Idler line

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“Lazy line” (diagonally from bottom left to top right, over the left corner of the black hook and across the body of the “bird” ornament) in a white-ground Selendi carpet , Schäßburg monastery church , Transylvania

An idler line or English lazy line is a technical term used in weaving , which designates a visible diagonal splice in a textile fabric. This occurs when a fabric is not woven continuously from one edge to the other, but in sections at different times. In order to connect the sections later, individual weft threads are led back from both directions around the same warp threads and in opposite directions. The weft threads, which are staggered one after the other, create a diagonal line that is best seen from the reverse side of knotted carpets, but only from the front when the pile is already heavily worn.

Lazy lines can often be found in ancient oriental carpets , especially in Anatolian knotted carpets of village or nomadic manufacture, but also in weaving works by the North American Navajo .

Technical details

A narrow carpet can be completed row by row by tying a complete row of knots around the warp threads and then shooting one or more weft threads from side edge to side edge across the full width of the loom. The weft thread is guided around one or more warp threads on the side edge of the fabric and back again.

If a single person is working on a very wide loom, they may choose to finish the sections within their reach first. Then it changes its position and adds the missing areas. In the same way, several people can work on the same loom at different speeds. In both cases, the weft threads do not run across the entire width of the loom, but rather discontinuously , similar to flat woven fabrics and kilims : at the border of two areas they are led back around a warp thread. If the weft thread is looped around the same warp thread, a slot is created between the two sections at this point. If the weft reversal is offset by a few warp threads in ascending or descending order, a diagonal line is created in the finished carpet fabric, the lazy line. This creates a dense fabric without any open slits.

Use as a design element

A section line is not noticeable on carpets that still have their full pile. If weft threads of the same color as the carpet pile are used in a section, the basic structure of the carpet does not shine through so noticeably if the pile is worn away by use. The Navajo use the lazy line technique for their flat weaves to make certain elements of the pattern more prominent.

Since lazy lines are complex to forge, their occurrence is considered one of the authenticity features of an antique knotted carpet or a Navajo flat weave.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Laurie D. Webster, Louise Stiver, DY Begay, Lynda Teller Pete: Navajo Textiles: The Crane Collection at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science . University Press of Colorado, 2017, ISBN 978-1-60732-673-1 , pp. 139 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ Peter F. Stone: Oriental rugs: an illustrated lexicon of motifs, materials, and origins . Tuttle Publ., Tokyo [u. a.] 2013, ISBN 978-1-4629-1184-4 .
  3. ↑ a b c Murray L. Eiland Jr., Murray Eiland III: Oriental Rugs - A Complete Guide . Callmann & King Ltd., London 1998, ISBN 1-85669-132-2 , pp. 49 .
  4. ^ Charlotte S. Neyland: Southwest Traveler - A travelers guide to Southwest Indian arts and crafts . Renaissance House, Frederick, CO 1992, ISBN 978-1-55838-129-2 , pp. 27 ( limited preview in Google Book search).