@cwebber suggested that I make a post asking you all to explain textiles to me but I don't think I can pull that gag off as well as she did.
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@cwebber suggested that I make a post asking you all to explain textiles to me but I don't think I can pull that gag off as well as she did.
Instead I'll tell a story
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Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webberreplied to Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webber last edited by
So apparently my allergies to synthetic fabrics have progressed to the point that I need to make all of my own clothes (see content warning post for context if you want it).
I went into a local fabric shop looking for 100% cotton fabrics and the lady showed me where the knits were and confirmed to me verbally three times that they were cotton
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Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webberreplied to Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webber last edited by
I excitedly filled up my cart and took them to the cutting counter and checked the tag as I pulled the first one out only to see 95% cotton, 3% elastine, 2% polyester.
I sadly told the lady that I couldn't use that fabric and started sorting my cart into the ones I could use and the ones I couldn't.
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Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webberreplied to Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webber last edited by
This woman looked me dead in the eye and told me:
"Nowhere in the world will you find 100% cotton knit fabric. It doesn't exist. That small percentage of elastine is what *makes* it a knit."
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Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webberreplied to Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webber last edited by
So ... instead of explaining that actually "what makes it knit" is a matter of construction (knit vs. woven), or that I have a PhD focusing on textile production in a time before elastine existed (we've got knit stockings from Ancient Egypt folks!), or that I was wearing a shirt I made out of 100% cotton jersey knit fabric from the JoAnn Fabrics in the next town over ... I just nodded and said "Okay, well I am still allergic to it so I can't buy this fabric."
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I think Clotho likes to mess with me a bit. I literally gave a talk on this twist of fate at a textile history conference last year. Especially since the allergy developed *after* I'd already finished my dissertation.
Here's the podcast episode we made from that outline: https://fossandcrafts.org/episodes/061-textile-historians-survival-guide.html
