Check (pattern)
A check is a pattern of modified stripes consisting of crossed horizontal and vertical lines forming squares. The word is derived from the ancient Persian language word shah, meaning "king", from the oriental game of chess, played on a squared board from the expression shah mat, "the king is dead", in modern chess parlance "check-mate"; the word entered the French language as echec in the 11th century, thence into English. Buffalo check or buffalo plaid has black hashes on a red background. In the United States, it got this name around 1850 when a designer at the Woolrich mill at Chatham's Run in Pennsylvania copied a pattern known as "Rob Roy" in Scotland. "No. 5310-402 in the Woolrich middleweight fabric collection" became associated with lumberjacks as those nearby in the Pennsylvania woods were the main customers for the woolen shirts that used it. It became popular in mainstream fashion in the United States in the 2010s. Windowpane plaid is a pattern of large rectangles or squares in a color contrasting with the main color.
The check pattern is used in many areas other than textile styles, for example: on a board used by the mediaeval Exchequer to perform financial computations, on a board used for playing checkers and chess, in heraldry. The check pattern has a number of symbolic meanings. In auto racing, the chequered flag is displayed at the finishing line to signal that the race has finished, it originates from the "checkers" who watched the finishing line and checked when cars had finished the race. They began using chequered flags to identify themselves. In some countries, the check pattern has become a symbol of the police. Known as "Sillitoe Tartan", it was first used in Glasgow in the 1930s and was inspired by a pattern worn by some Scottish army regiments; the symbol is used in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Norway and some cities in the United States. Argyle Battenburg markings Checkered flag Diapering Flannel Gingham Houndstooth Madras Plaid Sillitoe Tartan Square tiling Stripe Tartan Tattersall Harrison, E.
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Woollen industry in Wales
The woollen industry in Wales was at times the country's most important industry, though it struggled to compete with the better-funded woollen mills in the north of England, disappeared during the 20th century. There is continued demand for quality Welsh woollen products. Wool processing includes removing the fleece by shearing, classing the wool by quality, untangling and spinning it into yarn, which may be knitted or woven into cloth finishing the cloth by fulling and pressing. Spinning and weaving of sheep's wool dates to prehistoric times in Wales, but only became an important industry when Cistercian monasteries were established in the 12th century. Water-powered fulling mills to finish the cloth enabled rapid expansion of the industry in the 13th century, although spinning and weaving continued to be a cottage industry. In the early 16th century production shifted from south Wales to north Wales; the Shrewsbury Drapers Company in England took a dominant role in distributing Welsh cloth.
From the 18th century there was strong demand for cheap, sturdy Welsh material shipped from Bristol, Liverpool or the Welsh ports to clothe slaves in the British colonies of North America and the West Indies. During the Industrial Revolution the Welsh woollen industry was slow to mechanize compared to the mills of northern England; when railways reached mid Wales in the 1860s they brought a flood of cheap mass-produced products that destroyed the local industry. However, development of the South Wales Coalfield opened a growing market for woollen products from water-powered mills in the south west, which prospered until after World War I. At one time there were more than 300 working wool mills; the industry went into steady decline after World War I, only a few mills continue to operate. Sheep shearing was a major social event on Welsh farms; the fleece would be removed intact carefully folded to make it easier to sort out the different grades of wool at the mill. The quality of wool depends on the individual sheep and on the part of the sheep's body from which the wool has been taken.
The common Welsh Mountain sheep are hardy and thrive in the cold and wet conditions of the Welsh highlands. The wool is soft and may have kemp and black, grey or red fibres, which makes it attractive in tweeds and upholstery. Staple length is 5 to 15 centimetres. Black Welsh Mountain sheep had mutton, prized for its quality, produced valuable Cochddu wool with a staple length of 8 to 10 centimetres. After sorting, the raw wool would be soaked in a 50–50 solution of human urine and water passed through a willy to untangle it and remove foreign matter. Carding completed the disentangling process; the fibres in the roving were spun into woollen yarn. Spinning machines were introduced in the 19th century; the spun fibre would be woven into cloth, which would be finished by washing and drying, fulling and pressing. Natural dyes were used until the mid-19th century; the fleece could be "dyed-in-the-wool", the fibre could be dyed after being spun, or the fabric could be dyed after being woven. Sheep farming in Wales dates to prehistoric times.
