What is Lakhani textile?

Lakhani textile is the leading exporter and manufacturer of textile products from Pakistan. The three broad categories of the products at Lakhani Textile are home textiles, garments and terry products. Our aim is to provide top quality products and service to our customers. Our area of expertise are weaving, printing and stitching. We give a lot of importance to the quality of the products and so all our products go through quality assurance check and inspection. Doing business with Lakhani Textile will assure the best quality services and products that can be offered. Lakhani Textile also represents the biggest textile companies in Pakistan and we guarantee the best prices and timely shipments of the textile products.

What is Textile?

Lakhani Textile classifies textile as a cloth or fabric which is manufactured by spinning the cotton, passing it through weaving and knitting. A textile is any type of material made from fibers or other extended linear materials such as thread or yarn. Classes of textiles include woven, crocheted, knitted, knotted (as in macrame) or tufted cloth, and non-woven fabrics such as felt. Materials made from fibers such as fiberglass, carbon fiber, and ceramic fiber which are infiltrated by a matrix of another material are considered fiber-reinforced composite materials. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns yarn into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. The immense good quality cloth that Lakhani Textile manufactures has made it the Leading Exporter of Textiles from Pakistan globally.

What is spinning?

Lakhani Textile starts its manufacturing process from the first step which is spinning of cotton. Lakhani Textile has one of the largest spinning plant in Pakistan which differentiates us from the competitors. Spinning is the process of creating yarn (or thread, rope, cable) from various raw fiber materials. Separate fibers are twisted together to bind them into a strong, long yarn. Characteristics of the yarn vary based on the material used, fiber length and alignment, quantity of fiber used and degree of twist.

What is weaving?

Weaving is a method of interlacing two sets of threads, the warp threads and the weft (horizontal) threads, to make cloth. We at Lakhani Textile give lots of importance to the weaving stage that is why we now manufacture the best quality cloth. Weaving is an ancient textile art and craft that involves placing two sets of threads or yarn made of fiber called the warp and weft of the loom and turning them into cloth. This cloth can be plain (in one color or a simple pattern), or it can be woven in decorative or artistic designs, including tapestries. The majority of commercial fabrics are woven on computer-controlled Jacquard looms. In the past, simpler fabrics were woven on other dobby looms and the Jacquard harness adaptation was reserved for more complex patterns. The efficiency of the Jacquard loom makes it more economical for mills to use them to weave all of their fabrics, regardless of the complexity of the design. Handweaving, along with hand spinning, is a popular craft. Weavers use wooden looms to create rugs, fabrics, and tapestries. Fabric in which the warp and/or weft is tie-dyed before weaving is called ikat. Fabric decorated using a wax resist method is called batik. Satin weaves, twill weaves, and plain weaves are the 3 basic types of weaving by which the majority of woven products are formed.

Process of Weaving

There is a certain process of weaving which is followed at Lakhani Textile. In general, weaving involves the interlacing of two sets of threads at right angles to each other: the warp and the weft. The warp threads are held taut and in parallel order by means of a loom. The loom is warped (or dressed) with the warp threads passing through heddles on two or more harnesses. The warp threads are moved up or down by the harnesses creating a space called the shed. The weft thread is wound onto spools called bobbins. The bobbins are placed in a shuttle which carries the weft thread through the shed. The raising/lowering sequence of warp threads gives rise to many possible weave structures from the simplest plain weave (also called tabby), through twills and satins to complex computer-generated interlacings. Both warp and weft can be visible in the final product. By spacing the warp more closely, it can completely cover the weft that binds it, giving a warpfaced textile such as rep weave. Conversely, if the warp is spread out, the weft can slide down and completely cover the warp, giving a weftfaced textile, such as a tapestry or a Kilim rug. There are a variety of loom styles for hand weaving and tapestry. In tapestry, the image is created by placing weft only in certain warp areas, rather than across the entire warp width. This process has helped us to become the best cloth producers and the leading exporters from Pakistan.

Jacquard Weaving

Lakhani Textile also specializes in jacquard weaving. To maintain our status as the leading manufacturer and exporter from Pakistan in textile, we carry out different weaving processes. Jacquard weaving makes possible in almost any loom the raising of each warp thread independently of the others. This brings much greater versatility to the weaving process, and offers the highest level of warp yarn control. This mechanism is probably one of the most important weaving inventions as jacquard shedding made possible the automatic production of unlimited varieties of pattern weaving. Originally the jacquard machines were mechanical, and the fabric design was punched in pattern cards which were joined together to form a continuous chain. The jacquards often were small and only independently controlled a relatively few warp ends. This required a number of repeats across the loom width. Larger capacity machines, or the use of multiple machines, allowed greater control, with fewer repeats, and hence larger designs to be woven across the loom width.

