, not using any shedding devices. Note ordinary white plastic hair comb (beneath a red yarn, behind the box), presumably used to beat the warp against the fell. It is possible to weave by manually threading the weft over and under the warp threads, but this is slow. Some tapestry techniques use manual shedding.
Pin looms and
peg looms also generally have no shedding devices.
Pile carpets generally do not use shedding for the pile, because each pile thread is individually knotted onto the warps, but there may be shedding for the weft holding the carpet together. Usually weaving uses shedding devices. These devices pull some of the warp threads to each side, so that a shed is formed between them, and the weft is passed through the shed. There are a variety of methods for forming the shed. At least two sheds must be formed, the shed and the countershed. Two sheds is enough for
tabby weave; more complex weaves, such as
twill weaves,
satin weaves,
diaper weaves, and figured (picture-forming) weaves, require more sheds.
Heddle-bar and shed-rod Heddle-rods and shedding-sticks are not the fastest way to weave, but they are very simple to make, needing only sticks and yarn. They are often used on vertical and backstrap looms. Weaving a silk
rebozo with a dyed-warp pattern on a backstrap loom,
Taller Escuela de Rebocería in
Santa María del Río, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. There are also other ways to create counter-sheds. A shed-rod is simpler and easier to set up than a heddle-bar, and can make a counter-shed. A shed-rod (shedding stick, shed roll) is simply a stick woven through the warp threads. When pulled perpendicular to the threads (or rotated to stand on edge, for wide, flat shedding rods), it creates a counter shed. The combination of a heddle-bar and a shedding-stick can create the shed and countershed needed for a plain tabby weave, as in the video. There are also slit heddle-rods, which are sawn partway through, with evenly-placed slits. Each warp thread goes in a slit. The odd-numbered slits are at 90 degrees to the even slits. The rod is rotated back and forth to create the shed and countershed, so it is often large-diameter.
Tablet weaving Tablet weaving uses cards punched with holes. The warp threads pass through the holes, and the cards are twisted and shifted to created varied sheds. This shedding technique is used for
narrow work. It is also used to finish edges, weaving decorative selvage bands instead of hemming.
Rotating-hook heddles There are heddles made of flip-flopping rotating hooks, which raise and lower the warp, creating
sheds. The hooks, when vertical, have the weft threads looped around them horizontally. If the hooks are flopped over on side or another, the loop of weft twists, raising one or the other side of the loop, which creates the
shed and countershed.
Rigid heddles Rigid
heddles can be used without a loom frame or on a single-shaft loom. Odd warp threads go through the slots, and even ones through the circular holes, or vice versa. The shed is formed by lifting the heddle, and the countershed by depressing it. The warp threads in the slots stay where they are, and the ones in the circular holes are pulled back and forth. A single rigid heddle can hold all the warp threads, though sometimes multiple rigid heddles are used. Treadles may be used to drive the rigid heddle up and down.
Non-rigid heddles File:QSMM Heald making 2623sc.JPG|String healds, with a small eyelet called a mail in the middle of the red section, and larger lops on either side File:QSMM Drawing-in 2653.JPG|Very similar healds, with the wooden staves threaded through them top and bottom, and the warp threads in the process of being
drawn in (that is, threaded through the eyes of the healds) File:Solv med öga.svg|How healds can thread onto staves and the warp threads (Swedish caption shows eye, and warp thread) File:QSMM Pemberton loom 2581c.JPG|Wire healds on wire staves. A few extra healds have not had warp threads drawn in through them. File:Heddle4.jpg|A variety of metal healds, made from wire and straps on a string, held in the weaver's toes. He is making a simple
tabby-weave cloth,
bogolan. Rigid heddles or (above) are called "rigid" to distinguish them from string and wire heddles. Rigid heddles are one-piece, by non-rigid ones are multi-piece. Each warp thread has its own heald (also, confusingly, called a heddle). The heald has an eyelet at each end (for the staves, also called shafts) and one in the middle, called the mail, (for the warp thread). A row of these healds is slid onto two staves, the upper and lower staves; the staves together, or the staves together with the healds, may be called a
heald frame, which is, confusingly, also called a shaft and a harness. Replaceable, interchangeable healds can be smaller, allowing finer weaves. Unlike a rigid heddle, a flexible heddle cannot push the warp thread. This means that two heald frames are needed even for a plain
tabby weave.
