Weaving means to make cloth and other objects. Threads or strands of material are passed under and over each other.

Weaving is the process of making cloth, rugs, blankets, and other products by crossing two sets of threads over and under each other. Weavers use threads spun from natural fibers like cotton, silk, and wool and synthetic fibers such as nylon and Orlon. But thin, narrow strips of almost any flexible material can be woven. People learned to weave thousands of years ago using natural grasses, leafstalks, palm leaves, and thin strips of wood.

Cotton yarn can be made into cloth by knitting or weaving but weaving is by far (in Lancashire although there was a knitting industry in Nottingham) the most important and the only one described here. Weaving is carried out on a loom. Threads run lengthways from back to front of the loom. These are known as the "warp". Using a shuttle yarn is threaded width ways - this is the "weft". At one time it was probably threaded by hand — under; over; under; over; under; over etc with something like a needle. But even in early times, using a hand-loom, it was found to be much quicker to raise alternate warp threads and lower the others. The weft could then be carried between them in a straight line. The position of the warp threads was then reversed and the weft sent back in the opposite direction.

All the warp threads have to be threaded through the healed eyelet and its gap in the reed. This is done by "drawers" and "reachers". Where a new warp thread (or "end") had to be joined to an old one this was done by a "loomer" or "twister". Overlookers, also known as "tacklers", are responsible for setting the looms up with fresh warps and keeping the machinery in good working order. The same word could be used less precisely to mean a "supervisor".