Jargon

Every craft, every endeavour that we do as humans, has 'jargon' attached to it.  Since weaving (and spinning, and knitting, and, and, and) all require specialized tools, knowing what these tools are called and the names of the processes involved in the craft makes communication more specific.

It's really really hard to ask a question when all you have are 'the pointy thing' or the 'lever thing' to refer to when asking a question.

So for anyone wanting to learn how to weave, I generally suggest that they get a book out of the library and go through the glossary to learn what all the words of the language of weaving mean.

In the back of The Intentional Weaver, I included a list of books I have found useful over the years along with some websites.

I'm not saying you can't learn how to weave unless you know the language, I'm just saying that to ease communication it might be a good idea to learn some of the language.

You don't even need to know it all before starting, but it will help to learn if you know what the books or the presenter is meaning when they use words like 'reed', 'beater', 'fell line', 'pick' and so on.

It also helps to know how to spell those words.  Especially things like 'treadle', 'heddle', 'brake'.  And my favourite... 'dyeing'.  (I've got a story about 'dying' and 'dyeing' - maybe I'll tell it one day.)

'Dressing the loom' to me means the entire process of getting the warp into the loom - from rough sleying or spreading it in a reed or raddle to winding on to threading, sleying and tying it to the front of the loom.

Others take a narrower definition and only consider the beaming to be 'dressing'.

Some of the older books, especially those from England, will have the English terms, not the more modern ones.  So you might see 'batten' instead of 'beater' or 'heald' instead of 'heddle'.  But once you know the 'American' version, the 'English' words taken in context should make sense.

If you are one of my students I will offer the words and supply a definition to put the word into context.  Then I expect you to make an effort to learn the words.