I first became aware of the possibilities of using a digital microscope for me with textiles when I attended a great day’s course in Norwich. It was organised just before the first lockdown by MEDATS (1) and was looking at Knitting and Textiles in the sixteenth century.
So sometime during lockdown, having been in touch with Ninya and Jane at The Tudor Tailor and discussing this with an ex colleague I took the plunge and bought one. I decided I would get a good quality one as used in industry and make sure it had the facility to measure distances which is mainly what I intended using this for. I have the facility to store information on the laptop and the magnification range goes from x20 to x260
For some time I used it with an ordinary clamp and stand but this seemed rather big and cumbersome when I used it away from home, so then treated myself to a stand made to use with the model of microscope I had.
It is a wonderful piece of kit, it packs up into two small boxes and thus it is possible to carry this and my laptop in a tote bag as I did this year. The package came with us to Shetland and made it to Unst where it was used.
So what do I use to for- mainly looking at and making measurements of the make up of knitted and woven textiles, yarns used to make these and also individual fibres.
Currently I am spinning some silk finely and then plying this in preparation for natural dyeing.
This is the latest skein I have completed. Using the length and the mass of the skein enables me to calculate this NM 2/24
Then looking at the singles through the microscope I can measure some ‘widths’.
More calculating gets me to WPI ( for the singles) of 178
I calculate the wpi this way too, as a comparison that means something to me. I use the number as a comparison. Many would say that wpi is not accurate, some would say using such a small sample is not accurate and I would agree with both! But for what I am doing this is sufficient. In fact what I am really going to use the microscope for in this case is to check how the dye has been taken up! I have not set up the dyeing part of the experiment yet.
(1) Medieval Dress and Textile Society: for anyone interested the Tudor Tailor have know published a great book called The Typical Tudor – clothing for the middling to lower sort in the 16 C
Janet Major 