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Victorian Ball Gown : 14th Century Embroidered Bag : Dad's Towels : Shawl : A&S Competition : 14th Century Garters
The project: A replica of the 14th century counted thread embroidered bag as seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The instructions: Embroidery patterns construction, and research by Master Richard Wymarc and are available from his website.
What else am I doing: In addition to actually embroidering the bag I am making the thread to embroider with. This involves drop spinning single ply silk thread and two ply linen thread. The silk thread needs to be dyed into red, blue, and green. At this stage I am experimenting with spinning the silk so I'll have enough for the dye testing part of the project. I also have a bunch of wool thread that I will experiment with color on.
Update (4-7-05): I have realized that the silk thread would have been reeled and not spun. I have another skill to learn. I think I can now spin the linen thread.
Materials: Silk from Pennsic War, medieval drop spindle from The Woolery, madder root and indigo from Dharma Trading Co..
Spinning Silk Embroidery Thread
A large version in DMC thread
A scale version done with commercial silk embroidery thread
So my SCA spinning dream came true. A friend came up to me and said "I found documentation for knitted Elizabethan clothing pieces. Could you do the spinning? I'll do the documentation and find knitters." Yes!
Scoggers, socks, stockings, mittens, hat. The scoggers are out of a two ply fingering weight worsted yarn spun from a Clun Forest fleece. The socks will be a two ply fingering weight worsted yarn out of white merino. The yarn may even get dyed before knitting. The mittens and hat will be two ply worsted weight woolen yarn also of Merino. The stockings are going to be done in a commercial silk yarn.
Bought a white Merino fleece at the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival. Washed half of what I bought using four baths. Pre-rinse of clean water, first dishsoap wash, second dishsoap wash, vinegar/water rinse, water rinse. It took forever to dry and it looks like I will need to rewash the fiber that is going to be combed.
Well... the yarn for the scoggers was finished and the scoggers were knit up. The hat yarn was spun but scope creep made the yarn a bit unsuitable but the knitter worked around it. Stockings were not finished but I didn't have anything to do with them. Mittens were not done. Sock yarn was started enough to enter but the socks were dropped from the project in January/February.
Ended up having to enter my spinning seperately and do my own documentation.
My four harness loom is now up and running. For my first medieval project I've decided to do a pair of 14th century garters based on examples in "Textiles and Clothing" from the Museum of London. The thread is almost all spun. I'll end up with around 280 yards of 50 wpi single ply of brown Merino wool. While the garters in the book were done in plain weave, I'll probably do mine in 2/2 twill which seems to have been popular with textiles of the period.
