A London-based initiative, titled “The Weavers Project” is
aiming to preserve Cambodia's weaving tradition while offering employment to
citizens in need. The Weavers Project employs women weavers to create fair
trade scarves with a personal touch: each finished product is packaged with a
story describing how it was made and who made it. One hundred percent of the
profits go back to the weavers so they can continue keeping their tradition
alive.
Image source: weaversproject.com
Has this ever happened to you? You are wandering your local yarn store, or perhaps a vendor booth at a fiber retreat, and find a beautiful, wonderful skein of yarn that captures your heart immediately. You buy the skein, get home, and then realize that you have no idea what to do with that skein. And so it goes in the pile with the rest of the pretty skeins for someday. I know I have such a stash of yarn, most of which are considered “knitting yarns.” Fortunately for all of us yarn hoarders, the rigid-heddle loom is a great way to use up this precious stash (without the loom waste of a floor or table loom) and rigid-heddle weaver extraordinaire Deborah Jarchow will teach you how to best design projects from these lovely yarns.
Where are you from originally, and where do you currently live? I grew up in Ohio, but have lived in Southern California for over 30 years. What’s your day job? I am a weaver. For the past 11 years, I’ve had a studio where I spend my days doing production weaving, making garments and accessories for sale in several galleries, designing projects for patterns, writing about weaving, and planning weaving classes. Frequently, I travel around the country to teach weaving. How and when did you start weaving? I started weaving over 20 years ago. Do you prefer to work from patterns, or draft your own? I make my own designs rather than using commercial patterns What other creative pursuits do you enjoy? Sewing, knitting, crochet, travel Tell us about your studio… what kind of space inspires you? My studio is at an old elementary school that now houses over 40 artists. It is a wonderful creative space filled with inspiration and so I’m surrounded by good friends and creative people. My own studio is filled with cones of yarn, lots of counter space, 7 floor looms, and many rigid-heddle looms. How do you stay motivated on long projects? By looking forward to seeing the end product and by constantly evaluating how it’s going and deciding what I might change next time. What has been your favorite project recently? As I’m doing each one, it’s my favorite! What’s your favorite thing you’ve made for a client? Making a wedding shawl is always a favorite project. One of the other studio artists here had me make a shawl for her daughter’s wedding that I wove pearls and beads into. That was a satisfying project. What would your dream studio look like? I love my studio. It was featured in Studios magazine a couple of years ago! What’s your current weaving soundtrack? I love to listen to either blues on Pandora or NPR while weaving. | ||||||||
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Hi Madelyn, |
Last week in Weaving Today’s main post we published a photo of a brush for woolen cloth that involved a mystery seed. Almost as soon as the newsletter hit mailboxes, we received many emails from some wonderful readers who let us know that the seed pod in question is from the teasel plant, specifically from the aptly named fuller’s teasel, and that set those of us at BeWeave It Headquarters down the path of research to learn more about these nifty tools. The teasel hand or teasel cross is a simple tool made up of a wooden handle, a wooden frame, and some teasel seed pods.
This tool was used to brush woven cloth to raise the nap of the wool. Workers would carefully brush the woolen cloth with the teasel hand and then the nap would be trimmed evenly and close to the cloth to give it an even texture. Later, a machine known as a teasel gig was invented which was like a large grindstone with teasel pods covering much of the surface. The gig would spin over the cloth and do the work of many hand-brushers.
Now, there is some debate over whether or not the teasel was used for carding wool to prepare it for spinning. Part of the confusion comes from the fact that sources such as the Oxford English Dictionary make no distinction between carders used for wool and carders used for woven wool. From what little we can gather here at BeWeave It, the teasel was used on woven wool and carders similar to the ones we know today were used on loose wool. There’s a wonderful post one the subject here if you’d like more information.
And what of teasel hand today? Well, on the hole metal brushes are used to raise the nap on woolens most of the time, although there are still weavers the world around who use teasel. Some say metal brushes can’t match the fine work of the teasel, and where metal tools can potentially rip or otherwise damage fabric, if the teasel hits a snag it will simply break.
