Moose Cannon Fibers

Cnetizens: I know there are ling, luo, chou, duan.

OP: It's actually eight major categories, ling, luo, chou, duan, jin, xiao, sha and juan, and countless variations exist under them in history. (绫ling，罗luo，绸chou，缎duan，锦jin，绡xiao，纱sha, 绢juan) (cr珑师傅)

绫(líng): It adopts twill or modified twill weave. The fabric bears clear mountain-shaped diagonal lines, featuring light, soft texture and subtle luster. It was the designated fabric for officials’ daily uniforms in the Tang Dynasty. The varieties of Ling appearing in Tang dynasty — Pattern Square Ling, Fish-Mouth Ling, White Braided Ling, Water Wave Ling and Checkerboard Ling(方纹绫、鱼口绫、白编绫、水波绫、方棋绫) — were all recorded as imperial tributes in the Tang Dynasty.. After the Song Dynasty, it was mainly used for mounting calligraphy and paintings.

罗(luó) adopts a unique twisted warp weave. Intertwined warp threads create star-shaped holes, making it highly breathable, known as "the natural air conditioner of silks". Four-warp twisted luó demands 30 procedures. Weavers can only produce a few centimeters a day. Suzhou patterned luó is an intangible cultural heritage craft.

The fabric worn by ladies in Beauties with Flower Hairpins is luó. It is the top sheer silk fabric with outstanding transparency, yet extremely costly. Handwoven four-warp luó is priced above 10,000 RMB per meter, harder to get than an Hermès bag. What makes it expensive? Thirty elaborate steps. Threads are twisted manually, with only 5cm woven each day. It was royal exclusive. In the Zhou Dynasty, only emperors could wear it. Noble ladies in Tang and Song loved luó, including Yang Guifei. Covered with star-like holes, it is breathable yet not see-through, keeping you cool in summer.

绸(chóu): Simple interlacing, tightly woven like a fine sieve. A major category of silk, using plain or modified plain weave, referring to silks without the special structure of luó, líng or duàn. Medium weight, tight, smooth surface with soft luster, prone to creasing. Thin chóu for blouses and skirts. Thick chóu for coats and trousers, widely used as embroidery base fabric and decorative material.

缎(duàn): Long silk threads rest on the surface, creating a mirror-like glossy sheen. It adopts satin weave. One set of threads stretches across the surface with long floats, covering evenly distributed interlacing points.

锦(jǐn)/Brocade is the most sophisticated silk textile. Its weaving consumes massive time and raw materials, resulting in exorbitant costs. Constructed with multi-layer warp and weft threads, it forms patterns with colored silk yarns through figured weaving techniques. It boasts raised three-dimensional motifs and a dense, heavy texture, making it the most technically challenging type of silk. It feels substantial and stiff, featuring dazzling, luxurious luster, intricate elaborate patterns, strong wear resistance and great shape retention. Laws in the early Ming Dynasty strictly restricted commoners from wearing high-grade brocade, which was mainly supplied to the imperial court and officials. By the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the booming commodity economy fostered extravagant customs in the Jiangnan region(generally refers to the area south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in eastern China). Violations of dress codes became widespread. Numerous wealthy landowners, merchants and affluent commoners ignored the regulations and wore brocade, figured flower brocade and gold-thread brocade. In short, it was prohibited by law, yet wealthy civilians could acquire and wear such fabrics in practice.

绡(xiāo) took shape in the Shang and Zhou dynasties and flourished in the Tang Dynasty. Extremely thin like cicada wings, it became the iconic fabric for overgarments worn by noble women in Tang China. It adopts plain weave or modified plain weave, featuring low warp and weft density, few interlacing points and neat, clear mesh openings. Xiao is usually woven from raw silk, granting the fabric inherent stiffness and structure. Lightweight and translucent, it holds its shape well without sagging, with open, breathable pores. In ancient times, it was used for outer cover gowns. Today, it is made into wedding veils and sun protection blouses.

纱(shā) is matured in the Han Dynasty and remained popular from the Tang and Song dynasties through the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was widely used for summer court robes, official garments and noblewomen’s attire. Generally woven in plain weave with sparse warp and weft threads, the fabric features evenly distributed tiny openings. It represents the lightweight, thin and sheer category of silk. Extremely light and breathable, it feels soft and flowing with natural drape. In ancient times, it was used for veils and outer overgarments; today it is crafted into lightweight dresses and veils. They may look alike, yet Shā is soft and supple with little rigidity. By contrast, Xiāo is woven from raw silk, firm and shape-retaining, and does not sag easily.