Lakhani Textile chooses looms and shedding mechanisms to suit its commercial requirements which every leading manufacturer should do. As a rule the more warp control required the greater the expense. So it would not be economical to purchase jacquard machines if one could make do with a dobby mechanism. As well as the capital expense, the jacquard machines are also more costly to maintain, as they are complex and require higher skilled personnel; also an expensive design system will be required to prepare the designs for the loom, and possibly also a card-cutting machine. Weaving will be more costly as jacquard mechanisms are more liable to produce faults than dobby or cam shedding. The looms will not run as fast, and down time will increase as it takes time to change the continuous chain of cards when a design changes. Therefore with mechanical jacquards it is best to weave larger batch sizes.

Loom

A loom is a machine or device for weaving thread or yarn into textiles. Looms can range from very small hand-held frames, to large free-standing hand looms, to huge automatic mechanical devices. In practice, the basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same. Lakhani Textile has many different types of loom in the factory which very few in the industry have in Pakistan and this has made us Pakistan’s leading and most reputed manufacturer and exporter.

Types of  loom

Warp-weighted The earliest looms were probably vertical warp-weighted looms, with the warp threads suspended from a branch or piece of wood and weighted or attached to the ground. The weft threads would be pushed into place by hand or a stick that would eventually become the shuttle. At first, it was necessary to raise and lower every warp thread one at a time, which was a time-consuming and laborious process. Basic techniques, such as the insertion of a rod, were developed to produce a shed, the space between warp threads (perhaps every other thread would be alternately raised and lowered), so that the weft thread or shuttle could pass through the entire warp at once. Lakhani Textile has 30 warp-weighted looms along with the other kinds.

Ground looms

On a horizontal ground loom, the warp would be strung between two rows of pegs. The weaver would have to lean over in order to work, so pit looms were developed, with the warp strung over a pit, so the weaver could sit with his or her legs underneath and would then be on a level with the loom. Lakhani Textile has 25 ground looms which is being expanded to grow even bigger being the largest textile producer and exporter in Pakistan.

Frame looms

Frame looms followed basically the same principles as ground looms. The loom was constructed out of sticks and boards attached at right angles (producing a box-like shape), which meant that it was portable and could even be held in the weaver's lap. Frame looms are still in use today, usually as a portable, less expensive, and compact alternative to a table or floor loom.

Backstrap looms

Backstrap looms, as the name implies, are tied around the weaver's waist on one end and around a stationary object such as a tree, post, or door on the other. Tension can be adjusted simply by leaning back. Backstrap looms are very portable, since they can simply be rolled up and carried.

Foot-treadle floor looms

Handweavers today tend to use looms with at least four shafts or harnesses. Each shaft contains a set of heddles through which yarn can be threaded (and attached, through a variety of mechanisms, to the front and back beams of the loom), and by raising the harnesses in different combinations, a variety of patterns can be achieved. Looms with two such shafts are called rigid heddle looms and multishaft looms with eight, twelve, sixteen or more shafts are available.

The shafts on a floor loom are controlled by a series of foot pedals called treadles. This is an important development, since it keeps the weaver's hands free to manipulate the shuttle and it is easy to raise and lower warp threads in selected combinations. As the fabric is woven it is rolled around the cloth beam, as unwoven warp or yarn is unrolled from the warp beam, so the length of the weaving is not limited by the size of the loom. A table loom is similar, but, as the name suggests, it is smaller and equipped with hand levers rather than treadles, since it is made to sit on a stand or on top of a table.

A computer assisted loom has no actual treadles as the computer program dictates which harness or shaft is lifted, either by a manual pedal or air cylinders, hydraulic cylinders or electric solenoids. A loom that can only lift the shafts is called a rising shed loom or a Jack loom. A loom that can sink and lift the shafts at the same time is either a Counterbalance (CB) loom or a Countermarch loom (CM), these looms are called a sinking shed loom. Most CB looms are a four harness, a CM loom can use many harnesses up to about thirty two harnesses.

A harness is a complete set of loom parts; a lamm, a shaft and an upper harness of cords or jacks. A shaft is a frame which holds a set of heddles which guide some of the warp but not all on one shaft, there are always more than one shaft on a loom.

Power looms

Originally, powered looms were shuttle-operated but in the early part of the 20th century the faster and more efficient shuttleless loom came into use. Today, advances in technology have produced a variety of looms designed to maximize production for specific types of material. The most common of these are air-jet looms and water-jet looms. Computer-driven looms are now also available to individual (non-industrial) weavers.

Industrial looms can weave at speeds of six rows per second and faster. We have more than 100 power looms at Lakhani Textile to increase our efficiency and meet our orders on time. This has made us a very reputed textile company in Pakistan.

