One of the wonderful things about weaving is how easy it is to create your own designs. With just a few simple techniques, you can pull yarns from your stash to make custom creations, or wander a yarn store confident that selections in your basket will be enough yardage of the right kind of yarn for your next project.
The first thing you’ll need is some idea of what you want to weave. Do you want a soft, drapey scarf? An absorbent dish towel? Gauzy curtains? Super-sturdy fabric for a bag or upholstery? The materials and methods for each one of these differ; you have to know your final destination before you can map your way there.
Most often, what you’ll weave on a rigid-heddle loom is yarn: thick yarn, skinny yarn, fuzzy yarn, smooth yarn. But we’ll see in later chapters that you can also weave nontraditional materials such as fabric strips, paper, metal wire, and even plants from your garden. For the moment, however, let’s talk about yarn. It’s good to know the basics before you experiment with the wild stuff.
Warp and weft are the most important part of the weaving process. You can weave without a loom, but you can’t weave without yarn (or other suitable materials). The warp is what you put onto the loom. The weft is what you put on a shuttle and throw through the weaving shed. When you look at cloth with the selvedges on the right and left, the warp threads run vertically and the weft threads horizontally.
Because the warp and weft yarns are what cloth is made of, it follows that you have to select yarns that have the same properties as the cloth you want to weave. There is no technique or weave structure that will let you make a next-to-the-skin soft scarf out of a wiry rug yarn. Pick yarns that already embody the qualities you want in your cloth. Want a soft and cushy scarf? Worsted-spun Merino wool is a great choice. A hard-wearing and absorbent dish towel? Put down the Merino and embrace cotton or linen. Become a fabric detective, and look at the cloth around you. You can learn much from the fiber choices of industry.
Warp yarns (from left to right): Tencel, 10/2 pearl cotton, 3/2 pearl cotton, worsted-weight wool, silk
In the pages that follow, I describe what you need to consider for your first weaving project, as well as instruction on how to wind a warp, thread the loom, and get started weaving. So that you can practice as you read, I suggest that you obtain a skein of worsted-weight yarn similar to what we used for this beginning project, with approximately 110 yards in 50 grams, and warp your loom and weave along as you read, section by section. By the time you get to the end of the chapter, you’ll have woven a scarf, with a final measurement of 8" × 72".
There are urban legends floating around about what you can use to warp a loom. You’ll hear people say you can’t warp with handspun, or singles yarn (yarn with only one ply), or fuzzy yarns, or yarns that stretch, or yarns that are completely inelastic, or yarns that snap if you tug them hard between your hands, which is frankly damn nonsense — I’ve woven with all those yarns as warp. If you can get it on your loom and open a shed, you can weave it. What is true is this: an easy and reliable warp yarn is strong and smooth, and has some give and a balanced twist. Read on for what all of this means.
Strong. Strong warp threads will not break during the abuse that is weaving. You can put them under too-tight tension, abrade them with the heddle, hit them accidentally with your shuttle, and they hold together. The stronger your warp yarns, the easier your weaving will be.
One common test of a potential warp yarn’s strength is the snap test. Grab either end of a section of yarn and snap your hands apart sharply. If the warp yarn survives, it’ll be strong enough to weave easily. An even more important test is the drift test. Take one end of the proposed warp in each hand and apply even, slow, tension. If the yarn stretches and then stops, it’s a good warp yarn. If it stretches and keeps stretching to the point that it pulls apart, use it as weft. Do not wind a warp with a yarn that drifts apart: heartache and madness will ensue.
Smooth. Smooth warp yarns, such as cotton, silk, or worsted-spun wool, slip past each other easily when you open the shed. This makes them more forgiving if you thread them too close together on the loom.
Some give. Getting even tension over the warp threads is one of the most important things to accomplish when you’re setting up your loom. A warp thread that has some give will self-tension to a certain degree and make up for small tension irregularities you’ve introduced. Too much give, on the other hand, can make for a fabric that seems to weave well on the loom but shortens dramatically when you take it off tension and the warp relaxes. If it shortens too much, there may not be room for the weft in the cloth and it will ripple and wave. (Of course, this can be a lot of fun if it’s the effect you’re striving for.)