There is evidence of spinning and weaving in late prehistoric houses throughout Britain in the first millennium B. C.. Finds include scraps of fabric, loom-weights, spindle-whorls and bone needles, the arrangement of post-holes may indicate they supported looms. For example, a Bronze Age weaving comb was found in the Ogof yr Esgyrn cave in Glyntawe; the Romans imported the white breed characteristic of Welsh sheep today. The sheep at this time would have been much more variable than modern breeds, which have been selected for specific characteristics. In the early days the sheep were not shorn, but the wool was collected when the sheep moulted in the summer, either by plucking it from their fleece or collecting it where it had been rubbed off on a tree or rock. Excavations have been made at the Dinas Powys hillfort in Glamorgan of what seems to have been the court of an important ruler in the 5th and 6th centuries A. D; the bones of sheep were found. The 6th century writer Gildas, thought by some to have lived in Wales, mentioned "mountains suitable for the alternating pasturage of animals".
This seems to refer to transhumance, or seasonal movement of shepherds with their flocks, if so is the earliest mention in Britain. The 10th century Welsh laws of King Hywel Dda allocate pigs to the sheep to the wife. In the summer the pigs were kept in the woods while the wife took and sheep and the children to the highlands; the wife controlled the dairy, took the milking and cheese making equipment. Divorce remained an option in Wales longer than elsewhere in Britain, it was assumed that the woman deserved a share of the calves. In the Middle Ages sheep were kept for their milk and wool rather than their meat. Sheep do not seem to have been important to the Welsh economy before the 12th century, when the first Cistercian monasteries were established in Wales. Tintern Abbey in the Wye valley was founded for monks of the Cistercian order by Walter FitzRichard, lord of Netherwent and Striguil, on 9 May 1131. All abbeys of the order were to be built in remote rural locations, had to be simple and unadorned.
The order expanded rapidly. Tintern was followed by Whitland, its offshoot Strata Florida, Strata Marcella in Powys Wenwynwyn, Cwmhir in Maelienydd, Llantarnam near Caerleon, Aberconwy in Gwynedd, Cymer in Merionethshire and Valle Crucis in Powys Fadog; the monks were granted extensive lands for sheep grazi
Argyle (pattern)
An argyle pattern is made of diamonds or lozenges. The word is sometimes used to refer to an individual diamond in the design, but more refers to the overall pattern. Most argyle contains layers of overlapping motifs, adding a sense of three-dimensionality and texture. There is an overlay of intercrossing diagonal lines on solid diamonds; the argyle pattern derives from the tartan of Clan Campbell of Argyll in western Scotland, used for kilts and plaids, from the patterned socks worn by Scottish Highlanders since at least the 17th century. These were known as "tartan hose". Argyle knitwear became fashionable in Great Britain and in the US after the First World War of 1914–1918. Pringle of Scotland popularised the design, helped by its identification with the Duke of Windsor. Pringle's website says; the Duke, like others, used this pattern for golf clothing: both for jerseys and for the long socks needed for the plus-fours trouser fashion of the day. Payne Stewart, who won the U. S. Open in 1991 and 1999 and the PGA championship in 1989, was known for his flashy tams and argyle socks.
As a knitting pattern, argyle is accomplished using the intarsia technique. Argyle patterns are woven; some sports teams use bright, contemporary interpretations of the argyle pattern: for example, the Garmin-Slipstream professional cycling team, nicknamed the "Argyle Armada", the Norwegian men's curling team at the 2010 Winter Olympics. On April 27, 2013 the professional soccer team Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer in the United States announced their third kit of the 2013 season, featuring an argyle pattern; the University of North Carolina has used the argyle pattern for its basketball uniforms since 1991, introduced it as alternate for all sports uniforms in 2015. The Belgian football team used such design in 1984, had an updated version of it in 2018. Check Flannel Madras Harlequin print
Grunge
Grunge is a rock music genre and subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the Pacific Northwest U. S. state of Washington in Seattle and nearby towns. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and the region's underground music scene. By the early 1990s its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals. Grunge was commercially successful in the early to mid-1990s, due to releases such as Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and Alice in Chains' Dirt; the success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music at the time Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, they influenced modern rock music, as their lyrics brought conscious issues into pop culture and added introspection and an exploration of what it means to be true to oneself.
