Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 4pm. Saturday: 10am – 4.30pm. Closed: Sunday, Monday and Bank Holidays Contact: Tel. 01225 751339. Trowbridge Museum, The Shires, Court Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire. BA14 8AT To view and download all our factsheets, visit www.trowbridgemuseum.co.uk Diagram of a simple loom set up with two alternating harnesses or heddles, and one sley Cutting machines for making Jacquard cards Weaving is the process of joining individual lengths of thread together to make a piece of cloth. It is a much older craft than knitting and was first used to produce fabric that could be made into clothing to provide warmth and protection to the wearer. The Loom Unlike knitting, weaving requires the use of a stable frame or “loom” to which the lengths of yarn are attached. These lengths, laid next to each other and kept under tension are known as the “warp”. Another length of thread, wound around a “shuttle”, is passed from side to side across the warp and is known as the “weft”. A simple loom would include a device called a “harness” or “heddle” which lifts some of the warp threads while others are held down. The weft then passes through the gap or “shed” between the raised and lowered warp threads. Then the heddle is moved to swap the positions of the warp threads over before the weft thread is brought back to the side where it started. Thus, the single width of weft or “pick” is held in place. A number of different heddles can be used in a modern loom and the movement of these, coupled with the use of different coloured yarns, can produce an endless variety of patterns in the cloth. More complicated patterns are produced on “Jacquard” looms in which punched cards determine which heddles are raised or lowered and the order in which this should happen. Ivan Clark, former loom tuner, weaving on the Hattersley Loom at Trowbridge Museum A range of shuttles, the centre one of which contains a bobbin of green yarn The Early Days In the very early days of weaving it is possible that there was a loom of some sort in every dwelling. Over time, the craft became more specialised and by the Eighteenth Century weavers were organised into groups working for individual clothiers. The clothiers provided their workers with the yarn they required and paid them by the “piece” or specified length of cloth. Warping & Weaving TROWBRIDGE MUSEUM FACT SHEET
Transcript
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 4pm. Saturday: 10am – 4.30pm. Closed: Sunday, Monday and Bank Holidays
To view and download all our factsheets, visit www.trowbridgemuseum.co.uk
Diagram of a simple loom set up with two alternating harnesses or heddles, and one sley
Cutting machines for making Jacquard cards
Weaving is the process of joining individual lengths of thread together to make a piece of cloth. It is a much older craft than knitting and was first used to produce fabric that could be made into clothing to provide warmth and protection to the wearer.
The LoomUnlike knitting, weaving requires the use of a stable frame or “loom” to which the lengths of yarn are attached. These lengths, laid next to each other and kept under tension are known as the “warp”. Another length of thread, wound around a “shuttle”, is passed from side to side across the warp and is known as the “weft”.
A simple loom would include a device called a “harness” or “heddle” which lifts some of the warp threads while others are held down. The weft then passes through the gap or “shed” between the raised and lowered warp threads. Then the heddle is moved
to swap the positions of the warp threads over before the weft thread is brought back to the side where it started. Thus, the single width of weft or “pick” is held in place. A number of different heddles can be used in a modern loom and the movement of these, coupled with the use of different coloured yarns, can produce an endless variety of patterns in the cloth.
More complicated patterns are produced on “Jacquard” looms in which punched cards determine which heddles are raised or lowered and the order in which this should happen.
Ivan Clark, former loom tuner, weaving on the Hattersley Loom at Trowbridge Museum
A range of shuttles, the centre one of which contains a bobbin of green yarn
The Early DaysIn the very early days of weaving it is possible that there was a loom of some sort in every dwelling. Over time, the craft became more specialised and by the Eighteenth Century weavers were organised into groups working for individual clothiers. The clothiers provided their workers with the yarn they required and paid them by the “piece” or specified length of cloth.
Warping & Weaving
TROWBRIDGE MUSEUM FACT SHEET
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 4pm. Saturday: 10am – 4.30pm. Closed: Sunday, Monday and Bank Holidays
To view and download all our factsheets, visit www.trowbridgemuseum.co.uk
18th century loom
A wooden handloom being used in Palmer and Mackay’s factory in Trowbridge
A two by two twill pattern with a red check being made on the Hattersley loom in Trowbridge Museum
By the early Nineteenth Century the clothiers were setting up “manufactories” (factories) in buildings large enough to contain many looms, as well as other machines, and the weavers worked on the premises rather than in their own homes.
TROWBRIDGE MUSEUM FACT SHEET
The ProcessThe actual task of weaving the cloth takes far less time than all the preliminary processes. The first major job is preparing the warp to go onto the loom. This involves deciding what colour or colours to choose for the warp yarn and working out how long and how wide the final piece of cloth is to be. Whichever yarn has been chosen then needs to be wound onto “cones” or “cheeses”. These are fitted onto a frame and allowed to turn evenly while the weaver winds off and measures the amount of yarn he wants.
