Beating
After every row you weave, you want to beat the weft. This means you push the weft threads orderly into place. This way you make sure to get a symmetric design and even tension throughout your weave.

Beat
The act of pressing the yarn into place with the rigid heddle.

Dent
Space between the teeth in the reed through which thread is passed. Dent (also called EPI) refers to the number of warp threads per inch in a rigid heddle when both holes and slots are counted. For example - An 8 dent heddle provides uniform spacing for 8 warp threads per inch when each hole and slot is used for a single warp thread.

DPI
Dents per Inch

Draft
A chart that instructs the weaver on how to thread the heddles, tie-up shafts, and treadle a pattern

Ends per inch (epi)
The number of yarns in an inch of warp

Ends per Inch
Ends per inch (EPI) refers to the number of warp threads per inch across the width of a project. When describing a rigid heddle, EPI (also called dent) indicates the number of holes and slots in one inch of the heddle.

Float
A warp or weft yarn that travels over more than one warp end or weft pick

Header
Waste yarn that is woven at the beginning of a project to spread the warp to its full width and to provide a firm even surface to start your weaving. The header is the yarn that can be found at the beginning of a weave. The header is used to spread the warp and provides the weaver with an even surface to work on. When removing the weave from the loom, the header is normally removed and thrown away

Heddle
The molded plastic piece in the rigid-heddle that forms to the holes between the slots. The device that creates the sheds in weaving and is made up of alternate slots and holes. It is also used to beat the weft.

Heddle holder
The notched block on the inner face of the loom sides. Holds the heddle in the upper position (on top of the block) or the lower position (under the block). When the heddle is in the notch it is in the neutral position.

Loom
A loom is a supporting structure that is used to weave on. It will hold the warp threads for you while you are weaving. If the weave is finished, it can be removed from the loom and support itself without falling apart.

Picks per inch (ppi)
The number of weft yarns in an inch of weaving

Pick (shot)
One inserted row of the weft thread

Pick-up Stick
A Pick-up Stick is a narrow stick used to “pick” a desired pattern in warp threads. It can be turned on its edge to create a shed, or used along with the rigid heddle to create additional shed pattern options (e.g. heddle in an up position with a pick-up stick pulled up against the back of the heddle to raise “picked” warp threads that are in slots, etc). The use of a pickup stick helps a weaver create a wide range of patterns on their rigid heddle loom.

Plain Weave
This is the simplest weaving technique that everyone starts out with when they learn to weave for the first time. To create this pattern, the weft thread needs to alternatively go over and under the warp thread without skipping any threads.

Ratchet
A toothed wheel placed at the end of cloth and warp beams which is held by a pawl to keep the beam from rotating.

Reed
It refers to a piece that is similar to the rigid heddle except there are no holes. It determines the sett of the cloth, maintains the warp width, and presses the yarn into place.

Rigid Heddle Loom
A frame loom that has a plastic rigid heddle with slots and holes. The weaver lifts and lowers the heddle to move the threads. The rigid heddle also serves to spread the warp, and is used to beat in the weft.

Sett
The spacing of the warp yarns in the rigid-heddle.

Shed
The open space between warp threads when the reed is lifted up or down, to allow you to pass a shuttle through. While weaving, the warp threads are alternatingly separated in two different sets; the upper set and the lower set. If you separate these two sets you can pass the weft thread through the warp in one go. This considerably speeds up the process and makes weaving much easier. The separation between the upper and lower warp threads is called the shed.

Shot
See Pick

Shuttle
The shuttle is a standard piece of equipment when it comes to weaving. It is normally a wooden device which can come in many different shapes that is used to hold the weft thread while weaving. The yarn-package (such as a pirn or plug) carrier that passes through the shed of the warp to insert the weft during weaving. Tool that holds the weft thread or yarn, carrying it from one side of the weaving to the other.

Twill Weave
The twill weave is well known because it creates distinct diagonal lines through the weave. To pull off this effect, the weft thread needs to go over two warp thread and then under two warp threads. On the next row, you then offset the pattern by one thread to create the diagonal lines.

Warping
The preparation of a number of threads (ends) which are arranged in order, number and width, parallel to each other and wound on the back beam on the loom.

Warp
The lengthwise threads in a weaving. The threads (ends) that run the length of the fabric on the loom and are interlaced with weft (picks) to form the fabric.

Warp Thread
See Warp

Warp Yarn
See Warp

Weave
The term weave is used normally to describe the structure of a woven fabric or the process of weaving which is usually carried out on a loom. Woven fabrics are constructed with two sets of interlacing warp and weft yarns. The warp yarns, or ends, are usually wound lengthwise on the loom, while the weft yarns, or picks, interlace the warp at right angles to produce the fabric.

Warping Post
A Warping Post is typically a single post that may be used in the warping process. It is clamped to the edge of a table, and used to measure warp threads and provide tension to warp yarn as it is wound onto a loom during the warping process. They are especially useful for short warps (1-1/2 yards and shorter), and are a critical tool when using the “direct warp” technique (which is described in detail later in this information package).

Warping Pegs
See Warping Post

Weaving
Weaving is the process of creating fabric by interlocking sets of threads traveling perpendicular to one another. Warp yarns run vertically from the front of the loom to its back; Weft yarns run horizontally back and forth across the warp. When these two sets of threads (yarns) are interlocked, weaving has taken place! The result is “Handwoven” fabric!!

Weft
The threads that are passed across and through the warp by a shuttle or rapier to form a woven fabric. The crosswise threads in a weaving. The weft can be thrown across in a boat shuttle, handed across in a stick or ski shuttle, or placed in patterns by hand.

Weft Thread
See Weft

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