Silk Yams

Silk yarn made from the tangled waste silk from the outside of cocoons. An embroidery silk is also known by this term and is made by doubling two thick singles having a right-hand twist with a left-hand twist (see Silk Yams)

A wild silk variety obtained from the Attacus atlas. The silkworm spins open cocoons and gives the so-called Ailanthus silk. The fibre is dark coloured and coarser than real silk. Also a silk fabric woven in India of rich coloured yams.

The French term for gauze, and there are many fabrics made in France to which this name is given. The most common are as follows: - Gaze a Bluter - Made in cotton or silk and used for sifting purposes. It is a plain gauze. Gaze Brilliantine - A high-class dress leno cloth made from all silk yams. Gaze an Fuseau - See Grille. Gaze Barege - Very light dress goods, silk warp, wool weft, or of all wool, often printed. Gaze Ceres - A fabric for making women's hats, silk warp and split straw weft. Leno weave. Seldom used today. Gaze Cristal - Very light French dress goods, silk warp, having small bright and dull spots alternating on the face. Gaze Damassee - A gauze fabric of silk warp and weft in which the design is produced with two wefts, either different colours or different material. Gaze Faconnee - A French gauze with brocade design woven one ground thread and one figuring thread alternately. Gaze Paconnee Broche - French gauze fabric, plain gauze, on which is hand embroidered various designs. Gaze Faconnee Raye - French gauze with warp stripes. Gaze de Fil - A French-made gauze, flax yarns, with a light starch finish, usually striped. Gaze d'ltalie - A French gauze, made of silk yams. Gaze de Paris - A French light-weight, silk dress fabric, made of organzine warp and trame weft. Gaze de Voilette - A French production made from all-silk yams in fine reeds and closely picked. A pure, very fine and transparent gauze. Gaze Filoche - A French all-silk leno fabric. Gaze Fond Filoche - An all-silk French gauze, organzine warp, grege weft, with bars across the weft formed by groups of picks. Gaze Lisse - A leno cloth, very light weight, made in France from undyed silk yams. Gaze Marabout - A very light, silk French gauze. Also a pile fabric made with very short plush stripes, alternating in three colours, over a thin gauze ground. Gaze Milanaise - A French light-weight dress fabric with equal number of ends and picks per inch. Made of " Milanaise " yarn. Gaze Ondee - A French very light dress cloth or trimming fabric made of organzine warp and weft on " ondee " silk. Gaze Perron - A French leno fabric, all silk, used for bordering on dresses. Gaze Platree - A striped French gauze, made of yellow silk and given a light starch finish. Gaze Tour Anglais - The French term for leno.

A fine all-silk plain weave fabric, made from 46-in. to 52-in. in width to shrink 20 per cent in width and 10 per cent in length. Georgettes range from 80 ends and 80 picks to 100 ends and 100 picks per inch of 13/15 denier silk. Both warp and weft are one right, and one reverse twist. This cloth is the same as crepe-de-Chine, except that all crepe yarn is used both ways (see silk yams)

A silk trade term for yarns made from cocoon filaments, reeled without twist, which are combined to form tram or thrown silk weft. The finest of silk yams. This term is also applied to rayon and other untwisted yarns.

A silk fabric made in the Bombay district by hand-loom weavers using native spun silk yams in plain weave.

A native hand-loom silk fabric from Balk, Central Asia. Woven 9-in. to 17-in. wide, of all-silk yams. Amber, crimson and blue dyed yarns are used, and the figure is developed with coloured weft.

An all-silk dress fabric woven in the 2 X 1 warp twill from net silk yams of the crepe type (hard twisted). Extra weft is used for backing in a satin weave, but this weft is practically untwisted. There is one pick face and one back as seen in the diagram

A fine French all-silk fabric made from very fine silk yams in 2 & I twill weave. Only the weft is crepe and it is used two right, two reverse. Cloth width is 43-in. to finish 39/40-in. There are 220 (double ends) and from 80 up to 100 picks per inch. Owing to the large number of ends it is woven on six shafts, giving a warp face. It is piece-dyed and finished to give a lustrous face.

