Perfect or good enough?
Every weaving starts with yarn. But which kind of yarn would I need?
The Norwich fabrics were woven in thin worsted wool yarn from the Lincoln Longwool breed. The shiny staples with excellent crimp measured between 30 and 45 cm and were handcombed and handspun.
The fabrics I had seen in Elverum were densely woven, with one exception. Warp density was between 20 and 30 threads per cm.
In September last year, I was so lucky to visit Bodil Enger at the Norwegian institute for folk costume in Fagernes. I got to see two fabrics we had agreed on beforehand. A breast cloth and an unused, privately owned callimancoe. Textiles in museums can never be touched with bare hands, gloves have to be worn all the time. But this fabric we were allowed to touch and feel. And we were surprised hoe hard and coarse it was, most like upholstery fabric. Nothing a modern customer would accept in clothing at all, but made to last for centuries.
The stuffs of Norwich were characterized by their exceptional lustre. The shine is thought to be due to the after treatment, consisting of a secret wax blend and hot pressing. After some use, the luster would vanish, some fabrics were also blends of silk and wool and they had more inherent shine.
Some modern, industrial, Norwegian reconstructions use mohair yarn or blends of it to get the luster. Bodil Enger showed me some fabric samples. I immediately decided against mohair: firstly, because the weavers of Norwich never used it, secondly because some of the fabrics with mohair either looked hairy or were heavy and thick, somewhat curtain-like.
I was looking for a thin, hard worsted yarn, hopefully with some shine.
The perfect candidate would have been a handcombed and handspun yarn from Lincoln longwool sheep. The hand part could be ruled out at once. From being a breed exported all over the world, the Lincoln Longwool are now characterized as a rare breed with appx. 700 ewes left in the UK. I found farmers selling longwool knitting yarn and a farmer, who was willing to sell me raw wool. There are no worsted mills in Norway, but I am sure I would have found one in the UK, who was willing to spin about 30 kg of wool. However, on a one year project with limited time and funds, there was no room for that.
Which thin worsted yarns did I have:
Worsted 30/2, a lovely merino from Zegna Baruffa . But this was excluded at once, because of it’s softness.
Uusi Veera (18/2) from Wetterhoff Oy, maybe for coarser fabrics
Which other thin worsted yarns did I know of:
Kampavillalanka 36/2 from Vuorelma/Suomen perinnetekstiilit Oy. This yarn is often used in reconstructions, and it has a large color palette. It is sold in 100 g skeins and was the perfect choice.
Hillesvåg 28/2, sold in one kg spools in either black or white. Also a good choice, because it would be possible to buy only one or two spools.
Venne 26/2 or 36/2, my educated guess was that these yarns probably would be quite soft
Minnotex 20/2, too thick or for a coarser fabric
I decided to also contact companies spinning wool yarns for upholstery fabric:
Most upholstery yarns contain some percent of artificial fibre, which for a reconstruction was not acceptable. However, there were some pure wool yarns around:
Designer at Innvik Sellgren, Kristina D. Aas and artist kindly offered to send samples, the factory could sell undyed one kg spools.
Gudbrandsdalens Ullvarefabrikk. They usually do not sell their yarns, since they are used in their own production only. They would however make an exception for this project and Forde Svarstad offered to send samples.
I had not quite given up on the UK and asked Handweaver Cally Booker for advice, who referred me to Laxtons. They did not have what I was looking for but were very helpful and recommended me to get in touch with Spectrum yarns. I sent an e-mail and some days later, I got a phone call from Paul Holt. He was fully aware of the problem with soft yarns, however, they had a hard spun 31,3/2 and he would send me sample.
Sampling
While waiting for upholstery yarn samples, I ordered Kampavillalanka and Hillesvåg 28/2. When it arrived, I started to sample two shaft with 20 ends per cm, aiming at a balanced fabric, meaning the same number of picks and ends per cm.
Kampavillalanka 36/2: This is a lovely yarn, but unfortunately it was too soft and did not stand abrasion by the reed. Ends went off because of the dense reed, but I managed to get a weft density of 20 picks per cm.
Hillesvåg 28/2 pretty much the same and ends went off, but it was of course thicker and I did not manage to get 20 picks per cm at all. I tried with 14 ends/cm and managed to get in 14 picks as well, the fabric was dense, but not stiff.
I also tried Uusi Veera 18/2 with 14 ends/cm, thinking of one of the coarser fabrics. This worked well.
Perfect or good enough?
Then the other samples arrived:
40/2 from Gudbrandsdalens Ullvarefbrikk (GU)
36/2 and 28/2 from Innvik Sellgren
31,3/2 from Spectrum yarns
Everybody who is looking for the perfect match, be it a partner, a flat, a car or a job, has at some point to decide whether to continue the search or to go for an option, which is simply good enough. I made up my mind to go for good enough and determined in favour of the yarn from Spectrum yarns. It looked thinner than the ones from Innvik, but a bit thicker than the one from GU and it felt harder than other samples. Importantly, there would be no problems with delivery, if I should want to buy yarn another time and outside this project. I ordered the minimum quantity of 20 kg from England.
Then I sampled: This yarn stood a density of 20 ends/cm very well, without abrasion or threads going off. However, I did not manage to get in more than 18 picks per cm. Since the fabric I wanted to weave, was a two shaft with flotations, I decided to give this yarn a try in the Jacquard loom, once the loom was in working order.
