The word caul is defined as a net lining in the back of a woman's cap or hat. Caul is also defined as a cap or hat of net formerly worn by women1. It's what we would normally call a hair net or snood. Cauls were used to cover and keep a lady's hair under control. Sometimes it covered all the hair, sometimes only the back. Often the caul would be covered with other cloth headdresses such as wimples or veils. It would be interesting to see if ladies pinned their veil to their caul to keep it in place. The extant examples of cauls from this period are of silk imported into England2.
Cauls were made of fine thread knotted into a mesh. There is a painting from 1460 showing one of the techniques for making cauls involves a vertical rod or pole and one end of the caul was knotted to the rod so the caul hung in a triangle from the knot3. From the extant examples we have, we know that after the mesh was finished, one end was tied tight into a circle and the other end was sewn to either a finger loop braid or a piece of tablet woven trim. The extant cauls are one flat piece with no visible seams except a repaired area. We do know that cauls were made with a device called a netting needle that served as a shuttle. Examples of netting needles from 14th and early 15th century archeological digs in London were made of drawn copper wire with open eyes on both ends to hold the silk thread. These needles where around 101mm-147mm in length4. A rod of varying materials (wire, wood, bone) is also used as a gage stick; these would be of various widths to evenly gauge the spaces between the knots5.
Silkwomen would have made the cauls for upper class ladies who could afford silk. As I haven't yet found evidence of cauls that were made of other material, I don't know if there was a less expensive alternative for someone who couldn't afford silk.
We have pictorial evidence of ladies wearing cauls in England, France. Is it possible that English silkwomen made all the cauls we have evidence of? Maybe, but considering that from what we can figure out cauls were made with the same technique as making a fishing net it's not all that difficult to imagine women could make their own out of whatever thread they had on hand.
During the 14th century is when we first start seeing evidence of cauls that are exposed to the viewing public6. It's possible they were in use prior to the 14th century, but were covered with veils or other pieces of cloth. There is a black and colored chalks portrait of Jeanne de Boulogne, Duchess of Berry from 1524 that is an excellent example of a noble lady wearing a caul7. She's wearing the caul under some type of hat so the caul keeps her hair neatly against her head. There's another portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, called Lias of Corinth that shows a lady wearing a caul, but this one has decorative stones along the front edge8. (see appendix A). It's also a very brilliant gold color, which begs the question is her caul gold dyed silk, gold wrapped around a silk core, or was that just the color of paint Holbein used?
Modern Information
My entry is a gold silk caul I made as an attempt to recreate the look of the caul in Lais of Corinth9. In the painting the caul starts with a circle and has rows of netting in concentric circles. It took roughly 48 hours to complete the knotting for this caul. This is the fourth caul that I've made. I think pearl silk would be better for cauls as it's thicker and less likely to break (see appendix B).
This caul was made on a wooden netting stand I bought at the class I took on caul making at University. Using this technique first requires you to make forty double half-hitch knots on the wooden dowel of the netting stand for the first row. Since the period technique involves a center ring of thread I took a string and taped it to the dowel before I ever made a single knot. Then I cast on all the beginning knots onto the dowel. Between each knot the thread gets looped around the gage stick so loops of thread hang down below the knots. I discovered that just like in knitting, the end of the last row is the beginning of the next row. After finishing the first row you turn the stand around so the back is facing you. You then pull the gage stick out of the loops and then hold it below the loops. Then you loop the thread around the gage stick and bring it up through the first loop from back to front. A knot, I'm not certain what it's name is, is tied to the bottom of the top loop which forms the first loop of the second row. The rest of the row is just repeating what you just got done doing. The netting stand is turned at the end of each row. Keep knotting until you reach around thirty-five rows.
To finish your caul you pull the dowel out of the top row and you draw the first row up tight into a circle that forms the top of the caul. Then the bottom row is threaded with a drawstring and drawn up into a circle.
My current project is being made with period style netting needles. I got them from Lacis, an on-line fiber arts website. Using this technique, I didn't have to try to sew the sides together afterward and the start was ready to be drawn up into a circle. I'm still researching to see exactly which technique is the right one.
APPENDIX A
It is my theory that the decorative stones in this painting aren�t an integral part of the caul itself. I believe these are pins with glass or stone heads. Considering the size of the netting needles it would be very inconvenient to have to string all the beads on the needles first and then keep them there until a bead is ready to be used. The needles just aren�t that big or designed for anything other than string to be on them. Specially considering that if my technique is correct, then you could only use a bead at the beginning and end to each row, which means you�d have beads on your needle for some time.
APPENDIX B
One of the drawbacks to the silk I use is either it's too thin to use in anything other than weaving or braiding; or it's non-mercerized. Mercerizing, which is not a period process, removes the fine layer of fuzz on the outside of the thread while it's under tension. Mercerization results in stronger, shinier thread. This means non-mercerized thread is softer but fuzzier which can lead to weakening of the thread when the fuzz clings to itself and gets pulled out of the thread.