Tickeling Your Knowledgebone - Medieval Wool
Wool is and has always been a favourite for clothing. It has a natural lustre, it is warm, it is durable and has numerous other wonderful characteristics.
Back in the middle ages, Britain had about three times as many sheep as human inhabitants. Wool was indeed the most important export of the times, and much hard work went into turning fleece into fine fabrics suitable for the monarchs of Europe. However, the cleaning of the woven fabric was probably not a suitable conversation topic for the royal courts: the most useful of human waste, urine, was the key ingredient.
The cloth was still full of dirt, grease, and debris, when it left the weave, hence it had to be cleaned. Since Medieval weavers did not have grease lifting detergents, they used urine, which throughout history has had many a practical use . Human urine was collected and left to mature for a couple of weeks in order to turn it into ammonia, which in turn would be the active ingredient that dissovled the natural oils and grease (lanolin) still in the cloth.
Cloth and urine would go into a large tub and be stamped by some poor person, a fuller, for up to 8 hours - much like stamping grapes, except for the stench and the watering of eyes caused by the ammonia. Not at all a pleasant job. But it did the trick and in the end the fabric would have an improved texture (the treatment also felted and firmed the weave as it closed and interlocked the fibres to make them soft and tight), and it would be clean and ready to be dyed.
