Apr 12 2007
Raddle, Sett, Weave [The Language of Weaving]
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Teaching Meaghan to warp and weave her first textile on her loom was great fun. She was organised with a custom built warping frame and had started the warping process before I arrived. She’d even done those pesky weaving calcs to perfection. The only variation was too little yarn for the warp so the original plan had to be modified in situ. I shamefully but all too naturally slipped into using weaving jargon without being aware. Meaghan looked puzzled, then I realised that this is what a beginner weaver must contend with. The language of weaving. Raddle, reed, sett, cross…special words to explain weaving specifics. Words that don’t mean anything outside weaving. The Leclerc Fanny loom was in sound condition but had an unusual tie on system for the back and front warp beams which I had never seen…but worked really well. It was just an apron with a rod inserted through it then a permanent lacing attached through the rod and apron. This lacing held another rod where the warp could be tied on. Although it was a good method, it still takes the brain a bit to work around how I normally do it on my own loom. After years of warping my loom has various additions, like extra cords, attached to it to make the job easier. Another loom is rather naked in a way and needs a weaver to dress and adapt it for her own ways of creating a woven textile. The loom is a four shaft counterbalanced with six pedals. We threaded the loom in a four shaft straight draw i.e. 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 etc. then tied two pedals to plain weave (1 & 3 vs 2 & 4), and the other four to a twill. The tie up on this loom was very easy to do and could easily be changed even when weaving was underway. Teaching Meaghan has stimulated my own practice and I came home to my studio with a renewed sense of excitement, contentment and committment. |
| Warping | |
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| The organised beauty of warp winding | |
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| Close up of the apron and lacing |
What great pix. I love her warp colors. Will we get updates of her weaving progress too?
Leigh, Yes I will post updates of Meaghan’s work. Already today she has used some Saori techniques on her first cloth with twill strips interspersed throughout. Then she bought some more yarn for her next project! – all in 2 days! As she is an experienced felter and dyer, she is now going to dye/paint the next warp.
This is wonderful! I’m a new weaver and love seeing the pictures as well as reading what someone else is going through learning to weave. Hope to see more as her weaving progresses.
Yay! for a new weaver, and another yay! for one who will dye/paint her warps.
I seem to recall a tie-up system like that standard on Leclercs (but with a steel bar, rather than wood dowel). I don’t have one though so can’t be sure.
Hi Sara, Yes I forgot to mention the 2nd steel rod of the Leclerc was missing on the front apron, so I substituted a wooden one.
Bev, it’s nice that other beginners visit here too! What a journey you have ahead of you. Thanks for all for your comments.
Re. the language of weaving – you remind me how hard I struggled with this as a self-taught beginner, starting 18 months ago. I had books full of these terms and really battled to get a grasp of what the words meant.
It sounds like this teaching relationship is going to benefit both of you. I find there’s nothing like explaining things to someone else to get me to re-examine things I’ve taken for granted.
Have fun!
Dorothy
My friends and I are learning to weave using a variety of British and American weaving books, most of which include a short glossary at the end. However, I do think it’s a pity that authors of these books, don’t provide a succinct British to American conversion chart of weaving keywords. We could feel confident then that we share a basic understanding. We’d know, for example, that weft and filler mean the same thing; that shaft and harness are about the same thing but each mean something different, and so on.
Thank goodness for a plethora of books on weaving, which facilitate cross-checking and provide one with a more rounded knowledge base. Praise also for the internet, which is so engaging: weavers websites and blogs with tons of pictures, free patterns and advice, weaving stores with their vast stocks of photographed equipment (Where else would I learn about an ‘auto reed hook’ and how it works), internet weaving resources, links and random information. Help is only an email ‘send’ button away, and weavers, complete strangers, mind you, are unstinting with their advice and suggestions.
Anyway, I’d like to recommend my recent find which is a little pocket dictionary of weaving terms authored by Madelyn van der Hoogt which can be copied from her website at http://www.weaversschool.com/docs/WeaverDictionary.pdf .