The Wheel of Fortune/Appendix 1e
WHAT KIND OF LOOM?
Questions are asked as to the production of cloths in an old-fashioned loom from handspun yarn. The experience in our school is, that a well-practised worker weaves on a pit-loom one yard cloth of 30 inches width and of fairly thick texture in one hour. Cloth of greater or smaller width varies in proportion. Our fly-shuttle pit-loom has not exceeded this figure in handspun yarn so far. When formerly we used mill-made yarn, it yielded about half as much cloth again as the old pit-loom. However in weaving dhotiyans and sadis from handspun as well as mill-made yarn the flyshuttle is very handy.
Then there is a question as to the necessity of beaming the yarn. We believe, that where there is no question of room, beaming should be dispensed with. Hand-loom weaving factories situated in thickly populated towns where rates of house-rent are very high, have reason to resort to beaming; but where space allows stretching of the yarn as practised by the professional weavers, it is a time-saving method and is artistic as well. There; is an argument in favour of beaming that it allows of the handling of warp, as long as 200 or even 300 yards. But if such length of handspun yarn can be prepared, it is equally easy if not easier, to stretch it in the old style.