Fabric woven with handspun singles after fulling

 In the last post I showed fabric woven with handspun singles (warp and weft) as it looked straight off the loom. Here it is after fulling. Take up and shrinkage was quite startling in the width. Un-fulled the fabric measured 120” x 25.5”. Fulled it measured 100” x 16”.

The smaller piece, which was woven in plain weave and with two-ply weft, had much less take up and shrinkage. Pre-fulling it measured 27” x 25.5”. Fulled it measured 21.5” x 21.75”. 

I don’t know if the dramatic difference in the longer piece is due to the twill pattern or the singles in both warp and weft, or a combination of the two, but it is dramatic, especially in the width.

I have so many questions running around my mind about long-ago weaving, the processing and the results. I read that in medieval times, singles were preferred for weaving. I wonder why. I thought weaving this cloth with singles would result in a light fabric, but I ended up with a thick, cushy fabric. In fact, the smaller piece woven with two-ply weft is much thinner and less cushy. I have more experimenting to do.