Home Spun Linen Thread
My entry is a spool of home-spun linen thread. It was spun using a homemade drop-spindle also on display with the thread. The glass whorl was made by me in my lampworker workshop when I found documentation for such (Hald, 128). The piece of material (it is modern day linen) has been sewn using a bees-waxed strand of my linen thread. This is un-bleached and the natural color of flax, the product linen comes from. Please feel free to sew a few stitches. A vocabulary has been included in the back to explain unfamiliar terms.
To support my entry I have also displayed home-spun linen yarn. With the yarn, I have displayed a sample of the way it was used during the Viking era on the Warp-Weighted Loom. The linen yarn was used for the warp, while wool was used for the weft. The result was a very flexible and flat material even with a plyed yarn. Flax is a very versitile fiber.
Flax is a long-stemmed plant (linum usitatissimum) with blue, white, yellow or pink flowers found in many parts of the world (Leadbeater, 55). The plant was found in abundance throughout Europe since pre-Bronze age. The long fibrous product from the flax plant is called linen after it is spun into thread or yarn. Thread is a fine spun fiber used for sewing or in later periods, lace. Linen yarn strands have more weight and are used for weaving as the warp and the weft threads making cloth, or sometimes with other fibers like wool. Linen has been used in weaving and sewing as we have discovered from remnants in grave barrows since the Bronze age (Jesch, 28).
Flax is harvested and retted either by the dew method, or the water method. The bark is scrutched off and the fibers found inside are then hackled in a large comb. It takes six to 10 weeks to prepare flax for use (Baines, 173). After the long preparation process, the fibers found within the tough outer bark of the flax plant are used for spinning very much like the process for spinning animal fibers, like wool. The techniques are the same, but because the fibers of flax are longer it is easier to spin, especially into a very fine thread. Flax is a plant and therefore is made up of cellulose fibers. The cellulose fibers increase the strength of flax 20% when wet (Baines, 16). It is recommended that the fibers are wetted during the spinning process. In the middle ages they used spit to moisten the fibers (Baine,26). Flax is full of impurities, especially when it is dew-retted, so I highly recommend that a cup of water is used instead of spit.
My persona time period is 10th Century Viking and so I will focus on how linen was spun, who spun it, why they spun it and where they spun it during this period. Linen was made throughout many time periods so I thought it would be easier to narrow it down a bit.
It was the women’s responsibility to do the spinning. Flax was spun as much as they spun wool, which was usually throughout the day. In the 10th century they used a drop spindles because spinning wheels weren’t invented yet. The remnants of drop spindles, some with glass whorls, have been found in the excavations at Birka and Gotland (Jesch, 19). It was necessary to spin almost constantly, for almost everything was made from these two spun products as indicated by remnants of clothing found on corpses in grave barrows throughout Denmark and Sweden. Viking women used the fine spun linen yarn to weave the material to make their well known pleated dresses. It is the nature of linen to crease easily because of the celluouse in the fiber. These women used an elaborate folding technique to achieve these creases, but that’s a page of documentation in itself for another competition.
Linen yarn was often used as the warp on the warp-weighted loom. The warp-weighted loom is an upright loom used by the Vikings (Simpson, 53). The warp weighted looms are still used today by the people of Lappland. The remains of warp-weighted looms are the clay or stone weights used to hold the warp threads. These have been found at the Viking fortifications at Trelleborg (Hoffman, 19). Wool was often used for the weft and as mentioned above, it created a much more pliable woolen material.
To spin flax to a fine thread you need to select only the longest strands from the strick. I keep my flax in a small basket I made originally for silk. The inside of the basket has no endings for the flax to be caught on, designed this way to hold silk cocoons for the same reason. I found it’s easier to hold the flax in the basket vs. a distaff. Distaffs were used during the middle ages to hold the flax above the worker so the strands could be pulled down into the spin of the spindle. Since spinning thread is a slower process it doesn’t matter whether the flax is pulled from above or from the side. I prefer pulling from the side. I have better control of how the fibers are spun.
