WEAVING

About AnanaFit

BACKGROUND
When “sustainable fashion” could be a latest buss word for the most of us, C Sekar was not just
familiar with term but he also creating the same, decades ago!
At the age of 13 Sekar started to work with handloom. When he was 12 years, he hit upon the
concept of producing Natural Fiber Saris. He wanted to try something new and he heard about
banana fiber and after several attempts he was able to wrap and weft rest is history, today he can
extract yarn from 25 natural fiber!
Sekar, who has been a weaver for over three decades now, decided to turn to natural fibers to
create more awareness about eco-friendly fabrics. He found ways to extract fibers from unusual
ingredients like pineapple, vetiver roots, sorrel leaves, and hemp among others.
Aanafit is an Eco friendly natural fibers based textile company. The company is founded and lead by
Mr.Raja Sekhar Mamillapalli and Mr.C.Sekhar. The apparel produced are more cost effective and
environmental friendly. It also absorbs less heat.

VISION
• To be the largest producer of fiber yarn
• To be able to extract yarn from at least 50 natural fibers

EXPERTISE
Process of extracting Fiber.
A plank of slit banana stem layer on flat surface to scrap it with the sharp blade of a knife. This
action eliminates all the fleshy part and juices in the stem, leaving behind only the bare fibres. These
fibres are then pulled out and collected, and dried in the sun to make them firm and strong. The
collected mass of fibres is then spun into yarn, which is then wound over a spindle. Thereafter, the
yarn is mixed with cotton threads and dyed in natural colours. They are then mounted on looms, to
begin weaving alluring saris and fabrics. The woven fabrics are then treated with herbs to make
them skin-friendly.
Handwoven 'herbal' sari. The unique sari is spun with cotton yarn, which is dyed with natural colors
and is immersed into a liquid paste made of tulsi, neem and turmeric. The medicinal properties of
these plants act as remedy for all kinds of skin diseases.
Handloom saris may be all the rage but a 'herbal' sari, infused with tulsi, neem and turmeric, is
setting a new yardstick for the traditional Indian drape.

TRAINING
• Sekar has trained close 1000 weaver across India on fiber extraction in the places like Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and North east.

Production Process

Introduction
A number of preparatory processes and accessories have to be adopted to
convert the yarn in the hank form into a warp beam suitable for weaving in the loom.
The various pre-loom activities involved in the production of handloom
products are discussed below.

Sourcing of raw materials

The basic raw material of the cluster is cotton yarn, procured in the form of
hank by master weavers from the local yarn
dealers or through the yarn bank from state level agencies.
Besides cotton yarn, the cluster also uses
other natural fibres like bamboo, jute, banana stem, pineapple leaf, aloe vera, neem, kenaf and silk.
The cotton combed yarn procured are
of 100s, 80s etc. Single ply yarns are only used for weaving.
The pineapple leaves are procured from Kerala and North India and these products are the most costly
ones.

Winding
Winding is a process of transferring yarn from one type of package to another.
The
yarns for the
warp and for
the weft are
separately
taken up for
winding. The
yarn is
normally
received by
the weavers in
the hank
form. The
yarn in the hank form is converted into bobbins by the winding process.
Once
the winding is
over, the yarn in
the bobbin form
is taken up for
further
processes. On
the other hand,
the yarn which is
used in the weft does not require any further processing and hence it is wound into a
pirn with the help of a small, hand-driven charkha and is called pirn winding. Pirn
winding is the process of transferring the yarns from the bobbin to pirn in
the shuttle used in the weft while weaving. The yarn in the form of pirn,
wherever is required, is used in the weft while weaving.
Warping
The warping
is a process of
making desired
length and width of
warp sheet by
combining many
small packages
called
bobbins.
There are various
types of warping by
which yarns from a
large number of
warper’s bobbins are collected together and made into a suitable form of package. The
process of warping used in Anakaputhur is known as vertical sectional warping.
The vertical sectional warping process is carried on a wooden drum from a wooden
peg creel. A suitable frame called bobbin creel to hold the required number of bobbins
in such a way that the yarns from them can be drawn separately without touching
each other. The bobbins are put on the creel and the required number of yarn is then
drawn through a comb to the wooden drum. The warped yarn is then taken to the
next process called sizing.