See Silk Yams.

A French fabric made with bold warp ribs similar to a Bedford cord. Cotton and wool or silk yams are used. The term actually denotes a ribbed cloth for riding Garments.

A satin material with a glossy finish used for dresses by native women in East India. Made at Surat, formerly of silk yams, but latterly of polished cotton warp.

Stretching and moistening silk yams to impart lustre.

The original name for gingham. A plain weave fabric made on hand looms in India from silk yams with a small percentage of hemp or jute fibres.

(See knitting). All yarns used for knitting are termed hosiery yarns in Leicester, but in America only yarns actually used for knitted footwear come under this term. These yarns are much softer than required for weaving. Miscellaneous Yarns - Goat wools, such as llama and alpaca are employed in spinning. yarns for the knitting trade. Vicuna and camel yarns are used to a limited extent. Ramie yarn is specially employed for knitting gas mantle fabrics. Soft spun flax yams have been used for making underwear fabric. Chenille and other manufactured threads are used to a small extent in warp knitting. Composite yarns, such as union yarns - spun from a mixture of wool and cotton fibres; cordon yarns - cotton and worsted singles, doubled together; wool and rayon or spun silk, cotton and rayon or spun silk are largely used to produce self or two-colour effects. Fancy yarns, such as slub yams, voiles, and curled and loop yarns are also employed. Hosiery Yarns (Cotton) include condenser, hosiery, condenser lisle thread, mercerised and sewing cottons. Condenser yarns are spun in coarse counts from low-grade cotton, Indian and American. They are carded, condensed and mule spun, and possess little twist. Hosiery cotton yarns vary considerably in counts and qualities, practically all varieties of Indian, American and Egyptian being used in varying proportions to obtain suitable mixture for quality and price. Cheaper yarns are carded and mule spun. American and Egyptian cotton yarns are combed mainly with the object of removing seed particles. High-class Egyptian and Sea Islands cotton yarns are super-combed. The chief features of a hosiery cotton yam should be: (1) Regularity; (2) cleanliness; (3) fullness. Regularity prevents the making of cloudy fabric, showing thick and thin places. Cleanliness is essential, as the seed particles clog the eyelet hole in the yam guides and cause breakages. Fullness is desirable to cover the loop interstices. Elasticity and pliability are quite as essential as tensile strength. Yams are usually soft spun and if two-fold soft doubled, average twists in two-fold being 2/10's 6¹/₂T., 2/20's 8¹/₂T., 2/30's 10T., 2/40's 16T., 2/80's 20T. Softer twist less 25 to 30 per cent of average (T= turns per inch). Lisle thread is a comparatively hard-twisted and doubly-gassed thread in which there are no projecting fibres. It is always of a two-fold character, and the doubling twist varies from 24 to 34 turns per inch in 2/60's. It is used largely in the manufacture of ladies' hose tops and feet and for lace hosiery. Mercerised yams are used largely in the fancy trade, a comparatively soft twist again being employed. Sewing cottons for seaming, linking and making-up are specially prepared in two to six cord open and reverse twist. Woollen and Worsted Yarns include lamb's wool, wheeling, skein yarns, gala yams (woollens), worsted, crossbreds, fingering, cashmere, dry spun botany (see under each name). Worsted and crossbred yarns of various qualities are used. These yams are spun softly with " hosiery twist." The drawing may be open, cone or French, and the spinning may take place on cap, ring or flyer frames. The chief essentials of hosiery yarn are softness of fibre, fullness, minimum of twist consistent with the requisite tensile strength, regularity, pliability and elasticity. Cashmere Yarns, as used in the knitted goods industry, are spun from short, loose and weak wools as well as from better qualities by French drawing and mule spinning. A small proportion of real cashmere is used for outer garments. In recent years nylon yarns have been largely employed.

A fabric woven from the silk waste yarns of this name which gives a knotty and uneven surface. Plain weave, in coarse reed and pick of several qualities. Much used for men's and women's clothing, which are cheap but very durable ———————— A silk dress material in which a rough surface is produced by using lumpy knotted yams. The roughness is in both warp and weft and this forms the stripes and checks as seen in the illustration. Many qualities are also made from silk waste yams, very rough and knotty, in the plain weaves.

