Hand or Handle
The way a fabric feels. This is a very subjective judgment of the feel of a fabric and it should help decide if a fabric is suitable for a specific end use. Hand may be crisp, soft, drapeable, smooth, springy, stiff, cool, warm, rough, hard, limp, soapy.... Finishing and garment wash affect the final handle of a fabric.
Hand Crocheted
Derived from the French word for “hook”, crochet was practiced in Europe as early as the 16th century. Crochet is a continuous series of loops of yarn made by a single hooked needle.
Hank
A skein of yarn. A standard length of slubbing, roving, or yarn. The length specified by the yarn numbering system in use; e.g., cotton hanks have a length of 840 yards.
Harness
The frame holding heddles that have warp yarns threaded through its eyes.
Harvard
A shirting cloth with a 2/2 twill weave, usually with a coloured warp and a white weft. These cloths are often ornamented by stripes or white or coloured threads or by simple weave effects or by both.
Heather / Cross Dye / Top Dye / Melange
A mixed fabric color is achieved (the best examples are grey t-shirts, socks or wool used in suitings) by using different colors of fibre, and mixing them together. Black and white fibre mixed will combine to give grey heather fibre.
Heather Yarn
A term describing mottled or melange-type yarns.
Heat-Setting
The process of conferring dimensional stability and often other desirable properties such as wrinkle resistance and improved heat resistance to man-made fibres, yarns, and fabrics by means of either moist or dry heat.
Heat Stabilized
A term to describe fibre or yarn heat-treated to reduce the tendency of the fibre to shrink or elongate under load at elevated temperature.
Heavyweight
Fabric heavier than 10 ounces per linear yard, equal to 1.60 yield. Standard weight in the industry is 8 ounces (2.0 yield) or lighter.
Heddles
Steel wires, or thin flat steel strips held by the frame, with a loop or eye near the centre through which one or more warp yarns pass on the loom so that the thread movement is controllable in weaving. Heddles control the weave pattern and shed as the harnesses are raised and lowered during the weaving.
Hemp
The controversial fibre with the bad image. Hemp is a low cost annual seed plant that grows in most climates. Hemp’s natural fibre and seed oil have over 25,000 possible industrial applications and these were once competitors of wood pulp, cotton, and petroleum products like inks, paints, plastics, solvents, sealants, and synthetic fabrics. Hemp (official name cannabis sativa, L., from the Green Kannabis) fell victim to he anti-drug sentiment of the times when the U.S. Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937.
The intent of this law was to prohibit the use of marijuana, but it created so much red tape that the production of industrial hemp became nearly impossible in spite of all the products that derive from hemp. In his October 30, 1988 editorial in California’s most conservative newspaper, The Orange County Register, senior columnist Alan Block stated that “Since 1937, about half the forests in the world have been cut down to make paper. If hemp had not been outlawed, most would still be standing, oxygenating the planet.”
Herringbone
Herringbone is a weave where twill warp stripes are created by running twills in different directions. A broken twill weave characterized by a balanced zigzag effect produced by having the rib run first to the right and then to the left for an equal number of threads.
Hessian
A plain cloth made from single yarns of approximately the same linear density in warp and weft, usually made from bast fibres. A name for burlap used in United Kingdom, India, and parts of Europe. Also see Burlap
Hidden Placket
A shirt or jacket placket that is concealed behind another piece of fabric.
High Profile
A cap style with a high slope structured with a buckram – a stiff fabric lining. Less fitted to the head.
Hoechst Celanese
Calls their company “a science-based, market-driven company, who produce and market chemicals, fibres and films, engineering plastics, high-performance and specialty materials, pharmaceuticals, and animal-health and crop-protection products.” They are the largest subsidiary of the Hoechst Group, a premier worldwide organization with 280 companies in 120 countries and an annual sales volume of $28 billion.
Holes (Tow)
In tow opening processes, partial or complete filament breakage within a confined spread of tow, usually circular or oval in shape.
Honan
A pongee-type fabric of the very best Chinese wild silk. Honan is sometimes woven with blue edges.
Hook (Shuttle)
Stitch-forming device used in a lockstitch machine to hold the bobbin and picks up the needle loop off the needle to form the stitch.
Honeycomb Pique
A knit fabric that is characterized by a wider waffle-like appearance, which actually allows the wearer more comfort.
Hopsaking
A coarse, open, basket-weave fabric which gets its name from the plain-weave fabric of jute or hemp used for sacking in which hops are gathered.
Horn Tone Buttons
Buttons that appear to be manufactured from horn.
Houndstooth
A term describing a medium-sized broken-check effect; the check is actually a four-pointed star.
Huckaback
A heavy, serviceable, toweling made with slackly twisted filling yarns to aid absorption. The cloth has a honeycomb effect.
Hydrophilic Fibres
Fibres that absorb water easily, takes longer to dry, and requires more ironing.
Hydrophobic Fibres
Fibres that lack the ability to absorb water.
Hyperwashed
Fabric that has been washed repeatedly for an extremely faded and worn look.