The spindle used to spin thread is smaller than a standard wool spindle to facilitate the finer thread. Though the thread is strong, like any thread, it will break with enough pressure. I have wound the thread on the spindle in the fashion of the Egyptians, with the whorl on the upper half of the spin. This spindle can be used either way and works well for me as you can see by the thread in process. The Vikings also used a smaller spindle as illustrated in the ones found at L’Anse aux Meadows, in Newfoundland (Cohat, 157).
As previously mentioned, to spin the flax into thread, select only the finest, longest strands from the strick finger. To start a thread, use water, wet the end and spin the thread clockwise, right to left, causing a Z pattern in the thread. You can also spin in the opposite direction to get an S twist. Once you have a small amount finger spun, wind it around the shaft of the spindle catching the end so it will not come off. Bring the thread up over the glass whorl and after twisting it on your finger to cause a loop, place the loop over the end of the spindle, catching it in the indention carved there. There is an indention carved at either end of the spindle to facilitate the personal preference of the spinner. Like I said earlier, I prefer to spin with the whorl at the top. You must keep spinning the drop spindle in the same direction or your thread will unwind and fall apart. Continue using the water. The water helps the cellulose fibers stick together and creates a smoother thread. You need to get the thread as smooth as possible so it will go through fabrics. I like spinning the thread in the Z pattern because I draw with my right hand and spin with my left. This has proven comfortable for me and spinning in a clockwise direction is also easier.
I have a modern needle in use in my display because I haven’t made any needles yet. I used a big needle because from the remnants found the needles illustrated seem bigger that what we use today. Patterns found in the excavations used to make clothes illustrate that they were cut in pieces. Because the garments were in pieces, it is only logical that they would be sewn together using a strong thread. Linen is among many things they used for sewing. When linen is spun fine it slides nicely through linen and other fabrics, as you can experience with my display. To retain the spun thread before use and for display, I wound the thread around a wooden spool devised from a wooden ornament. I had to carve the middle out and sand it to hold the thread. I have covered most of the thread with bees-wax, since that was a common practice to strengthen strands (Fanning, 47).
In this documentation I have covered the following:
Who - Viking women
What - Linen thread and yarn
Where - Scandinavian lands
When - 10th Century
Why - To cloth themselves
How - I’ve explained how I spin on a drop spindle based upon how it was handed down throughout the ages in documentation and practice.
Please feel free to sew using my thread. Please also feel free to spin if you wish. Remember to use water.
Vocabulary
Flax - latin = Linum usitatissimum, the fiber, the seed.
Strick - a bundle of hackled flax line.
Flax line - strands of flax.
Z twist - Right to left downwards spiral on yarn.
S twist - Left to right downwards spiral on yarn.
Whorl - a disc of a weighty material used to stablize and lengthen the spin of a drop spindle.
Distaff - An implement, usually made of wood or cane, for holding flax fibers when hand spinning.
Dew Retting - Laying the flax plant on grass to decompose the woody matter surrounding the fibers.
Water Retting - Laying the flax plant in water to decompose the woody matter surrounding the fibers.
Hackling - The process of preparing the flax with hackles.
Hackles - The comb used in preparation of the flax for spinning.
Scrutched - break the outer bark of the flax plant.
Retted - soften the outer bark of the flax plant.
Bibliography
Baines, Patricia - Linen - Handspinning and Weaving, B.T. Batsford Ltd. London, 1989
Cohat, Yves - The Vikings, Lords of the Seas, Discoveries, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1987
Fanning, Robbie and Tony Fanning - Stitchery Here and Now and From Other Times and Places, Butterick, New York, NY, 1978
Haywood, John - The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings, Penguin Books, London, England, 1995
Hald, Margrethe - Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials, The National Museum of Denmark, 1980
Hoffman, Marta - The Warp-Weighted Loom, Robin and Russ Handweavers, The Norwegian Research Council, 1974
Jesch, Judith - Women in the Viking Age, The Boydell Press, Great Britian, 1991
Leadbeater, Eliza - Handspinning, Studio Vista Charles T. Branford Company, 1976
Simpson, Jacqueline - The Viking World, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1980
Roesdahl, Else - From Viking to Crusader, The Scandanavian and Europe 800-1200, Rizzoli, New York, 1993
To support my entry I have also displayed home-spun linen yarn. With the yarn, I have displayed a sample of the way it was used during the Viking era on the Warp-Weighted Loom. The linen yarn was used for the warp, while wool was used for the weft. The result was a very flexible and flat material even with a plyed yarn. Flax is a very versitile fiber.
