What is the difference between a fiber made for knitting and one made for weaving?  Strength?  Stretchiness?  Any advice on using knitting yarn in a woven piece?  I've been looking over "A Yarn Weaver's Guide to Yarn" from an old Handwoven Magazine, and they categorized them separately.  I looked at an on-line yarn store, they are also sold in separate "departments" of the website.  Thanks.

Comments

Fri, 02/18/2011 - 16:27

tien (not verified)

Stretchiness and size, I think.  Knitting yarns are generally made to be somewhat stretchy, both to keep the knitting in shape and to make knitting easier.  they are also typically much heavier than weaving yarns, to make the knitting go faster.

Knitting yarns can be used easily as weft, but because of the stretchiness, they can be a bit tricky to use as warp yarns.  Not impossible, just trickier.

Finally, knitting yarns generally come in balls or on skeins, whereas weaving yarns usually come as cones - easier to warp from!

Fri, 02/18/2011 - 19:00

illoominated (not verified)

I wanted to use up wool from my knitting stash.  It sounds like a weaving wool might be best for the warp, and then I can use my knitting wool for the weft.  Thank you.

Mon, 02/21/2011 - 19:18

trplr95 (not verified)

I'm a new weaver, and part of my agreement with my beloved spouse was that I'd use up the stash, which is entirely "knitter's yarns".  For warps, I've chosen the firmer yarns, like Cascade 220 and similar.  I've saved things like mohair for weft, which is neither under tension nor being abraded by the heddle.  This has worked very well. 

I did use some no-name acrylic (no-name as I lost or the dogs ate the labels) as warp.  I suspect that these were Lion Brand and similar things that I bought to quickly crochet washable sweaters for the grandkids.  Some of these were a little harder to use as warp, because they are stretchy.  I made scarves from these, about 6-7 inches wide, and they worked okay.  They would have been miserable on a wider warp - at least for me at my skill level. 

I also had some Sugar'n'Cream, and used it for placemats and kitchen towels.  That worked very well in a 7.5 dpi heddle. 

Good luck!

Trish

Mon, 02/21/2011 - 22:27

greyowl (not verified)

I have used knitting yarns for weaving. I wanted to use up smaller  amounts of expensive sock yarn that were left over from my sock making,and were not enough to make anything else with. I combined the various colours and used as warp and weft to make some cushion covers for chairs.I have not posted any pictures to date as I do not yet have funds for a digital camera, however this year I hope to rectify that... by the way, I used my 24" Ashford R.H.loom for the weaving, not my 4 shaft table loom....Barb