Jacquard Loom

The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom which used the holes punched in pasteboard punch cards to control the weaving of patterns in fabric. The loom enabled even amateur weavers to weave complex designs. Each punch card corresponded to one row of the design and the cards were strung together in order.

Each hole in the card corresponds to a "Bolus" hook, which can either be up or down. The hook raises or lowers the harness which carries and guides the warp thread so that the weft will either lie above or below it. The sequence of raised and lowered threads is what creates the pattern. Each hook can be connected via the harness to a number of threads, allowing more than one repeat of a pattern. A loom with a 400 hook head might have 4 threads connected to each hook, giving you a fabric that is 1600 warp ends wide with four repeats of the weave going across.

The threading of a jacquard loom is so labor intensive that many looms are threaded only once. Subsequent warps are then tied in to the existing warp with the help of a knotting robot which ties each new thread on individually. Even for a small loom with only a few thousand warp ends the process can take days. We have more than 200 jacquard looms installed at the Lakhani Textile factory to cater to the needs of our buyers and satisfy the customers on time, being the best quality textile manufacturers in Pakistan.

What is knitting?

Knitting is a very important process in the manufacturing o garments. Lakhani Textile gives lots of emphasis on the quality of the garments and so has kept very vigilant inspection teams to check the quality of the knitted products. This is why Lakhani Textile is a very reputed company in Pakistan and represent as the largest manufacturer and exporter of textile products from Pakistan in the global market.

Knitting is one of several ways to turn thread or yarn into cloth (compare to weaving, crochet). Similar to crochet, knitting consists of bights pulled through other bights; knitting differs from crochet in that multiple bights are "active". The active bights are held on a knitting needle until another bight can be passed through them.

There are two varieties of knitting, weft knitting (the usual kind) and warp knitting. A weft-knitted fabric consists of horizontal parallel courses of yarn and requires only a single yarn. By contrast, warp knitting requires one yarn for every stitch in the row (course); these yarns make vertical parallel wales. Warp knitting is resistant to runs, and is common in lingerie fabric, e.g., tricot. Warp knitting is generally done by machine, whereas weft knitting may be done by machine or by hand. Knitting machines use a different mechanical system to produce results nearly identical to those produced by hand-knitting.

Hand knitted fabrics are usually begun by forming a base series of twisted loops of yarn on a knitting needle ("cast on"). To form a new stitch, a second knitting needle is used to reach through each loop (or stitch) in succession to pull a bight of yarn back through the loop. Work can proceed in the round (circular knitting) or by going back and forth in rows (flat knitting). Knitting is the area where Lakhani Textile specializes and has been working on since the past few decades which has made us Textile Giants in Pakistan.

Spinning and Weaving

Lakhani Textile has a very vast plant for the manufacturing stages of spinning and weaving to produce the grey cloth. Over past so many years, we have been continuously expanding our plant and this has made us the giants of Textile industry in Pakistan and the biggest manufacturers and exporters from Pakistan.

Weaving makes the lightest fabrics. Using a brush like a scrub brush on the woven fabric after it is woven (or knitted), will produce a long fur-type nap. The tog makes very attractive rug warp.

Icelandic locks can actually be separated into up to 5 different lengths and diameters. Each layer gets progressively finer as the length gets shorter. The last or finest coat (thel) is like cashmere.

The shortest undercoat, or bottom coat, the down, makes a perfect lace yarn. Lace is best made from a 2-ply yarn as the undulated surface of the 2-ply yarn helps to lock or hold the stich in place. A rounder, smoother 3-ply yarn has a smoother and more slippery surface and will not hold the pattern as well.

In order to have the fibers slip easily in the spinning process, spin from the tip end of a lock, then ply from the butt end and knit from the tip end. This will give the easiest spinning experience as you are taking advantage of the lay of the scales on the wool fibers.

The most important thing in a spinning fiber is the “hand.” hand is the soft silky feel of the fiber to your hand or how it feels when you handle it. It has little bearing on the fiber diameter. Even a very fine fiber can have a rough hand, while a coarse fiber can have a nice hand. But usually the finer the fiber, the better the hand.

Icelandic fleeces ar not supposed to be uniform all over the body. it is expected to be shorter on the back and neck, longer on the britch and sides. Not only are the fibers of different lengths on different parts of the body, but also the fiber varies greatly on different parts of the body. The back has shorter springier wool while the sides may have longer, more thel rich locks. Primitive breeds are expected to have 7 or 8 different grades (fiber diameter) of fleece. When selecting fiber for spinning yarn for a project, take the 2 types that are the closest from the fleece to spin for the project for a uniform yarn.

If you don’t separate the coats before spinning, the long fibers will stay in the middle of the yarn, the short fibers will spin to the outside.
If there is more than 3% variation in the fiber diameter, the comfort zone and “hand” is affected. The more variation, the more the garment will feel uncomfortable or be scratchy.