Weaving Machinery InventionsA number of different inventions had a profound effect on the weaving industry. One was the “fly shuttle” or “flying shuttle”, patented in the 1730s by James Kay. This greatly increased the speed at which the shuttle carrying the weft could move from one side of the cloth to the other. It also made it possible to create cloths of greater width.
Photo - A wooden handloom being used in Palmer and Mackay’s factory in Trowbridge
Eventually the work of the different components of a loom became automated and the power loom was first patented in 1785 by Edmund Cartwright. The early power looms were much tougher on the yarn than hand-looms and the threads often broke.
In modern automated power looms a number of different methods have been introduced to speed up the weaving process including the use of air jets and water jets to shoot the weft thread across the width of the cloth.
Warping & Weaving
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 4pm. Saturday: 10am – 4.30pm. Closed: Sunday, Monday and Bank Holidays
To view and download all our factsheets, visit www.trowbridgemuseum.co.uk
Each warp thread is called an “end”. Depending on the thickness of the warp yarn, the weaver should know how many ends woven side by side will create an inch of cloth. He can then work out how many individual lengths of warp yarn will be needed to achieve the desired width and length of cloth. A piece of cloth that is going to be 10 yards long will need all the warp threads to be a little over 11 yards in length to allow for wastage. If the width of the cloth is to be 30 inches and each inch is comprised of 30 warp threads side by side then the total number of warp threads needed to complete the cloth is 30x30, or 900.
The lengths are measured out in a variety of ways including the use of a warping frame or a rotating drum. The warp threads are tied together in bunches and great care has to be taken to ensure they don’t become entangled with each other. For this purpose, “lease rods” are inserted, with each warp going over one rod and under the other. When the warp goes onto the loom, the rods can be replaced with contrasting pieces of strong yarn called “leases” or “laces”.
The warp sometimes needs to be “sized” or treated before it is put on the loom. This involves dipping it in a solution which hardens when it is dry, thus giving the warp enough strength to withstand the tension it will be under once weaving begins. Once the warp
Illustration of a power loom from the manufacturer’s catalogue
yarn has been prepared it is wound onto a “beam” or roller made of wood or metal. This is then lifted into the back of the loom. After this the warp has to be “drawn” or passed through the harnesses from back to front, a time-consuming job requiring two people to do it. A tool called a “threading hook” is used for this purpose.
Each harness contains a large number of “heddles”, usually made from wire with holes half-way down the length for the yarn to be threaded through, much like the eye of a needle.
TROWBRIDGE MUSEUM FACT SHEET
Photo - A warp being made at Salter’s Mill (now the home of Trowbridge Museum)
The Warping Plan The number of harnesses used and the order in which the threads are drawn through them are determined by the design or “warping plan”. This is usually worked out in advance on graph paper. Coloured or crossed squares on the paper show when each different warp thread should be lifted or dropped. The simplest
Warping & Weaving
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 4pm. Saturday: 10am – 4.30pm. Closed: Sunday, Monday and Bank Holidays
To view and download all our factsheets, visit www.trowbridgemuseum.co.uk
pattern for weaving is called plain weave. In this weave half the warp threads are lifted and half lowered when the weft or sideways thread passes between them. Then the positions of the warps are reversed when the weft passes back the other way.
The warp then has to be “dented” or threaded through a “reed” or “sley”. This is a rigid frame consisting of vertical slots. The number of slots used is determined by the design of the cloth and the number of “ends” (separate warp threads) per inch. More than one warp can be put through a single “dent” or slot. For example, in a piece of cloth incorporating 40 ends
Warping & Weaving
18th century warping mill
Untangling skeins, 1770
Weaving on a power loom at Salter’s Mill, Trowbridge
per inch, a sley with 10 dents to the inch is used, with 4 warp threads being passed through each individual slot. A special tool called a “reed hook” or (locally) “sleyook” is used for this procedure. The front ends of the warp then pass over or under a “warp stick” or “lease rod” in bunches and are secured to it with a knot. This is then pulled under the loom and secured to a rotating beam. As weaving progresses and the piece of cloth gets longer, it is wound onto the beam, making sure that an even tension is maintained. A “lease” or “lace” can also be used to keep the warp threads in their correct positions.
Historically, the setting up of a loom would require different workers to perform specialist tasks. A warper created the warp, a drawer and a server threaded the warp onto the harnesses in the loom, and the weaver did the actual weaving.
The weft, or yarn that passes from side to side across the piece of fabric, has to be wound evenly onto bobbins or “quills” as they were known in Wiltshire. These bobbins are then slotted into shuttles which move from side to side across the width of the cloth, leaving an unwound length of yarn (or “pick”) behind them as they go. This is then woven into the body of the cloth by the movement of the harnesses. On a handloom, once the section of cloth in front of the weaver has been completed, the beams are turned so the woven cloth is wound around one whilst the other rolls in the same direction releasing more of the warp. Once the piece is complete, it is cut from the loom and undergoes a lengthy series of finishing processes