Boundweave is an entrancing structure. With a relatively simple threading, often on just four shafts, you can create beautiful, weft-faced cloth perfect for cozy rugs, wall hangings, and many other household items. Whether done in traditional Scandinavian colors, or using a more contemporary palette, boundweave is a classic structure that is always in style. In her blog, past Handwoven contributor and talented weaver (you can see more of her work here) Lynn Schuster shares some of her advice for designing with boundweave, and for those of you who prefer “recipes,” make sure you check out the Interweave store for some new patterns! -Christina I began weaving boundweave rugs in 1993. I was inspired by an article I saw in Handwoven Magazine (I don’t have a copy of it anymore so I can’t recall the issue)...but, I remember the feeling! There it was, the most beautiful boundweave rug that I had ever seen...Threaded in a four-harness Rosepath were “diamond” and “flame” motifs surrounded by solid colors. The colors combined with the patterns popped; this rug had so much life! I had no idea how it was woven, I just knew that I was going to figure it out. I studied the article with enthusiasm, wonder, and some confusion. I was determined, so I decided to thread my loom and create a draft according to the directions in the article. My first rug was very similar to the rug in the photograph. While creating the design for my rug, I could not fathom how it was going to come to life on the loom, but it did. Since then, I have woven many boundweave Rosepath rugs. I have learned so much along the way and I am thrilled to be able to share some of my observations with you. Boundweave is a weft-faced structure. I set my rugs at 4 ends per inch. Because the threads are sett wide, the weft can fill in the spaces and cover the warp completely. Since the warp is covered completely, there is no interaction of color between warp and weft, so the weft colors appear exactly as they do when looking at the skein.
Any colors can be put together as long as they are of the same value (degree of lightness or darkness). Having a consistent value level among several colors unites them into a group, which then can be treated as a single entity. Using several colors of the same value creates harmony. When I am choosing colors for an even weave, where both warp and weft will show and interact with each other, I test the colors by taking a single yarn of all the colors I am thinking of using and I twist them together. If I am twisting dark colors and light colors together, the colors separate from each other, creating contrast. By becoming aware of color values, I can create fabrics that have fewer surprises when interlaced at the loom. For boundweave, I must have some contrast in order for pattern to show. Because Rosepath is a weave structure threaded and woven on a pointed draw, it is possible to weave flame and diamond motifs. The motifs will fade away or become very subtle if the colors next to each other are the same value. Contrasts must be kept in balance. Moments of solitude and moments of sociability. Moments of excitement and moments of peace. Too much of any of these is too much of a good thing. To showcase a color, I may use it sparingly and next to colors of contrast. Color contrast is wide open to anyone’s imagination. Sometimes I contrast warm colors with cool ones, clear colors with muddy colors, light colors with dark colors. Likewise, the visual design is as important as color theory. Design and pattern need to be in balance as much as color to maintain liveliness. Overstimulation or too much pattern can leave one with a feeling of confusion. Size contrast can be introduced by unevenly dividing spaces. Make a wide pattern area with a narrow strip of solid color or a narrow border of pattern in a wider field of solid color. An excellent source for viewing color and pattern can be found in nature. The vertical lines of the trees in contrast with the horizontal line of the lake surface. The color contrast between water and trees. A sunny, bright day in contrast with a dark, ominous stormy day. Get creative and have fun!
