There are two key sets of terms that I've been throwing around without really getting into them, and it's about time to address that. First, woolen and worsted. Second, S and Z twist. We'll start with the twist, because that's easy.
Spinning is basically a matter of adding twist to a bundle of fibers to make them stronger and so they stay together. When you do that, you immediately have to make a decision about which way you're twisting the fibers, because if you alternate the twist comes undone and everything falls apart. Bad plan. Most handspinners naturally spin Z, which is what happens when you spin the spindle or the wheel clockwise, which is a very natural motion for right-handed people, but either is possible. It's called that because the twist in the resulting yarn angles to the right, like the diagonal in the letter Z. Spinning S means you're spinning counterclockwise, with the resulting twist angling left, like the middle of the letter S.
Machines, on the other hand, don't care, and as far as I've been able to tell, basically all commercial yarns available today are plied (two or more strands twisted together) or S spun. The vast majority of people won't notice or care. However, it means that there are a number of possible weaving and other textile effects that show up historically that basically don't ever happen in modern weaving. For example, there is a subtle visible difference between weaving where the warp is Z spun singles and the weft is S spun singles, and there are also examples of using S and Z spun yarns to create specialized plaids by making both warp and weft stripes. So one of the things that I'm hoping to do with this project is to explore not just the extended processing (fulling, brushing, shearing) but also to work with things like that where the yarns basically don't exist unless you make them.
The other important terms are woolen and worsted. They're basically two ends of a spectrum of how to process wool into yarn. On the one end is worsted, where the yarn is combed, basically just the way it sounds - with large combs, so that you get only the longest pieces very well organized and smooth, and then it is spun with the fingers held closed to make it as smooth as possible. This is comparatively rare and the sort of thing that suits are made of these days. The other end of the spectrum is woolen yarn, which is carded, which uses all the wool including the short bits, and the spinner's hand is more open, all of which results in a fuzzier, softer, loftier yarn. If you visualize a knitting yarn, it's almost certainly woolen spun.
A lot of yarn is also kind of intermediate or semi-woolen/semi-worsted/semi-whatever, so by and large the categorization is kind of confusing and the distinction tends to not mean as much modernly.
So for this project, what I want to work towards is that most common type of 14th century English broadcloth, which is a worsted Z-spun warp and a woolen S-spun weft, and then show the effect of all the different levels of processing. But since we're doing all this, ideally I also want to compare what happens with a Z/Z fabric and S/S. Also in the ideal world, it would be best to drop spin the warp while wheel spinning the woolen weft is acceptable.
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