Category Archives: murder mysteries

more about weaving and looms

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As I continue to research the varieties of looms, I came across a book titled “Women’s Work, the first 20,000 years” by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. In it, she traces the history of weaving, from the first beginnings when primitive fiber was twisted into string and used to make clothing.

The modern loom is actually a very sophisticated construct, with many variations that came before. I am thinking of the ground loom that the Ancient Egyptians used to weave linen.

The backstrap loom is another efficient loom that is still used in some places today, such as Peru.

For millenia, the weaving of cloth was women’s work, easily fit in around child care. I am proud to weave (I feel I am not skilled enough to call myself a weaver) and work at other fiber arts; I am at the end of a long line of tradition.

King Indigo

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If Madder is Queen, then Indigo must be King of natural dyes. Indigo bearing plants occur in many parts of the world. Woad, the blue stuff used by Mel Gibson is actually a form of indigo.

Indigo, unlike onion skins or madder or even cochineal, does not require a mordant. The real problem is preparing the dye to make it useable. Indigo is not water soluble so the water has to be sufficiently alkaline to ‘fix’ the dye onto the fiber.

The real work comes in the processing of the indigo plant into dye. The weed was covered with lime water and soaked. Fermentation began in the vat, resulting in a blue froth rising to the top of the water. The water is drained into a second vat and agitated. Then lime water is added to reduce the dye. Clear liquid rises to the top and sediment containing the dye settles to the bottom.

Excess water is drained and the indigo is dried. It is cut into bricks and left to dry.

I confess I don’t do this. I buy partially reduced indigo dyes, which looks like chunks of blue stone.

indigo scarf

These chunks are heated. I add a reducer; thiox dioxide, plus soda ash. Soda ash is like the lime; it makes the water alkaline. The solution is heated and amazingly enough, the liquid turns a funny yellowish green.

Cloth or fiber dipped into the dye comes out that same yellow green but as it hits the air, it turns blue.

This is a really smelly process. One of my students likened it to having a perm. And the smell lingers long after the vat of dye has been removed elsewhere.

Indigo overdyes beautifully and I dyed the above scarf with both the indigo and the madder. The central section is a very interesting mix of blue and peach.

 

Queen Madder

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Madder is a root, latin name Rubia tinctorum. This is a dye that has been known for many years. The plant has little yellow flowers and has to grow in the fields for three years before the roots can be harvested and used.

madder

Depending upon the mordant, it yields red, a pinky brown, or brown. However, because it is a botanical and dependent upon growing conditions, yield and color can vary.

I mordanted silk scarves with alum and cream of tartar.

The chopped roots were put into a stocking and soaked in a dye bath.

 

madder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the dye bath itself was a lovely red, my scarf came out more of a pale peach.

madder scarf

 

 

Dyeing with Annatto seeds

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I work in a library and, well I guess most people don’t know this, but libraries run regular programs. Since I am a crafty person and especially interested in textiles and textile crafts, I do a lot of programs that involve quilting and dyeing.

Using the same directions I used for onion skins, we dyed annatto seeds. Annatto seeds are red seeds that are used in Latino cooking, most particularly Puerto Rican cooking. Thus, they are totally non-toxic.

annato seeds

 

 

annatto dyed cotton

 

 

 

Here is a cotton towel dyed with annatto seeds. It is a lovely sunflower yellow.

 

 

 

 

annatto dyed yarn

 

One of my students preferred to dye lambswool, worsted weight. The yarn had more orange to it. A really beautiful color.

Natural dyes

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I learned to quilt at a young age (and still do it), as well as knit, crochet and weave. But some where along the way, I became interested in dyes.

When I was researching the Dyes for “Death of a Dyer”, I started to think about the bright colors we take so much for granted. Most natural dyes produce pastels, which is why indigo, madder and cochineal were so prized. They yield bright colors, especially when used with appropriate mordants.

So, what would people use who had little or no access to indigo, which was expensive, or cochineal, which was VERY expensive?

I started with onion skins. I saved the papery covers up for about three months. I mordanted a cotton towel with 2 tsp alum and 1 tsp cream of tarter.

onion skins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simmering the onion skins until they are transparent yielded a yellow brown dye. I tried the dye with the cotton towel and also with unmordanted plain yarn.

fabric

 

 

 

 

More about looms

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Although I learned to weave years ago, (I learned on a LeClerc with 4 sheds) I did not realize the long history of the loom or the many kinds of looms that came before the styles with which we are familiar now.
I began learning about them as I researched the Triangle loom. I still haven’t discovered any definitive information although still working on it.
I did know of the backstrap loom. I saw that style up close in Peru and was amazed at the speed and dexterity of the weavers. And I should add their memories – since they memorize patterns. No graph paper instructions for them.
Originally, plant fibers and animal hair were twined together or knotted into a kind of fabric. Archeological research has put the discovery of cloth back to about 7000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Egypt perfected the art of linen weaving. Their linen was reputed to be so finely woven that the limbs of the wearer could be seen through the cloth. (Not sure I’d care for that!) It is not clear whether the Egyptians had looms with heddles. People are relying on paintings.
I’ve also read that cotton weaving in India was so sophisticated that a length of cotton laid upon dewy ground became invisible.
Weaving has had a long and glorious history.

Triangle looms

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I recently discovered what looks like an intermediate step between the backstrap looms used, for example, in Peru, and the more modern looms hand weaver use now, and have been in use since before the middle ages. These looms require a warping board, and the loom has several shed, heddles and treadles.

