This is a pretty dull post: I'm just going to use it to hold all the links I've used to justify weaving in 2x2 twill, Again (it is my favorite after all- most convenient).
But it is absolutely documentable to SCA standards. If I were to enter this piece in an A&S competition, it would have a myriad of timely sources.
One of my go-to resources is a fellow SCA member's blog. One day I would love the opportunity to meet her. This one of my first results when I looked into the Oseberg textile finds and it isn't as clunky as many of the archeological articles that have been translated.
http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/category/viking-textiles-looking-deeper592902ffb1
This is another source that is incredibly dense: The textiles in the Oseberg ship By Anne Stine Ingstad
http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Oseberg/textiles/TEXTILE.HTM
These two alone are enough for me to show extant samples of the fabric I will be creating. I'm sure for the full competition level I would need more than 2.
To my limited searching, Lichen is not a common historical dye source. Though I struggle to accept this because surviving textiles are so few and far between. Lichen also does not yield an exceptionally vibrant or rare color, so I imagine that it wasn't used by the wealthier classes. But people are creative by nature and I doubt that there weren't a few dye houses that would use lichens to add these soft browns to their repertoire. Extracting dye stock is a time consuming process that cannot be rushed. Minerals need to be crushed for their pigments. Plants and roots need to be boiled, then steeped, then evaporated to condense.
The unpredictable nature of using "natural" dye is what keeps me from using this process frequently. The colors most easily achieved tend to be pastel pinkish browns and grays - colors I do not like to wear. This project started out on a woods walk and was definitely a happy accident. I was able to produce a color that is not faint, but not as bold as I typically use.
Choosing a color for the weft is one of the things I got stuck on. Since most of the work done to this point involved Forest Court events, it seemed logical that I would incorporate green into this project somehow. But using natural dyes, you get green by dyeing first with yellow (onions, marigolds, saffron, sumac, etc) and then overdyeing with woad or indigo. In the interest of time, I opted to use modern pigments and citric acid to achieve a predictable color of rich green that is a balance of yellow and blue.
Now I just need to wind the warp and get on the loom!
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