Article by: Jane

An incredible range of materials can be woven but the Weavercraft is
primarily concerned with fibres from two categories:

Animal Fibres
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Animal fibres come from the shorn or otherwise gathered coat of various
animals, but primarily ovines, llamas, and caprines.

Ovine fibre (wool) is the shorn or clipped coat of the ovine and it can
vary markedly in its quality, though all have their uses. (The very
finest wools are usually used to make clothing fabric, the coarser ones
to make floor coverings.) With variations to suit local climates,
ovines are shorn once a Turn, usually in spring. The shorn coat (the
fleece) is either used locally or if a surplus is being produced, it is
on-sold and transported in bales (compressed fleeces in cube-shaped
sacks) to places like the Weaver Hall at Emerald Falls Hold.

Llama fibre (sometimes called a wool) is the product of two sorts of
coat - the undercoat that can be used for finer work - and the coarser
outer coat (guard hairs) which can be used for mats and ropes and other
coarse work. If harvesting just the undercoat then brushing is the
usual method of collection, but if wanting undercoat and guard hairs the
llama would be shorn once every second Turn, in spring.

Caprines are usually reared for milk or meat but one breed can produce a
much-valued fibre for Weavercraft. Normally caprines have a mixed coat;
a soft undercoat (wool) and a longer, tougher coat of guard hairs which
are of no use for spinning and resistant to dyeing. The caprine bred
for its fibre produces only a single coat (no guard hairs) of long
curling hair which is harvested by combing the coat. Although caprines
produce less fibre per beast than ovines, the fibre is highly prized
which somewhat redeems the lower production volumes.

The cured hides of animals can also be woven or used in weaving, though
this is usually the domain of the Tannercraft.


Plant Fibres
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Plant fibres can be used in many forms, some almost straight from the
plant but most requiring some level of processing. The most common
plant fibres used in the mainstream of Weavercraft are hemp, cotton,
flax, and sisal.

Hemp fibre is a stalk fibre produced from the male (finer, more suitable
for fabric) and female (coarser, more suitable for ropes or mats) hemp
plants. To produce fibre from the harvested stalks (which may grow to
over twice man-height) they are soaked (retted), beaten (scutched), then
combed (heckled) to align the fibres and remove the shorter or tangled
ones (the tow). Finally the dampened fibre is spun in preparation for a
wide variety of uses.

Cotton fibre (called cotton) is produced from the seed pod of the cotton
plant (a man-height shrub) which grows in dry tropical or near tropical
climates. The creamy white balls (bolls) of cotton that surround the
seeds are produced continuously on the plant over the growing season.
Bolls are picked by hand and the seeds removed either prior to or during
the spinning process. Cotton is a versatile fibre with high absorbency.

Flax fibre (linen) is a stalk fibre produced from the stalk of the
slender, waist-high flax plant which grows in temperate climates in
rich, moist soils like those around Emerald Falls Hold. Sown in spring
and harvested one hundred days later, the fibre is removed from the
stems by soaking, beating, and combing before it is ready for spinning.
While expensive to produce the resultant lustrous thread, when woven,
makes one of the most attractive and longest-lasting fabrics.

Sisal fibre is primarily used in the production of ropes because such
ropes are slower to rot in seawater than those produced from other
fibres. The sisal plant grows in dry tropical or near tropical
conditions and the main plant can reach up to one-and-a-half times
man-height and has broad spiky leaves which radiate out from a central
trunk. The first harvest of the lower leaves starts four Turns after
planting and continues every six months for the ten-Turn life of the
plant. The fibres are removed from the core of the harvested leaves,
with the fibre being washed, dried and combed before spinning.

Plant leaves, fronds, reeds, and branches can also be 'woven' for widely
varying uses (hats, baskets, chairs, fences, etc) but these skills are
not usually considered part of Weavercraft.


COUNCIL NOTE: While hemp is s readily available fiber, it is assumed that the Ancients, through their incredible genetic manipulating technology, would have brought a strain with little to no THC. In other words it would be useless for smoking!

See Also: Caprine, Ovine

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