Chapter five

The loom

Under the pile is a real woven cloth. Choose how its threads cross, and the cloth changes the way a weaver’s would.

Under every rug

A knotted rug is two things: a woven cloth, and a pile of short threads knotted into it.

Woven Wind makes both. Most of the time the pile hides the cloth, but you see it at the fringe, between sparse knots, and wherever you shear the pile away. Switch the pile to flat-woven in the pile tab to see the cloth on its own.

The motif runs through the cloth too. Where the weft lies on top you see the pattern’s colour; where the warp lies on top, some of the undyed warp shows through.

The kolam rug with its pile switched off, showing the flat woven cloth — **Flat-woven**the same rug, no pile

Reading a draftHow weavers write cloth down.

Twillas Woven Wind weaves it

Threading, along the top. Each column is one warp thread, the threads that run the length of the rug. The mark shows which shaft of the loom it hangs from.
Tie-up, in the corner. Each column is a treadle, the pedal a weaver presses. The marks show which shafts it lifts.
Treadling, down the side. Each row is one pass of the weft, the thread that crosses the rug, and the treadle pressed for it.
Drawdown, the big square. The cloth itself: a dark square where the weft lies on top, a light one where the warp does, just as the loom tab draws it.

Seven weavesEach draft, and the cloth it makes in Woven Wind.

plainover one, under one

twilldiagonal ribs

Twill cloth close up, with diagonal ribs

satinlong glossy floats

herringthe twill turns

Herringbone cloth close up, with zigzag ribs

diamondpoint twill both ways

baskettwo over, two under

rosepathsmall blooms

Rosepath cloth close up, with small blooms

The loom tab

Draft
plain … rosepath	The seven weaves above. The tab draws the chosen draft as you pick it. The first rug is woven in twill.

Cloth
warp ends	Warp threads across the width. Changing it knots the pile again.	60–480
weft density	Weft passes for each warp end.	0.5–2
warp shows	How much undyed warp colour shows where the warp is on top.	0–1
warp	The colour of the warp threads. The fringe takes it too.
fringe	Warp ends left long past both short sides. Rectangular rugs only.	0–0.4