Spin to Weave: The Weaver's Guide to Making Yarn by Sara Lamb

Author:Sara Lamb [Lamb, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620333488
Publisher: Interweave
Published: 2013-08-25T22:00:00+00:00

I typically use fine commercial yarn for the weft in my garment fabrics.

The weft can influence the look and drape of a fabric as much as the warp. For the samples shown on page 64, I sampled three different wefts for the same warp—gold wool, purple wool, and dusty rose silk noil. The wools were both Nature Spun Fingering (about 10/2 in size) from Brown Sheep Company at 2,800 yd (2,560 m) per pound with a moderate twist. The silk noil was Soie Naturelle from Henry’s Attic at 1,800 yd (1,646 m) per pound with a softer twist. Compared to the wool, the silk is more compressible and less likely to full as much in the finishing. Both yarns are recommended for knitting with U.S. size 3 (3.25 mm) needles, but the fiber composition and twist amounts make them very different in hand and finishing as weft yarns. I ultimately chose the two-ply softly spun silk noil for the fabric.

I typically weave samples to compare wefts, colors, and sizes, and to assess finishing issues, if there are any, before I start weaving a particular fabric. At the beginning of each warp, the yarns and I need to settle into a rhythm—until the tie-on knots pass over the breast beam and begin to wind around the cloth beam, the tension on the yarns shifts and adjusts, making for less-than stellar conditions, so I use this part of the warp to test different wefts. Unless I need to know potential finishing variations, I rarely cut off these samples; I simply advance the warp and begin weaving the project. I add this part of the warp into the loom waste when calculating the number of yards I’ll need for the warp (see sidebar on page 25).

In some cases, I let the end use dictate the type of weft I choose. For example, a heavy jacket might require a heavy weft. The three fabrics for a Tibetan jacket at the bottom of page 65 show three different weights of weft and fiber content—a softly spun woolen warp and weft at left, a firmly spun wool warp and weft in the center, and a firmly spun wool warp and commercial cotton weft at right. All three fabrics are suitable for the jacket pattern chosen, but for different levels of warmth. A variety of fabrics may be suitable for the same garment style, but the weight of the fabric will dictate the range of utility. For example, lightweight fabric is not as warm and while heavier weight fabrics are warmer and perhaps more durable, they are also bulky.

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