Textiles and Weaving

Why This Matters

Without textiles, you are wearing animal skins that rot, stiffen, and harbor parasites. Cloth is one of the most underappreciated technologies in human history — it provides clothing that can be washed and repaired indefinitely, blankets that save lives in winter, bags for carrying grain, bandages for wounds, rope stronger than vines, sails for boats, and trade goods that every person needs. A single productive spinner and weaver can clothe a family of five. Without this skill, your settlement is permanently limited to what animal hides can provide.

The Core Principle

All textiles follow the same basic process: take short, weak plant or animal fibers, twist them together to make long, strong thread (spinning), then interlace threads at right angles to make fabric (weaving). Every piece of cloth ever made, from a Neolithic loincloth to a modern T-shirt, follows this exact process.

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What You Need

For fiber processing:

• Raw fiber source (see below)
• Comb or carder: two boards with small nails or thorns embedded (for wool), or a smooth board and stone (for plant fiber)
• Soaking container (for retting plant fibers)
• Drying rack or clean ground

For spinning:

• Drop spindle: a straight stick 25-30 cm long with a weighted disc (whorl) near one end. The whorl can be a flat stone with a center hole, a pottery disc, a thick slice of hardwood, or even a potato temporarily.
• Fiber supply (processed and ready to spin)

For weaving:

• Loom (see methods below)
• Spun yarn — at least 200-400 meters for a simple project
• Shuttle: a smooth stick wound with yarn for passing through the warp
• Beater: a flat stick or comb for pushing weft threads tight

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Step 1: Fiber Sources

Plant Fibers

Fiber	Where to Find It	Quality	Processing
Flax (linen)	Cultivated crop, grows in temperate climates	Excellent — strong, smooth, durable	Ret, break, scutch, hackle (see below)
Nettle	Wild, abundant in moist forests and field edges	Very good — strong, slightly coarse	Ret, strip, separate fibers
Hemp	Cultivated, grows almost anywhere	Excellent — very strong, coarse	Same as flax
Cotton	Cultivated, needs warm climate (frost-free 150+ days)	Excellent — soft, fine, versatile	Pick, gin (remove seeds), card
Cattail	Wetlands, very common	Poor — short fibers, weak	Peel, dry, twist (better for insulation)
Milkweed	Fields, roadsides	Fair — silky but short	Dry, twist carefully
Inner bark (basswood, elm, cedar)	Trees	Fair — coarse but strong	Strip, soak, pound, separate

Best choice for beginners: Flax or nettle, depending on what grows locally. Both produce strong, usable fiber with straightforward processing.

Animal Fibers

Fiber	Source	Quality	Processing
Wool (sheep)	Sheep, goats (cashmere, mohair)	Excellent — warm, elastic, felts, dyes well	Shear, wash, card, spin
Dog hair	Long-haired dogs	Fair — varies greatly	Collect, wash, card, spin
Rabbit fur (angora)	Angora rabbits	Very good — extremely soft and warm	Pluck or shear, card, spin (blend with wool)
Horse/cow hair	Tail and mane hair	Poor for fabric — stiff	Best for rope, brushes, not cloth

Best choice: Wool from sheep or goats if available. If not, plant fibers are your path.

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Step 2: Processing Plant Fibers (Flax Example)

Flax is the gold standard of plant fiber. The process applies with minor variations to nettle, hemp, and other bast (inner bark) fibers.

Retting (Rotting the Outer Layers)

1. Harvest flax stalks when they turn golden-brown and seeds rattle in the pods (about 100 days after planting). Pull plants from the ground rather than cutting — you want the full stalk length.
2. Bundle stalks into sheaves and remove seeds by pulling stalks through a coarse comb (“rippling”).
3. Submerge bundles in slow-moving or still water (pond, stream, ditch). Weigh them down with stones. This is called “retting” — bacteria break down the outer stalk and pectin that binds fibers to the woody core.
4. Check daily. Retting takes 4-14 days depending on water temperature. The retting is done when you can easily separate the outer fibers from the inner woody core by hand. Over-retting weakens the fiber.
5. Remove from water and spread to dry for 2-3 days.

Alternative — dew retting: Spread cut stalks on grass in the field. Morning dew and rain rot the stalks over 3-6 weeks. Slower but requires no water container.

Breaking

1. Once dry, break the woody core inside the fiber sheath. Use a wooden “brake” — two hinged boards that crush the stalk when pressed together. Without a brake, roll a smooth stone or log across the stalks on a flat surface.
2. The woody core shatters into small pieces called “shives.”

