Loom & Thread
Loom & Thread
Weaving has a language all its own. The Lexicon is a plain-English glossary that explains it — sett and take-up, floating selvedges and twill floats, fulling and waulking — written for real weavers, not textbooks.
A growing reference of 240+ terms and counting, spanning structures, fibers, color and design, loom parts, finishing, and the people and history of the craft. Inside the app, terms cross-link to each other and to related titles in the Library.
A free preview across every category · no account neededThe spacing of the warp threads — how many ends sit in each inch of width (ends per inch, or EPI). One of the most consequential numbers in a project: sett governs the density, drape, durability, and even the structure of the finished cloth.
A way to measure yarn thickness by wrapping it around a ruler and counting the wraps in one inch. A quick guide to yarn weight and sett — as a rule of thumb, half the WPI gives a starting sett for balanced plain weave.
A simplified, schematic draft that represents a weave structure by its block arrangement rather than thread by thread. Each square is one block, letting block-weave designs be planned quickly and translated into any compatible structure.
A sequence where each number is the sum of the two before it: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21… Weavers use it as a guide for pleasing stripe proportions — Fibonacci widths feel naturally balanced without being rigidly repetitive.
A proportion of roughly 1:1.618 that appears throughout nature, architecture, and art — the spiral of a nautilus shell, the proportions of the Parthenon. Closely related to the Fibonacci sequence, and a favorite guide for harmonious design.
A color effect where cloth seems to shift color with the viewing angle, caused by light on the fiber surface or by using two different colors in warp and weft. Silk and other lustrous fibers produce the most dramatic results.
Applying dye or paint directly to a wound warp before weaving, creating areas of color that appear in the finished cloth in ways that can't be planned precisely in advance — producing organic, painterly effects.
A small test weaving made before a project to verify that the chosen sett, beat, and yarn produce the intended cloth. Sett samples save time and yarn by catching problems before they're woven into the full piece.
Wet-finishing a woven piece to set the weave, allow for shrinkage, soften the hand, and remove finishing chemicals from the yarn. The most important step in finishing — it transforms loom-state cloth into finished fabric.
A traditional Scottish and Irish technique for fulling handwoven wool, performed by rhythmically beating the wet cloth against a hard surface while singing waulking songs. Done communally, it thickens, shrinks, and weatherproofs the cloth.
The sheen of a fiber or finished fabric, from light reflecting off smooth fiber surfaces. A characteristic of silk, linen, mercerized cotton, and long-staple wools, and often enhanced by wet finishing.
Using an iron or press cloth to smooth and set a woven piece after washing. The method varies by fiber: wool with steam and a damp cloth; cotton and linen more firmly; silk gently with a dry iron or press cloth.
A shuttle shaped like a boat's hull, hollowed to hold a bobbin. Yarn unwinds through a small hole in the side as the shuttle travels through the shed. Faster and more ergonomic than a stick shuttle, and standard for most floor-loom weaving.
An extra warp thread at each edge, not threaded through a heddle, so the shuttle always enters and exits over or under it. Floating selvedges keep clean, even edges in structures that don't naturally catch the selvedge threads.
A flexible polyester cord with evenly spaced holes used for heddles, tie-ups, and lashing. Quieter and gentler on yarn than metal, and the hole-and-peg system makes adjusting shaft and treadle connections easy without knots.
A length of strong fabric or webbing attached to the cloth and warp beams. The warp ties onto the front apron rod and winds onto the back rod, letting the warp advance evenly without tying directly to the beam itself.
A reliable, time-tested knot for joining two yarn ends — especially when a warp thread breaks mid-warp. Prized for its small profile and security: tied correctly, it lies flat and passes through the heddles and reed with minimal disruption.
Winding the warp directly onto a sectional beam in small, evenly tensioned one-inch sections, each from a separate cone on a creel. Efficient for long or wide warps, and it produces very even tension.
A tie-up on jack, counterbalance, and countermarch looms where only selected treadles are tied to their shafts. Rather than tying every shaft to every treadle, the weaver ties only what a pattern needs, reducing the number of connections.
A flat, smooth stick used to manually lift individual warp threads and create a shed for pattern. Used in rigid-heddle and backstrap weaving, and as a supplementary tool on shaft looms for patterns the threading alone can't make.
A length of warp or weft that passes over two or more threads without interlacing, creating a smooth, unbound span across the cloth. Floats are fundamental to many structures — in twills they create the characteristic diagonal line.
A supplementary-weft technique that wraps yarn around warp ends in a forward-and-back sequence, creating a raised, rope-like ridge on the surface of the cloth — common in rugs and tapestry for texture and outline.
Weaving with small cards (tablets) holding warp threads through their holes. Rotating the tablets creates the shed; the threading and rotation set the pattern. Produces narrow, dense, highly structured bands.
A Scandinavian supplementary-weft technique where pattern threads are laid over a plain-weave ground in a set sequence to create bold, graphic designs. The Swedish name translates roughly as "cloth walking."
A Canadian weaving teacher and author, founder of the Jane Stafford Textile Arts school on Salt Spring Island, BC. Known for clear, accessible teaching and deep structural knowledge, she has taught thousands through workshops and her online school.
A software architect and weaver on Whidbey Island, Washington, and creator of handweaving.net. Fascinated by historical drafts, he built tools to convert printed drafts into digital WIF files and launched the site in 2004.
(1934–2006) An American computer scientist who founded the CS department at the University of Arizona and, after retiring, assembled one of the most comprehensive digital archives of historic weaving documents ever made.
A figure from Celtic-inspired mythology said to sit at two looms in the underworld, weaving the threads of life and death — embodying the ancient belief in weaving as a metaphor for fate.
The full Lexicon holds 240+ terms and keeps growing, each cross-linked to related terms and Library titles. And it's only one corner of Loom & Thread: the one place a weaver keeps everything — every yarn, every loom, every tool, every project, every draft. The only Trapper-Keeper a weaver needs.
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