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Color theory in itself can be a complex subject for most weavers to tackle as there are so many components that can affect your desired end product. In addition to the type of yarn you’re using, its luster, and your sett, you also need to take into consideration the weave structure. In color theory, your end product and the color interactions that are created are directly affected by how the threads interlace with one another in the weave structure you’ve chosen. Let’s discuss a few common weave structures and how their anatomy changes the look of your fabric and how your viewer perceives the colors created when mixing warp and weft colors. Plain weave is our most basic and stable fabric. This fabric is one that the threads intersect with one another in the warp and weft direction traveling over one, under one, over one, under one from selvedge to selvedge. In a balanced, plain weave fabric, the mixing of two different colors (one for warp and one for weft), the two are forced to optically mix and find the middle value and color. Because of how they interlace and it being a balanced weave, your eye sees exactly 50 percent warp and 50 percent weft. Depending on the colors chosen and their value, it’s sometimes easier to anticipate its outcome. For instance, if you were to warp with royal blue and your weft is grass green, you may hypothesize to see some sort of aqua or teal from a distance. Although it can get more complicated to anticipate if you’re using two very different colors both in their relationship to one another on the color wheel and their value such as olive green and pale pink. This is where a color gamp can be so valuable! When considering other weave structures, this is where a bit of common sense and knowledge of the weave structure you’ve chosen will be to your advantage. When selecting a structure such as a 3/1 twill, consider the interlacement of those threads traveling over three threads and dipping under one thread. Knowing this, you can guarantee 75 percent of you warp threads will be dominant in contrast to the 25 percent of weft threads floating on the surface on one side of your fabric, and the opposite result on the opposing side. This can be to your advantage when you’re looking to over-emphasize one color when planning a project. A structure like Bronson or Huck lace will give you another opportunity to have plain weave fabric where the colors are mixing 50/50 in the border areas, but in the lace units you’ll have a chance to allow one color to pop forward and become the main focus where the warp or weft threads float over 3-5 threads. Although color theory in weaving can seem like an endless stream of exceptions and unknowns, you can rest easy knowing you have a bit more control knowing more about your chosen weave structure and use it to your advantage. For more information about color theory specifically relating to woven fabric, please feel free to join me for my live webinar on March 16th at 1:00 pm EDT. Sara |
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Dear Madelyn,
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I just received an ad from WEBS that shows a project started on a Toika loom. The part that interested me is the breast beam that the newly woven fabric goes around. The beam on the Toika looks exactly like the beam on my Ashford loom--the “diameter” is rectangular rather than round. With this email, I’m attaching photos of a man’s scarf I wove on my Ashford; the pattern turned out to be very distorted. I asked a local weaving teacher about it, and she thought it was because the beam on the Ashford was not round. She suggested I put a piece of PVC pipe over it to change the shape.  However, when I look at the photos of the Toika loom, their pattern is perfect and the beam is the same shape as mine. Can you help, please?Thanks, Sheryl Hi Sheryl! I’m afraid it isn’t the breast beam. Your beat varies too much, so that the interlacement is tighter in some places and looser in others. Your yarn looks as if it is fairly slippery, so as it goes around the beam, the weft can get misaligned. But the cloth shows the changes in weft density between the loosely beaten areas and the tightly beaten areas rather than a slight distortion in the weft. In theory, your rosepath diamonds should be as tall as they are wide. If you are using a wool yarn that you intend to full, then you want the warp sett to be open (and the beat to be correspondingly loose so the weft sett matches the warp sett). If you planned to full this piece, you just needed to beat lightly enough to keep the picks per inch the same as the ends per inch. If, however, you didn’t intend for the yarn to full, your warp sett is too open. (And it’s always harder to beat consistently with an open sett than with a close sett.) If you do weave with open warp and weft setts using your breast beam, as I mentioned, you may have some slight distortion as the warp goes around the beam. In most cases, the yarns will realign themselves as they relax and full during wet-finishing. The Webs photo that you mentioned shows much different yarns at much closer setts. Their yarns don’t have any room to move as the cloth goes around the beam. You can continue to love your Ashford loom and you can leave the front beam the way it is! Madelyn |
For the first time in a century, Switzerland is producing its own silk. From the Middle Ages up until 1914, the country had been making its own silk; however, the last silk factory was closed in the early 20th century.
So, who do we credit with this renaissance? We tip our hats to a group of farmers who decided to organize and reintroduce silk production to the European nation. Known as the Swiss Silk Association, the group has produced 20 kilograms of silk thus far.
But I think spinning’s independence from weaving may have gone too far. Some spinners are told that they can’t weave with handspun yarns! (Someone should tell all those explorers whose handspun handwoven sails crossed the Atlantic, or the spinners and weavers of the contemporary Andes whose handspun handwoven fabrics protect them against the elements!)
Every issue of Spin-Off includes information on how (and why) to spin, details on a variety of fibers, and projects--often including simple but clever weaving designs. Spinning and weaving together make for a fiber lover’s paradise.