A demonstration of stretch. To figure out how much stretch is ideal for an easy warp, I performed a stretch test on some common warp yarns. I measured out a yard of four different warp yarns, tied them together in an overhand knot at one end, slid the knot over a hook, then applied a standard warp tension as evenly as possible to all four to see how much they stretched. I threw the linen into the test to show you what to expect from an inelastic warp. Linen is commonly considered a tricky warp yarn because of its unforgiving inelasticity. Fibers (from left to right): linen, silk, cotton, wool
Balanced twist. To be a knowledgeable weaver, you have to understand yarn construction. Yarn is the stuff cloth is made of, after all. Nearly all yarn is created by taking short fibers, staggering their lengths, and twisting them together to make a long, continuous yarn. (The exceptions to this yarn structure are extruded yarns, such as synthetic polymer yarns, and reeled silk.) This creates a singles yarn that, because all the fibers are twisted in the same direction, has a certain amount of potential energy. If you took it into space and let it go in midair, it would untwist until it was again a poof of fluff. Back on earth, if you tried to wind a warp with it and let go for an instant, it would kink and knot back on itself in a nearly insoluble tangle. To take away the pent-up energy of the singles yarn, spinners ply two singles together in the direction opposite from the way the singles were spun. This balances the twist to create a yarn that can safely be left alone on a table without snarling.
Examples of twist. The yarn on the left is a singles; two strands of it plied together were used to make the 2-ply yarn at the right.
Weft yarns live a pretty soft life. The requirements for them are much more forgiving than for warp yarns because they’re not under tension, so they don’t have to be as strong or as smooth as warp yarns. Unabused by the weaving process, they just hang out on the shuttle until it’s their turn to go into the shed: all they need to do is fit through it and hold together long enough to be locked into place by the warp. If they’re a bit weak and fragile, the strong warp is there to hold them together. In addition to fitting through the shed, however, an easy and reliable weft yarn is also flexible enough to turn easily at the selvedges.
Although the weft is playing a lesser role in the strength of the fabric, it still lends its qualities to the finished cloth, so pick a weft that complements your warp. Crossing a silk warp with wiry wool yarn will not make the lusciously soft fabric you’re wishing for. (That scarf would likely outlive you, however, not only because of its strength, but also because no one would ever wear it.)
Flexible wefts are the norm, but as you will see in chapter 7, you can even weave with completely inflexible wefts.
Softness. Is it important that the finished cloth be soft? If you’re planning to wear the garment next to your skin, the answer is likely to be yes. If you’re weaving cloth for a purse or a rug, this is less important.
Size or thickness. Do you want to weave a fine cloth? Then you’ll need to select thin yarns. Want a thick, lofty fabric? Select thick yarns.
Strength. Usually softness and strength are a trade-off: the softer the yarn, the weaker it is. Silk and many synthetic fibers are an exception to this.
Drape. Is the yarn flexible? If so, it’ll contribute to the flexible hand of the finished fabric. Silk has a lot of drape, whereas linen (until it’s been used a lot) does not.
Absorbency. Does the finished textile need to absorb water (as in a towel) or should it be water repellent (if you are weaving outerwear.)
Thermal insulation. Are you weaving winter clothing? If so, then how well a yarn holds heat is important. Silk and lofty woolen yarns provide great insulation. Cotton and rayons do not.
Conductivity. This is typically important only if you are weaving eTextile applications.
Things on the loom are not as large as they appear! Aspects of weaving such as loom waste, draw-in, and take-up each affect the finished size of your project. If you don’t take them into account when planning a project, your finished cloth will be smaller than you intended.
Loom waste is the simplest to understand. This is the section of warp at the beginning and end that you can’t weave, either because it’s used to knot the warp onto the loom or because it stays behind the heddle. The amount of loom waste is dependent on the type of loom and the technique you use to attach the warp to the loom. One of the benefits of weaving on a rigid-heddle loom is it generates very little loom waste. Whereas a standard floor loom might have a loom waste of a yard or more, the loom waste on a rigid-heddle loom is typically less than 12".
There are ways to minimize loom waste, such as tying on with shoelaces. In fact it can be a fun weaver’s game to see how little loom waste you can produce. Minimizing loom waste is also useful when you’re weaving with yarn that is precious (your son’s first handspun) or expensive (qiviut).
To calculate loom waste, weave a sample project — one where length isn’t critical. Use your favorite method for attaching the warp to the loom. When you are done, cut the cloth off the loom and measure the amount of unwoven warp. That is your loom waste.
For projects such as a scarf or table runner, the loom waste may become part of the project as fringe and not be wasted at all. For other projects, such as garment fabric, you may choose to add extra length to your warp to counteract the length lost to loom waste.
