Liney-woolesy

Wikipedia defines Linsey-woolsey as a coarse twill or plain-woven fabric woven with a linen warp and a woolen weft. Similar fabrics woven with a cotton warp and woolen weft in Colonial America were also called linsey-woolsey or wincey.

I define is as fun. So yesterday I spend a couple of hours playing around on my loom. I had it warped for finger towels but after I got started I found I had a major threading error and it really wasn’t easily fixable so I decided to just weave off the warp in plain weave.

Last weekend I spent a day demonstrating spinning. I had 4 ounces of Cotswold wool in a light grey that I was spinning as a singles at about 40 wpi.  I was able to get about 560 yards out of the bump. My warp was about 6 yards, so I just sat at the loom and wove plan weave.  I have to say there is something to be said about plain weave. There is such a calming rhythm to it.

Linsey-woolsey was used during the Colonial times and even through the Civil war and later part of the 19^th century as a basic cloth for clothing and household needs.  When linen was not readily available cotton or hemp was substituted.  In my case I used 10/2 cotton from Henry’s attic as the warp. I really love this yarn and how the fabric turned out and plan to make more of this cloth for a pair of pants for my husband as some point. Because the loom was set for finger towels the piece is a bit wide for a scarf and maybe a bit narrow for a shawl. But for an afternoon of just playing around on the loom it’s pretty cool.