Real-Life Communication
You have always loved fabrics, and have decided that you want to
learn to weave. You think you can do well, and eventually make your living
at a loom. You pick up your first pattern for six placemats.
You open
the pattern, which is a series of lines and numbers across the page. Accompanying
the pattern is a set of instructions:
Instructions
Wind
a warp of 134 ends, each 4.5 yards long, to make six mats. Sley one end per
dent, in a 10-dent reed. Thread the loom, and begin to follow the draft. You
will notice that the draft reads from left to right. Weave each mat for 17
inches, following the draft. Leave one inch for fringe at the end. Cut the
mats apart, and machine wash and dry. Do not iron.
The directions are
short, but what do they mean?
"Weaving is just like everything else,"
says Frances Schultz, a weaver. "There is an extensive vocabulary that goes
along with it, and you have to know it. Often, the words are in common use
in English, but have specific meanings for a weaver."
Read the weaving
vocabulary below, and rewrite the instructions in layperson's terms, so that
anyone could understand them.
Dent: depressions on the reed
End:
short piece of yarn
Warp: the set of yarns placed lengthwise
in the loom, crossed by and interlaced with the weft, and forming the lengthwise
threads in a woven fabric
Weft: the filling, or yarn, that is
being woven through the warp
Sley: to pull the warp ends through
the dents of the reed in accordance with a given plan of weaving
Reed:
the series of parallel strips of wires in a loom that force the weft up to
the web and separate the threads of the warp
Loom: a hand-operated
or power-driven apparatus for weaving fabrics containing harnesses, reeds,
shuttles and treadles
Draft: the pattern