By My Own Hand

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Short descriptions of some period color pattern weave types

A quick note on colors in pattern weaves:

Although certain colors went in and out of fashion, pretty much any color that can be got with natural dyes, or is naturally occuring in the cloth itself, is, generally speaking, okay.

Fabric patterns are limited only by the weaver's technique and imagination. Granted, some technologies had not yet developed earlier in period, but many technologies merely upped the possible quantity (per time invested), length and width of fabric produced and not the possible patterns woven. Elaborate pattern weaving of several types can be done on the simplest of looms (this is incomplete, I'm sure, but please forgive, I didn't drag out the refs for this):

1. Supplemental warps and wefts - These are laid or stitched in by hand during the weaving process, some forms look like elaborate embroidery. Flat patterns made with supplemental weft threads are true brocades, and this method is also how pile fabrics are created (velvet, rugs, terrycloth, etc)
2. Striped or checked patterns - the easiest patterns to weave into your cloth, stripes are formed by colored groups of either warp or (more commonly) weft threads, checks are formed by groups of colored warp and weft threads and both can be woven in plain weave (tabby) or twill weaves.
3. Tapestry weaving - Woven on a vertical frame-type loom, tapestry patterns are formed by the precise positioning of areas of color, nearly always done in tightly packed weft-faced (only the weft threads show) plain weave, with several areas of color being worked on at a time, and the weaving proceeding upwards as the pattern is filled in.
4. Pick-up patterns - pick up sticks, which serve the same basic function as multiple heddle shafts on a modern loom, are used to pick up particular warp threads during weaving and so create a warp- or weft-float pattern. This is one of the oldest methods of elaborate pattern weaving, and is often used in conjunction with supplemental wefts.

Thsi list does not include primarily textural techniques, such as twills (including broken twills, goose-eye twills, and other variations), velvets and satins.

A description of satin

Satin is a weave, and can be *made* of any fiber. It's woven so that the floats are five or six threads long, instead of one or two, and have three or four threads of overlap with the next one, kind of like this:

_______________ ______________ ____
_________ _______________ _________
_______________ ______________ ____
_________ _______________ _________
_______________ ______________ ____
_________ _______________ _________
_______________ ______________ ____

Silk satin, and wool satin (oooh! lovely stuff! Expensive, though.), are both natural-fiber, satin-weave fabrics. MOST satin found in stores is, indeed, poly or acetate or some other plastic fiber. Bleh. So, the lesson there is, check the bolts, burn test, and don't ask the staff. Sigh. There was a time when you *could* ask the staff...