General

Warp

The lengthwise threads in weaving, held under tension on the loom.

Weft

The widthwise threads in weaving, the ones that are woven in once the warp is on the loom.

Yarn

Lace, Fingering, Sport, Worsted, Aran, Bulky

These are classifications, often used in knitting yarns for how thick or thin a given yarn is. Lace is the lightest, bulky is the heaviest.

Felt

Wool has microscopic fibers along its surface that when shocked with heat, friction, and moisture, will attach to each other. This process is called felting.

Full

Fulling is the process of lightly felting a woven fabric. It results in a more cohesive fabric with better drape.

Superwash

A term used for removing or flattening the microscopic fibers in wool. These are the fibers that make wool itchy. A superwash wool will not be itchy and will also not felt or full.

Tools

Shuttle

A shuttle is used to pass the weft yarn through the shed. There are many different types and sizes of shuttles, some use bobbins, some don’t.

 

Threading hook

The hook that you use to thread the reed and the heddles.

 

Bobbin

What the thread is wound around that generally gets inserted into the shuttle.

 

Warping board

A frame with pegs used for measuring out the warp threads.

 

Warping reel

A spinning reel used for measuring out the warp threads. A warping reel serves the same purpose as a warping board.

 

Lease sticks

Two sticks with holes on either end that are used to maintain the cross

 

Parts of the Loom

Shaft

The part of the loom that holds the heddles that is raised or lowered while weaving.

 

Heddle

The small metal or string part that is held in place by the shaft that the individual thread travels through.

 

Treadle

The peddles that you step on to raise (or lower) the shafts.

Breast Beam

The beam in the front of the loom that the fabric goes over before being wound onto the cloth beam.

 

Cloth Beam

The beam, usually towards the front of the loom, that the finished cloth is wrapped around.

 

Warp Beam

The beam, usually towards the back of the loom, that the unused warp is wrapped around.

 

Back Beam

The beam in the back of the loom that the warp goes over before it goes over the warp beam. It is in between the shafts and the warp beam.

Jacks

The mechanism on a loom that raises a shaft. Jack looms tend to have two jacks for each shaft (one per side)

Lamms

A set of sticks that attach the treadles to the shafts. Jack and counterbalance looms have one set of lamms. Countermarch looms have two sets of lamms

While Weaving

Pick

a row of weft thread

Shed

The opening between the raised and lowered threads while weaving.

Draft

A generated picture of what the structure of your fabric looks like. The draft will tell you the threading and treadling sequence and the tie up, but will not tell you what yarn or sett to use.

Selvedge

The edge of your weaving. A selvedge thread or threads is the last thread or two on the edge.

Floating selvedge

When the selvedge thread(s) do not go through a heddle. When weaving, these threads stay in between the top and the bottom of the shed and the weaver manually goes around them.