The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Carpets And Rugs
A working model of such a loom may be constructed with a simple wooden frame, a piece of cardboard and a knitting needle as shown in Figure 23. Wooden pins are mounted in holes drilled in upright pieces mounted on a piece of board and threads are stretched across the rods 1 and 2 at uniform intervals. A piece of cardboard 3, is prepared with a series of parallel slots and between each pair of slots a hole. The total number of slots and holes is exactly the same as the number of threads stretched across the rods; every other thread passes through a hole—the alternate threads going through the slots. The knitting needle has a quantity of thread wound on it and is used for carrying this thread between the longitudinal threads when they are separated by the piece of cardboard. When the cardboard is depressed, half of the threads are carried down by the holes, the rest of them remaining at the top as the slot permits the card to move downward without interfering with them. This opening of the threads by depressing the cardhoard makes a place through which the knitting needle can be passed, the needle going over one thread and under the next. When the needle is pulled through, its own thread is left behind it and should be pushed over to one end by means of a comb. The cardboard is next pulled toward the top causing the longitudinal threads to be separated again but in the opposite direction.
Those threads which were at the bottom are now at the top. The needle is then passed back and the trailing thread pushed over to the left with a comb until it is tight against the thread that was inserted the previous time across. By alternately lowering and lifting the cardboard, passing the needle across each time, a plain basket weave such as shown in the photograph is produced.
To translate these various items into weaving terms: The wooden pins 1 and '1 represent the warp beams; the longitudinal threads stretched between them represent the warp; the cardboard 3 represents the heddle; the knitting needle represents the shuttle.
