Fig. 401 is a design for this fabric, showing a small portion of both ground and figure. The cloths are bound together once in every eight threads.

Figured Weft Pile Velvets.—When figuring with weft and pile, the chief difficulty is the cutting of the fabric after weaving, owing to the difficulty of keeping the knife-guide in the race when passing from one portion of the figure to another across the ground.

A considerable quantity of fabrics had been made with velvet cord figures—which are easy enough to cut—before it was found possible to cut the real velvet figure. This was rendered possible by throwing the short floats of pile weft to the back of the cloth at the edges of the figure, and always moving in steps or races at the edges of the figure, and in addition to this always keeping the end upon which the knife runs, to the inside of each step. By throwing out the short floats the chief difficulty was overcome, as the obstruction caused by these was the chief cause of the knife and guide being thrown out when cutting. These improvements were simultaneously devised by the writer and Mr. T. Anderson, of Wyke, and a large quantity of cloth was turned out a few years ago, but owing to the cottony appearance of the ground the demand quickly fell away.

Two large manufacturers took out a patent to include all figured weft pile fabrics, but a thorough search could not have been made, as the writer recently came across a heap of patterns woven on the same principle, including the stepping in races, and also with a coloured extra warp ground, which had been made at least before the year 1870.

The method of putting the designs on point paper is shown at Fig. 402. The weave generally used is an ordinary E1 velvet with about 400 picks per inch, woven in an 80 reed 2-60’s twist, 70’s weft. It will be seen that the figure steps in twos at the edges, and that all floats less than five are thrown to the back of the cloth by the small dots in the design. The blanks represent the weft on the face, and the inside of the step or race is arranged to come on the third, fifth, seventh ends, and so on, these being the ends along which the knife runs. Where a turn is made in the figure it must be on an odd number of ends in order to keep the race in this position.

Other systems of making figured weft pile fabrics have been tried. One of these was to use an extra warp at the back for binding the pile picks where the ground is required, and binding the picks where the figure is required, to the ordinary warp. When the pile is cut the extra warp is torn away, pulling the pile with it where the ground of the pattern occurs.

Another method is to weave the figure fast pile, and the ground loose pile, and to brush the loose pile away at the back.

Velvet and leno stripes have been woven. As velvet requires a large number of picks and leno a small number, there is a difficulty in cutting the picks at the back of the leno stripe away. This can be overcome by interweaving the picks to be taken away at the back of the leno with some extra ends, and when the velvet stripe is cut, the back cloth can be torn away quite easily.

Solid Coloured Borders.—In some fabrics, such as dhooties, the borders are sometimes made with coloured warp and weft, and the middle of the piece with white or grey yarns. The method of obtaining the solid border is rather ingenious, and is as follows.

A coloured end is placed at each side of the warp, and this thread hangs loose from the bobbin, so that not much force is required to pull the thread into the border. The warp ends forming the border are on separate staves from the ground ends, and lift so as to allow two picks to go through each shed while the middle weaves ordinary plain cloth.

The coloured end A (Fig. 403) is lifted every other pick, and the shuttle containing the white weft will pass round it, and as the shed is not changed in the border ends, the coloured thread is taken into the border, thus forming a solid coloured border on an ordinary grey or white cloth. In the border, there will be two picks in a shed.

The point paper plan showing the difference in the shedding between the border and the middle is given at Fig. 404. The coloured thread from the bottom may be lifted by the plain staves.

Direction of the Twist in Yarns.—Warp yarns are usually twisted so as to show the lines of the twist from right to left, and weft yarns are twisted in the opposite direction. The reason for this is that when the yarns are woven into cloth the lines of both warp and weft run in the same direction, and the threads become embedded together as closely as possible through the strands falling into each other. This is shown at Fig. 405, where at A and B the warp and weft yarns are shown laid side by side. At C the same yarns are shown as laid in the cloth, when it will be seen that the lines of twist appear in the same direction, and the threads have thus a chance of getting together as closely as possible.

If the weft is spun in the same direction as the warp, or “twist way,” as it is termed, when woven the lines or strands appear in opposite directions, and each thread has a tendency to be kept apart from the others, and appears separately. This, if anything, makes the cloth feel slightly thicker, and is preferred by many for certain purposes, including some classes of printing cloths. The finer appearance is obtained by the yarns spun in opposite directions.

In twill and satin cloths, and similar fabrics, the direction of the twist has a very important bearing upon the appearance of the fabric.

The finest and closest effect is obtained by using warp and weft yarns spun in opposite directions, so that when woven the lines appear in the same direction, and the direction of the twill should be opposite to both. This is why one side of a twill cloth has a finer appearance than the other, as the twill runs against the lines on one side, and with the lines on the other side of the cloth, the former having the finer appearance. Fig. 406 shows the yarns spun oppositely, and the twill running in a direction opposite to the lines.

In sateen cloths there is a kind of twill in one direction, as shown in Fig. 407, and the above principle applies to this as well as regular twills.

It often occurs that for printing and dyeing purposes the weft is preferred spun “twist way,” and as the weft greatly predominates over the warp, the direction of the twill should be contrary to the lines of the weft. Not much difference is noticeable in the better makes of cloth, but when there are few picks, a frayed appearance is often produced if the direction of the twill is not reversed.

To keep the twill in a given direction, the twist may be spun “weft way” to give the desired effect.

In very small twills, such as Jeannettes, a more decided twill is obtained by using weft spun in the same way as the twist or warp yarns, but in larger twills the best effect is obtained in the opposite manner.