绢(juàn) is one of China’s oldest silk fabrics and a vital carrier of cultural heritage. It served as the base material for many famous ancient paintings handed down through generations. Woven in plain weave, it features warp and weft threads of similar thickness arranged in neat, uniform intersections. The fabric boasts high density and a solid, stable structure. Varieties include plain juàn, dyed juàn, and juàn specially made for painting and calligraphy. It has a fine, smooth, firm texture and great durability. Soft against the skin, it balances suppleness and structural rigidity. Its applications cover painting and calligraphy, cultural relic restoration, and minimalist luxury apparel.

There is another fabric category not covered in this video.

But get this: It’s made from fucking TREE BARK. Can you imagine the dedication, foresight, and experimentation involved in figuring out how to harvest and spin that? On top of everything, it’s also lace weight. What the fuck, Neanderthals?

Article: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/neanderthals-made-the-worlds-oldest-thread/

Also, big ole slow clap for the article writer.

Here is what the backside looks like. OP notes this takes more fabric than paper piecing, but that excess fabric makes it already triple-layered. Besides not needing backing fabric, I don't think you'd need batting for this quilt at all. It's already thick and soft just from folding all that fabric into a hexagon.

Each hexagon begins as a 6" circle. camelscrafts does this by creating a paper template using a compass. According to the video, a 6" circle will create a hexagon that is 2.5 inches tall.

These hexagons are hand-sewn. Thread the needle.

With the fabric right side facing, find the center of the circle by folding it in half right sides together, then folding it in half again (wrong sides are facing). The top of the triangle shape is the center of the fabric circle.

Make a small stitch into the center of the fabric. The wrong side is still facing.

Unfold the circle. There will be a small stitch in the center.

Now the hexagon is created by folding the circle into itself: Take the needle to one of the edges of the fabric (it doesn't matter which one). Pull the needle through and pull the thread tight. This will fold down the fabric and create an edge of the hexagon. Crease the fold with your finger.

This fold has two corners, one at the top and one at the bottom. Put the needle into one of the corners and pull the thread taut. This will create another fold.

Continue this going around the circle until all of it is folded down, creating the hexagon. camelscrafts notes that the last corner pulled in may be a little bit "wonky" (no precise point in the corner) if the corners were not done precisely. However, that corner is pulled into the back, so is not visible from the front.

The hexagon is now formed. Sew around the folds in the middle of the circle to hold the folds in place. Tie off and cut the thread.

It also has a lot of different kinds of stitches you can do that make different densities of fabric.

I was surprised that I’d never heard of it though. It’s older than knitting and crocheting and even though it’s been done all over the world it’s super relevant to Nordic culture and my grandmother and I are both into keeping in touch with our roots a bit so I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it.

It’s also a lot easier to freehand and adjust as you go than crochet or knitting and you mostly go by inches instead of rows and number of stitches so a large number of accessories like stitch markers or whatever isn’t really necessary.

…oh wait no I went one further than considering it I did do it…

I ended up not going with the front fly closure, in part because the shortest opened ended metal zipper I could get was 40cm long and also TWELVE DOLLARS(!) but also because I got annoyed with trying to work out the equivalent of a waistband for the bust curve - this one has a button closure at the centre back but I think next time I would go to the effort of sewing a proper bra hook-and-eye closure because it is a bit hard to wrangle on and off.

I find that there are simply not enough resources for how to begin nalbinding online, and next to none for left-handed fiber-crafters. To be totally forthright, I learned from Happy Needlebinding, on Youtube, from their lefthanded video, but I wanted there to be more resources for other lefties to choose from without getting frustrated, feeling like they have to mirror a site or videos (a place I was getting to before I discovered the Happy Needlebinding video; btw he seems like SUCH a sweet, patient guy).

Step One: Make a simple knot.

Yes, most resources recommend using a wool-based yarn. I'm using what I have on hand. Once/whenever I find my darning needles, or give in and buy a needlepoint or other plastic needle, I may/will try to add a Russian join. Right now, I've been joining my ends by tying each ply together and I can't find my joins in my work. You'll be okay.

Step two: Put your knot over your thumb with the crossover on the pad of your thumb.

For demonstration purposes, I have made the tail way too short. Your working end should always come to rest in the cradle of your thumb.

Step three: Hold your tail in your fingers (I'm only holding the end with my ring finger and pinky), and drape the working end through the cradle of your thumb.