Grunge was an influence on genres such as post-grunge and nu metal. Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal, featuring the distorted electric guitar sound used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Like these genres, grunge uses electric guitar, bass guitar, a drummer and a singer. Grunge incorporates influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Lyrics are angst-filled and introspective addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, neglect, betrayal and emotional isolation, psychological trauma and a desire for freedom. A number of factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During the mid-to-late 1990s, many grunge bands became less visible. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, labeled by Time as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest", appeared unusually tortured by success and struggled with an addiction to heroin before he died by suicide at the age of 27 in 1994; the term "grunge" was first recorded as being applied to Seattle musicians in July 1987 when Bruce Pavitt described Green River's Dry as a Bone EP in a Sub Pop record company catalogue as "gritty vocals, roaring Marshall amps, ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation".
Although the word "grunge" has been used to describe bands since the 1960s, this was the first association of grunge with the grinding, sludgy sound of Seattle. It is expensive and time consuming to get a recording to sound clean, so for those northwestern bands just starting out it was cheaper for them to leave the sound dirty and just turn up their volume; this dirty sound, due to low budgets, unfamiliarity with recording, a lack of professionalism may be the origin of the term "grunge". The "Seattle scene" refers to that city's alternative music movement, linked to the University of Washington and the Evergreen State College. Evergreen State was a progressive college which did not use grading and which had its own alternative music radio station. Seattle's remoteness from Los Angeles led to a perceived purity of its music; the music of these bands, many of which had recorded with Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop, became labeled as "grunge". The term "Seattle sound" became a marketing ploy for the music industry.
In September 1991, the Nirvana album Nevermind was released, bringing mainstream attention to the music of Seattle. Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain loathed the word "grunge" and despised the new scene, developing, feeling that record companies were signing old "cock-rock" bands who were pretending to be grunge and claiming to be from Seattle; some bands associated with the genre, such as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, have not been receptive to the label, preferring instead to be referred to as "rock and roll" bands. Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden stated that he "hates the word" grunge and hates "being associated with it." Seattle musician Jeff Stetson states that when he visited Seattle in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a touring musician, the local musicians did not refer to themselves as "grunge" performers or their style as "grunge" and they were not flattered that their music was being called "grunge". Rolling Stone noted the genre's lack of a clear definition. Robert Loss acknowledges the challenges of defining "grunge".
Roy Shuker states that the term "obscured a variety of styles." Stetson states that grunge was not a movement, "monolithic musical genre", or a way to react to 1980s-era metal pop. Stetson states. Mark Yarm, author of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, pointed out vast differences between grunge bands, with some being punk and others being metal-based. In 1984 the punk rock band Black Flag went visiting small towns across the US to bring punk to the more remote parts of the country. By this time their music had become slow and sludgy, less like the Sex Pistols and more like Black Sabbath. Krist Novoselic recalls going along with the Melvins to see one of these shows, after which the Melvins front man Buzz Osborne began writing'slow and heavy riffs to form a dirge-like music, the beginning of northwest grunge; the Melvins were the most influential of the early grunge bands. Sub Pop producer Jack Endino described grunge as "seventies-influenced, slowed-down p
Twill
Twill is a type of textile weave with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs. This is done by passing the weft thread over one or more warp threads under two or more warp threads and so on, with a "step," or offset, between rows to create the characteristic diagonal pattern; because of this structure, twill drapes well. Twill weaves can be classified from four points of view: According to the stepping: Warp-way: 3/1 warp way twill, etc. Weft-way: 2/3 weft way twill, etc. According to the direction of twill lines on the face of the fabric: S-Twill or left-hand twill weave: 2/1 S, etc. Z-Twill or right-hand twill weave: 3/2 Z, etc. According to the face yarn: Warp face twill weave: 4/2 S, etc. Weft face twill weave: 1/3 Z, etc. Double face twill weave: 3/3 Z, etc. According to the nature of the produced twill line: Simple twill weave: 1/2 S, 3/1 Z etc. Expanded twill weave: 4/3 S, 3/2 Z, etc. Multiple twill weave: 2/3/3/1 S, etc. In a twill weave, each weft or filling yarn floats across the warp yarns in a progression of interlacings to the right or left, forming a pattern of distinct diagonal lines.
This diagonal pattern is known as a wale. A float is the portion of a yarn. A twill weave requires three or more harnesses, depending on its complexity and is the second most basic weave that can be made on a simple loom. Twill weave is designated as a fraction, such as 2⁄1, in which the numerator indicates the number of harnesses that are raised, the denominator indicates the number of harnesses that are lowered when a filling yarn is inserted; the fraction 2⁄1 is read as "two up, one down". The minimum number of harnesses needed to produce a twill can be determined by totaling the numbers in the fraction. Twill weave can be identified by its diagonal lines. Twill fabrics technically have a front and a back side, unlike plain weave, whose two sides are the same; the front side of the twill is called the back the technical back. The technical face side of a twill weave fabric is the side with the most pronounced wale. If there are warp floats on the technical face, there will be filling floats on the technical back.
