Making A Shed

Day 111: Today, we're going to make a shed. You won't need hammer and nails, nope, because when a weaver makes a shed, it means that they are using some type of device (dare I say "contraption?") to separate warp threads into two layers, one above the other. When using a standard loom, this is effected by means of foot-operated treadles or hand-operated jacks which in turn raise or lower sets of heddles mounted in harnesses or frames. For the sake of clarity, I will shorten this to "raise" from here on out, and if you have a sinking-shed loom, you can just mentally substitute "lower" where it applies.

So...I heard somebody in the back say, "You're getting ahead of us here. What are these 'heddles' of which you speak?" Heddles come in a variety of forms and materials, but all perform the same function: each one carries a warp thread in sequence so that it can be raised or left idle as the weaver desires. The thread may pass through an eyelet as it does in the metal heddles on my floor loom (upper left), or eyelets and slots in alternation on a rigid-heddle loom (lower left), or the threads may be controlled by strings (shown upper right on an inkle loom). String heddles may also be used on other types of looms including floor looms, but lack the durability required for sustained weaving. In the case of tablet-weaving, rotating cards (lower right) are used to open the sheds. One way or another, raising heddled threads above unheddled threads form the shed through which the shuttle will be passed.

Commercially-produced heddles can be made of metal, wire, plastic or cord, and although cards aren't generally referred to as "heddles," they serve the same purpose. The meticulous threading of the heddles in a specified sequence is the true "work" of the weaver. Once that is done, most other actions are purely mechanical unless, of course, the pattern requires the weaver to manually pick up some threads to form a shed impossible to create with heddles alone. I'll discuss "manipulated weaves" in a future post.

Weaving Terms

Day 110: Several of my loyal and faithful readers have remarked to me recently that they feel like they're reading a foreign language when I'm talking about weaving. I find it odd that this didn't surface as I rambled on about fungi, slime molds, lichens or some rare plant I'd stumbled across in the backcountry, but there ya go: no accounting for how a writer's efforts are received by their audience, and I'm just happy to know that my work is being read. All things considered (not the least of which might be the paucity of bloggable material during isolation), I have decided that over the next several days, I will present a few weaving terms with explanatory photographs which hopefully will help folks follow along.

Let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start, do-re-mi). If you look at a piece of woven cloth, you will see that it is comprised of threads running both vertically and horizontally. Turn it so that the selvedges (edges) are on your left and right. The threads which run lengthwise are the warp threads (left), and those running across are the weft (a patterned weft is shown top right). The warp threads are held taut by the loom, tied down on either end. Today, we'll just concern ourselves with the weft (the "active" thread controlled by the weaver's shuttle) and how it passes through the warp.

In order to make cloth, some sort of over-under pattern must be established. The simplest is tabby weave: one thread up, one down across the entire width of the cloth. The first looms were established to make this easier by raising or lowering every other thread simultaneously rather than picking them up one at a time by hand. On a floor loom, this is done by depressing a treadle which in turn operates a mechanical device in which that half of the threads are held. This device (harness and heddles) will be explained in a future post. When the alternate threads are raised or lowered and the developing cloth is viewed from the side, it will be seen that there is a triangular gap between the two layers of "up" and "down" threads. This is called the shed (lower right photo). Doesn't it remind you of a woodshed? See how the "roof" slopes down toward the front? The shuttle carrying the weaving thread (weft) is passed through the shed, and the "throw" is beaten into place. Then the weaver depresses a different treadle and the opposite threads are raised or lowered, forming the alternate shed. The shuttle goes through again, the thread is beaten into place, and the first two rows of cloth have been formed, interlaced over-and-under like weaving a basket. In the top right photo, the lavender threads are woven in that over-and-under (tabby) pattern. Indeed, much of the cloth on the market today as both yardage and finished goods is woven either as tabby or as twill (a sequence of four threads progressing on the diagonal), but as you can see in the dark blue pattern above, there are many other possibilities to be made by simply raising or lowering different threads. That's where heddles come in, and for that, you'll have to tune in tomorrow.