To spin lofty singles or a lopi-style yarn, first spin a tight even singles from well prepared wool. It helps if the roving is pre-drafted before spinning. That means making a long roving that is thinned to the diameter or amount of fibers that will be in the yarn. Then re-spin in the opposite direction to unwind (somewhat) the twist. The second “untwisting” spin is done very quickly by running the yarn through your wheel very fast. This will give you a very even light lofty Lopi singles yarn. This is the process that is carried out for spinning and weaving at Lakhani textile factory in Pakistan.

Worsted vs. woolen yarns:

Lakhani Textile being the most reputed Textile Company of Pakistan carries out different ways of spinning the cotton to send it to the next step that is weaving. Worsted yarn is spun so that all of the fibers are combed straight and side-by-side evenly and spun in this configuration. This makes a strong straight long wearing and smooth yarn. This yarn is not as warm as it doesn’t have as much air space incorporated in it. Worsted yarn contains about 75% air.

A woolen yarn is spun with the fibers lying sideways or any which way, which incorporates lots of air spaces and is a fluffy wooly looking yarn. It is not as strong but is warmer as it incorporates about 90% air.

How do you know what kind of yarn you need to spin for different kinds of projects?

If you want movement in your stitch or fabric, use worsted yarn. If you want to do cabled knitting, use worsted, as it will show the pattern better. If you want to knit a traditional Norwegian sweater or socks, use a worsted yarn. Use woolen spun yarns for Icelandic type sweaters and blankets. To spin worsted, prepare the fiber on mini-combs.

These types of combs prepare the fiber perfectly for spinning worsted. The fiber can be spun right off of the combs easily. Or you can pull a roving from the combs after combing and then spin.

To keep down the static electricity, spray your fiber with a mist of water. If you add 1/3 baby oil (by volume) with 2/3 water in the bottle, it will make a mix that will help to keep the fiber tamed for easier spinning. Spray this mixture frugally on the fiber before spinning. Be sure to wash the yarn after spinning to wash out the oil or else it will get rancid.

Woolen yarns are easiest spun from fibers that are 2 1/2 inches or shorter. Long locks can be cut in half to shorten the fiber for woolen spinning. The object of woolen spinning is to try and get the most crosses of the fiber. Do this by scrubbing the fibers on your hand combs every which way. Make a rolag rolling the rolag as lightly as possible incorporating as much air in it as possible. Spin lightly with only enough twist to hold it together.

 After spinning the woolen yarn wash in hot soapy water and then pound it by flinging it against the shower wall to full it or felt it slightly. Snap it like a whip and then rinse in cold water to shock the yarn and continue the fulling (felting) process. At t his point you can brush it to produce a nap if you want. It can also be brushed after knitting or weaving. A nap will make a warmer fabric.

The more crimp a fiber has the less the shrink will be. If you spin straight worsted fiber in a woolen way the shrink will be greater. If you have fiber that has more than 7 crimps per inch, spin this fiber woolen. With fibers that have less than 7 crimps per inch spin it worsted. You have to have some structure in your finished product somewhere. If you spin loose and light, then knit with small needles to knit tight or it will shrink excessively.

Tender wool, that is, wool that has a break in it, can be used in woolen yarns as this wool can accept short fibers. If the wool is too short the short fibers will not be caught and held in the yarn. These short fibers will migrate to the surface of the yarn or garment and cause pills. This was the process of woolen yarn explained in detail according to the operations carried out at Lakhani Textile Pakistan.

Storing Wool:

Pack wool for storage really tight. This decreases moth and mice damage. Moth eggs can easily live 100s of years. Chalk, tea bags, or silica gel all help keep the wool from being damaged.

Dyeing Fibers

Very white animals dye easier. That means that the white of spotted Icelandic sheep will take dyes best. Sheep have been bred for this very “white white” or absence of color to increase dyeing properties. Some Icelandic wool doesn’t dye well. How well a fiber dyes, depends on how many dye sites there are in the fiber. Dye sites are the places on the fiber that will accept the dye. Primitive breeds have few dye sites. Modern breeds have been bred for wool with more dye sites. Dye sites are protein sites on the fiber that will lock in the color with the least amount of dye. Naturally colored sheep have fewer dye sites. Damaged fiber dyes easier; wool is easily damaged by water such as rain. Thus the weather-damaged back wool will accept dye more easily.

Spinning Marbled Yarns

Taking three different colors of roving and holding them side-by-side and spinning a yarn from these three rovings will produce a beautifully marbled yarn. The fiber is drafted back and forth between the colors to get this effect. This was complete detailed explanation of the spinning, weaving and knitting operations carried out at the Lakhani Textile factory which is well known for its products in the local as well as international markets and we aim to expand more and serve all the largest and leading buyers of textile around the globe.