Loom waste. The warp left unwoven at the end of your project, both in front of and behind the heddle, is the loom waste.
Cloth isn’t two-dimensional. If you look closely at the structure of woven cloth, you’ll see the warp threads don’t lie straight. They bend over and under the weft threads. This up-and-down deflection uses up some of the length of the warp, causing the length of the finished object to be shorter than the original warp. This quality is called take-up.
The take-up of the cloth is affected by several things. The bigger your weft threads, the farther the warp has to travel to climb over and under them and the bigger the resulting take-up. Structure also affects take-up. Plain weave, having the most intersections, produces the largest amount of take-up.
What can you do about take-up? Nothing. It’s part of the physics of weaving. The only solutions are to estimate or sample what the take-up will be, and then add additional length to the warp to cover it. (Or, if you’re a happy-go-lucky weaver, put more warp on than you need, or promote the short scarf as the coming thing.)
Deflection. This close-up of a weaving in progress shows how both warp and weft threads bend over and under one another.
As you weave, you’ll likely notice that the sides of your cloth are narrower than the width of the warp in the heddle. This is draw-in. Like take-up, it is caused by the fact that the weft doesn’t lie straight in the cloth. It has to bend over and under the warp threads. If you look closely at cloth, you’ll see it’s an interlocking mesh of undulating yarns, not a grid of rigid rods. This deflection uses up some of the length of the weft and causes the fabric to draw closer together in the cloth than it is in the heddle. Too much draw-in can strain the selvedge threads and cause them to break.
You can work against draw-in by either putting more weft into the shed when weaving (see How Much Warp?) or Using a Temple. Moderate draw-in isn’t a problem for most projects, however, and in fact if you work to have no draw-in at all, you may create another problem for yourself. If the warp threads on the selvedge don’t weave up and down like the rest of the warp, the majority of the warp is experiencing take-up, while the selvedge threads are not. Since the selvedge threads aren’t being used up as fast as the warp threads in the body of the fabric, they will become loose compared to the rest of the warp, and the weft at the edges will creep down and begin to “frown” in those low-tension areas. (For more about frowning warps and how to fix them, see here.)
So, what to do about draw-in? Make sure that you’re adding enough additional weft when you weave so there is minimal draw-in. The amount of draw-in that’s acceptable in a project depends on the yarn and weave structure. The best way to counteract it is to weave a sample, figure out the percentage of width lost to draw-in, and then make your warp wider by that percentage. (For a photo and more advice about how to avoid draw-in, see Finessing the Throw.)
Another factor that can cause your fabric to be smaller when taken off the loom is wet-finishing (washing, see Wet-Finishing Your Fabric) and shrinkage. When your fabric is on the loom, it’s under tension. This means that it’s being stretched out longer and skinnier than it would be if it was just fabric lying on a table. When you take it off tension, the fabric “schlurps” together.
You will be able to picture this effect if you’ve ever knit lace. You know how knitted lace looks like a random pile of yarn until you stretch it out and the pattern suddenly appears? Taking a project off the loom is like the opposite of blocking lace. In weaving, the fabric is effectively blocked while it’s on the loom and then collapses a bit when you take it off. When removed from tension, the cloth draws together, causing it to shorten and often grow narrower (though in some cases it can grow wider off the loom, depending on the physics of the warp and weft).
The fabric relaxes even further once it’s washed. The water fluffs up the fibers and makes it possible for them to move around in the fabric, reducing the dimensions more and sometimes even creating special effects.
In addition, there can be additional shrinkage from the fiber itself. Some yarns shrink when washed, especially if washed in hot water: wool in particular is known for this. If you wash a non-superwash wool in hot water with soap and agitation, it will shrink dramatically due to fulling and felting.
Given that there are several factors working against your cloth to make it smaller once it’s off the loom, how on earth can you weave a perfect 20" by 28" tea towel? The answer is you have to know how much your project is going to shrink and add back in that much more width and length in the warp.
For example, if you know that a given cotton fabric will shrink 10 percent in length and 5 percent in width after it’s off the loom and washed, then you’d have to weave a cloth that is 110 percent as long as you want, and 105 percent as wide. So, to end up with a 20" wide by 28" long tea towel, you’d need to weave a cloth 21" wide and 30.8" long. If you’re planning a double-fold hem, you’ll have to add extra length for that as well.
