Heortling Weaving

From: bethexton_at_...
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 19:59:30 -0000

Another in my sporadic series of questions aimed at a better understanding of the mundane portions of Heortling life.

What sort of looms do the Heortlings use? I guess I'm most interested in two things: how wide is the cloth produced, and do you have multiple people per loom, or are they smaller personal ones?

I seem to recall, just as one point of comparison, that the Scots used quite narrow, personal, looms well into the middle ages. At least for the traditional tartan cloth they did, whether they had bigger looms for other purposes I don't know. (apparently if you look at a traditional piper's outfit, that sort of sash over one shoulder is basically about the width of cloth they produced. Kilts were made with multiple strips lined up vertically and sewn together, the rest of the outfit was basically a long narrow piece of cloth all wrapped around and around). (No, I don't recall where I read this, any experts on the subject please feel free to correct me).

What I'm trying to envision is, just by way of example, is a typical cloak made from one large piece of material, or several small strips sewn together. Also, while most weaving will happen at the loom house, how much is every woman a weaver, and how much is it the the most experienced doing the job aided by the less experienced.

--Bryan