Flax is a long-stemmed plant (linum usitatissimum) with blue, white, yellow or pink flowers found in many parts of the world (Leadbeater, 55). The plant was found in abundance throughout Europe since pre-Bronze age. The long fibrous product from the flax plant is called linen after it is spun into thread or yarn. Thread is a fine spun fiber used for sewing or in later periods, lace. Linen yarn strands have more weight and are used for weaving as the warp and the weft threads making cloth, or sometimes with other fibers like wool. Linen has been used in weaving and sewing as we have discovered from remnants in grave barrows since the Bronze age (Jesch, 28).
Flax is harvested and retted either by the dew method, or the water method. The bark is scrutched off and the fibers found inside are then hackled in a large comb. It takes six to 10 weeks to prepare flax for use (Baines, 173). After the long preparation process, the fibers found within the tough outer bark of the flax plant are used for spinning very much like the process for spinning animal fibers, like wool. The techniques are the same, but because the fibers of flax are longer it is easier to spin, especially into a very fine thread. Flax is a plant and therefore is made up of cellulose fibers. The cellulose fibers increase the strength of flax 20% when wet (Baines, 16). It is recommended that the fibers are wetted during the spinning process. In the middle ages they used spit to moisten the fibers (Baine,26). Flax is full of impurities, especially when it is dew-retted, so I highly recommend that a cup of water is used instead of spit.
My persona time period is 10th Century Viking and so I will focus on how linen was spun, who spun it, why they spun it and where they spun it during this period. Linen was made throughout many time periods so I thought it would be easier to narrow it down a bit.
It was the women’s responsibility to do the spinning. Flax was spun as much as they spun wool, which was usually throughout the day. In the 10th century they used a drop spindles because spinning wheels weren’t invented yet. The remnants of drop spindles, some with glass whorls, have been found in the excavations at Birka and Gotland (Jesch, 19). It was necessary to spin almost constantly, for almost everything was made from these two spun products as indicated by remnants of clothing found on corpses in grave barrows throughout Denmark and Sweden. Viking women used the fine spun linen yarn to weave the material to make their well known pleated dresses. It is the nature of linen to crease easily because of the celluouse in the fiber. These women used an elaborate folding technique to achieve these creases, but that’s a page of documentation in itself for another competition.
Linen yarn was often used as the warp on the warp-weighted loom. The warp-weighted loom is an upright loom used by the Vikings (Simpson, 53). The warp weighted looms are still used today by the people of Lappland. The remains of warp-weighted looms are the clay or stone weights used to hold the warp threads. These have been found at the Viking fortifications at Trelleborg (Hoffman, 19). Wool was often used for the weft and as mentioned above, it created a much more pliable woolen material.
To spin flax to a fine thread you need to select only the longest strands from the strick. I keep my flax in a small basket I made originally for silk. The inside of the basket has no endings for the flax to be caught on, designed this way to hold silk cocoons for the same reason. I found it’s easier to hold the flax in the basket vs. a distaff. Distaffs were used during the middle ages to hold the flax above the worker so the strands could be pulled down into the spin of the spindle. Since spinning thread is a slower process it doesn’t matter whether the flax is pulled from above or from the side. I prefer pulling from the side. I have better control of how the fibers are spun.
The spindle used to spin thread is smaller than a standard wool spindle to facilitate the finer thread. Though the thread is strong, like any thread, it will break with enough pressure. I have wound the thread on the spindle in the fashion of the Egyptians, with the whorl on the upper half of the spin. This spindle can be used either way and works well for me as you can see by the thread in process. The Vikings also used a smaller spindle as illustrated in the ones found at L’Anse aux Meadows, in Newfoundland (Cohat, 157).