I am still researching the triangle looms, which one source claimed to have been in use since the 1600s. These are much simpler than the looms above. They come in square, rectangles too and can be built at home. So far, I’ve found one source that indicates the Native Americans used the single or double strand weaving method on a rectangle loom to make sashes and wampum belts. The triangle looms can be built to any size but also, the triangular pieces can be sewn together. A fichu (that piece of cloth that Colonial women wore to cover their chests, both for modesty and warmth) or a large shawl are two possibilities for this loom. Fine threads can be doubled up to make a closer weave.

So, how do these looms work? Well, the warp is put directly onto the loom. As with a backstrap loom, the weaver’s fingers lift the warp to allow the weft to be put through. No shuttles or spools. The photos of the looms employed by some of the Native American tribes string the warp between the curved ends of a stick like a bow or between a triangular piece of wood like the crotch of a tree or a giant sling shot.

Since there are no treadles, some of the fancier patterns look difficult to do, at best. However, the finished cloth can be made of several colors, a hood added, the ends looped up to make sleeves. I can just imagine someone sitting in a cabin weaving cloth on something like this, when the more complicated and certainly more expensive loom would not be available to her.

As my research progresses, I will continue this thread. (Pun intended).

Speaking

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Usually I blog about interesting facts I find in my research, facts I find fascinating and want to share. Lots of information about the textile crafts because I love them!
But today I plan to talk about something more personal; some of the tasks that go along with the craft of professional author.
Blogging and social media are certainly important parts of my new job.
But my favorite by far is speaking to groups. I am constantly surprised by how much I enjoy it. What did my readers not understand? What did they like? Were the characters appealing? I must confess that I learn as much from the back and forth, maybe more, than my audience does.
Why did I choose to make one character so strong or demented or whatever? Sometimes I honestly don’t know and I have to think about the motivations I had.
And sometimes a reader pulls out some interpretation from my story that I never thought of, not consciously anyway, but when I ponder it, it makes such sense to me I include it in my planning for the next book.
So, to all the people to whom I’ve spoken so far, I can only say thank you. You are helping make me a much better writer.

Sperm whales and more

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Will Rees #4 will take place in Salem, Ma. The merchant captains from Salem opened up American trade with the Orient which, at that time, included India as well as China.
New Bedford and Nantucket are more well known as whaling centers but Salem also had an active whaling industry. The right whales were the first to be taken. Since they kept close to shore, the Indians paddled out in canoes. When the settlers began whaling, they sailed out in shallops, small schooners. The right whales were soon decimated,
Whaling ships then went either to the Arctic, for the Bowhead whale, or to southern waters for the Sperm whale. Of course, as the whaling industry went on, the herds of these whales were exhausted as well, and soon whaling ships were sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to the Pacific.
Although the sperm whales were fighters, plenty of them lost the battle, and very cruelly too. The harpoons didn’t usually kill the whale, that was the job of the lance. That had to be thrown accurately and twisted. Descriptions mention the bloody sea all around the dying whale.
Then the whale was towed back to the ship to be cut into pieces. The blubber, which was not soft fat as we imagine but hard, was cut into large pieces called blankets. Then these were cut into squares about one foot by one foot and then minced. These small pieces were boiled in try pots, or kettles, upon the brick stove which looked sort of like a fire pit, called the try works. The oil was boiled out of this and then the remains were thrown into the fire. Descriptions mention the black greasy cloud of smoke that hung over the whale ships for days.
The sperm whales were prized because their heads contained a chamber, called the case, which contained many barrels of oil. The case was cut open and the oil drained.
. The size of the whale did not determine how many barrels of oil were acquired from the whale and the number of barrels was the final determination of a successful trip. One account described the taking of a smallish whale that still produced 91 barrels of oil.
Whale bone, which was actually taken from the teeth, was also much in demand in this day when women wore corsets. At one time, whale bone was valued at $6.00 per pound, a large sum at that time.
And sometimes whalers found ambergris. It is thought that ambergris was a secretion that formed around a scar or other injury. It t was very valuable as a fixer for perfumes. In those days, the perfume was usually attar of roses. Ambergris is still used sometimes for very expensive perfumes but for most the scent is fixed with something synthetic. A good thing in my opinion.
The whale industry began dying a rapid death after oil was discovered in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800’s, at least in the U.S. Other countries take whales to this day. What a shame! IMHO these magnificent animals should be left alone.

Whalemen and whales

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Conditions were rough. If the whalers were hunting in the Arctic, it was cold. But it was worse if the ship was in southern waters. The boiling down of whale blubber went on for days so a fire was burning in the brick fireplace on the deck. The combination of the warm seas and the fire meant that the temperature on board could be over 100 degrees F. Most of the crew slept below decks; it must have been unbearable. If the journey was a long one, the food began to spoil.

Whaling was not for the faint of heart, even before engaging a whale.

Six men set off in a small boat. If they succeeded in harpooning a whale, they could be dragged a good distance. One smack by the whale’s tale could shatter a small boat and many whale men were killed.

But plenty of sperm whales lost the battle, and very cruelly too. The harpoons didn’t usually kill the whale, that was the job of the lance, That had to be thrown accurately and twisted. Descriptions mention the bloody sea all around the dying whale.

Then the whale was towed back to the ship to be cut into pieces.