Looms go from tiny to really enormous in size across the whole range.
The idea of tartan making is simple enough, the warp threads are usually arranged in pairs of the same colour, so you always have two of even the least amongst them. By doubling or halving the number of all of them you change the size of the sett.
When hand weaving you could go down to a single thread of a colour to reduce a huge sett size to something manageable, but that is because you can do that on a hand loom. The industrial monsters can only reduce down to two as they work the weft as pairs of threads.
You arrange the warp threads in the correct order for the tartan, (swear, arrange them in the CORRECT order for the tartan) count them all three times to be certain, then you weave the weft colours in the same order and the same number of threads - assuming it is a symmetrical pattern, of course.
The pattern is separate from the weaving technique, so you could get a little loom where the threads are lifted or depressed singly, to make the simplest sort of cloth, or for a small project you can create a twill weave lifting the threads by hand.
Twill weaving raises and lowers the warp threads in pairs, and the selection of the pairs moves across the warp, so you need multiple shafts to pull the different pairs into place. That is what forms the diagonal lines in the finished cloth. I always have to check the convention for the way the diagonals run - though this can't be adhered to where the looms or the finishing make the 'right' side the wrong side.
I have material where the 'right' side has been brushed, so to get a hard faced cloth and the diagonals correct I have to cut it across the warp and use the inside turned 90 degrees to the normal way of kilt making. It did get me some cheap cloth and kilts.
Hand loom weavers had a reputation as step dancers as they worked the mechanism of the shafts with their feet.
Originally Posted by haxtonhouse
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