What toppings do you like on your tie-up pizza?
A tie-up is like a pizza: the bigger it is, the more slices you can chop it into. A tie-up is also like a pizza in that you can put different toppings on each slice. (I know that sounds like a stretch, but bear with me.) In the What is Twill? course, we discussed that […]
How to choose the best reed (and sleying order) when the perfect reed is not available
Many weavers have a limited number of reeds available to them. If you have a 12 dent reed, and the project you are working on has a 24 epi Sett, you simply sley 2 ends in each dent. Easy peasy! What happens if you DON’T have the perfect reed available? Example 1: Anne Hiemstra ran […]
Fix a wrong sett – WITHOUT resleying
As you probably know, sett is critical to getting your project right: if it’s too open, the weft beats in too much and covers the warp. If it’s too close, the fabric can wind up stiff and unsuitable for its purpose. When working with a new yarn or a new structure, we usually make a […]
How to fix your twill when neither side matches the drawdown – and gain more design options as a result!
Have you ever started weaving and realized that the fabric on the loom doesn’t look like the drawdown or picture? That happened to Susan Palwick recently, so she posted pictures of her drawdown (draft #80355 from Handweaving.net) and her fabric on Facebook, and asked if anyone could help figure out what was happening. Most of […]
How to measure YPP or MPKG without a yarn balance
If you don’t have a yarn balance you can determine yards per pound (YPP) or meters per kilogram (MPKG) of a yarn by measuring a known length and extrapolating from its weight. A short length is bound to be too light for most scales to weigh accurately, so the best approach is to wind yourself […]
Burn tests: How to identify the fiber content of a mystery yarn
If you’d like to figure out the fiber content of a mystery yarn, the quickest and easiest approach is to do a burn test. A burn test is just what it sounds like: you light a piece of yarn on fire and record the results. Things to watch for include: You’ll find any number of […]
Four ways to calculate sett when weaving (Ashenhurst’s Rule Part 2)
Need to find the sett for a draft that isn’t plain weave or twill, or in an unfamiliar yarn? Here’s how to calculate it.
How to calculate sett using Ashenhurst’s Rule
Need to calculate sett for an unfamiliar yarn? Ashenhurst’s Rule will help. In this blog post and its sequel, we’ll explain how Ashenhurst’s rule works and how you can apply it in your weaving. What is Ashenhurst’s Rule? Thomas R. Ashenhurst (1849-1902) was the chief instructor in weaving and pattern designing at the Bradford Technical […]
How can I fix twill floats that are too long?
When a twill’s floats are too long, the solution is to change the float lengths in its tie-up. “But tie-ups don’t have floats!” you say? You’re quite right: a tie-up doesn’t have actual floats. A tie-up is the connections between the shafts and treadles that make the sheds required while weaving, and those connections don’t […]
What to do when you haven’t got enough heddles on a shaft
A question came up in a Facebook group from a weaver who wanted to use a huck threading like this… …but she didn’t have enough heddles on Shafts 1 and 4. If she was working with a four shaft loom, she would be limited to either moving heddles, or adding repair heddles to Shafts 1 […]
