The first step in producing cloth and textile products is transforming fiber material such as wool, flax or cotton into thread and yarn. The original Cotton and Flax are harvested and separated by farmers. Wool is shorn from sheep by their keepers. Thread and yarn are used somewhat interchangeably in historical literature even though today the think of yarn as bigger and fluffy while thread as thin and tight wound. This process is primarily done by women trained as "spinners". They clean the fibers, stretch and pull them in a manner similar to taffy and then use either a spinning wheel or spindle and distaff to stretch and twist them into a single long strong string of fiber useful in cloth craft. Once you have yarn / thread, there are three options you can choose for the production of your cloth products. They are crochet, knitting and weaving. Crochet is the easiest. It takes the least amount of work but uses up the most resources per item produced. It's also particularly lacy, porous and delicate. Generally speaking, it's only used for bed spreads, blankets and infant's clothing. People who crochet however seem to have a propensity for making all manner of crochet garments that only the elderly and senile could love. Please also note that there is no historical evidence of cloth-work of this kind prior to the 1500s. Some speculate it must have been used in early times because of how simple it is. A similar process know a nalbinding was used. In our system we will use Crochet rather than nalbinding because it's existence is plausible and more data is available. Knitting is a middle ground of sorts between crochet and weaving. Knitting can produce most articles of clothing of decent quality. It takes longer than crochet, but uses less material. A vast majority of clothing worn by the commoners was knit. Weaving is the only manner of producing real cloth. Unlike crochet or knitting where yarn is worked directly into a garment, Weaving first makes a sheet of cloth which is later cut up and tailored by sewing into garments. Sheets of cloth use little raw material but require a large investment of time. Cloth sheets are usually woven on large, complicated and expensive looms. Tailored outfits of this kind are of the highest quality, and even bolts of woven cloth are quite valuable.

At this point I'd like to clarify some of the calculations I have based this model upon. I will start with growing cotton. In modern times, ½ a bale is the average yearly yield for an acre of cotton crop. This is with wonderful modern fertilizer and pesticides. I'm assuming most medieval crop yields are about half. A bale comes out to be about 60 cubic feet of cotton, weighting about 500 lbs. Because each of our medieval acres is producing ¼ a bale, this is 15 Units (a unit is a cubic ft in out system). Because crops in our system produce their yearly wield over the course of the summer and fall months, that 15 units per acre is divided among the 6 harvest month, which I have rounded to 2.5 units per acre per month.

As far as how much clothing per unit can be produced, here are my numbers. Modern textile mills report being able to produce 1200 modern dress shirts per bale of cotton. We know that there are 60 units of cotton per bale, thus 1 unit could produce 20 modern dress shirts in a modern textile mill. Like most other places, I am assuming medieval production is only half as efficient, and is thus able to produce 10 men's shirts of the highest loom made fabric, and fewer with methods that produce a more "full bodied fabric" such as knitting and crochet.

People

Like most crafts, the most important element is the people who perform them. Fabric and textile production is a rather expansive field which we will handle in as simple a way as possible. Spinners make thread and yarn, Knitters and Crocheters make garments and other textile products directly from yarn. Weavers make cloth from yarn and thread. Tailors cut and sew cloth into high end garments.

Spinners are the foundation block of the textile trade. Their prime role is the production of yarn and thread from flax, cotton and wool. Though I was tempted to work out how much yarn spinners produce and later use that as an "ingredient" for other products. After thinking about it, I decided for simplicity to simply focus on how much base material any given item needs, and how much labor from a spinner to prepare the thread for that project. The quantity of work a spinner can perform is a function of their rank and the tools available to them. It is expressed in TSUs, or Textile Spinning Units. All cloth products will have a TSU associated with its production. A chart that depicts how many TSUs spinner produce is listed below. Spinners require either a Spinning Wheel or a Spindle & Distaff to do any work at all.

Crocheters are people who create crochet and nalbinding cloth items from yarn. These products are generally considered fanciful and delicate. They are however relatively quick to produce as far as fabric items go. Crochet is generally best for blankets and pillows. How much a crocheter is able to produce is simply a function of their rank. It is represented in TCUs, or Textile Crochet Units. A chart detailing TCUs generated will be provided below. A wonderful thing about crocheters is that the tools they require are so simple that they technically need none at all. Even the least skilled crocheters can fission adequate tools from sticks in a matter of an hour.

Knitters produce fabric products directly from yarn by knitting them knot by knot with special needles. Most garments of average quality are knit in this manner. Knitting is the quantity over quality approach used to cloth most commoners in the medieval setting. How much work a knitter can do is a function solely of their rank. This is represented in TKUs or Textile Knitting Units. A chart detailing TKUs generated will be provided below. Knitters need specially crafted Knitting Needles to do their work.