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The most difficult part of creating handwoven clothing is not creating exquisite yardage or having the construction skills to make a truly beautiful garment. The difficult part is getting the garment to fit your body correctly. Sure, you can stitch together rectangles, which has been done since the bronze age when the first bog jacket was discovered. But really, rectangular shaped garments do not celebrate the shape and form of the maker, and they do not celebrate what a woven cloth can do. Learning to fit your own body can be so difficult, it is really hard to see all around yourself, and to make things worse, the pattern industry uses a fit model that is irrelevant and outdated. But it is what we have to work with.
We will talk about making test garments (a must), working with grainlines, and talk about some simple but critical pattern alterations that will help with full bustlines, and incorrectly placed back necks. Journey with me through a five part series on garment construction from handwoven cloth. In the first part we talked about what size cloth to weave, sett, and how to sample without setting up the loom twice. And of course, finishing that cloth so that it is “needle ready”. We talked about cutting out that yardage and how to keep that handwoven fabric under control. You can download part 1 by clickinghere. In parts 3-5, we get into the real meat of sewing with handwoven cloth. How to control grainlines, sewing basics for handwoven fabrics, seams, edge finishes, and of course closures. There is so much to talk about, and I’ve got so much to share. I’ve spent a lifetime creating garments from my own hands, and there is nothing more satisfying than wearing something you’ve made that fits you well and celebrates the cloth from your loom. Join me for Part 2 on Monday, March 23, 2015. The webinar is 60 minutes and there is time for questions. All will be answered eventually, and packaged in the download. If you can’t make it for the live webinar, we will let you know when the download becomes available. Meanwhile, happy weaving! --Daryl | ||||||||||||
Len Wo (Good Afternoon)! I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Kosrae (pronounced Ko-shrye), Micronesia, to visit my son, Matt. At 42 square miles of mountainous land and a population of around 7000, Kosrae is covered with lush tropical forests and surrounded by mangroves and coral reefs. Kosrae is called the “Island of the Sleeping Lady” due to a famous mountain range with the profile of a lady lying down. It is also referred to as the “Jewel of Micronesia” enticing about 900 tourists yearly who come mainly to dive, surf, and fish. The pace of life is slow, with most people still living a semi-subsistent lifestyle based on fishing and farming.
After five years, we had finally arrived to check out his new project. On our first day, we visited the State Museum for island history. There, I found photos of weavers and looms from the late 1800s, replicas of old weaving tools, pirns of abaca, and even a diagram of the knot used to tie abaca for rope making. As a handweaver myself, my curiosity was piqued! A highlight of the trip was meeting two women weavers who use shells and many native plant fibers to create beautiful ornaments, wall decorations, jewelry, frames, baskets and boxes. They weave by hand in their homes, enjoying each other’s company and loud music. I saw how the long lustrous fibers were removed from the plant and allowed to dry. Shells for their work are collected right outside the house, cleaned, and pierced with a dental tool and flat coral as their awl and stone. As their guest, I was delighted to receive several pieces as parting gifts. In return, all I could do was share photographs of my weaving studio and handwoven fabrics. They were amazed by the floor looms! After seeing the beautiful hand weaving and artistic abilities of the Kosraean women, I predict they will take easily to table or floor looms. I’m already looking forward to my next trip, when we will bring floor looms to Kosrae. For more information on these exotic raw fibers, please contact Matt Simpson at greenbananapapers@gmail.com. Kulo (Thank you)! Janney Simpson | ||||||||||||
Madelyn,
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Across the pond in the Philippines, the government has taken an interest in rekindling the art of weaving.
The local government in Santiago City has partnered with the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Trade and Industry to provide loom training to around 40 indigenous peoples in order to stimulate the local economy. The program aims to support both women's groups and indigenous peoples as well.
About eight years ago, I started experimenting with an idea I picked up in a Catharine Ellis Handwoven Shibori workshop several years before. At the time, I never thought I would still be discovering new possibilities using the technique that produces what I named “crimp cloth.” I have so many ideas rolling around in my head waiting to be sampled. When I am planning yardage, I usually add an extra half-yard of warp to sample for future projects. I may be testing out new color combinations, new pull patterns, or just satisfying the “what-ifs” that have been on my mind.
