Which was more durable in the middle ages: woven or knitted fabric?

Ongoing project by Sandy Bardsley. Please do not cite or reproduce without my permission.

I can be contacted at bardsleys [at] moravian.edu

This question has implications for women’s work in the middle ages. We know that in England, women typically spun yarn on spindles (spinning wheels were not introduced until near the end of the middle ages). This spun yarn was collected and woven by professional weavers (mostly men), who belonged to weavers’ guilds. The resulting cloth went through several stages to felt it and finish it and then was sold in the form of fabric that women then bought to make clothing for their families. One question that has interested some historians is why women did not hold on to the wool they spun and use it to knit clothing, such as socks, pants, or even sweaters and tunics. A variety of answers – both practical and social – might explain this:

(1) Some have proposed that the guild structure limited women’s access to materials and discouraged innovation. Women were, in other words, locked in to a structure in which one of their few means of acquiring cash was through selling spun wool, discouraging them from keeping it and innovating with it.

(2) Some have wondered whether the technique of knitting was easily communicated from makers of fine silk gloves (working in the towns) to peasant women in the countryside. In other words, the problem may have been one of transmission of knowledge.

(3) Some have suggested that it was hard to acquire knitting needles of appropriate durability and diameter (bone needles were used for knitting fine silk gloves, but they may have been harder to make in larger diameters for wool).

(4) Some have argued that woven fabrics have practical advantages over knitted fabrics. Weaving is typically much faster (one common estimate is that a single spinner can supply something like 6 knitters, whereas it takes something like 6 spinners to supply a single weaver, presuming that all are working the same amounts of time). Knitted fabrics are heavier, which may have proved a problem when wet. On the other hand, they are more elastic than woven fabrics, which probably made them warmer. We know less, though, about the relative durability of woven vs. knitted fabrics in a medieval environment, which is where this experiment will be of use.

Because this experiment will involve comparison of hand spun, hand woven, and hand knitted samples, it will take quite some time to prepare. I am thus beginning the work of preparing samples during the spring semester of 2017, and this page will chart my progress.

Materials:

Sheep breeds have changed considerably during the middle ages (see, for instance, M.L. Ryder, “Medieval Sheep and Wool Types,” Agricultural History Review, 1984). In particular, they have been bred in recent centuries for greater size (more meat) and finer wool. Nonetheless, some breeds have probably changed less than others. For use in this experiment, I acquired unwashed, unspun wool from four breeds of sheep thought to be more similar than most to their medieval predecessors: Soay, Ryeland, Scottish Blackface, and Suffolk. The Soay came from Wales (supplied via Draiecraeft's store on Etsy.com) while the Ryeland, Scottish Blackface and Suffolk were from Newmoor Barn in England (via Etsy.com). Soay is one of the few wools that are plucked from sheep, rather than shorn. They have an interesting history: the breed evolved on the Island of Soay off the coast of Scotland. Because arable land was so scarce, the sheep were not allowed to graze from the pastures but instead adapted to eat seaweed from the shore. They thus became feral, much like the Arapawa sheep of New Zealand (and a number of examples elsewhere -- I just mention Arapawas because my mother breeds them!). These days, both Arapawa and Soay are bred deliberately once more, although breeders typically try to keep the blood lines pure to retain the characteristics developed when they were feral.

Preparation:

Washing

The Ryeland wool (3 inch staple) was washed by soaking it in hot water with a squirt of Dr. Bronner’s Castile liquid soap, then rinsing it in hot water. Although Dr. Bronner’s includes some ingredients that probably were not available to medieval peasants, most of its ingredients were probably accessible. I deliberately chose Dr. Bronner’s because it lacks synthetic detergents or enzymes. The efficacy of the wash was probably helped by the fact that local water is relatively soft. Even so, several of the tips of the wool were still quite dirty. I did not flick comb prior to washing.

The Soay was rather dirty, so I broke down and used Unicorn Power Scour, and it needed two washes with multiple rinses in between.

(Notes to follow on Suffolk and Scottish Blackface).

Spinning

I have spun or will spin each of these wool samples on a spinning wheel. Although a spindle would have been more accessible than a spinning wheel for most medieval peasant women, I lack the ability to use spindles and I calculated that it would make little difference to the final result. Yarn has not been plied, since unplied yarn was more typical in the middle ages.

Knitting and Weaving

I have used or am using modern knitting needles (size 0) for the knitted samples. Each sample is about 6 inches square, at a gauge of 10 stitches per inch (hence 60 stitches cast on). Each sample is knit in stocking stitch, framed with a garter stitch border of 6 rows/4 stitches.

Woven samples have been or are being produced on a rigid heddle loom (although these existed in the middle ages, a warp-weighted loom was more typical). The loom has been warped with a second heddle to give a tight weave of 25 warp threads per inch (in the middle ages, this would be typical of "russett" or peasant-quality English cloth: Crowfoot, Pritchard & Stanilard, Textiles & Clothing 1150-1450, p. 44). I am weaving as closely as I can manage to a balanced weave but I suspect it will end up being warp-facing. In accordance with the majority of medieval fabrics, the warp threads are spun z-twist and the weft threads s-twist (Crowfoot, Pritchard & Stanilard, Textiles & Clothing 1150-1450, p. 27, table 1).

As of March 8, 2017, I have three knitted squares and am nearing completion of what will become six woven squares of Ryeland. The latter are being woven in one long strip and will be separated after fulling. It proved impossible with my yarn and heddles to weave a 1x1 tabby; instead, I used a half basketweave, a.k.a plainweave with paired warps (each weft went over 2 warp threads and under 2 warp threads).

Fulling

I have acquired some Fullers Earth for the fulling process and plan to use this, along with warm water and wooden mallets, to pound the finished samples and full the surfaces of each. More notes on the fulling process will be added here.

Method:

The wool samples will be subject to durability tests in three ways. First, samples of each breed of wool – both woven and knitted – will be left outside for x weeks during a period of both snow and sunshine (I'll add more notes here about weather conditions, etc).

Second, samples of each breed of wool, both woven and knitted, will be subject to a “bramble test,” during which students will take bramble cuttings (or something comparable) and swipe them over the surface of the samples. We will record results after 20 swipes and again after 60 swipes. Fortunately, perhaps, we have a plentiful supply of brambles at the Deputy Center site.

Third, samples will be subject to an “abrasion test” intended to simulate the kind of wear that might be experienced by one area of fabric rubbing against another as might happen between an arm and a torso or between one leg and another.

Results and Conclusions:

Will appear here!

For an example of another -- and far more extensive -- ongoing experiment associated with premodern knitting, see the work of Jane Malcolm-Davies at: http://ctr.hum.ku.dk/early_modern_textiles_and_dress/knitting/project_description/