Jacquard Weaving and Designing

by T. F. Bell

Fig. 196

The texture for chenille is the same as for plain cloth. A fine black warp of cotton is used, with twenty to twenty-five threads per inch (more or less, to suit the fabric required), and twelve to sixteen shots per inch of the chenille weft are used, which must also be varied to suit circumstances and the thickness of the weft used. The fibres or points of the thread of weft project through the warp, and a pile fabric is produced which should entirely conceal the warp on both sides of the cloth. For carpets the pile is, as a rule, only allowed to project on one side, though some rugs are made with a twisted chenille weft, and the colours on it are shown partly through the backing as the fibres of the thread get mixed up with the ground or backing in weaving, but usually all the pile projects through to the face.

Fig. 197

The texture for patent Axminster carpets is shown at A ([Fig. 197]), and sections of the cloth through the weft are shown at B and C in the same figure, B is a section of the texture A with two picks between the pile or chenille picks, and C is for a coarser description of work with four ground picks between the pile picks. In A only the ground texture is given complete; the pile weft P lies over the picks f f, and is bound down by a fine black stitching thread C, which passes over it and under the picks g g. The different thicknesses of the threads are represented in the drawing: C are cotton, and the others hemp, flax, or jute. There are about ten thick and ten fine warp threads per inch, and five binding threads, and about seven chenille picks per inch, with two ground picks between these. When there are four ground picks between the pile picks the pile is coarse, and only about four picks per inch are used. The chenille weft is wound on large wooden needles like huge netting needles, about 4 ft. long, so that it may come off without any twist in it, and the weaver pushes these through the shed, laying the weft nicely in and combing it forward so as to get it straight and even and have all the pile standing upright; he then knocks in two ground picks and puts in another pile thread, as before.

This is all hand-loom work, but power looms are sometimes used for the purpose. The ground of the fabric can be woven with heddles, as before, but the binding warp threads are through needles, somewhat like gauze dents inverted, and not through the heddles; and the beam or spools containing them is above the loom in front. The chenille weft is wound on a reel, and is through a guide or carrier. When the chenille weft is to be laid in, the needles carrying the binders are raised and the guide passed along, laying in the weft. The loom stands stationary for a short time to give the weaver time to comb up the pile, and then moves on and throws in the ground picks. Everything is done automatically but the combing up of the pile.

The foregoing is a description of chenille weaving provided no pattern has to be attended to; we must now consider the pattern.

The design paper used is the same as for ordinary work, with a greater number of warp than weft threads, but it is ruled on a large scale so that the pattern will be exactly cloth size. [Fig. 198] is a sample of this design-paper for seven picks per inch. The small checks, or what in ordinary weaving would represent the warp threads, have here no reference to them, nor do the warp threads require any consideration when preparing the pattern. The narrow way of the checks is a guide to the weaving of the weft threads. This paper might have been square, seven by seven, and would thus suit for such a pattern as is shown in [Fig. 199]—supposing seven shots of chenille weft per inch to be correct; but there is an advantage in many cases to have it as it is, or even more off the square, say seven by twenty, which is one of the papers used. This will be most readily understood by following the working out of the pattern.

The pattern given ([Fig. 199]) is necessarily very simple for want of space. The different markings on the squares are to indicate different colours. Here nine are used, but there may be any number—say from eight to twenty—the only restriction on the number of colours employed is that so many shades of yarn are required to match them, and that the weaver has a greater number of shuttles to pass over when weaving the weft. When the pattern is painted it is cut cross-ways into strips, as A, B, two rows of checks in each strip; one row of checks may be in each strip if desired; but this is unnecessary, and besides, they are more easily torn. These strips are a guide to the weaving of the weft, just in the same way as the pattern in tapestry carpet work is a guide to the printer.