Scutching

1. Hold a handful of broken stalks vertically. Scrape downward with a flat wooden blade, knocking the shives out of the fibers.
2. Work both sides until most shive is removed. Some bits remain — that is normal at this stage.

Hackling (Combing)

1. Pull the fiber bundle through a comb of nails or thorns, starting with a coarse comb (wide spacing) and working to a fine comb (narrow spacing).
2. This aligns the fibers, removes remaining shives and short tangles, and separates long fibers (“line”) from short fibers (“tow”).
3. Line fibers produce the finest, strongest yarn. Tow fibers are spun into coarser rope or used as stuffing.

The finished hackled flax looks like a silky, pale-gold ponytail. It is called “strick” and is ready for spinning.

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Step 3: Processing Wool

If you have access to sheep, goats, or any wool-bearing animal:

Shearing

Cut the fleece off the animal in one piece using sharp shears (two knife blades riveted together), a sharp knife, or even sharp stone flakes. Work carefully to avoid cutting the animal. Shear once or twice per year, in spring.

Washing (Scouring)

Raw wool is full of lanolin (grease), dirt, and manure.

1. Fill a large container with warm water (40-50°C — hand-hot, NOT boiling, which felts the wool and ruins it).
2. Submerge the wool and let it soak 15-20 minutes. Do not agitate — agitation causes felting.
3. Lift wool out gently. Drain and refill with clean warm water. Repeat 3-4 times until the water runs mostly clear.
4. Spread wool on a clean surface and dry completely (1-3 days).

Carding (Combing and Aligning Fibers)

1. Build two hand carders: flat pieces of wood (about 10 x 20 cm) with small bent nails, thorns, or wire teeth embedded in rows on one face, with a handle on the other.
2. Place a thin layer of wool on one carder.
3. Draw the second carder across the first in one direction only, like brushing hair.
4. Transfer the wool back and repeat 5-10 times until fibers are aligned and fluffy.
5. Roll the carded wool off the carder into a loose tube called a “rolag.” This is ready for spinning.

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Method 1: Drop Spindle Spinning

The drop spindle is the oldest and simplest spinning tool. It is portable, easy to build, and can produce yarn of any weight from coarse rope yarn to fine thread.

Building a Drop Spindle

1. Find or carve a straight stick 25-30 cm long and about 1 cm diameter. Smooth it.
2. Make a whorl (weight) — a disc 5-8 cm diameter, 1-2 cm thick, with a center hole snug on the stick. Materials: flat stone, pottery disc, thick hardwood slice. Weight: 30-60 grams for medium yarn.
3. Push the stick through the center hole. The whorl sits near the bottom of the stick (this is a “low-whorl” spindle). The stick should extend 2-3 cm below the whorl.
4. Cut a small notch or tie a hook at the top of the stick to hold the yarn.

Spinning Technique

1. Tie a leader: Tie a 60 cm piece of already-made yarn (or tightly twisted cord) to the spindle shaft just above the whorl. This is your starter yarn.
2. Attach the fiber: Take your prepared fiber (rolag of wool, or strick of flax) in your left hand (if right-handed). Overlap the end of the leader yarn with the end of the fiber supply by about 5 cm. Pinch where they meet with your right hand.
3. Spin the spindle: Flick the spindle clockwise (when looking down from the top) with your right fingers, letting it hang and spin freely in the air.
4. Draft the fiber: While the spindle spins, use your left hand to slowly pull fibers from the supply into the forming yarn. The twist from the spinning spindle travels up the forming yarn and locks the drafted fibers together.
5. Control twist: Pinch the yarn with your right hand just below where the fiber is being drafted. This prevents twist from running up into your undrafted fiber supply (which would lock it tight and prevent drafting).
6. Wind on: When the spindle reaches the floor or stops spinning, pinch the yarn to hold the twist, unhook it from the top of the spindle, and wind the new yarn onto the shaft just above the whorl. Re-hook at the top, flick the spindle again, and continue.

Plying (Making Stronger Yarn)

Single-ply yarn is kinked and unstable. For weaving, you need at least 2-ply yarn:

1. Spin two separate singles (single-ply yarn) onto separate spindles.
2. Hold both singles together and twist them in the OPPOSITE direction from how they were spun (if you spun clockwise, ply counterclockwise).
3. The opposing twists balance each other, creating a smooth, stable, round yarn.

