Thread counts range from 16 warp pairs by 12 wefts to 44 warp
pairs by 32 wefts per inch with one specimen having the high
count of 80 warp pairs by 28 wefts per inch.
In terms of weaving units, whether single yarns or pairs of yarns, 56
of the 112 counts taken fall within a range of 26 to 44 warp units and
24 to 36 weft units. Figure 5 shows this concentration within the
frame.
Weaving techniques, other than the basic structural types, are few in
number. Drawing in colored warps for stripes is a preliminary to the
actual interlacing of the elements. The results of this procedure can
best be discussed under the heading "Pattern."
The join is a technical feature that indicates standards of
craftsmanship. It is customary in weaving materials with end as well
as side selvages to give more or less attention to the closing of the
space between the weaving proper and the heading strip. When the warps
in the form of a skein had been spread out evenly and bound in place
to the end bars, the ancient weavers on two-bar looms first wove a
shallow heading strip to secure the warps in their positions and to
establish the ultimate width of the fabric, a practice followed by
some modern weavers today. Then the weaver reversed the loom end for
end to begin what became the weaving proper, and continued until the
length was complete. Difficulties or indifference to appearance very
often resulted in a general looseness of texture where standard-size
tools had to be removed and the interlacing done more or less by the
fingers. Plate 2,a, b shows heading strips of different depths,
fairly wide join areas in which the wefts are more widely spaced, and
above these, the compact texture of the weaving proper.
Three finely woven cloths, one of them shown in plate 5,d, exemplify
warp locking, end-to-end. This technique is known from the earliest
periods on the coast in the so-called patchworks from Nazca Valley
graves. It occurs also in Middle- and Late-period textiles.[5] The
methods of lengthening the warps by the addition of new ones vary, but
one feature is common to all those examined: the supplementary
transverse yarns are in effect scaffold or skeleton wefts.[6] In the
Chincha cloths, the two warps interlock as shown in the reconstruction
in plate 5,a. In two Chincha plain-weave cloths, as in the Nazca
patchworks, the warps of two colors meet on the skeleton weft.
Two specimens in lot 4- (3890a and 4056) are poor in quality of
craftsmanship. Careless weaving resulted in the breaking of several
warps, uneven shedding, and puckering in the center of the web. A
three-inch difference in the length between the two side edges of
specimen 4-4056 was probably due to slanting of the warping stakes
(fig. 6). There is also a difference between the widths of the ends of
each cloth, in one of them as much as three inches. Different weights
of yarn are used, their twists ranging from soft-to-medium to crepe.
[Illustration: =4-4056=
Fig. 6. Diagram of a web showing an irregular shape which may have
resulted from careless warping. Occurrences of plain-weave variations
are indicated by symbols for units: +, one-by-one; =|,
one-by-two; ++, two-by-one; and #, two-by-two (27 in. × 26 in.
over all).]
In specimen 4-3890a the warps were grouped in pairs throughout the
breadth of the cloth. In the first eight and one-half inches of the
length, the weft is single and for the remaining fifteen and one-half
inches the wefts are paired. This results in plain-weave variations of
two-by-one, or semibasket weave, and two-by-two, or basket weave.
In setting up the loom for specimen 4-4056, twelve inches of the
breadth were warped with units of single 2-ply warp yarns (fig. 6,
right) and the remaining fourteen inches were set up for units of twin
warps (fig. 6, left). Several plain-weave variations were found. The
weaver introduced single and twin wefts at irregular intervals
throughout the length of the cloth. Therefore, in the portion where
the single warp unit interlaces with single wefts, a simple
one-by-one, or plain weave results; where the single warp unit
interlaces with twin wefts, a one-by-two, or semibasket weave occurs.
In the portion of the breadth where warps are paired, interlacings of
two-by-one, or semibasket weave, and two-by-two, or basket weave,
occur.
Owing to the difference in length between the two side edges of
specimen 4-4056, the weaver started making adjustments before she had
woven half the length of her cloth. In order to restore a working edge
at right angles to her warps, she introduced incomplete or fill-in
wefts; that is, weft yarns entered on the long side and carried a
distance across the web and then turned back in the next shed (pl.
8,a). The largest number of fill-in wefts occurs roughly at a point
about a third up from the end. Here, seven wefts were introduced, one
after the other, all entering from the same side of the web (pl.
5,e). The distance across the web that these various wefts were
carried ranges from ten to twenty inches. At each turning point of the
weft there is a kelim slit.