Lila M. O'Neale

“ All but ten of the fifty-seven examined were woven with single-ply warp and weft elements and of these ten, only one coarse cloth had 2-ply warps and wefts; the remaining nine had 2-ply warps crossed by single-ply wefts. The majority of these fabrics classified as "fine" weavings.
Yarns may be twisted (spun) in two directions. The spirals formed by twisting may extend upward to the left (the S-twist) or to the right (the Z-twist) . The frequencies of the left and the right twist in yarns are indicative of motor habits, if nothing more. ”

“ The cords binding the end loops of the warp skein to the loom bars hold the first of these loomstring wefts, as they are called, to the bars. The two or more succeeding wefts, which are interlaced with the warps, establish the width of the piece and give it a certain firmness. On the ends of some cloths the strand of cord for loomstrings was long enough to carry across the web only twice. In the majority of our plain-weave cloths it was carried across three times ”

“ On one of the Chincha 4- specimens (4-4068a) the half-inch selvage is distinguished from the body of the fabric by the use of warp yarns lighter in color than those appearing in the body of the fabric and by the two-over-one weave of the right-hand selvage in contrast to the one-over-one weave found elsewhere in the fabric. In specimen 4-4027 the edges are strengthened on each side for some six inches of the length by a single heavy 4-ply warp unit. ”

“ More than a third of the patches were taken from the edges of the breadths, as the stripes indicate.
Techniques used to fasten down the edges are hemming and whipping. The workmanship is fairly coarse, the lengths of the individual stitches approximately a quarter-inch long. Standards were much below those held by the weaver, but this difference is not surprising.
Threads employed for the patching suggest that the seamstress used odds and ends of weaving yarns. Two or more kinds ordinarily appear on a single patch, one of them usually a coarse white cotton thread of fairly loose twist. ”

“ All yarns are initially spun as single plies. In the ancient Peruvian textiles, there are evidences of preferences for single-ply yarns or at least the use of them even in fabrics we should consider called for heavier elements. The Chincha domestic cloths are good examples. ”

“ Complete widths of Chincha plain-weave fabrics in order from narrowest to widest:
Seventy-odd individually woven breadths of material are incomplete as to width. The arbitrary groupings in which these fall are as follows:
Side selvages strengthened by any one of the several methods we know from commercial weavings are rare in textiles from primitive looms. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Any form of repair technique in Peruvian textiles is rare. Many of the materials show wear and occasionally coarse stitches are put through the cloth to draw the edges of a tear together; otherwise there is little to suggest concern with prolonging the life of a garment. ”

“ Other allover stripes (fig. 8, a; pl. 7,c) have units a quarter-inch wide, brown on a neutral ground. There is both color and texture interest in these specimens. The brown warp units are in pairs, the neutral-color warp units between each two brown units are alternately all single warps and all pairs of warps. As a result, every other neutral-color stripe is appreciably thinner than its neighbor stripes (pl. 7,c) . The third allover striped specimen (16-1224) is alternately blue and neutral color, each stripe unit approximately one-sixteenth inch wide (fig. 8,c) . ”

“ Tatters at bottom edge turned to outside and secured with running stitches. Length 51⁄4 inches; breadth 71⁄4 inches.
Plate 2
Loomstring ends of Chincha fabrics, a, b, detail of ends of two webs (16-1304b, 16-1270) to show heading strip (1) and weaving proper (2) comparable in texture; (3) section between them, the join, more loosely woven. Width of sections shown, 3.5 inches.
Plate 3
a, b, c, examples of medium-coarse Chincha fabrics (16-1282, 16-1217, 16-1252) , fair to good qualities of weaving; d, worn material reinforced by patches held down by running stitches (16-1222) . ”

“ 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 140 in quality of craftsmanship. ”

“ Ornamentation in the Chincha plain-weave cloths analyzed for this study consists solely of stripes and plaids; an occasional edge finish is as much a strengthening device as a decorative detail. A few cloths are allover striped ”

“ Selvages at left. Width of narrowest border stripe, one-fourth inch; others in proportion.
Plate 7
a, reconstruction of border stripes of fabric in plate 6,e; b, reconstruction of stripe found on several specimens; c, section of fabric (×2) showing variations in plain weave and amount of twist given to weaving elements (16-1240) ; d, section of fabric (×2) showing two-and-two basket weave varied in appearance by arrangement of colored yarns (4-3962) . ”