As previously mentioned, to spin the flax into thread, select only the finest, longest strands from the strick finger. To start a thread, use water, wet the end and spin the thread clockwise, right to left, causing a Z pattern in the thread. You can also spin in the opposite direction to get an S twist. Once you have a small amount finger spun, wind it around the shaft of the spindle catching the end so it will not come off. Bring the thread up over the glass whorl and after twisting it on your finger to cause a loop, place the loop over the end of the spindle, catching it in the indention carved there. There is an indention carved at either end of the spindle to facilitate the personal preference of the spinner. Like I said earlier, I prefer to spin with the whorl at the top. You must keep spinning the drop spindle in the same direction or your thread will unwind and fall apart. Continue using the water. The water helps the cellulose fibers stick together and creates a smoother thread. You need to get the thread as smooth as possible so it will go through fabrics. I like spinning the thread in the Z pattern because I draw with my right hand and spin with my left. This has proven comfortable for me and spinning in a clockwise direction is also easier.
I have a modern needle in use in my display because I haven’t made any needles yet. I used a big needle because from the remnants found the needles illustrated seem bigger that what we use today. Patterns found in the excavations used to make clothes illustrate that they were cut in pieces. Because the garments were in pieces, it is only logical that they would be sewn together using a strong thread. Linen is among many things they used for sewing. When linen is spun fine it slides nicely through linen and other fabrics, as you can experience with my display. To retain the spun thread before use and for display, I wound the thread around a wooden spool devised from a wooden ornament. I had to carve the middle out and sand it to hold the thread. I have covered most of the thread with bees-wax, since that was a common practice to strengthen strands (Fanning, 47).
In this documentation I have covered the following:
Who - Viking women
What - Linen thread and yarn
Where - Scandinavian lands
When - 10th Century
Why - To cloth themselves
How - I’ve explained how I spin on a drop spindle based upon how it was handed down throughout the ages in documentation and practice.
Please feel free to sew using my thread. Please also feel free to spin if you wish. Remember to use water.
Vocabulary
Flax - latin = Linum usitatissimum, the fiber, the seed.
Strick - a bundle of hackled flax line.
Flax line - strands of flax.
Z twist - Right to left downwards spiral on yarn.
S twist - Left to right downwards spiral on yarn.
Whorl - a disc of a weighty material used to stablize and lengthen the spin of a drop spindle.
Distaff - An implement, usually made of wood or cane, for holding flax fibers when hand spinning.
Dew Retting - Laying the flax plant on grass to decompose the woody matter surrounding the fibers.
Water Retting - Laying the flax plant in water to decompose the woody matter surrounding the fibers.
Hackling - The process of preparing the flax with hackles.
Hackles - The comb used in preparation of the flax for spinning.
Scrutched - break the outer bark of the flax plant.
Retted - soften the outer bark of the flax plant.
Bibliography
Baines, Patricia - Linen - Handspinning and Weaving, B.T. Batsford Ltd. London, 1989
Cohat, Yves - The Vikings, Lords of the Seas, Discoveries, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1987
Fanning, Robbie and Tony Fanning - Stitchery Here and Now and From Other Times and Places, Butterick, New York, NY, 1978
Haywood, John - The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings, Penguin Books, London, England, 1995
Hald, Margrethe - Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials, The National Museum of Denmark, 1980
Hoffman, Marta - The Warp-Weighted Loom, Robin and Russ Handweavers, The Norwegian Research Council, 1974
Jesch, Judith - Women in the Viking Age, The Boydell Press, Great Britian, 1991
Leadbeater, Eliza - Handspinning, Studio Vista Charles T. Branford Company, 1976
Simpson, Jacqueline - The Viking World, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1980
Roesdahl, Else - From Viking to Crusader, The Scandanavian and Europe 800-1200, Rizzoli, New York, 1993