How do I decide which method to use when planning a project? I often start by looking at my stash. This technique has been a good stash-buster for me! Sometimes, I will pair two or more yarns together to create the color I want. Sometimes, I will over-dye to get the desired color(s). If I have chosen a combination of several yarns, I plan for weft crimp rather than weave with several shuttles to achieve my color order. Two shuttles are always needed for weft crimp: one for the thermoplastic synthetic yarn--usually polyester or orlon--to weave the ground cloth, and one to carry the pull thread. For warp crimp, the synthetic yarn and the pull threads are in the warp. Only one shuttle is needed for weaving the ground cloth. Another consideration is the style of the garment and how much sewing I want to do. The easiest garment to make is a weft crimp vest. It can be sewn by the most novice seamstress as it only requires three seams and an edge finish on the bottom edge. A garment out of warp crimp yardage is a little more time-consuming.
I find the garments to be very wearable. I like how the fabric just kisses the body and is flattering on a multitude of figures. A bonus is that one size fits many. My students will attest to that. For shawls and scarves, I mainly use weft shibori because I like the stretch or give of the crimp to be between the selvages. I like wearing crimped scarves because they can be pulled to their full width and serve as a shawl if I get chilly and need something around my shoulders. As for shawls, they are hassle-free to wear as they don’t slide off. The minimum number of shafts needed for this technique is four. One difference between using a 4-shaft loom or multi-shaft is the scale of the patterns. The number of possibilities to create different designs increases as the number of shafts increase. A basic understanding of the components of a draft and the ability to dress the loom independently is all that is needed to give this technique a try. For the experienced weaver, the freedom of design and the unlimited possibilities will keep you at the loom. --Dianne | ||||||||||||||||
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Hi Madelyn!
A friend of mine uses sticks to pack the warp on the warping beam, and I’ve always used paper. I think her warps are better than mine (mine never seem to be evenly tensioned, especially on the edges). Should I be using sticks instead of paper, or what am I doing wrong?
--Sandi
Hi Sandi!
You should be able to beam an evenly tensioned warp using either paper or sticks. I use sticks, but not because they provide better warp tension. I have close to thirty looms warped at my school, and we are now putting almost 30 yards at a time on each loom. If I were to use paper, what you’d see for all those thirty yards of weaving is the paper unrolling from thirty warp beams. With sticks, no matter what length of warp remains on the loom, the warp on the warp beam looks pristine. You simply pick up the sticks after each session of weaving.
If you use paper, you want to be sure the paper is smooth. Some weavers use wallpaper remnants. Wallpaper has enough substance and comes in rolls. Corrugated cardboard works very well, though it takes up a lot of space on the beam, preventing putting on very long warps if you use it. Newspaper pages, cut up paper bags, or any paper with bumps or irregularities will cause irregularities in tension. Go for something smooth and sturdy.
With either paper or sticks, the key to even tension is beaming with high tension and making sure that the width of the warp on the beam is the same as the width of the warp in the reed. There is a tendency for the warp to spread out at the sides as it passes over the back beam onto the warp beam. I constrain the width on the back beam to slightly narrower than the warp width in the reed so that when it reaches the warp beam it is the same as the width in the reed. If it spreads out, the threads on the edges are less dense than the rest, and as the warp goes on, the paper (or sticks; the sticks do slightly bend) will bow toward the beam at the edges of the warp. You want the beamed warp to look like a perfect cylinder. (I tie a thick cord tightly around the back beam on each side of the warp and slide it next to the warp threads slightly pushing them to the desired width.)
I’m often asked how many sticks put in as I wind on. I usually put a round of corrugated cardboard on the first wrap of the warp on the beam to accommodate the knots on the apron rod. After that, I put in one or two sticks per complete revolution of the beam, one stick for each of the earlier turns, two per turn as the warp builds up on the beam.
The most important element is making sure the warp is tightly wound.
--Madelyn
Teaching weaving is a pleasure for me. I have taught in many different arenas and enjoy them all: from festivals, to classes at my local weaving and knitting shop, to private lessons, and college courses in fibers. Granted, it is always nice to have many weeks to work with my students, but even with a one-day class, my hope is to share my passion for weaving and get students up and running with enough knowledge to continue weaving with confidence!
