Glossary of terms used on this site

A pedal handloom with a rising shed. Used in the United States of America.

A four horned, piebald or spotted sheep which grows a coarse wool ideal for making tweed.  The colours of the kempy wool vary from dark brown to off-white and can be separated to spin solid colours or combined in the carding to produce a neutral mixture. 

A device for weaving elaborate designs by a machine invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752 1834) between 1801 and 1810. The Jacquard mechanism is attached to a loom and operated by a punched card system which selects individual warp threads.  A variety of mechanically operated jacquard machines exist providing control over 100, 200, 400 or 600 ends.  Jacquard systems can now be electronically controlled.  There are also Jacquard systems for knitting machines. See also draughting and point paper.

A very fine cotton muslin fabric, often used for saris, woven with an extra figuring cotton or gold weft threads, producing complex patterns.  Originating in the north eastern part of India, chiefly on the plains of Dacca.  Sometimes spelt jamdhani or jamdanee.

The Jenny was the first intermittent spinning process and was developed by James Hargreaves in 1764, who called it the Spinning Jenny. A mechanism operated by hand, a single Jenny imitated the actions of about ten spinners each using an single spinning wheel. Richard Arkwright then invented the Water Frame Spinning Machine in 1769, which was followed by a development in 1779 by Samuel Crompton called the Mule, a similar machine to the Jenny but with many more spindles. See spinning and water frame.

A knitted garment or knitted fabric. A jersey is a knitted garment with sleeves, usually made of wool without buttons, known also as a pullover or as a sweater in the United States. The Edwardian actress Lillie Langtry, the daughter of the Dean of Jersey, adopted the fashion of wearing a long tight knitted jersey garment with a long tight skirt becoming known as Jersey Lil. Jersey cloth, either single jersey or double jersey, is the term given to fine gauge machine-knitted fabric.

An attachment to the silk reeling machine which simplifies the process of taking in fresh filaments from the cocoon during reeling.

Co  rchorus capsularis L., white or China Jute. Corchorus olitorius L., Brown or tossa jute. Tiliaceae. A stem fibre grown in tropical countries, typically in Bangladesh and in north east India. Used in the production of sacking, gunny, hessian, twine and carpet backing.