That’s all well and good, but how can you know precisely what the shrinkage will be of a cloth you haven’t woven yet? The short answer: you can’t. The only way to be absolutely certain what the shrinkage will be is to weave the cloth, take it off the loom, and wet-finish it. Then compare the measurements of the cloth on the loom with those after washing. Of course, few folks are willing to weave a set of undersize dish towels just so they can then weave a set of full-size ones. So what’s a weaver to do? Cheat. See Guesstimating Shrinkage on the facing page for some strategies.
Strategy 1: Decide you don’t care. Many projects will work even if the size is slightly off. Does it matter whether that scarf is 9" or 81⁄2" wide? Probably not. If you can stand losing a bit of the dimension and still have the item work, you can choose not to care about shrinkage.
Strategy 2: Find a published project where someone has already woven the item and measured the shrinkage. Weave exactly the same thing, with exactly the same yarn. The first limitation here is obvious: What if you can’t find a pattern that’s exactly what you want to weave? And what if you can’t find that exact same yarn? If you only weave following someone else’s strict recipe, you’ll miss out on a lot of the adventure and artistry of weaving. Not only that, but even if you are happy following in another’s footsteps, you might still find that your shrinkage is different from theirs. Factors such as the amount of tension on the warp, how tightly the weaver packed the weft into place, whether the weaver used a temple, and local humidity can all affect shrinkage. So even if you follow the directions exactly you may still end up with a different result.
Strategy 3: Add 10 percent to everything. This is an amalgamation of strategies 1 and 2. If you look at a lot of rigid-heddle projects (such as the ones in this book), you’ll see that the average shrinkage is around 10 percent most of the time. If you don’t care too much about the final size, adding 10 percent is not a bad first guess. (One caveat: some weave structures and some yarns will shrink a lot more than 10 percent, so this method can lead to . . . surprises.)
Strategy 4: Make a small sample. Many weavers who want accurate information about the fabric they’re going to end up with put a small sample warp on to test-drive the project without committing a lot of yarn. The problem is that a 2" wide warp weaves differently than a 12" wide warp, even if the yarn, loom, weaver, and weave structure are the same. The reason is twofold. First, in a narrow warp the selvedge (edges) form a greater percentage of the cloth. Selvedges draw together tighter than the center of the warp, so when they form a larger percentage of the cloth, the overall cloth is more tightly packed, which means a denser feel and less shrinkage. The second factor is that a narrow fabric interacts with the beater differently than a wider fabric. There’s less friction. So, weaving a small sample is good, but know that small samples can lie.
Strategy 5: Make a full-size sample. Hey wait! Isn’t this what we were trying to avoid? Well, yes — and no. We want the accuracy of the full-size sample without having to weave the project twice. Here’s how to do that: make your best guess as to what shrinkage is going to be (option 3), plan your project accordingly, and then add 1 to 2 extra yards to the warp. You’ll use this extra yardage to weave a sample, cut it off, and then wash that sample to determine the actual shrinkage. Then you can add or remove warp threads from the project, until you get just the right amount to counteract your shrinkage. Not only do you get a full-size sample without having to weave it twice, you even saved having to wrap it twice, as in strategy 4.
In my own weaving, I tend to bounce around between strategies 1, 3, and 5, depending on how precisely I need to hit the project’s desired size.
The structure you choose to weave has a big impact on the finished fabric. The way threads interlace and interact affects the fabric’s drape, loft, and shrinkage. It may also change the way the fabric needs to be sett. Like the scarf we’re planning here, many projects woven on a rigid-heddle loom are woven in plain weave, but that’s not the only option.For more structural choices, see chapters 5–7. When planning a project, you should understand how the structure will affect the fabric.
The best way to learn about a structure is to play with it. Weave samples without any goal other than learning how the structure works. If you weave samples in the yarn you intend to use for your project, you will also get information about the fabric’s draw-in and shrinkage after washing.
Structure and width. If you choose to weave your woolen shawl in waffle weave without understanding that waffle weave can have a draw-in of 30 percent, you might be disappointed to discover that your finished “shawl” is only 7" wide!
“Face” is a weaverly term that refers to whether the warp or weft dominates the fabric.
A warp-dominant fabric is one where you see more of the warp threads than the weft threads on the surface of the fabric. In a completely warp-faced fabric, the warp threads entirely cover the weft threads, and you see the weft only at the selvedges.