That's why I'm so excited about Interweave's upcoming Yarn Fest event in Loveland, Colorado. This inaugural four-day event, scheduled for April 16-19, will be filled with workshops on weaving, knitting, crochet, and spinning. A diverse array of classes, taught by a variety of seasoned instructors, will give students the opportunity to gather tons of new skills and tips from the best in their fields.
Yarn Fest offers classes for all skill levels and techniques bound to spark the imagination for many more projects in the future. I love being a part of these multi-day fiber events because you get the opportunity to work with so many different people and be surrounded by fiber and fiber enthusiasts for days on end!
The four days will not only be filled with classes, but also with talks, dinners, vendors, and mingling time. Yarn Fest is a place to learn that knitting stich you’ve always wanted to, spin fibers just the way you like it, weave scarves with a whole new twist, crochet with beads, knit with wire and much more, all in one location. It looks to bring together the fiber community at large and celebrate all that it has to offer. The Front Range is a bustling community for the fiber arts, making it a great location to host such a fun event. I am personally really looking forward to being a part of Yarn Fest--looking at all the classes makes me wish I could teach and be in a class, all at the same time!
I will be teaching beginning and intermediate rigid-heddle weaving as well as how to construct garments with your precious handwoven cloth! My classes will help you dial in how to get great tension on your rigid-heddle loom, explain how and why pick-up patterning works, and give weavers the confidence to step outside of rectangular shaped work. Register for my class and others HERE!
Having a background in sewing and garment construction, it has been so much fun designing approachable patterns with handwovens. My garment construction class will go over skills that will allow students to shape their cloth to fit them without an excessive amount of sewing. We will talk about drape, muslin patterns, how to design neck holes, and most importantly, how to prevent your garment from reveling during the cutting and stitching process! All yarns behave a differently while being sewn, and I will show a wide range of yarns and the best way to approach each of them. I often get the question in my classes, "What can you make besides scarves and table runners?" My garment class will show you all sorts of fun ideas.
I’m looking forward to this event and hope to see you in class!
Sara Goldenberg White
Often, when I profess my love for southern New Mexico to others up north, I hear them say, “Oh, I could never live there. I like having four seasons.” This is a common misconception folks seem to have about the desert. We do actually have four seasons, it’s just that the cold is much less cold than in other places, and in the case of spring it only lasts a few windy weeks before the temperature hits 80 again. While I happily admit that I love the weather down south, after years in Colorado I have to admit I was missing the sunny days and cold nights you get in the late winter and early spring. My husband felt the same, and so we decided to spend a long weekend in the beautiful town of Taos, New Mexico.
Those of you who are familiar with Taos probably know of Weaving Southwest and of the wonderful Rachel Brown. Rachel was an exceptional tapestry artist and weaver who not only designed beautiful works of woven art, she also designed a walking loom, based on the traditional looms used in the Southwest, and the Rio Grande spinning wheel. She was an innovative lady, and though she is gone, her shop still lives on with her granddaughter Teresa at the helm.
I felt the yarns of Churro, which were much softer than I expected (Teresa explained that it was due to years of careful breeding by a woman named Connie Taylor) and the texture was intoxicating. I kept picking up skeins and petting them and listening to the gentle crunch as I squished the yarn and the fibers stuck together and released. I finally understood why people love those kinds of wools and the pure joy that comes from handling them. In that moment, I decided that I needed to work my way up to weaving a rug. I’ve decided to start small and weave up a set of weft-faced mug rugs using some wools that I already have in my stash. I don’t know that I’m really a tapestry type of weaver, so I think I’ll design my first set in some diamond or goose-eye twills. I figure it's best to start small and work my way up so I can learn the intricacies of the process and see how the cloth changes during each stage. Then, when I feel comfortable, I will design and weave my very first rug. While that thought makes me happy, I have to admit, what makes me really excited is the thought of trying something so very new and going on yet another weaving adventure. Happy Weaving! 
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A fashion designer turned microbiologist is combining her passions for science and clothing by growing textiles in test tubes, hoping to change the scope of the fashion industry forever.
