Technical wool fabric: Sample one

I know what I want to achieve with the project but how do I go about it? I am tempted to just start spinning, following my initial idea using the knowledge I have from previous projects but this time I don’t want to focus on the product, maximizing the amount of woven cloth I can get from the batch of wool I’m using. Instead I want to place focus on making as good a fabric as I can, and to do it thoroughly. I decided to start with weaving three samples: One made with both the under-and the overcoat spun togehter, one with only the undercoat and one with only the overcoat.

The first sample

I decided to weave the samples on a small backstrap loom, since the setup is very convenient when you’re working on this small scale and there is very little loss of yarn in the tie-up as compared to weaving on a big loom.
If you’re following my work you might wonder why I didn’t use the kind of rigid heddles I have been working with for some years now, and the answer is that the wool yarn is a bit too thick to fit in the small holes of the heddles.
This sample is the first one, made with both over-and undercoat spun together. It felt a bit weird to card them together as I am so used to separating them before spinning, but it was a nice experience. I didn’t know what I was expecting as to the texture of the finished fabric but it feels very tough with some fuzz. I bet this kind of fabric would be extremely hard wearing and warm, but also very very itchy!

The fibers in this fleece are very different in length, the under coat being about 4-7 cm long and the over coat up to 20 cm. As I mentioned I carded them together without separating them first, and spun the wool on my spinning wheel. While I usually prefer to spin thinner than this I have decided to go for rather thick (with my own measurements) yarn for this project. The yarn for this sample measures roughly 21 wraps per inch (WPI) and in the finished sample there is 19 warp threads (EPI) and 14 weft treads per inch. One inch is 2,54 cm, for all my metric friends out there ;)
This sample is woven in tabby, also called “plain weave“. I plan to use a double faced twill for my actual project but for these samples, which I look upon as a way to get started and also to create a pedagogic material so I can explain what my project is all about, I figure tabby will do just fine.

Perhaps I should admit that I have done a couple of similar projects previously to this one, although this is the first time I’m funded by Nämnden för hemslöjdsfrågor.

The idea of spinning all the wool from one sheep and then weaving it into a fabric has been a long-time dream and my first go at it was a brown fleece of a British Ryeland wool (No. 2 from the bottom). The Ryeland fleece is pretty similar to Swedish Finull, meaning that it has a lot of crimp and has been breeded to have only undercoat hairs. I spun the yarn very tightly and wove the fabric in 2/2 twill with 8 tr/cm (19 EPI).
Next, I wanted to make a fabric with over and under coat separated so I bought a fleece of Spelsau wool from Norway. This fleece (No. 1) I wove with the over coat in the warp and the under coat in the weft, and I have waulked it lightly by treading on it for a couple of hours in a trough of water. It’s also woven in 2/2 with 8 tr/cm, and with the warp spun in the Z direction and the weft in the S direction to balance the weave. Faric no. 3 is made up from left over Spelsau warp, as there was less undercoat than over coat so I wove the last 80 cm with some Swedish Värmland lambs wool as weft. This fabric came out very supple and nice after some waulking and ironing!
And then there’s the top one, no. 4, which is a sample for a fabric I’ve just finished spinning the yarn for: A much thinner version of no. 2 but in Icelandic lambs wool. The sample is woven with 12 tr/cm (28 WPI) and the project is promising to bring out a light, strong fabric with fantastic drape once I have the time to weave it.

The edge of the Icelandic lambs wool sample, where the silky smooth over coat is protruding and the fuzzy under coat weft is trying to crawl out.

All of these fabrics except for the chocolate Ryeland fleece have been woven in 2/2 twill with over coat wool spun into warp yarn and under coat wool spun into weft yarn. In these fabrics one can see equal amounts of over coat yarn on both sides of the fabric, but the black fleece I’m spinning now will eventually result in a fabric that has one side with mainly over coat and one with mainly under coat wool.

This project is funded by Nämnden för hemslöjdsfrågor, a national heritage council funded by the Swedish state.

Do you want to read my previous post about this subject? Here’s a link!