Weaving cloth the Anglo-Saxon way 

The amount of labor to create things that we take for granted today is almost incomprehensible

That was one of the most clear and comprehensive explanations of the complete process of making cloth that I’ve seen, and it took less than six minutes. Well done! Fascinating! Folks then certainly had no time for social media.

I can understand now why fabric was so expensive and treasured. The sheer time and labour involved to get a bolt of cloth was immense. That woolen cloth at the end looked gorgeous!!

I can hardly comprehend the genius our ancestors had to invent such a complicated system. It would take me years just to understand how it works.

Learning about the most important historical events of the Anglo-Saxon time is interesting but actually learning about the average Anglo-Saxon and their daily life is just as important. Really fascinating stuff. I'm glad youtube recommended this to me!

That spindle thing to make the thread is genius

9 out of 10 people living today would have no idea how to do these things let alone invent any of the process. The people who did invent these things were in-fact smarter than most of us today.

Tablet weaving is a whole craft in itself. I've made straps, belts and sashes. I traded one sash for a trapdoor Springfield rifle.

So much work! I can't believe our ancestors would spend days doing this just to ensure the family was well clothed for the harsh winters and rainy days. Just imagine how many days it would've taken to make a tunic, pants and possibly socks/boots for everyone... and to measure everything in different sizes too!

There a deep yearning in my soul to do this. I have fleeces from my own sheep, I spin my own wool and I weave...BUT...I am ashamed to admit that I find the weaving boring 🙊 I love the cloth that's made but sitting at a loom is not my thing. THIS however floats my boat in a very satisfying way! Absolutely brilliant demonstration, showing how a craft is done is hard to make it look good 👍

Wow, that's really cool, as a weaver myself. I didn't realize they made selvage like that!

Wow! For all the cleverness that was needed to invent this loom, it's just soooo *slow* when compared with the looms that came along hundreds of years later (in the 1700s and 1800s)! The thing that *really* impressed me was the Jacquard loom which used punched cards to create patterns in the woven material. That was a stroke of real genius!

As a fiber crafter and history enthusiast, this was an EXCELLENT way to explain how this is done in simple terms. My explanations include a lot more jargon like the word "shed" instead of how you said "gap" in the threads. Wonderful video!

What a beautiful demonstration, thank you

Man oh man, that’s a lot of work. But it beats the heck out of walking around in skins. Except, of course, the beautiful buckskins created by American natives.

I am still amazed that many different folks around the world inverted woven cloth for themselves 😮

I am reading a book called the Circle of Ceridwen and the women weaved both wool and linen, this video was perfect!

Watching this, you can understand how very highly valued cloth was

even weaving by hand today with our modern rigid settles and the bigger multi-hettle looms which seem somewhat laborious are such a relief for the weaver! Yet the principles are all the same! it's amazing.

Thank you for the video. I don't think that I'll ever understand how a loom works. It seems very complicated. But, more than that - I am struck dumb by the ingenuity of such a device. If it were left up to me, we'd all be walking around with sheep strapped to our bodies!

I spin and weave the cloth I use to make my own clothes. The struggle is real.

This was a fabulous demonstration/explanation of weaving. Very clearly described by an expert teacher. Enthralling! Thank you for posting this video.

I'm very curious about the tablet-woven selvedge. I only have a small loom but I watch videos about weaving and I've never heard of this combination. Thanks for educating me and challenging me to learn more. 👍

Weaving with Elewys is on RU-vid. She does the card weaving shown here for edging. Thank you for this content. Weaving is always of intrest and a lovely pastime.

So ingenious, ALL materials being made by hand from whatever nature provided. Thanks for posting!

That is a lovely setup. Amazing that not too long ago, all of our fabric was from threads spun by hand and woven.

Very interesting to see this early version of a loom. I have a modern loom and this vertical loom has many of the same processes.

That was SO interesting and very well explained. Thank you.

10/10 illustration, very well done, and many thanks!

Thank you for a fascinating video! I have always thought that weaving an upright loom with the threads woven toward the top is...well...*Weird,* as one is going against gravity to push fibre up rather than down. However, this is found in Scandinavian weaving as well, so this must have been a tradition in Britain & in Europe.

This is so interesting, especially seeing the forerunner to the reed, and selvages before they were integrated into the body of the cloth. Thanks! ❤️

I worked at a museum with equipment more modern than this but all still manual. A spinning wheel for making thread and the horizontal loom with tension rollers on both sides and a ram (of sorts) consisting of pins. Just one warp thread would pass through each slot created by the pins and that entire "ram" hung above the warp, free to swing towards the person operating the loom. It was a more effective compression because each thread received the same pressure. I couldn't help but think of ways to improve it, especially since loading a new warp was more labor intensive than making the cloth. Too many very serious, permanently scarring accidents happened to young girls (and boys) working in the Mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts and elsewhere when people (like for instance; Governor of Arkansas ;Sarah Huckabee Sanders) felt that Taxing the Wealthy was _"wrong"_ but keeping Children out of school? _"No problem"_ (yet there's no telling where smart people come from. Ambitious children? It's not usually the children of the very wealthy because know that they never have to work - so maybe the wealthy should be Taxed again, the way they were Taxed during the New Deal when single income families were the norm and economies boomed for decades).

Makes me think of the excitement and enormous satisfaction of the first women to figure this out. It would spread like wildfire and undoubtedly led to great discernment in the types of sheep and goats. Revolutionary.

Thank you for the demonstration. I didn't know that they did tablet weaving for the edge! 😮

That's amazing. The labor intensive work that goes into that cloth making is just very interesting.

