Patchwork weaving is a term used by the team at WeaveKnitIt.co.uk to describe their use of fabric made on pin looms: combining the units into larger pieces in a similar way to piecing together fabric in traditional patchwork. The results are stunning, often reminiscent of tweeds. We met the Weaveknitit team at the Waltham Abbey Wool Fair in January this year and I was so inspired by their results that I took the opportunity of a trip to Derbyshire to take a workshop with them in their lovely studio in Ambergate. Here I learned to use square and triangle looms and had a chance to see more of their work.
John introduced himself as the chairman of the Halstead Historical Society and a man with a long-term connection to Courtauld’s. As a child he moved out of London, when his father took a job at Courtauld’s. The family lived in one of the company’s houses opposite the factory and it was this proximity to work, which persuaded John to find work there rather than leave home and find employment further afield. As an apprentice, John worked in almost every section of the factory, which gave him a first hand understanding of the whole process of silk weaving. When the factory closed, he used that knowledge to set up his own business, which was to commission exclusive fabrics for organisations such as the Royal Palaces and the National Trust. These were such commissions as those with Richard Humphries at Braintree, where he was responsible for organisation the replacement of the textiles lost in the fires at Windsor and Hampton Court. John began his talk with the medieval wool trade, which was well established in East Anglia with strong links to the Low Countries. This accounts for an influx of Dutch weavers settling in the county in 1500. Chelmsford was the hub for London with many of the spinners working in the surrounding villages. Many family names in the region, such as Draper, Fuller, Burrell and Dyer, have their origin in the woollen trade. Woollens were produced in South Suffolk and Essex, and worsteds came from Norfolk and North Suffolk. In the Book of Trades of 1568, it mentions two different weaves, known as Bays (plain weave) and Says (twill weave), which were the speciality of the region. I have been listening to a podcast on the history of the English language and one of the more recent episodes has been about clothing and the cloth industry. I have summarised below some of the main points from this episode. If you want to listen to more you can download the podcast from the usual places or you can visit the website www.HistoryofEnglishPodcast.com
Shirt, Shoe, Belt and Hat are the only 4 words used by the Anglo-Saxons that we still use today. The words ‘shirt’ and ‘skirt’ come from the same basic root. ‘Shirt’ is an old English word and ‘Skirt’ was the Norse word for ‘shirt’ used by Vikings and then over time they came to mean two different things and ‘skirt’ didn’t come to the English language until the early 1300s. The words ‘sock’ and ‘cap’ are found in old English documents but are loan words from Latin. The words ‘shorts’,’ sweater’, ‘slacks’ and ‘stockings’ are based on the old English root words ‘short’, ‘sweat’, ‘slack’ and ‘stock’ respectively, but ‘stockings’ itself didn’t appear until the late 1500s and the others did not appear until the 1800s. This is mainly because these items of clothing did not exist during the Anglo-Saxon period. Most of the clothing was draped over the body before medieval as there was no easy way to secure and there was relatively little difference between male and female clothing. Tunics, which were often worn, were a loose square of material with a hole for the head and a belt was used to fasten it to the body. Tunics were worn by both men and women with cloth tied round the legs as a form of stocking or leg wrap. Trousers as we know them today did not exist. If it was cold they would wear a cape sometimes secured with a brooch. |
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