The computer construction of weaving designs

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Weaving is the art of forming a fabric by interlacing threads at right angles and is performed on a frame called a loom. The threads at right angles to the weaver are the warp threads, and the threads parallel to the weaver and which are inserted between the warp threads are the weft threads. The warp threads are alternately raised and lowered to create a shed through which the weft thread is inserted. They are fastened to a warp roller at the back of the loom, pass over a back beam and through the eyes of vertical wires called heddles, and then through reeds which help keep them parallel and in the proper sequence. The woven cloth passes over a front beam and is then wound onto a cloth roller. Each row of heddles is attached to a harness, and there may be two, four, eight or more harnesses. Each warp thread passes through a heddle on any one of the harnesses. The harnesses are raised and lowered by treadles which are worked by the fingers on a table loom and by the feet on a foot loom. Harnesses may be tied together so that more than one may be operated by the same treadle. As a group of warp threads is raised or lowered by the treddles, the shuttle with the weft thread is inserted into the shed between the two groups of threads.