Weaving a Sustainable Home
The biggest problem with weaving is that in almost all cases, you can find
woven products for much less in thrift, resale, or even retail stores for
less than what you can purchase the yarn or thread to weave. The exceptions
occur when you are making your own yarn, or are given yarn at little or no
cost.
Wind the warp
Thread the loom
Weave the weft
Glossary:
-
Sett, EPI,
TPI, or thread count
-
Number of threads per inch. Found in pattern notes or deturmined by wrapping
some thread around a ruler or stick for a total of 1 inch, then counting
the number of loops or ends.
-
Warp
-
Threads running from front to back on a loom. These are wound onto the loom
first, and then the Weft is woven into them.
-
Weft
-
Threads running from side to side on a loom.
-
Take-up & Shrinkage
-
Extra length of warp required due to shrinkage and take-up.
-
Loom Waste
-
Extra length of warp required to tie the warp to the back and front of the
loom
-
Make More
-
To avoid waste, enough warp for more than one item can be wound at one time.
-
Dent
-
Teeth in the Reed.
-
Reed Dent
-
Spacing of the Dent in the Reed. The Sett may be a multiple or fraction of
the Reed Dent.
-
Reed
-
The comb that seperates and spaces the warp. It is placed in the Beater.
-
Beater
-
A movable bar that holds the Reed and is used to beat each new weft against
the previous.
-
Warping Board
-
A board or frame with pins to assist in makeing loops of material for the
warp.
-
Warping Mill
-
A machine for winding many loops of material for the warp.
-
Cross
-
The point in the Warp loop where the material is crossed over itself. Each
loop is really a figure 8. The Cross keeps the warp yarns in the order that
they were threaded.
-
Warp Chain
-
The set of loops made on the Warping Board or Mill. When the loops are removed,
they are keep in a chain to prevent tangleing.
-
Lease sticks
-
Long sticks that hold the warp threads in order while you are threading the
loom. They are threaded through the Cross.
-
Heddles
-
Vertical wires with a small open loop about half way up. Each of these is
connected to a Shaft. The warp ends are threaded through the loop in some
Heddles so that as the Heddles are lifted or dropped, the warp ends are also
lifted and dropped.
-
Shaft
-
The vertical frame that lifts and drops the Heddles.
The total length required is: Warp * Ends where Warp
= (Length + Hems*2 + T&S )* Make + Waste and Ends = (Width +
T&S) * Sett