From: djheydt@kithrup.com   
      
   In article ,   
   Jymesion   wrote:   
   >   
   >My time travelers are always either insanely wealthy, able to hire   
   >researchers and purchasing agents prior to their trips, or they're   
   >dirt poor scrabbling for something they can turn into good money.   
   >   
   >What brought this to my mind today was I had to run to Wal-Mart to buy   
   >some cotton duck (I'm making a tool case), and they had a whole   
   >section of bolt-ends. A $100 bill would get a wide variety of colors   
   >and materials, all in short lengths. For the umpteenth time, I   
   >wondered how much a cart full of them might be worth in Medieval   
   >England.   
   >   
   >>I think the customers would be impressed by the evenness of the   
   >>thread and the weave.  (They do not have the "it's TOO regular,   
   >>it was done on a machine, feh" reaction."   
   >   
   >Would evenness be their best selling point?   
      
   It would be *a* point.  Wealthy time travelers could probably go   
   back to the period in which they wanted to sell, see what's   
   selling for the best prices, and return and make a selection that   
   would be valued in the market back then.  Poor people, how are   
   they affording time travel anyway?  Yes, they could probably   
   afford to buy some cheap bolt-ends and take them back and sell   
   them for a profit.  If the time travel itself isn't costing them   
   much.   
   >   
   >>Fine, lightweight cottons would be prized;   
   >>NO POLYESTER.   
   >   
   >I've never looked at the labels, but isn't most fabric for home-sewing   
   >a mixture of cotton and polyester?   
      
   Uhhhhh.  Polyester has a lousy "hand"; pick it up and feel it and   
   it feels like plastic.  And no, there are plenty of non-polyester   
   fabrics available, all cotton or wool or linen, you just have to   
   look for the fabric content which is described on the end of the   
   bolt.  If the fabric is off the bolt, you can tell it by feel if   
   you've been doing it for a while, or you can ask for a little   
   swatch (maybe one by two inches) and take it home and make a   
   flame test.   
      
   If you really want to make a profit with modern-day fabrics in   
   the Middle Ages, *and* your time travel doesn't cost (you can do   
   it just by wishing, like in that Poul Anderson novel whose title   
   I forget at the moment), you might go for fabric dyed with rich   
   colors, which were harder to get with natural dyes.   
      
   >   
   >   
   >I guess my question arises out of the fact that so much of our cheap,   
   >cruddy products are much better than their best,   
      
   Not necessarily.   
      
   >but some of their   
   >usual stuff is on a par with our high-end goods. I've always wondered   
   >where fabric fits into this equation.   
      
   High-quality fabric is high-quality, but you would have to be   
   sure that's what you were getting.   
      
   Still, you could get lucky.  I once went to a cheap discount   
   fabric store and saw a bin full of rolls of assorted fabric, 48"   
   wide or so.  I ran my hand idly over them and suddenly got a   
   shock along all my nerves.  One of those bolts was not cheap   
   yucchy polyester but pure silk.  Yards and yards of it.  I bought   
   it for practically NO money; the salespeople didn't know what it   
   was (it was a VERY cheap discount store).  It was a lightweight   
   silk broadcloth, solid black (silk always almsot dyes well).   
      
   But I was able to get it because I've been handling fabric for   
   decades and know the feel of different fibers.   
      
      
      
   --   
   Dorothy J. Heydt   
   Vallejo, California   
   djheydt at gmail dot com   
   Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.   
   Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)