Weaving

Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling. (Weft is an old English word meaning 'that which is woven'; compare leave and left.) The method in which these threads are inter-woven affects the characteristics of the cloth.Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. A fabric band which meets this definition of cloth (warp threads with a weft thread winding between) can also be made using other methods, including tablet weaving, back strap loom, or other techniques without looms.A very good Hand Weaver, a man twenty-five or thirty years of age, will weave two pieces of nine-eighths shirting per week, each twenty-four yards long, and containing one hundred and five shoots of weft in an inch, the reed of the cloth being a forty-four, Bolton count, and the warp and weft forty hanks to the pound, A Steam Loom Weaver, fifteen years of age, will in the same time weave seven similar pieces....it may very safely be said, that the work done in a Steam Factory containing two hundred Looms, would, if done by hand Weavers, find employment and support for a population of more than two thousand persons.Weaving was an art practised in very early times (Ex 35:35). The Egyptians were specially skilled in it (Isa 19:9; Ezek 27:7), and some have regarded them as its inventors.In the wilderness, the Hebrews practised weaving (Ex 26:1, 26:8; 28:4, 28:39; Lev 13:47). It is referred to subsequently as specially the women's work (2 Kings 23:7; Prov 31:13, 24). No mention of the loom is found in Scripture, but we read of the 'shuttle' (Job 7:6), 'the pin' of the beam (Judg 16:14), 'the web' (13, 14), and 'the beam' (1 Sam 17:7; 2 Sam 21:19). The rendering, 'with pining sickness,' in Isa. 38:12 (A.V.) should be, as in the Revised Version, 'from the loom,' or, as in the margin, 'from the thrum.' We read also of the 'warp' and 'woof' (Lev. 13:48, 49, 51–53, 58, 59), but the Revised Version margin has, instead of 'warp,' 'woven or knitted stuff.' Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling. (Weft is an old English word meaning 'that which is woven'; compare leave and left.) The method in which these threads are inter-woven affects the characteristics of the cloth.Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. A fabric band which meets this definition of cloth (warp threads with a weft thread winding between) can also be made using other methods, including tablet weaving, back strap loom, or other techniques without looms. The way the warp and filling threads interlace with each other is called the weave. The majority of woven products are created with one of three basic weaves: plain weave, satin weave, or twill. Woven cloth can be plain (in one colour or a simple pattern), or can be woven in decorative or artistic design. In general, weaving involves using a loom to interlace two sets of threads at right angles to each other: the warp which runs longitudinally and the weft (older woof) that crosses it. One warp thread is called an end and one weft thread is called a pick. The warp threads are held taut and in parallel to each other, typically in a loom. There are many types of looms. Weaving can be summarized as a repetition of these three actions, also called the primary motions of the loom.