Step four: The way I learned to start, from Happy Needlebinding, was to pass your needle between the crossover of your first knot, and the pad of your thumb.

If you don't like this starting method, I'm aware that other methods; this is the way that I learned and it works for me.

Step five: Pull your working end until you form your second loop, which goes under/"behind" your first and return your working end to the cradle of your thumb.

If I was actually working a project, I would want both of these loops snug around my thumb. Personally, I work closer to the top edge of my nail; you might prefer working a little further back to begin.

Now, this next part is where I repeatedly got lost, so if this seems a little drawn out, I apologize (I think? =P):

Step six-A: You're going to push the first loop off your thumb, and I tend to hold it in place, gently but firmly.

Step six-B: Put your needle in this loop

Step six-C: Turn your needle around and direct it under your second loop and your working yarn. For demonstration purposes only, my working yarn is not in the cradle of my thumb. Normally, my needle stays at more of a 90degree angle from where it entered the first loop

I'm going to be totally forthright: I had an incredibly difficult time finding a good resource for this, and even so, I still really struggled to figure this part out. You're welcome lol

Step one: Count three stitches back. Remember, nalbinding has two working loops so

This is kind of what my three stitches ends up looking like.

Step two: Holding your first row like so, front toward yourself, this end in your hand, the other end generally pointing to the left, and insert your needle.

Yes, I do have a different needle for this. I carved my first wooden needle myself; it was my first time carving/whittling something like that and I wasn't positive what I might want/need in a nalbinding needle. Luckily, it was just wood.

Step three: You don't necessarily have to do this, but I ended up flipping my working loops up closer to the working end of my thread.

Step three-A: What I've done, if you look very closely, is I'm holding down the second of my two working loops. From here, you'll nalbind pretty much as normal. Go in your first loop as normal, and turn to go back, through your second working loop, and under your working yarn.

Step three-B: I honestly found this difficult to photograph with this pale color of yarn, but as with your starting chain, you'll go in the first loop, turn, go through the second loop and under the working end of the yarn.

At this point, I just repeated: Put your needle through those humpy stitches on the top edge of your chain row, hold down your second loop if you need to/find that helps, put your needle through your first loop from the front, like normal, turn, go through your second loop and under your working thread, like normal!

Again, I hope this helps. I tried to really slow down, draw out exactly what I was doing. The great news is, the second row goes lightening fast, compared to the first row (for example, my chain row took like five days, and personally, once I picked up nalbinding, it felt pretty second nature), especially if you were having to stop to adjust all your stitches down to your desired size (by contrast, I got a third of my second row done just in a short, couple hours session).

i am scouring the internet like the victorians scoured and destroyed all trace of joy and color from stolen relics for the LOST NAME OF THE ANCIENT PROCESS of textile-creation akin to knitting/crocheting/nålebinding that at least one academic/crafter used to recreate the leggings on this Glorious Motherfucker:

Archer statue from the Temple of Aphaia (ca. 480 BC) next to a reconstruction of its original paint job:

The leggings and sleeves would have created using a method called SPRANG which predates knitting and is over 3,000 years old. What's even sexier is modern artisans managed to recreate the entire outfit using the original method!

Mmm-HMM, love me a shapely thigh in harlequin hosiery. Put👏men👏in👏clingy-ass👏clothing👏again👏👏👏

Unfortunately english sources are hard to find, partly because Google's a shithole, but also because this textile project comes from a German museum, in Germany, where people tend to speak (and publish) in German. That said, the original link is to a short-but-sweet article I would have had no problem finding in 30 seconds a mere few years ago. fortunately i have clever beautiful insane people following me, but alas not everyone has such luxury. thanks to everyone in the notes who shoved themselves down this rabbithole with me!

it's a "drawing" file in LibreOffice, the awesome free desktop office software suite, and I made it on a mac (godspeed compatibility issues).

coloring page:

sources, including how to warp two heddles for krokbragd, how to translate shafts to heddles, the original idea for the coloring book's mechanism, and more:

http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-can-you-weave-with-2-heddles-on.html#.W45tBYonZPk

https://yarninmypocket.typepad.com/yarn_in_my_pocket/krokbragd/

https://kinibcrafts.blogspot.com/2018/09/introducing-krokbragd.html

https://petramarciniak.com/2021/01/11/krokbragdweaving-right-away/

not a source, just some top-notch inspo:

http://www.angieparkertextiles.com

an example draft made with the coloring sheet:

Little inky paw print bookmarks I'm working on as part of my scriptorium cat collection! Based off the picture on the right of a 15th century manuscript.