Jacquard Weaving and Designing

by T. F. Bell

Figuring with two warps and one weft is a common method of working, and gives three colours on the face of the cloth. An extra warp of fine yarn may be used for binding the wefts, admitting of the coloured weft being more used for figuring. Extra warps cannot be used to so great an extent as extra wefts, as they crowd up the reed and prevent proper shedding, particularly when soft or hairy yarns are used; but when properly suited to the reed they make a firmer and more regular cloth than a weft cloth, and on account of less picking the weaver gets over the work much faster. Two warps, each having its own weft, are a good method of figuring, but unless for goods with a large number of threads and picks per inch, so that fine yarn can be used, it makes a heavy cloth. Two warps and two wefts, all of different colours, with a fine binding warp in addition, to admit of the colours of the wefts being kept comparatively pure, gives a still richer effect. In this case the binding warp may be of fine black cotton, the two figure warps of thicker cotton, and two threads drawn into each mail; the colours may be, say, dark blue and dark citrine, or clear sage. The wefts are soft wool or worsted, say light gold and deep dull red. In this method of weaving, pure red and pure gold can be got from the wefts, as the black binders show but little. Pure blue and pure citrine can be got in small quantities by floating the warps, and an admixture of the warps and wefts can be got in any place desired.

A very handsome curtain fabric can be made as follows:—There are 120 to 140 threads of warp per inch; every second or every fourth thread of the warp is used for binding the ground, which may be a plain texture or a three-shaft twill. The binders may be an extra warp, wrought with heddles, forming plain all over the cloth, or may be in the harness and be portion of the ordinary warp working plain for the ground, but rising to assist in forming the figure, which may be bound as desired, say 8-or 10-end satin. The warp is of fine silk yarn loosely twisted, and may be one or more ply, of a rich olive-green or deep scarlet colour. There are two wefts, one a rich silk, say a golden colour, of twist yarn; the other is a backing weft of the same colour as the warp, and of cotton yarn, about the same thickness as the silk weft. There are from 50 to 60 threads of weft per inch of each colour. The gold weft forms the ground of the pattern, and the warp the figure, which is bound with an 8-end satin binding. The cotton weft goes to the back when the silk weft is on the face, forming the ground of the pattern, the warp lying between them; but when the warp is on the face for figuring, the gold weft goes to the back and the cotton weft lies under the warp face, binding it and giving an embossed effect to the figure. The gold weft is bound up by sinking a portion of the warp. The ground may be formed with the warp, and the figure with the weft, if desired, producing a sunk figure on a raised ground; but this is just a reversal of the process, or making the ground in this case as the figure in the previous case. This makes a light, close, and very rich fabric.

Figured Poplins are among the richest description of curtain fabrics; they may be made of all silk, or silk and fine wool, the latter forming the weft. The ground is a clean, sharp cord running across the cloth, and the figure is formed by flushing the warp over the cords, binding it with a long twill or satin binding. The weft may also be used for figuring; but in this case it should be a silk weft put in for the purpose of figuring.

Two portions of patterns of good makes of figured poplins or repps are given in Figs. 166 and 167. [Fig. 166] is warped two threads of rich crimson silk and one thread of rich golden yellow silk, 180 threads per inch. The weft is pick-and-pick, 50 picks per inch, one thread a round, firm cord of firmly twisted worsted of the same colour as the warp, and the other yellow silk, the same as the warp. This thread passes over the crimson warp and under the yellow, the crimson cord reversing this, thus producing a very fine yellow line between each pair of cords. The method of forming the figure can easily be seen from the pattern. Instead of a thick cord being put in for the weft to form the rib, several fine shots could be thrown in as one, as in repp figuring, and these threads could be brought out for figuring as well as the warp; but they would in this case require to be of silk, which would make the cloth very expensive.

Fig. 166