Similarly, a weft-dominant fabric is one where you see more of the weft than the warp as you look at the fabric. An example of a completely weft-faced fabric is tapestry, in which the beautiful designs created by the weft threads completely cover the warp.
A balanced fabric is one in which you see equal amounts of the warp and weft on the surface of the fabric. A fabric with more warp ends per inch (epi) than weft picks per inch (ppi) is likely to be warp-faced, and a fabric with fewer warp epi than weft ppi is likely to be weft-faced, though weave structure also plays a part. (See also Say What?.)
The three fabric examples here illustrate weft-faced, warp-faced, and balanced weave structures. In tapestry weaving (top left), the weft completely covers the warp. In the pick-up patterning seen in traditional Andean weaving, such as this narrow band (bottom left), the warp completely covers the weft. (Warp-faced fabric is difficult to weave on a rigid-heddle loom, but you can use the loom as a frame to hold the warp, without threading it through a heddle.) In a balanced weave, warp and weft are equally visible (top right).
Sett describes the number of warp threads in an inch when the loom is warped. If you count the number of holes and slots in an inch on a rigid-heddle, this gives you the default sett for that heddle. (Most modern heddles have this number printed somewhere on the plastic.) The more threads per inch that you have in your warp, the denser the finished fabric will be. Fabric density is one of the tools you have to build the fabric of your dreams. For a thicker, more durable fabric, set your warp tighter (more threads per inch). For a more flexible, thinner fabric, set it looser (fewer threads per inch). Because the heddle we’re using here has 4 holes and 4 slots per inch, our sett is 8 ends per inch.
Sett can also affect how easily a warp weaves up. If you set the warp too close together, the warp threads will rub against each other and abrade until tiny little fibers stick out from the warp threads and stick to each other when you try to open a shed. Even if you are able to weave off a too closely sett warp, you might find yourself creating the first Merino-silk trivet, instead of weaving a soft scarf. On the other hand, if you set the warp too open, it’s easy to accidentally create skips and floats in your cloth. The finished cloth might not hold together well enough for your intended purpose; warp and weft threads may slide out of position.
Top right: The thin cotton warp threads are completely covered by the rayon chenille weft, creating a velvety, weft-dominant fabric.
Top left: The use of both thick and thin warp threads brings textural interest to this plain-weave fabric.
Bottom: An 8-dent heddle is warped with a sett of 8 ends per inch.
It’s interesting to note that some projects use setts outside the so-called normal range. Some examples of when you might encounter this are if you’re felting, playing with differential shrinkage, cramming or spacing a group of warp threads, or using both thick and thin threads in the same warp. This is why sampling is so fun; you can discover intriguing fabrics when you push the envelope.
So, if sett can be too close, and sett can be too open, how do you know what sett to use for a given yarn? This is the question that weavers ask themselves at the beginning of every project, and there are several ways to get the answer.
The following setts are guidelines for weaving plain-weave fabric of a moderate density. If you want a fabric that is dense or airy, you’ll need to adjust the sett up or down, accordingly. If you are weaving a twill fabric, you’ll want to use a sett that is approximately 20 percent denser than the plain-weave sett. Other variables that might make you want to try a different sett for your fabric include the weft you use, irregularities in the thickness of the warp, or a fuzzy warp. When in doubt, weave a sample.
|
Super Bulky |
5 ends per inch |
|
Bulky |
6 ends per inch |
|
Worsted |
8 ends per inch |
|
DK |
10 ends per inch |
|
Sport |
12 ends per inch |
|
Fingering |
12 ends per inch |
|
Lace |
20 ends per inch |
|
3/2 cotton |
12 ends per inch |
|
10/2 linen |
20 ends per inch |
|
10/2 cotton |
24 ends per inch |
|
20/2 linen |
24 ends per inch |
|
20/2 cotton or silk |
36 ends per inch |
|
120/2 silk |
144 ends per inch |
Wraps per inch. One method for estimating an initial sett is to wrap the yarn around a ruler until you’ve covered an inch or two of its length. Then count the wraps per inch, divide that number by two, and use that as a starting plain-weave sett. It’s not a bad strategy, and I’ve used it with some success. The thing to be aware of when using wraps per inch to estimate sett is that you can vary the wraps per inch depending on how tightly you pull and pack the yarn. It’s a simple method, but not very precise.
