Knitting is a method for production of textile fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.
The kimono is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono is traditionally worn with a broad sash, called an obi, and is commonly worn with accessories such as zōri sandals and tabi socks.
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved in sewing. Embroidery threads are yarns specifically designed for needlework. Yarn can be made of a number of natural or synthetic materials, and comes in a variety of colors and thicknesses. Although yarn may be dyed different colours, most yarns are solid coloured with a uniform hue.
Velvet is a type of woven fabric with a dense, even pile that gives it a distinctive soft feel. Historically, velvet was typically made from silk. Today, velvet can be made from silk, linen, cotton, wool, synthetic fibers, silk-cotton blends, or synthetic-natural fiber blends.
A satin weave is a type of fabric weave that produces a characteristically glossy, smooth or lustrous material, typically with a glossy top surface and a dull back; it is not durable, as it tends to snag. It is one of three fundamental types of textile weaves alongside plain weave and twill weave.
Crêpe, also spelled crepe or crape, is a silk, wool, or synthetic fiber fabric with a distinctively crisp and crimped appearance. The term "crape" typically refers to a form of the fabric associated specifically with mourning. Crêpe was also historically called "crespe" or "crisp".
Kasuri (絣) is the Japanese term for fabric that has been woven with fibers dyed specifically to create patterns and images in the fabric, typically referring to fabrics produced within Japan using this technique. It is a form of ikat dyeing, traditionally resulting in patterns characterized by their blurred or brushed appearance.
The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns it into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.
Textile fibers, threads, yarns and fabrics are measured in a multiplicity of units.
Novelty yarns include a wide variety of yarns made with unusual features, structure or fiber composition such as slubs, inclusions, metallic or synthetic fibers, laddering and varying thickness introduced during production. Some linens, wools to be woven into tweed, and the uneven filaments of some types of silk are allowed to retain their normal irregularities, producing the characteristic uneven surface of the finished fabric. Man-made fibres, which can be modified during production, are especially adaptable for special effects such as crimping and texturizing.
Ottoman is a widthways-ribbed textile with pronounced, raised 'ribs' along its wale and course. Similar to grosgrain, Ottoman is known as a corded fabric, using a thicker yarn in the course rather than the wale to create raised stripes running across the width of the fabric.
Ripstop fabrics are woven fabrics, often made of nylon, using a reinforcing technique that makes them more resistant to tearing and ripping. During weaving, stronger reinforcement yarns are interwoven at regular intervals in a crosshatch pattern. The intervals are typically 5 to 8 millimeters. Thin and lightweight ripstop fabrics have a two-dimensional structure due to the thicker yarns being interwoven in thinner cloth. Older lightweight ripstop fabrics display the thicker interlocking thread patterns in the material quite prominently, but more modern weaving techniques make the ripstop threads less obvious. A similar effect can be achieved by weaving two or three fine yarns together at smaller intervals.
Dupioni is a plain weave silk fabric, produced using fine yarn in the warp and uneven yarn reeled from two or more entangled cocoons in the weft. This creates tightly woven yardage with a highly-lustrous surface and a crisp hand. It is similar to shantung, but slightly thicker, heavier, and with a greater slub count. In Japan a cocoon containing more than one silkworm is called tamamayu.
Kumejima-tsumugi (久米島紬) is the Japanese craft of silk cloth practised in Kumejima, Okinawa Prefecture. Kumejima-tsumugi is the oldest type of tsumugi in Japan, out of the approximately two hundred forms of tsumugi, and is the oldest kasuri fabric. It is recognised as one of the Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Japan.
Yūki-tsumugi (結城紬) is a variety of silk cloth produced in Japan, chiefly in Yūki in Ibaraki Prefecture. It is designated as one of the Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Japan, and has also been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Leno weave is a weave in which two warp yarns are woven around the weft yarns to provide a strong yet sheer fabric. The standard warp yarn is paired with a skeleton or 'doup' yarn; these twisted warp yarns grip tightly to the weft which causes the durability of the fabric. Leno weave produces an open fabric with almost no yarn slippage or misplacement of threads.
A tanmono is a bolt of traditional Japanese narrow-loomed cloth. It is used to make traditional Japanese clothes, textile room dividers, sails, and other traditional cloth items.
Tsumugi (紬) is a traditional slub-woven silk fabric from Japan. It is a tabby weave material woven from yarn produced using silk noil, short-staple silk fibre. The short silk fibres are degummed and, traditionally, the yarns are hand-joined to form a continuous length before weaving, a technique also used for cheaper bast fibres. Yarns are joined by twisting the ends to be joined in the same direction, then twisting both ends, bundled together, in the other direction, to make a two-ply yarn at the overlap. It might alternately be loosely handspun, with few twists per unit length. Because of this structure, tsumugi is rough-surfaced, soft and drapey, softening further with age.
A slub in textiles production refers to thickened areas of a fiber or yarn. Slubbed or slubby fabric is woven from slubby yarn. Both high and low slubbiness may be sought.
Ōshima-tsumugi is a traditional craft textile produced in the Amami Islands in southern Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. It is a hand-woven plain-weave silk cloth dyed in mud. The textile is most commonly used for making kimonos. Oshima-tsumugi kimonos are often simply called Ōshima.