Suzanne Lee, creative director of Brooklyn-based biotech start-up Modern Meadow, got her start with biofabrics (as they're known) 10 years ago, when a Scottish biologist introduced her to the concept of growing cellulose from bacteria rather than plants like cotton. The duo worked together to grow a leather-like byproduct of kombucha, a popular fermented tea, that's reportedly much stronger than most modern fabrics. The other fascinating part? The fabric could be draped around a dress-form to knit itself together--no sewing required. She's made several jackets with the byproduct, showcasing its practicality and diversity.
Today, she's working with Modern Meadow to delve into growing leather from bovine cells (cattle cells), hoping to revolutionize the way garments are created around the world.
Many thanks to Pattie Graver for this BeWeave It suggestion!
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| Hi Madelyn! What is the best way of calculating the yardage for weft yarns used in a woven project in overshot? Is there some kind of formula to apply that would give an accurate estimate? For measuring the number of picks per inch, for example, the tabby-weft and the pattern-weft yarns are different sizes but the number of picks of each are the same. Lately, I have been using 14/2 alpaca/silk (3,500 yd/lb) for warp and tabby weft, and alpaca (1,500 yd/lb) for pattern weft. I calculated what I thought was the right amount for each yarn, but in the end used up more tabby yarn than pattern-weft yarn. The warp sett was 20 epi and the width in the reed was 25". My weft sett was 20 ppi (10 pattern, 10 tabby). The dimensions measured on the loom were 23" x 70". I calculated I would need about 500 yd of each yarn for the weft. --Liz Hi Liz! I think you probably used pretty close to the right method to determine your weft yarn amounts (based on the yards you indicate in your estimate): Multiply the number of picks per inch times the width of the warp in the reed times the woven length, and then, since that number will be in inches, divide by 36 to get the total number of yards. In addition to that, though, an allowance must be made for weft take-up, since the weft does not make a straight path across the width of the warp, but must be angled or arced. In your case: Multiply ten picks per inch (of each yarn) times the number of woven inches (70) times the warp width (25) and add an allowance for weft take-up (which is the only factor for which there can be some variation): 70" x 10 x 25" divided by 36 inches per yd equals 486 yd. I usually add about 15% for weft take-up. That would mean 486 plus 73, or 559 yd. (15% is adding too much, by the way; 10% is the usual percentage, but I always want to allow more than I will really need—this will also make me not worry if I have to cut out weft for mistakes, etc.) But this doesn’t answer your question about why the lengths were different between your two yarns, when you made the same number of picks per inch of each. In theory, weft take-up is greater if the weft interlaces more with the warp. That would mean that weft take-up for the tabby weft is greater than for the pattern weft. I would also guess that a thicker weft takes up a bit more than a finer weft as it makes its path over and under warp threads, but this is only a guess. I wonder if you wove headers in plain weave alone before and after you used the pattern weft? At any rate, I’d have to watch you weave to see if you allowed less ease when you inserted the pattern weft than you did with the tabby weft. I do want to point out something about overshot, however. Overshot is a structure with a supplementary pattern weft on a ground cloth of plain weave. Usually, if you were to cut out all the pattern wefts from an overshot cloth, you would end up with a plain-weave cloth. That cloth should look like a balanced plain weave, so in theory, in that cloth there would be as many tabby picks per inch as warp threads per inch. Most overshot drafts are therefore designed so that the motifs would be square with the TOTAL number of picks per inch (tabby and pattern) double the number of warp threads per inch (that would mean 40 total pip for your cloth rather than 20). Most of us can’t beat the two wefts in firmly enough to do that, so we remove a pattern pick or two from the large blocks of the motifs, just enough to make the motifs square. If you were to cut out the pattern weft from your cloth, you would have a plain weave in which the warp is twice as dense as the weft. You might want to open the warp sett a bit (15 or 18 epi?) to allow the pattern and tabby wefts to beat in more firmly. I’ll talk more about this in the next Ask Madelyn. --Madelyn P. S. In response to my answer about warping sticks vs paper in Ask Madelyn, March 27, 2015, several readers wrote to tout the use of mini blinds as warping sticks. Since they have a slight curve, they can hug the warp beam nicely. My only warning about them is that they are flexible and can bend. This is not a problem if the warp is beamed under even and firm tension at the same width on the warp beam as in the reed. But they can bend toward the warp beam if the warp spreads out at the edges and then is less dense there (or if warp width is much narrower than the length of the mini blinds. |