Ask someone. This method is the fastest way to get started weaving when you have to weave a project right now and don’t have the extra yarn or time to bother with experimenting. Simply find someone who’s woven with the yarn and weave structure you intend to use and ask them their sett and how it turned out. This is one reason that belonging to a guild of fellow weavers is valuable: you can share the work of experimenting with new yarns.
If you don’t have weaving buddies to ask about sett, refer to the chart on the opposite page for guidelines for some commonly used yarns, or go to one of the following resources for further information.
(For web addresses for all of the above, see Magazines in the appendix.)
The downside is that if you consult an outside resource (such as a book or fellow weaver) you may find that your results differ from theirs because the yarn, your loom, the way you weave, your weave structure, or the humidity in your house, differs from theirs. When looking up sett, I often consult several sources and take the most common suggestion. Even then, I consider that only a starting point. If the cloth is not turning out how I’d like, I change the sett in the middle of a project. (For more about that, see Fabric That’s Too Dense or Too Loose.)
Experiment. There is no better teacher than the loom. If you keep records of your experiments, soon you’ll have your own custom weaving reference, completely accurate for you and your loom. I keep records of everything I weave in a notebook beside my loom where I jot details about what I’m doing, changes to my original plan, and ideas for future exploration. Often I learn the most from my disasters, and sometimes they pave the way to innovation. (For a sample of the form I use for recordkeeping, see Yarn Requirements.)
A fun way to try out several alternate setts is to weave a sample, cut it off the loom, and re-thread the yarn onto a new heddle with a different sett to weave another sample. In this manner you can try out several setts and only wind the warp onto the loom once.
Weaving has its own terminology, which can be confusing until you learn what things mean. In this section, some terms to know are epi (ends per inch), which is the number of warp threads in one inch of warp width when the warp is on the loom, and ppi (picks per inch), which is the number of weft threads per inch of cloth length when the cloth is on the loom.
Together the epi and ppi define how densely woven the fabric is, and these factors vary depending on the thickness of the threads you’re using for warp and weft. You’ll see these terms used in the projects you’ll find later in the book.
If you see a sentence about sleying fear not: it simply means the act of pulling a thread through the rigid heddle; no humans (or vampires) will be harmed.
Once you know your finished dimensions, shrinkage, loom waste, and sett, you are ready to precisely calculate the length of warp to wind for your scarf. We want the scarf we’re using as an example here to be 8" wide and 72" long, with 8" long fringes at either end that we’ll twist into a shorter plied fringe later. The yarn we’re using is a worsted-weight yarn set at 8 ends per inch. We’ve sampled and know that we’ll have 12" of loom waste, 10 percent draw-in, and 15 percent take-up after the cloth is washed. I’ll walk you through a series of equations as an example of how this works.
Allow for draw-in. The first step is to figure out the width you need to weave so that, after draw-in and shrinkage, your textile will be the correct size. You know that the yarn you’re using for your 8" wide scarf shrinks 10 percent (0.1 as a decimal), so you learn that you need to make your warp 8.9" wide to have the finished fabric end up 8" wide. To make threading easier, I rounded this up to 9".
(finished width) ÷ (1−[draw-in as a decimal]) = (width in the heddle)
8" ÷ (1 – 0.10) = 8.9"
Allow for take-up. A similar equation works when applied to the length. Say that our sampling had shown a 15 percent take-up in length, and we want a finished length of 72". You learn that you need to weave 84.7" on the loom to end up with a textile 72" long.
(finished length) ÷ (1−[take-up as a decimal]) = (length to weave)
72" ÷ (1 – 0.15) = 84.7"
Allow for fringe (or hems). Because we want an 8" fringe at each end, we add this to the length without accounting for take-up because the fringe isn’t woven and thus doesn’t experience take-up. (If your project will have fringe at both ends, remember to add twice the length of the fringe to the length of the fabric on the loom; the same goes for fabric needed to turn a hem.)
(dimension to weave) + (2 × [fringe length]) = (length of fabric on the loom)
84.7" + (2 × 8") = 100.7"
How long a warp to wind. Keeping in mind how long your fabric needs to be on the loom and your loom-waste length, you’re ready to calculate the warp length. Divide this value by 36 (the number of inches in a yard) to get the minimum length in yards.
(length of fabric on the loom) + (loom waste) = (minimum warp length)
100.7" + 12" = 112.7"
112.7" ÷ 36"/1 yard = 3.13 yards
If you’re using a warping board. Warping boards are usually calibrated in yards. In this case, you have three options: round down to 3 yards (and make the project 4.68" shorter, either in the cloth or the fringe), play around with a measuring tape and different paths around the pegs until you find something close to 3.13 yards, or round up to 4 yards and use the extra warp for experimenting and sampling.
