Glossary of terms used on this site

Sheer lightweight fabric woven with a crêpe weave, originally made of wool.

Synonym for crepon geogette in which the weft yarn has the same direction of twist.

A printed fabric heavier than chinz.  Often used for curtains or loose covers.

The waviness in a fibre or in a yarn.  Produced naturally as in sheeps wool or mechanically introduced.

Synonym for rubbing when referring to fastness by rubbing of dyed or printed fabric.  The use of a crockmeter determines the fastness to rubbing of dyed or printed fabrics.

When two or more different fibres are either spun together in the same yarn or woven or knitted in the same fabric, each being dyed with its appropriate dye in the same dyebath or in seperate dyebaths. See chemical dyes.

The term given to wools, tops, yarns and fabrics produced from medium quality  wools from sheep of mixed breed.

A 3 and 1  twill, also known as crow weave, crow twill or broken crow, used in wool and worsted fabrics.  See Appendix: weaves.

Often known as Nafka crystal gum and is produced from vegetable gums such as gum karaya. Used as a printing dye thickener mainly for acid and discharge printing.

A length of fabric in loom or grey state, or a length of warp to produce it, usually 45m to 90m (50yd to 100yd).

Used in the indirect fixed weight count system for woollen yarn in Galashiels when 300yd of yarn weighing 24oz make 1 cut and in Hawick, also in Scotland, when 300 yards of yarn weighing 26oz make 1 cut.  See also count.

To fold a finished fabric down the centre, known in the woollen industry as rigging, and placed in transverse folds.  Sometimes fabric is not folded and usually placed in folds in open width.