[Ansteorra] cotton in period

[Marc Carlson]

>nweders at mail.utexas.edu nweders at mail.utexas.edu
>...It is a myth that cotton was not used for clothing or wool was used more 
>than cotton in some countries.  During the 12th through 15th centuries, 
>cotton was used in the Mediterranean area for the same reasons why we use 
>it... it is cooler than wool in the summer, it took some dyes better than 
>linen, it allowed more diversity in fashion.  I would also note that during 
>the 16th century, a severe dip in the weather caused a change in clothing 
>that made it more important to wear wool and furs rather than cottons.

I'm afraid you are mistaken.  You are also comparing apples and oranges.  
Cotton wasn't in competition with wool for the most part.  Its competition 
was flax and hemp (which for this argument can be considered sources for 
linen woven materials).   It is *not* a myth that wool was used more than 
cotton in some countries.  That's a fact.  It's also a fact that *linen* was 
used more than cotton in some countries.

Cotton was expensive to produce until the industrial revolution and the 
various jinning machines were developed in the 19th century.  The price of 
cotton then came down enough to be a competitor for flax and hemp.  The 
final nails in the coffin for hemp and flax was the aggressive legislation 
against Marijuana, and the increasing decline in the price of cotton 
production with further industrialization, which pretty much shut down linen 
production in this country.

It should be notes that the industrially produced hemp and flax products are 
not as good as the traditionally manually produced hemp and flax products, 
since the retting process makes fibers with a shorter stable and these are 
not as strong as the longer stable you get from the old fashioned stuff 
(hence why much modern shoemaking thread really isn’t as strong as its 
supposed to be).

Now, as for the use of wool, in the Middle East, waddya think the 
traditional OUTER garments were made from?  Until cotton production became 
so cheap in the past century and a half that they could drive the wools out 
of the mainstream.

Marc/Diarmaid