0.56 mm
• Weft diameter (red): 0.73 mm
• Weft diameter (green in green-red): 0.90 mm
• Weft diameter (green): 0.46 mm
• Weft diameter (gold): 0.64 mm

Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be able to find this much variety in commercial yarns.  Over the next while I’ll be ordering some samples to test with.