Glossaries

A Pocket Dictionary

Compiled from Madelyn van der Hoogt's A Pocket Dicionary of weaving terms for today's weavers copywrite 1990

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Glossaries

Term Main definition
Bateman weaves: park, boulevard, and chevron

supplementary-weft structures with tie-down ends and a plain weave ground cloth. In the threading 'units,' one, two, or three tie-down ends are followed by pattern ends (usually in a twill sequence) to form a block. The pattern ends in one block share shafts with pattern ends in other blocks; therefore there is no independent threading unit. In park weaves one tie-down end is threaded on shaft 1; in boulevard weaves, the tie-down ends are threaded 1-2-1; in chevron weaves, the tie-down ends are threaded 1-2-3-2-1.

Bedford cord

a complementary-weft structure. One weft weaves plain weave with one group of warp ends and floats across the back of the next group. The second weft floats behind the first group and weaves plain weave in the next. A non-interlacing stuffer warp puffs the warp-wise ribs formed by the plain weave on the face and the floats on the back of each section.

beiderwand

a subset of lampas (a form of double weave with a main or foundation structure and a secondary or patterning structure). In beiderwand, free double cloth appears in the areas where the main structure is woven on the top surface of the cloth (usually the pattern areas). In the other areas (usually the background) the secondary weft weaves over the main structure, but the secondary warp remains underneath, causing the two structures to be interconnected. The ratio of main warp ends to secondary warp ends in beiderwand is 4:1; the ratio of main weft to secondary weft is 1:1. The main and secondary structures are both plain weave.

Bergman

a supplementary-weft unit weave with three tie-down ends and a plain-weave ground cloth. The ratio of tie-down ends to pattern ends is 1:1; there are 16 ends in a structural unit; each block requires one pattern shaft; tie-down ends alternate with pattern ends in the threading; tie-down ends are threaded in 'rosepath' order (3-1-2-3-1-3-2-1). The threading for one unit of Block A is 3-4-1-4-2-4-3-4-1-4-3-42-4-1-4. A block can be smaller than the structural unit: 3-4-1-4-2-4-3-4-1-5-3-5-2-5-1-5 is one unit but contains both A(4) and B(5).

binder or binding warp

the secondary warp of lampas. The binder (or secondary) warp interlaces with the secondary (often called pattern) weft. Binder is also more loosely used to describe any warp or weft that binds a float or completes an interlacement. Binding system in some sources is synonymous with order of interlacement.

block weaves

weaves in which the same warp and weft threads can produce two different interlacements, one that is considered 'pattern' and one that is considered 'background.' A single block is formed by all of the warp and weft threads that always produce pattern or background together.

broken twill

the diagonal line characteristic of twill is broken by an interruption (either in the threading, the treadling, or both) of the usual twill sequence in which adjacent warps interlace with adjacent wefts.

Bronson lace

a unit weave with (usually) six ends and six picks in a unit. Either plain weave or lace can be woven in each independent unit. To produce lace, two of the six warp ends and two of the six picks do not interlace in plain-weave order but instead float over five (picks or ends) and are caught by the sixth.

clean cut

a term to describe the clean edges of the design in turned twills and turned satins. Every warp and weft must interlace (exchange faces) at the design's edge to produce a clean cut.

complementary sets of elements

two or more sets of warp ends that are coequal in the fabric and are both necessary to complete the interlacement with one set of wefts, or two or more sets of wefts that are coequal in the fabric and are both necessary to complete the interlacement with one set of warp ends.

compound sets of elements

two or more sets of weft sor two or more sets of warp ends. The additional warp (set) or weft (set) may be supplementary as in overshot and summer and winter or complementary as in swivel, Bedford cord, summer and winter polychrome.

compound weaves

two or more weave structures (separate sets of warp-and-weft) form one cloth. The structures are connected in one of several ways (see double weave).

counter

the number of warp ends away from the previous warp the satin interlacement moves with each successive pick; also called the interruption factor, distribution factor, count number, rising number.

counterchanged

when a weave structure and its reverse appear on the same surface of the cloth to create pattern with one and background with the other.

crackle

a supplementary-weft structure with a plain- weave ground cloth. Crackle is usually woven on four shafts and forms four blocks of pattern. The supplementary weft float passes over three threads and under one in the pattern block, under three and over one in one of the background blocks, and over three in one pick and over one in the alternate pick in the other two background (halftone) blocks. Adjacent blocks cannot produce pattern or background at the same time: crackle is not a unit weave.