You guys, I need some help. I am taking a dyeing class in a couple of weeks in holland Michigan at the Michigan league of hand weavers annual workshop. I will dyeing at least 6 warps so I'm trying to wind them off this weekend. It should be a great class and I'm so excited! Anyway, my first project is going to be two pillows for our black couch. I have a cone from henrys attic of piggy which is a boucle type cotton at 600 yards per pound. I wrapped a ruler and got 12 tight wraps per inch. Which I know you usually half to say 6 epi. But this is going to be for a pillow and since I'm dyeing the warp I will want my weave to be warp faced. So I want it dense and hardwearing...I do have teenagers who think pillows are to be used no matter how decrotive they may look. Forgive the spelling there.. And I'm not sure what my weft should be.....can you do a cotton warp and a wool weft? So I guess I have two questions....sett and weft suggestions for a relatively non fussy upholstery for a pillow. Any suggestions? Thanks

Comments

Little Meadows (not verified)

Hi Rebecca,

You need to download the Master Yarn chart from Interweave - it's a very handy resource.  In that chart are a couple of cotton yarns that while not 600ypp are close and could give you a starting point.  Also if you want the pillows to be warp faced then that cotton is what will be taking the wear & tear, I'd think that you could use a cotton for the weft but if you have a fine wool you want to use why not?  You'll just want to sample or account for shrinkages. Certainly for pillows I'd err on the side of more density - if you need to open the sett a bit then you have a wider pillow, which I'd rather than a smaller one.  Handwoven in the past has published an article or two by Sharon Alderman on weaving upholstery material you might want to look them up on the index site.

Liese

 

Karren K. Brito

Sett depends on structure as well as the yarn.  WPI/2 is a starting sett for balanced plain weave. For warp faced plain weave a starting sett is wpi x 2.  At this dense sett bumps and loops on the yarn tend to catch on the next end everytime you try to open the shed  :).  Using the boucle yarn as a weft and making the cloth weft faced can be easier.  Using something smooth, like rug warp, and sett open, wpi/3,  can get you a weft faced pillow with a surface that is all boucle.

laurafry

Like Karren says, textured yarns in a warp faced structure are not all that friendly.  I'd use something smoother for the warp and the textured yarn for weft, too.

cheers,

Laura

Zone5gal

Oh, okay, I will rethink this pillow. This cone of piggy yarn is very nice...beige, but very nice. I have some other cottons I can use. Thank you both for the advice and I will print off the chart as suggested.