If the twill wale goes up to the right on one side, it will go up to the left on the other side. Twill fabrics have no "up" and "down". Sheer fabrics are made with a twill weave; because a twill surface has interesting texture and design, printed twills are much less common than printed plain weaves. When twills are printed, this is done on lightweight fabrics. Soiling and stains are less noticeable on the uneven surface of twills than on a smooth surface, such as plain weaves, as a result twills are used for sturdy work clothing and for durable upholstery. Denim, for example, is a twill; the fewer interlacings in twills as compared to other weaves allow the yarns to move more and therefore they are softer and more pliable, drape better than plain-weave textiles. Twills recover from creasing better than plain-weave fabrics do; when there are fewer interlacings, the yarns can be packed closer together to produce high-count fabrics. With higher counts, including high-count twills, the fabric is more durable, is air- and water-resistant.
Twills can be divided into warp-faced. Even-sided twills include foulard or surah, houndstooth, serge and twill flannel. Warp-faced twills include cavalry twill, covert, drill, fancy twill and lining twill; the dictionary definition of twill at Wiktionary Media related to Twill at Wikimedia Commons
Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye abbreviated to just "Hay", is a small market town and community in the historic county of Brecknockshire in Wales administered as part of the unitary authority of Powys. With over twenty bookshops, it is described as "the town of books", is both the National Book Town of Wales and the site of the annual Hay Literary Festival; the settlement's name is first referred to between 1135 and 1147 as "Haya". By the 16th century it was called "Hay", the use of the river as a suffix is a addition. In 1215, a Welsh name, "Gelli" was recorded, "Gelli gandrell" in 1614; the English language name, "Hay", is derived from Old English "hæg" meaning a "fenced area" and a noun used in late Saxon and Norman times for an enclosure in a forest. The Welsh word celli has a range of meanings including wooded areas of various extents; the town lies on the south-east bank of the River Wye and is within the north-easternmost tip of the Brecon Beacons National Park, just north of the Black Mountains. The town is just on the Welsh side of the border with Herefordshire, here defined by the Dulas Brook.
Where the brook joins the River Wye just north of the town, the border continues northwards along the river. The Wye was the boundary between the former counties and districts of Radnorshire and Brecknockshire; the adjacent village of Cusop lies on the English side of the Dulas Brook. The nearest city is county town of Herefordshire, some 22 miles to the east; the Royal Mail depot in Hay is a sub-office of Hereford, therefore although in Wales has an English postal address, being part of the HR3 postcode. Hay-on-Wye is a Welsh community with a Town Council, its boundary follows the English border/Dulas Brook from the River Wye southeastwards for just over a kilometre, turns south-west to a point just south of Oakfield house, thence north to Greenpit Farm and north westwards, enclosing the Hay Showground and meeting the National Park boundary near the B4350, Brecon Road. From this point, it follows the National Park boundary to the River Wye and the river back to the Dulas Brook; the Town Council consists of Deputy Mayor and eight councillors.
Hay participates in the election of a councillor to Powys County Council as part of a larger county division. The B4350 runs through the town and the B4351 links it with the main A438 from Brecon to Hereford, on the far side of the River Wye; the town was served at Hay-on-Wye railway station by the train services known as the "Canney Creeper", which closed in 1963 under the Beeching Axe. Hay-on-Wye is a destination for bibliophiles in the United Kingdom, still with two dozen bookshops, many selling specialist and second-hand books, although the number has declined in recent years, many becoming general antique shops and similar. Since 1988, Hay-on-Wye has been the venue for a literary festival, now sponsored by The Daily Telegraph newspaper, which draws a claimed 80,000 visitors over ten days at the beginning of June to see and hear big literary names from all over the world. First held in 2010, HowTheLightGetsIn is a philosophy and music festival, held yearly in Hay at the same time as the Hay festival.