If you’re using the direct-peg method. With a warping peg, you can be precise about the length of your warp by simply setting the peg at the right distance from the loom. When you do this, however, make sure you measure from the back rod to the peg, as this is the path the warp will travel. Even with a warping peg, however, you might want to give yourself a bit of extra warp to experiment with. I often audition different wefts to see if there’s anything better than the one I had planned. One of the fun things about weaving is discovering surprises at the loom.
And now, the grand total. Now that we have the sett, length, and width of our warp, we are ready to calculate the total amount of warp yarn needed for the project. First, find the number of warp threads by multiplying the width by the sett. Then, multiply the number of threads by the length of each thread. This gives you the total amount of warp yarn required for the project. The example below shows the result with the length of the warp rounded down to 3 yards. For the sample scarf, you’ll need about two 50-gram skeins of yarn (110 yards per 50-gram skein) for the warp.
(width in heddle) × (sett) = (number of warp ends)
9" × (8 warp ends/inch) = 72 warp ends
(number of warp ends) × (warp length) = (total amount of warp)
(72 ends) × (3 yards) = 216 yards of warp required
A less wasteful loom. If you are finishing your project with fringe, your loom waste can become fringe. So in this example, since you have loom waste of 12", we probably needed to add only 4" for the fringe in the preceding step instead of 16". This, however, assumes that your loom waste is evenly split between the front and back of the loom. The safer option is to proceed as we have here, adding both the amount needed for loom waste and fringe.
Stripes and other repeats. If you are winding a warp with a stripe or structural repeat every so many threads, you may have to make the warp width a little wider or a little narrower to adjust to the weave patterning and avoid having partial repeats in your fabric.
Note that in this symmetrical design the stripe pattern is centered on the scarf.
Calculating the weft works in much the same way as the warp calculation. Instead of sett, you use the ppi (picks of weft per inch of woven fabric). Sampling will give you the exact ppi, or, if you are working with a balanced-weave structure, you can approximate ppi using the same number that you used for sett.
Total weft picks. The woven length multiplied by ppi gives you the number of weft picks, which is the number of weft threads in the cloth. (Since we are weaving a balanced plain weave for the scarf, we will approximate the ppi by using the sett figure. Note that you use the woven length, not the warp length, for this calculation.)
(woven length) × (ppi) = (number of weft picks)
(84.7") × (8 weft picks/inch) = 677.6 weft picks
Total weft amount. The number of weft picks multiplied by the length to be woven is the total amount of weft needed. Note that neither the amount of loom waste nor fringe is included, because no weft is used in them. Since you don’t weave partial picks, round the number of picks up.
(number of weft picks) × (width in heddle) = (total amount of weft)
(678 weft picks) × 9" = 6,102"
Convert the number of inches to yards by dividing by 36:
(6,102" of weft) ÷ 36 = 169.5 yards of weft required
You’ll need three 50-yard skeins of yarn for the weft. You’ll notice that you use more warp than weft in a project. That’s because some of the warp becomes fringe and loom waste.
All this calculation and sampling might seem like a lot of effort, but the reward is the freedom to design any textile you can imagine. The payoff comes when you take something from the loom that is wholly yours, something unique and special. And really, isn’t that what handweaving is all about?
This simple formula is another, though less precise, way to calculate how much yarn you’ll need for a project, or you can use weaving software to calculate your yarn requirements.
Warp. To calculate how much warp you need for a project, multiply the length of each warp thread by how many you have in the project. (This is the sett of the project times the width of the project in the heddle.)
(project length + loom waste) × (sett) × (width in heddle) = total warp needed
Weft. The total number of weft picks is the picks per inch times the length of the cloth. Each time you throw the shuttle through the shed you create one pick, or shot, of weft. If your project has a balanced-weave structure, such as plain weave, the number of picks per inch (ppi) of cloth will be the same as the sett.
(project length) × (ppi) × (width in heddle)= total weft needed
Add an extra 10–20 percent of the total yardage of both warp and weft to allow for shrinkage, draw-in, and take-up.
Double-tap the image to open to fill the screen. Use the two-finger pinch-out method to zoom in. (These features are available on most e-readers.)
Download the printable worksheet at http://whol.st/Yarn-Requirements.