Specially hard-twisted yams, containing from 30 to 70 turns per inch and produced in singles and doubled. The usual range is 40's to 100's single, 2/80's to 2/200's doubled. The yarns are used for voiles, crepe-de-Chines and fabrics where the aim is to produce crinkles through the strong tendency of the yarns to contract in length. In cotton, yams are made up to six- or nine-fold for special purposes. Crepe yarns are also produced in wool, silk and rayon. An official definition states: Silk, rayon, cotton or wool threads may be given a twist of a specific number of turns per inch. The thread contracts in the twisting, and the evenness of the twist, the type of twist, and the number of turns determines to a definite degree the character of the face of the texture for which the twisted yarn is used. The twist in the yam is set by a process of steaming. The twist co-incidently increases the strength of a thread to a limited extent. The twist may have a bearing upon the lustre of woven or knitted fabrics and upon the capacity of dye penetration and absorption. A crepe yarn may consist of a single thread twisted one way, or of several threads joined by throwing into one thread by a combination of twists.

Besides the wool cloths (see Armure Wool) silk cloths are sold as armures under the following names - Louisine, Barathea, Ottoman and Royale, in fine yams and close weaving. A fabric known as Silk Armure is made in the 8-shaft satin weave, either plain or with small warp spots. It has a warp face and grege silk is used for both warp and weft. It is dyed and dull finished.

Term used in the United Provinces. A lower grade of silk brocade or Kimkhwab made with a raw silk warp and cotton weft. The figures are developed in the silk yarn instead of with gold thread. This term is also given to a plain cloth made from mixture yams of cotton and silk. Manufactured on hand looms in Bankura, Dacca, and Bhagalpur. It is continuously worn as a wrapper by the natives. The term was originally applied to a fine muslin of Western India.

A cotton cloth woven with jacquard designs and used for table covers, napkins, curtains, upholstery cloth, etc. They can be reversible or one-sided only. Designs may be floral or geometrical. Yams 8's to 40's warp and weft. The ground and figure are bound by uniform weaves, generally twill or satin. The figure is developed by interchanging the warp and weft and the pattern so made up that the reflection of light on the threads brings out the effect. Linen and silk damasks only differ in material, as cotton damasks are made in very fine yarns. ———————— A fabric of single structure formed by two satin weaves with figure developed in warp and ground in weft satin weaves resulting in a design that shows very clearly as a warp figure on a weft ground. The figure can be made more prominent by using coloured yam. For table damasks a cotton warp with linen weft is often used. Damasks are made in numerous qualities, but all are figured in the five- or eight-shaft satin weaves. As early as the reign of Henry VIII a damask was a rich figured satin or linen and a damask was known in England as early as the 13th century. The name is derived from Damascus and is presumed to refer to the design and not the material. The finest linen damask is woven about 126 ends and 188 picks per inch from superior flax yarns. The finished sizes vary up to 90-in. wide, 6 yards long, and as a rule damask napkins and table tops can be obtained to match. Standard cloths of single damask are made: - Five-end satin, 60-ends and 56 picks per inch, 50's T., 35's lea W., boiled; 8-end satin, 80 ends and 76 picks per inch, 50's T., 60's lea W., boiled (see Double Damask) ———————— Originally an all-silk fabric with large designs developed in many colours. It was a heavy cloth with satin ground and weft figure. Imitations are now made with cotton warp and cotton or rayon weft. Used for dresses, and when very heavy for curtains, furnishings, dancing shoes, etc. The brocade effects are developed in colour or fancy weaves. Damasse Arabesque has arabesque designs. Damasse Brocat has gold and silver weft for figuring. Damasse Broche has flowered designs. Damasse Cachenir has palm leaf designs. Damasse Chine has printed silk warps. Damasse Egyptien has Egyptian designs. Damasse Jardinier is an expensive damask made with silk warp and fine mercerised cotton weft. The design is of detached flowers in colours. Many coloured wefts are used.