Spinning output: A skilled spinner produces about 50-100 meters of 2-ply yarn per hour. A simple garment needs 1,000-2,000 meters of yarn. Spinning is the slow bottleneck in textile production — it is well worth teaching to multiple people.

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Method 2: Backstrap Loom

The simplest true loom. Used for millennia across the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. Requires no permanent framework — just sticks, cord, and your body.

Building the Backstrap Loom

Components:

• Two bars (warp bars): Straight, smooth sticks, 50-80 cm long, 2-3 cm diameter
• Heddle rod: A stick the same length as the warp bars, 1.5 cm diameter
• Shed rod: Same as heddle rod
• Backstrap: A wide strip of leather, bark, or woven band, 60-80 cm long
• Beater/sword: A flat, smooth piece of wood, 40-60 cm long, 5-8 cm wide, 1 cm thick
• Shuttle: A smooth stick wound with weft yarn

Warping (Setting Up)

1. Drive two stakes into the ground at the desired fabric length apart (plus 30 cm extra for tie-on waste). For a first project, try 1 meter.
2. Tie your warp yarn to one stake and wind back and forth between the two stakes to create parallel threads. Space threads 2-3 mm apart. For a 30 cm wide fabric, you need about 100-150 warp threads.
3. Carefully insert the heddle rod through the warp: pass it over one thread, under the next, over one, under the next, alternating. Tie a loop of string around each “over” thread and around the heddle rod. These loops lift alternating threads when you raise the heddle rod.
4. Insert the shed rod through the opposite set of threads (under one, over the next) — the ones NOT connected to the heddle rod.
5. Transfer the warp from the stakes to the two warp bars. Tie each end of the warp securely to a bar.
6. Tie one warp bar to a fixed point (tree, post, heavy furniture). Tie the other warp bar to the backstrap.
7. Put the backstrap around your lower back or hips. Lean back to tension the warp.

Weaving

1. Create the first shed: Push the shed rod forward toward the beater. This raises one set of warp threads, creating a gap (shed) between the two sets.
2. Pass the shuttle: Thread the shuttle through the shed, pulling weft yarn across the full width.
3. Beat: Use the beater/sword to push the weft thread snugly against the previous rows.
4. Create the second shed: Pull the heddle rod toward you. This lifts the alternate set of threads.
5. Pass the shuttle back through the new shed in the opposite direction.
6. Beat again.
7. Repeat steps 1-6. This is plain weave — the simplest and strongest weave pattern.

Tension control: Lean back for more tension, sit upright for less. Consistent tension produces even fabric.

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Method 3: Frame Loom

A rigid, permanent loom that sits on the ground or a table. Easier to learn on than a backstrap loom and better for larger pieces.

Building a Frame Loom

1. Build a rectangular frame from four sturdy pieces of wood. Size determines maximum fabric size. A good starter: 60 cm wide, 90 cm tall.
2. Join corners with lap joints and pegs, or lash tightly with cord.
3. Along the top and bottom bars, cut notches or drive small nails every 3-4 mm (warp spacing).
4. Wind warp yarn from top to bottom, wrapping around each notch/nail. Keep tension even and firm.

Adding a Heddle

For a frame loom, create a simple string heddle:

1. Tie a heddle bar (a stick) to the frame with enough slack to move 3-5 cm forward and back.
2. Tie string loops from the heddle bar around alternating warp threads (every other thread).
3. Pulling the heddle bar forward lifts those threads, creating a shed. Pushing a flat stick (shed sword) through the other threads creates the alternate shed.

Weaving

Same as backstrap loom: alternate sheds, pass shuttle, beat with a comb or flat stick. The frame loom is less portable but more stable for beginners.

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Weave Patterns

Plain Weave (Tabby)

Over one, under one, alternating each row. The simplest and most common. Strong, balanced fabric. This is what you should master first.

Twill Weave

Over two, under two, offset by one each row. Creates a diagonal pattern. Stronger and more drapeable than plain weave. Requires a more complex heddle system (at least two heddle rods).

Basket Weave

Over two, under two, no offset. Creates a checkerboard pattern. Same strength as plain weave but slightly different texture.

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Step 4: Dyeing Basics

Natural dyes can color your fabric from plant, mineral, and insect sources. Most natural dyes require a mordant — a chemical that fixes the dye permanently to the fiber.

