When measuring out a warp on a warping board or mill, one usually has the opportunity to create two ‘crosses’ – one at the beginning of the measurement, and one at the end just prior to turning the thread around and going back to the beginning. When we say “cross”, we mean specifically that we’ve crossed two threads in opposite directions – if, for example, you go over a peg and then under the next and then start the return path, you can decide to go over that next peg and under the following such that the path itself is the same length but slightly different – and where the first thread perhaps curved, to your eye, to the right the second thread that is laying on top of it is curving to the left. If you manage to retain this ‘crossed thread’ state, you can pull each thread one by one in order to pass through the heddles. If, however, you don’t have threads that lie in order, going right, left, right, left, etc., then you have to guess at the next thread that was measured out and you can very easily find yourself with the rightmost heddle threaded with the leftmost thread in your measured warp.

The Porrey Cross (also called “Pourrey Cross”) is the cross you’d use to thread the heddles. You can, if desired, create a similar cross at the other end of the warp chain and it is called the “Portee Cross”. This end of the warp chain would be the end that is used in the raddle, so you are carrying that end (portaging it) to the back of the loom to, presumably, use the raddle and tie on to the back beam.

Nowadays, very few people use these terms. We generally talk about ‘the cross’ when we mean the threading, or porrey, cross and perhaps use the term ‘the back cross’ or ‘the other cross’ if we bother with one at all for the other end of the warp chain. There’s very little information on where and when these terms originated, so if you happen to stumble across a credible reference to either of these crosses do consider emailing the webmaster at emc@thsg.org with your findings.