Billed as "The World's Largest Philosophy and Music Festival", it attracts over 35,000 visitors to its programme of 450 events of music and philosophy. In 2015 the festival was held from the 21st to the 31st of May. Acts included Mike Skinner, Simon Blackburn, Jamie Woon, Lawrence Krauss, Natalie Bennett and the IAI School, aimed at 16- to 18-year-olds, presented by New College of the Humanities. Hay Golf Club was founded in 1903; the club continued on its nine-hole course until the onset of World War 2. The town's football club is called Hay St. Mary's, they play in the Spar Mid Wales League First Division. Hay was named one of the best places to live in Wales in 2017. Hay-on-Wye, like Builth Wells, has two Norman castles within a short distance of each other, it seems that Hay was first fortified by William Fitz Osbern during his penetration of south-east Wales in the summer of 1070, when he defeated three Welsh kings. The history of the site continues through the lordships of the de Neufmarchés, confirmed at the Battle of Brecon in 1093, the Gloucester/Hereford families until 1165, when the district of Brycheiniog passed into the hands of the de Braose dynasty of Marcher Lords.
In 1230 Hay Castle passed to the de Bohuns and the local history, including the battle near Hay in 1231, is continued through the Mortimer Wars of the 1260s and the battle near Brecon in 1266 down to the death of Earl Humphrey de Bohun in 1298. Lying close to St Mary's Church on the western edge of Hay-on-Wye is a small but well-preserved motte; the site overlooks a gorge and small stream, locally known as The Loggin Brook, that flows into the River Wye, undoubtedly one reason for the construction of a motte and bailey castle there. A levelled platform under the car park to the north east may have once have housed the castle's bailey; this little fortress was the work of William Revel, a knight of Bernard de Neufmarché, referred to as Bernard Newmarch, may have been the seat for the manor or commote of Melinog. Other than this, the motte has no further recorded history; the main fortress within Hay-on-Wye was situated on the great site commanding the town and river under the current ruins of the castle and mansion.
This was undoubtedly the'castello de haia' handed to Miles of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, in 1121 with Sibyl de Neufmarché, the daughter of Bernard de Neufmarché. It is most lik
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds; the plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the New Worlds; the fiber is most spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times. Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin that lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use, it is the most used natural fiber cloth in clothing today. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world's arable land.
China is the world's largest producer of cotton. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years. In the United States, cotton is measured in bales, which measure 0.48 cubic meters and weigh 226.8 kilograms. There are four commercially grown species of cotton, all domesticated in antiquity: Gossypium hirsutum – upland cotton, native to Central America, the Caribbean and southern Florida Gossypium barbadense – known as extra-long staple cotton, native to tropical South America Gossypium arboreum – tree cotton, native to India and Pakistan Gossypium herbaceum – Levant cotton, native to southern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula The two New World cotton species account for the vast majority of modern cotton production, but the two Old World species were used before the 1900s. While cotton fibers occur in colors of white, brown and green, fears of contaminating the genetics of white cotton have led many cotton-growing locations to ban the growing of colored cotton varieties; the word "cotton" has Arabic origins, derived from the Arabic word قطن.
This was the usual word for cotton in medieval Arabic. The word entered the Romance languages in the mid-12th century, English a century later. Cotton fabric was known to the ancient Romans as an import but cotton was rare in the Romance-speaking lands until imports from the Arabic-speaking lands in the medieval era at transformatively lower prices; the earliest evidence of cotton use in the Indian subcontinent has been found at the site of Mehrgarh and Rakhigarhi where cotton threads have been found preserved in copper beads. Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, which covered parts of modern eastern Pakistan and northwestern India between 3300 and 1300 BC; the Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India. For example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC.
Cotton bolls discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, have been dated to as early as 5500 BC, but this date has been challenged. More securely dated is the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico between around 3400 and 2300 BC. In Peru, cultivation of the indigenous cotton species Gossypium barbadense has been dated, from a find in Ancon, to c. 4200 BC, was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as the Norte Chico and Nazca. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish; the Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it. The Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the Wars of Alexander the Great, as his contemporary Megasthenes told Seleucus I Nicator of "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica"; this may be a reference to "tree cotton", Gossypium arboreum, a native of the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia: Cotton has been spun and dyed since prehistoric times.
It clothed the people of ancient India and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, their use spread to the Mediterranean countries. In Iran, the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era; the planting of cotton was common in Merv and Pars of Iran. In Persian poets' poems Ferdowsi's Shahname, there are references to cotton. Marco Polo refers to the major products including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of the 17th century who visited Safavid Persia, spoke approvingly of the vast cotton farms of Persia. During the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Egyptians spun cotton in the first seven centuries of the Christian era. Handheld roller cotton gins had been used in India since the 6th century, was introduced to other countries from there. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, dual-roller gins appeared in China; the Indian version of the dual-roller gin was preval
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