Sizing

Sizing is a process where starch (sago or boiled Rice or Khoi or Kanji) is coated
on the warp yarns for imparting strength; enhance abrasion resistance to withstand
the stress and
strains exerted
during weaving
process. In
Anakaputhur,
the traditional
method of ‘street
warping’ and
‘brush sizing’ is
practised.
Natural
materials such
as rice starch,
coconut oil and
rice gruel form the important ingredients for sizing. Sizing is required for cotton
yarn by using
the residue
after rice
preparation
called “Kanji”
in local
language by
the help of a
sizing brush.
The sizing is
normally done
in the streets. The
process of
sizing reduces the yarn breakage and improves quality and efficiency of weaving.

Although
the yarn is
sized and
dried in
the sheet
form, in
which the
individual
threads
are lying in
a parallel
condition,
the
threads
are not
free from
sticking to one another. To rectify this defect, dividing rods, i.e. lease rods are used to
effect separation of the threads.

3.1.6 Beaming & Preparation of Loom

The process of
transferring warp sheet
to a weavers beam to
mount on loom is called
beaming. All these
processes are carried
out by manually
without using power.
The process of beaming
is followed by looming,
which finally prepares
the loom beam for
weaving. Preparation of loom is broadly classified in to two categories of work, known
as Drafting and Denting. Drafting is the process of passing the warp yarn through
the heald of the loom as per the design. This helps to keep the warp yarn in parallel
form over the width of the loom and in locating a broken yarn during the process of
weaving. In the case of denting the warp yarns are passed through the reeds and the
healds. The warp threads are then joined with the old warp threads with a local
method of twisting by hands.

Weaving
Pit looms are used in Anakaputhur cluster for producing the traditional varieties. These are of two
types; throw shuttle
pit looms and fly
shuttle pit looms.
Here, they use fly shuttle pit looms.
The pit loom is of simple
construction and
there is no wooden
super structure to
support its parts.
The sley is of light
construction with
provision to hold
bamboo reeds. The
shuttle used is peculiar and is made of bamboo instead of horn or wood.
The fly shuttle pit
looms are not used for finer counts of
yarn and also products with pure zari. Though the productivity of the fly shuttle
looms are 3 to 4 times more than that of an ordinary throw shuttle loom, but is
unable to produce intricate extra weft figured patterns without the help of dobbies
and jacquards.
Mechanism
The weft yarn loaded Shuttle is moved between the warp yarns, which makes the weaving process, appear. The warp yarns are held by
heddles in the loom. Alternate warp yarn is picked up by one heddle and rest of the other warp yarn is held by other heddles. The
movement of the pedals moves two heddles up and down which makes the warp into two parts and opens a small passage every time
the pedaling is done. That passage is where the shuttle is moved from right to left and left to right correspondingly. Thus the weft yarn
is weaved and interlaced between the alternate warp yarns. The shuttle can be moved by the hand or pushed with a force with small
hand mechanism applied that is called Fly shuttle. Once the shuttle is moved the weft yarn is tightened and pushed towards the
previous weaved yarn with the help of reed beater. Reed is a wooden block with tiny passages made for the warp yarn to insert. Reed
is moved to and fro for tightening the weft yarn. This is like a repetitive process, which happens, only when a weaver pedals with the
legs, moves the fly shuttle with his/her right hand and moves the reed beater with left hand. All these movements should occur in
correspondence in order to acquire the smooth flowing of weaving process.
Quality Checking & Packing
The quality of the woven products are checked thoroughly and taken up for
packing. First it is folded properly and then packed according to the specification.

The flow chart of the production process is given below:

PROCESS FLOW CHART

Sourcing of dyed yarn

Winding
Warping / Weft Preparation
Sizing
Drawing through healds, reed
Weaving
Quality Checking
Finished Product