Editing Textile industry

{{Quality|Unrated}}

The '''textile industry''' involves making [[thread]], [[cloth]], [[clothing]], [[bag]]s, [[rope]]s and [[craft]]s out of [[plant fiber]], [[silk]], [[wool]], and, to a limited extent, [[hair]]. A textile industry is one way to keep your dwarves clothed and happy (their starting clothing will slowly [[wear]] away, and high-value replacements boost happiness), and can be a very lucrative option as a [[wealth]] industry, especially if the goods are high-quality. The best choice for textile trade goods are dresses and robes because they have the highest base [[value]]. A textile industry is also important for healthcare: cloth and thread are needed for bandages and suturing respectively, although the necessary materials can normally be acquired via [[caravan]]s too.

[[Farming#Above Ground Farming|Above ground]] crops are a more varied and, in some cases, valuable commodity. However, they are more difficult to establish, as you must rely on plants [[plant gathering|gathered]] on your map or [[seed]]s and plants brought in by human and elven [[caravan]]s. They do have the advantage of growing in all seasons. The counterpart to pig tails underground used to be [[rope reed]], but six new crops have been added since: [[kenaf]], [[cotton]], [[ramie]], [[flax]], [[hemp]] and [[jute]]. Flax and hemp, in addition to being processable, can also be [[millstone|milled]] into [[flour]], making them a good choice for food production, moreover, hemp and rope reeds are the only plants usable to make thread that are found outside tropical biomes. Rope reeds, like pig tails, can be [[alcohol|brew]]ed into drinks. [[Blade weed]] is similarly widely available and can be used to make emerald dye, as is [[hide root]], used to make redroot dye (at half the value of the others). The most difficult to acquire dye is [[sliver barb]], a black dye-producing crop that only grows in [[evil]] areas; it is never available from caravans or from embark, and must be pulled from the earth itself via plant gathering, often under the risk posed by [[weather|evil weather]].  Sliver barb is also the only dye plant that has another use (brewing).

 

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! rowspan=2| Plant

! rowspan=2| Type

! colspan=2| Grows

! Wet !! Dry !! Spring !! Summer !! Autumn !! Winter  

| [[Pig tail]] || [[Underground]] || X || X || [[Biome#Underground|Subterranean water]] ||  || X || X || || alcohol

| [[Rope reed]] || [[Above ground]] || X ||  || [[Biome#Groups|Not Freezing]] || X || X || X || X || alcohol

| [[Flax]] || Above ground ||  || X || [[Grassland]], [[Savanna]] || X || X || X || X || flour, oil

| [[Jute]] || Above ground ||  || X || [[Tropical]] || X || X || X || X || none

| [[Hemp]] || Above ground ||  || X || [[Temperate]] || X || X || X || X || flour, oil

| [[Cotton]] || Above ground ||  || X || Tropical || X || X || X || X || oil

| [[Ramie]] || Above ground ||  || X || Tropical || X || X || X || X || none

| [[Kenaf]] || Above ground ||  || X || Tropical || X || X || X || X || oil

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! rowspan=2| Plant

! rowspan=2| [[Dye]]

! rowspan=2 colspan=2| Colour

! Wet !! Dry !! Spring !! Summer !! Autumn !! Winter  

| [[Dimple cup]]  || Dimple Dye || Midnight Blue ||bgcolor="#003366" |     || [[Underground]] || X || X || [[Biome#Underground|Subterranean water]] || X || X || X || X || grows slowly

| [[Blade weed]] || Emerald Dye || Emerald ||bgcolor="#50c878" |     || [[Above ground]] ||  || X || [[Biome#Groups|Not Freezing]] || X || X || X || X || (baseline)

| [[Hide root]] || Redroot Dye || Red ||bgcolor="#ff0000" |     || Above ground ||  || X || Not Freezing || X || X || X || X || low value

| [[Sliver barb]] || Sliver Dye || Black ||bgcolor="#000000" |     || Above ground ||  || X || [[Surroundings#Evil|Evil]], Not Freezing || X || X || X || X || brewable

(*) "Wet" and "Dry" determine where plants are found in proximity to watercourses when gathering wild plants, and do not affect farm plots.

[[Hair]] is another textile material that comes from animals, but is only obtained by [[butcher]]ing certain animals such as [[horse]]s, [[yak]]s and [[grizzly bear]]s, as a byproduct of the [[meat industry]]. Hair is quite limited; it can only be made into (dyeable) [[thread]], and cannot be made into proper cloth or clothing. As such, it is mostly useful as cheap [[suturing]] material for dwarven [[healthcare]]. A [[bookbinder]] can also use animal hair thread with a written-on [[quire]] and a [[book binding]] to create a book. Like with suturing, it's best to temporarily forbid all other threads from the stocks menu if you want to force your dwarves to use these "useless" threads – otherwise, Urist McBinder will gladly grab your masterfully dyed giant cave spider silk thread instead.

Wool has only half the value of plant-based thread. The same goes for hair of the more common and domestic animals, but the increasingly wild and rare animals listed under "[[Value#Material_multipliers]] – Animals" have more valuable hair.

Giant cave spider silk thread (and what you produce from it) is worth only twice as much (24☼) as easily available pig tail thread (12☼). For low-quality production, skillful dyeing adds more value than a better material (a no-quality dye adds 20☼, masterful dyeing adds 240☼ to the value). Note, however, that the material multiplier is incorporated into the thread, cloth, and finished good values; the actual difference in final value for a masterful robe is up to 1052☼. This makes giant cave spider [[silk farming]] a lucrative project once your textile industry matures.

Once you have the basic materials, you are ready to process them into thread. Crops, wool, and hair use one of two [[job]]s under [[plant processing]] at a [[farmer's workshop]]: you either {{k|p}}rocess the plants, or {{k|S}}pin the wool or hair. Making thread out of silk is done in one step: if there are spider webs on the map, dwarves with the [[weaving]] labor enabled will gather the webs and automatically spin them into [[silk]] thread. Note, however, that this applies to giant cave spider silk as well, and that collecting it benefits from military protection.

By default, any non-hair thread produced is automatically queued up for [[weaving]] at a [[loom]], but this can be changed with [[standing orders]] under {{k|o}}, and may be necessary in the case of giant cave spider webs. Plant fibers will be queued for weaving into cloth as soon as they are processed at the [[farmer's workshop]]. Every item of thread woven produces one item of cloth.  If you prefer to create dyed cloth by dyeing the thread beforehand, you may want to set workshop [[Orders]] so that dwarves only weave [[dye]]d thread.  Cloth can still be dyed after weaving.

Once the thread is woven into cloth, it can be put to use by a [[clothier]] at a [[clothier's shop]] to create [[clothes]], the usual end product for the textile industry. Each Clothier job consumes one whole unit of cloth, regardless of size.  Clothing is required for a mature fortress, as clothes will eventually [[wear]] away, and necessitate replacement; a highly skilled clothesmaker is a boon for any fortress.

Although clothes are the main good, the clothier's shop can also produce [[rope]]s and [[bag]]s. Both can be made elsewhere, by the [[metal industry]] and by the [[leather|leather industry]] respectively, but if you have the raw resources, why not here? Ropes are necessary for [[restraint]]s, [[traction bench]]es, rollers, and [[well]]s, and [[bag]]s are used to store seeds, milling products, and powders (including dye), as well as [[sand]] for the [[glass industry]].