This is so cool thank you❤ I’ve always wondered how we made clothes before machines 😂 also your voice was so relaxing to listen to.

First time ever that I understood how actual weaving works! Thanks ;)

I am never buying fast fashion ever again + the material is cheap / toxic / stanky * will only use - Cotton linen wool and whatever is made from plants 🙏 thank you for demonstrating your wonderful work

from Gerry- I will never take my rigid heddle loom for granted. God bless.

That just felt good to watch.

Fascinating way of weaving. I weave on Victorian industrial machinery called Dobcross power looms and the principles are the same, just a lot faster! Thanks for this video!!!

Hello there! Seeing you in this reminds me how much I loved demonstating. I'll have to come and visit you some time soon!

So, there is somerhing else to learn about weaving. Those squares are quite the trick and that loom set up is quite something. Thanks.

Great explanation, thanks!

The tablet weaving is called Card Weaving , and is seen from one side only . Good for straps

Nice cloth )))) Best demo weighted warp so far. (60yrs weaver)

So much work! Fantastic!

I wish I could spin as neat a thread as the lady in this video. I've been messing about with the drop spindle for years, and my yarn is lumpy, more often than not . Fortunately I can knit it into things like floor mats, where the lumpiness doesn't matter so much :-)

Thank, you! I've finally understood how weavers work.🤩

The tablet weaving selvage that she describes is actually a misunderstanding of how the ancient looms were setup. They actually started with the tablet woven strip along the top of the loom. The weft of the tablet-woven strip was strung very long and attached to the weights in groups to create the warp threads of the warp-weighted loom. This created a stable beginning for the fabric, and could then be rolled onto the top beam as the weaving progressed. Elizabeth Barber gives a detailed description of this that is much clearer than what I've written in her book, "Prehistoric Textiles".

Great video!

😱 Good heavens, what an effort! I could never understand why weavers were so poorly payed. It's such an important craft because all humans needed/need clothes. Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing. Best regards, luck and especially health to all involved life forms (humans and sheep).

I can imagine that people never threw away they’re clothing in those days.

Thank you for these videos. Keep it up 👍

Life was more simpler.. Tho hard work.. Love watching .

I'm glad to see this shared so nicely 😀 Its Its beautifully presented and deserves thousands more views!

Amazing!

Every thread used for every item was made like this and woven on similar looms for hundreds, if not thousands of years. I read recently that the thread for a Viking sailing boat too about ten years of spinning time to make. And all this work was done by women

this was really easy to understand! thank you

Wow thank you

Fascinating! I'd love to have the time to do something like this, but I simply don't. 😢

Up till very recently you could still see women in Turkish villages shearing the sheep, spinning the wool and weaving cloth on handmade looms very like this. Largely swept away in just a generation.

Amazing! So much work.

They were very innovative so long ago.

I so wanna visit and learn this 😭

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Very interesting. Thank you.

Thank you

So cool! I spend a lot of time spindling and weaving, but I’ve always wondered how a warp weighted loom was actually used. Thanks for this video!!

Cool

Great video. Now I'm tempted to try a loom like this. Are the warp ends plied or singles?

Brilliant!

This is soooo cool.

Humans are just so amazing. I know we’ve caused a lot of problems in the world, but damn, we can be clever.

At the end, a close-up of the fabric was shown. I wish close-ups of the process would have been shown because from the camera angle with the dark brown threads, I couldn’t see much of the process.

thanks

That is totally cool! =)

May I recommend *Geat and Maethild ", a recent upload on the Northworthy Sagas and Stories channel here on RU-vid.

i to this day still cannot understand how taken wool or cotton pieces and twisting them together create any kind of strength.

Amazing how much effort it took in those times in order to create cloth. How much did this cost at the time in today's money I wonder?

It must have taken months to make enough fabric to clothe an entire family. No wonder clothing was so insanely expensive before industrialisation.

What a charming video! Where can I found a 3 hour version?

Does the wool not get washed first? As I understand it, sheep has lanolin which I'm assuming would have other applications

they didnt wash it before this process started?

And now we’re doing this at speeds around 2000 inserts a minute 😂

Please pardon my ignorance, but is there a reason the cloth is woven up instead of down? Seems the woven portion could be wound onto the beam that way to allow for longer cloth. Is there a mechanical reason that can't happen with this technique?

What is the purpose of the selvage edge?

don't you have to wash the fleece first?!?

Can i come work for you😊

I knit and crochet 🧶 but just getting into loom weaving. Complete beginner but this looks exciting. I’m wanting to learn how to weave pictures

Wonder how the Anglo Saxons learned how to weave like this, cut sheep and spinning.

No one got to sit around doing nothing. Everyone used a spindle at the very least. A woven piece of cloth was meant to last a life time.

It's incredible time consuming.

Very interesting and thank you for sharing this video. This is the second time that I have seen the cards/tablets being used to finish the edges of fabric. On the RU-vid Channel titled "Morgan Donner", Morgan has posted a video demonstrating how to use the cards/tablets to create a hem on a garment. The video is titled "How to Weave 15th c. Style // Unraveling the Mysteries of a Medieval Hem". Here is the direct link to her video for those who are interested in seeing it for themselves: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uWz-wD7Ql8g.html

Please do a video on how to make a loom! I would love to make one at home.

The interesting thing is that weaving was worked out following the same basic system by different civilizations on different continents.

Amazing!

I knit and crochet 🧶 but just getting into loom weaving. Complete beginner but this looks exciting. I’m wanting to learn how to weave pictures

And I thought that making cloth on a horizontal floor loom was time consuming!

Thanks you for a fantastic video.