Weavers are people, usually woman, who turns thread and yarn into cloth. Somewhat complicated looms are necessary for this work. The cloth that is generally produced is much finer than that produced by crochet or knitting. Finished cloth has great versatility when worked by a tailor, and is quite valuable and sought after on the market. How much a weaver can produce is a function of their rank. It is expressed in TWUs, or Textile Weaving Units. A chart detailing TWUs generated will be provided below. How many weavers you can have working is limited to how many Looms you have. You need at least 1 loom for ever two people working as weavers.

Tailors are professionals that produce items such as garments from cloth. They have no expertise at all in producing cloth itself, but can cut it apart into patterns and sew it back together into the highest quality of garments and other cloth goods. How much your tailors produce is represented by TTUs or Textile Tailoring Units. TTUs are determined by the ranks of your tailors, and A chart detailing TTUs generated will be provided below. For a Tailor to work, she requires two tools. First is a pair of Scissors, and second are Sewing Needles. Sewing Needles are used up (broken) during tailoring and will need to be provided / replaced frequently. One Sewing Needle will be used up for every 5 TTUs your tailors use making sewn products.

Tools

Spindle and Distaff- A spindle is a wooden spike simialr to a child's top which is weighted at one end with a wheel and an optional hook at the other end. It is used for spinning woll and other fibers into yarn and thread. Spindles or parts of them have been found in very, very old archaelogical sites; they may represent one of the earliest pieces of technology available to humankind. For any Spinner to do her work, she must have either a Spindle & Distaff or a Spinning Wheel. A Spindle & Distaff are simple tools and never wear out.

Spinning Wheel- A spinning wheel is a wooden bench like contraption with a single large wooden wheel. Rather than relying on finger-twisting or gravity, the spinning wheel is turned by hand or by a treadle (a foot pedal). Spinning wheels greatley assist spinners in making yarn from fibers. Each spinner you have working must have either a Spindle & Distaff or a Spinning Wheel. Spinning wheels are rather complicated and expensive. They are however generally well built and will only break beyond repair if abused or neglected, such as being left out in the elements frequentley.

Loom- A loom is a wooden frame device similar in size and appearance to an upright bed frame. It has a complicated system of brackets, clamps and adjustable thread guides that allows weavers to weave plentiful enough strands of yarn into large useful sheets of cloth. Up to two weavers may effectively work on a single loom, and as such you must have at least one loom for ever two weavers working. Like Spinning wheels, Looms are rather complicated and expensive. They are however generally well built and will only break beyond repair if abused or neglected, such as being left out in the elements frequentley.

Knitting Needles- Knitting Needles are used as a tool in the manufacture of hand knitted fabrics. The needle is used to reach through a knitting stitch in order to snag a bight of yarn and pull a length back through the stitch to form a new loop at the top of the current wale of stitches. They re used in pairs and are generally easy to manufacture. They are however necessary to perform knitting. As a rule they do not wear out.

Sewing Needles- Sewing needles are small metal needles with an eye at the back end through which thread is run. Because they are metal and require very skilled crafting, they are expensive by medieval standards. Tailors require them to do their work, and are known to go through many of them as they break often.

Scissors- Metal tools used for cutting thin material which requires little force. They're ideal for cutting paper, cloth, and rope. They are also used for cutting hair and nails. Unlike a knife, scissors have two pivoted (or hinged) blades. Most types of scissors are not particularly sharp; it is primarily the shearing between the two blades which cuts. Sissors are generally well made and durable. They do not generally wear out.

Facilities

Most fabric craft trades do not require special facilities. In most instances, people did these crafts in their homes. Tools like spinning wheels and looms are complicated, sophisticated and somewhat delicate pieces of machinery. They must be stored indoors because they do not stand up well to long term exposure to the elements. Aside from this, there is no need to prepare special facilities.

There is a 10% over all boost of efficiency to all fabric crafters if you build a facility specifically for their work, where all things they need are easily at this disposal and they all can collaborate more easily. This facility need be little more than a good structure resistant to the elements and providing at least 40 square foot of floor space to each fabric worker.

Production Units

* Weaving & Tailoring implies that the yarn is being spun and cloth is being made locally as part of the civilization's textile craft pool.

** Tailoring is used if your not bothering to grow, harvest, spin and weave textiles, and simply tailoring items from purchased cloth.

# This represents that production of this product by this method is generally considered undesirable for many reasons. As a means for getting by, people will make due, but keep in mind people will consider these as generally substandard or foolish. The merchant league will not buy them, nor should sub-standard items of this kind be "contributed" to the war effort.

Note that information on sails can be found in the boats and ships section. Foot ware like boots, shoes, and sandals are in the cobbling section. Gloves, hats, belts and such will be found in the leather craft section.