Twill weaves require three or more heald frames (depending on the type of twill), and more complex figured weaves require still more frames. The different heald frames must be controlled by some mechanism, and the mechanism must be able to pull them in both directions. They are mostly controlled by treadles; creating the shed with the feet leaves the hands free to ply the shuttle. However, in some tabletop looms, heald frames are also controlled by levers.
Treadle-controlled looms In treadle looms, the weaver controls the shedding with their feet, by treading on
treadles. Different treadles and combinations of treadles produce different sheds. The weaver must remember the sequence of treadling needed to produce the pattern. The precise mechanism by which the treadles control the heddles varies. Rigid-heddle treadle looms do exist, but the heddles are usually flexible. Sometimes, the treadles are tied directly to the staves (with a Y-shaped bridle so they stay level). Alternately, they may be tied to a stick called a
lamm, which in turn is tied to the stave, to make the motion more controlled and regular. The lamm may pivot or slide.
Counterbalance looms are the most common type of treadle loom globally, as they are simple and give a smooth, quiet, quick motion. such as
diaper weaves. Jack looms are easy to make and to tie up (if not quite as easy as counterbalance looms). The gravity return makes jack looms heavy to operate. The shed of a jack loom is smaller for a given length of warp being pulled aside by the heddles (loom depth). The warp threads being pulled up by the jacks are also tauter than the other warp threads (unlike a counterbalance loom, where the threads are pulled an equal amount in opposite directions). Uneven tension makes weaving evenly harder. It also lowers the maximum tension at which one can practically weave. which may pivot at one end or slide up and down. This allows the complex
combinatorial treadles of a jack loom, with the large shed and balanced, even tension of a counterbalance loom, with its quiet, light operation. Unfortunately, countermarch looms are more complex, harder to build, slower to tie up,
Figure harness and the drawloom A drawloom is for weaving figured cloth. In a drawloom, a "figure harness" is used to control each warp thread separately, allowing very complex patterns. A drawloom requires two operators, the weaver, and an assistant called a "drawboy" to manage the figure harness. The earliest confirmed drawloom fabrics come from the
State of Chu and date c. 400 BC. Some scholars speculate an independent invention in ancient
Syria, since drawloom fabrics found in
Dura-Europas are thought to date before 256 AD. foot-powered multi-harness looms and
jacquard looms were used for silk weaving and embroidery, both of which were cottage industries with imperial workshops. The drawloom enhanced and sped up the production of silk and played a significant role in Chinese silk weaving. The loom was introduced to Persia, India, and Europe. The loom is controlled by
punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order. It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen
Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728), and
Jacques Vaucanson (1740). To call it a loom is a misnomer. A Jacquard head could be attached to a power loom or a handloom, the head controlling which warp thread was raised during shedding. Multiple shuttles could be used to control the colour of the weft during picking. The Jacquard loom is the predecessor to the
computer punched card readers of the 19th and 20th centuries. File:Industry during the First World War- Leicestershire Q28124.jpg|A female worker changing jacquard cards in a lace machine in a Nottingham factory (1918). File:Loom.jpg|The punched-card control mechanism of a
Jacquard loom in use in 2009,
Varanasi,
Uttar Pradesh, India. File:PunchingJacquardCardPoland.jpg|Following the pattern, holes are punched in the appropriate places on a Jacquard card. File:Telar manual y máquina de Jacquard 12.jpg|Manual loom with double width and Jacquard loom, Colegio del Arte Mayor de la Seda of Valencia. File:Masson Mills WTM 13 Hattersley Jacquard 5976.JPG|The Jacquard cards control the heads on a loom. ==Picking (weft insertion)==