Simple Mordant

Alum (potassium aluminum sulfate): The best mordant. Found naturally in some clay soils and mineral deposits. Dissolve in hot water (15% alum by weight of fiber), soak fiber for 1-2 hours, wring out, then dye.

If you cannot find alum, use these alternatives:

• Rusty water: Soak rusty iron in water for a week. Use as a mordant bath. Tends to darken and sadden colors.
• Tannin: Soak fiber in strong tea made from oak bark or acorns before dyeing. Works especially well for cellulose fibers (flax, cotton).
• Wood ash water (lye): Soak wood ash in water, strain. Mildly alkaline mordant.

Common Natural Dyes

Color	Source	How to Use
Yellow	Onion skins, goldenrod flowers, marigold, turmeric root	Simmer plant material in water 1 hour, strain, add mordanted fiber, simmer 1 hour
Red-Brown	Madder root, bloodroot, sumac berries	Same process; madder needs to stay below 70°C or color turns brown
Blue	Woad leaves, indigo plant, elderberries	Complex fermentation process; elderberry is simpler but less permanent
Green	Layer yellow dye first, then overdye with blue	True green dyes are rare in nature
Brown-Black	Walnut hulls (green outer shell), oak galls, rusty iron bath	Walnut needs no mordant; soak husks in water 2 weeks, strain, dye
Purple	Blackberries, elderberries (with alum mordant)	Simmer berries, strain, add fiber

Dyeing Process

1. Prepare the dye bath: Chop plant material finely. Simmer in water (NOT boiling — 70-80°C) for 1-2 hours. Use a ratio of roughly equal weights of plant material and fiber.
2. Strain: Remove all plant material. The liquid is your dye bath.
3. Add fiber: Place pre-mordanted, wet fiber into the dye bath. Simmer gently for 30 minutes to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. Cool: Let the fiber cool in the dye bath (longer soaking = deeper color).
5. Rinse: Remove fiber and rinse in cool water until the water runs mostly clear.
6. Dry: Hang in shade. Direct sun can fade some dyes.

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Common Mistakes

Mistake	Why It’s Dangerous	What to Do Instead
Spinning too thick or too thin unevenly	Uneven yarn creates weak spots; fabric tears at thin points	Practice consistent drafting; spin slowly at first
Warp tension uneven	Fabric puckers, wrinkles, and is unusable	Check tension before starting every row; adjust backstrap or frame ties
Under-retting flax	Fibers cannot be separated from the woody core	Check daily; fibers should strip easily with finger pressure
Over-retting flax	Fibers become weak and break during spinning	Pull a few stalks daily to test; stop as soon as fibers separate cleanly
Boiling wool while washing	Wool felts (fibers lock together permanently into stiff mat)	Use warm water only (40-50°C); never agitate wet wool
Not plying singles yarn	Single-ply yarn is kinked, weak, and difficult to weave	Always ply at least 2 singles together in the opposite twist direction
Warp threads too close together	Shuttle cannot pass through; weaving is impossible	Space warp threads 2-4 mm apart for medium yarn
Dyeing without mordant	Color washes out after 1-2 washes	Always mordant first; alum is best, tannin is a good backup

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What’s Next

Textiles connect to:

• Leatherwork — combining leather and cloth for durable clothing, shoes, and armor
• Animal Husbandry — raising wool-bearing animals for fiber supply
• Soap Making — keeping textiles clean extends their life dramatically

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Quick Reference Card

Textiles & Weaving — At a Glance

Process: Raw fiber → Process → Spin → Ply → Weave → (Optional: Dye)

Best starter fibers: Flax/nettle (plant) or wool (animal)

Flax processing: Harvest → Ret 4-14 days → Dry → Break → Scutch → Hackle → Spin

Wool processing: Shear → Wash (warm, not hot) → Card → Spin

Loom Type	Portability	Best For	Difficulty
Backstrap	Portable	Narrow fabric, belts, straps	Medium
Frame	Stationary	Learning, wider fabric	Easy

Spinning output: ~50-100 meters of 2-ply yarn per hour

Yarn for a garment: 1,000-2,000 meters

Always ply: Single yarn is unusable for weaving. Ply 2+ singles in opposite direction.

Dyeing: Mordant first (alum best), simmer dye material, simmer fiber in dye bath, rinse, shade-dry.

Key rule: Consistent tension in both spinning and weaving makes the difference between usable fabric and tangled waste.