The Navajo Loom

Before a discourse on the Navajo loom (or rather; lack of.) may begin, it is a necessity that an understanding of the parts be first explored.
��Because of the fact that no such machine is or ever has existed, it is therefore of greater need that an understanding of the product of the Navajo loom be studied instead.

In order to explore this product, an understanding of this people would seem to be of interest, also.

The first fact of interest that comes to view is the knowledge that the Navajo did not invent the Navajo loom, blanket, or the Navajo weave.

While they have been given credit for being those who first put the wool from the Spaniard's sheep to the use of the weaver's art.
They are the ones who are also known most widely for this use. But there is still no wide body of evidence that states this as hard fact.

Perhaps a point to be made in the attempt to understand this people is the knowledge that they are an 'adaptive' and once nomadic tribe.
Quite unlike the sedentary race of people who live beside and at one time all around the place where all now dwell. The pueblo peoples, and once the enemy and hated foe of the raiding Navajo bands.
The Navajo have always been an adaptive people in most all they have undertaken,
even down to their religion and habits.

Long before the the Navajo woman ever set at her loom under the shade of the scrub cedar trees that in all likelihood made up part of its construction. The finest of woven cotton ceremonial sashes and belts and dresses were to be found woven by the men of the Hopi and other pueblo peoples.
��But I have altered course from the explanation that was first intended.
The makeup of what passes for a loom. The Navajo loom (An the lack of.)

As stated, a knowledge of the weave its self must be had in order to visualize what passes for the Navajo loom.

The very first and most important string of yarn to come to this 'Loom' is that which runs from top to bottom, or from end to end and makes up the skeleton of the woven piece, and also lending most all of the strength to the weave.
This string or yarn is called the warp and in most, though not all of the primitive weaves of the Navajo and pueblo types, have this yarn concealed in the body of the finished weave. As will be explained in more detail, later.

By the alternate exposure of every other warp thread to the front then back of the piece being woven, the two shed openings are created.
These are the openings that are needed for the cross or horizontal threads to pass through and seem to go over and under each warp thread. These are called the Woof (or weft) threads.

An understanding of the difference between the warp and the woof is critical to this telling.
The warp thread is the loom.
The warp string is the body of the loom.

Though it is called a yarn and in most weavings would be called a thread. The truth is that in the primitive weave of the pueblo and Navajo, the warp is a string.
A string because of the method of spinning and re-spinning it to a hard and very strong string.
This is but one of many things that sets this primitive weave apart from other woven arts, but not the main one.
The most important one and the one that sets this art form apart from others is the fact that the warp string is just that. A single string from end to end and start to finish.
In other words; this single string carries throughout the piece from one end and back to the other, and from one side of the piece to the other without knot or end.