I'm very new at weaving. I did a sample with the worsted yarn that came with my rigid heddle loom and it was fine. I wanted to use a thinner yarn for my next project so I bought a 10 dent reed and some yarn that the sales clerk at the LYS told me worked fine with a 10 dent reed. I don't intend to do anything fancy. I was just going to make a rectangular cloth with plainweave that had stripes. Very simple. I don't even know what I plan to use it for, probably just to gaze at it in wonder that I made cloth.

I put one thread through each hole and each slot all the way across the 10 dent reed. Then I started to weave and try as I might, everytime I beat the yarn it will not lay against the thread below it. There are holes between threads. It doesn't look bad I guess, but it was not what I expected. On the edges it does seem to be a little closer together, but all through the middle of the cloth it is not a very dense material at all.

Do I have the wrong yarn size for my 10 dent reed? Does this have something to do with epi or sett that I keep reading about? What happens if I keep going? Will it just be a really flimsy cloth? Is there something I can do to fix it? 

I've read about threading more than one yarn through every slot. Is that what I should have done? 

I am using Rowen Classic Yarns Siena. 100% mercerized 4ply cotton. It is a fingering weight, but only gives knitting gauge on it that says 4 inchx4 inch knit square is 28 stiches by 38 rows. I'm not sure if that helps or not. 

I do plan on taking a class, but there is not one in my area for a month and I wanted to play around with my loom now. It seems as though I could fit a whole other warp and/or weft in each of those spaces. 

This is what it looks like: 

 

Comments

Thu, 07/28/2011 - 02:08

Claudia Segal (not verified)

I'm not familiar with the yarn you mention. I think your weaving looks fine and when you wet finish, you may find it closes up if you use hot-to-the-touch water and don't agitate it. Just put it in the hot soapy water, let it soak for about 10 minutes and rinse. Squeeze the water out, don't wring it. You can also wrap it in a towel and squeeze out the excess water. Did you try wrapping the yarn around a ruler and counting the wraps/inch and divide it in half for plain weave? When using a lightweight yarn, I often thread one or two threads extra per every 10 threads for a sett of 12 or even more for 14 or 15. Hope that helps, Claudia
Thu, 07/28/2011 - 04:07

francorios (not verified)

My experience with cotton yarns is to expect about 15 percent shrinkage when wet finishing (machine wash/machine dry cycle). That will tighten up the finished product. I think a 12 dent or 16 dent might be better or like Claudia said you could add an extra thread every 10 threads or so. I have found that really beating the weft will tighten up the weave but the resulting cloth is stiffer than expected when weaving is completed. And it will be more weft faced. You've actually got a fairly balanced weave going on so take lots of pictures in case you need to do that again. That balanced slightly open weave would nice for a cotton shawl. Have a good day! Franco Rios
Thu, 07/28/2011 - 07:28

Erica J

Plain weave should be balanced, meaning the same wefts per inch and warps per inch. Or in weave jargon picks per inch as ends per inch. So think of it this way, you should have as much space between each row of weft as you have between each warp thread! 

It looks like you're achieving that. If you really want to see how balanced a cloth you're creating, just put a ruler on your woven cloth parallel to your warp. Then it's just a matter of counting how many weft threads you have in an inch. As you've warped at 10 ends per inch, then you're aiming for 10 picks (weft threads) per inch. If you're at 8-9, don't stress!

Enjoy,

Erica

Thu, 07/28/2011 - 17:53

Mutz

Thanks for all the info. I just did the wraps per inch and came up with 25 wpi. So does that mean I should have doubled the thread in the warp? Or since you said divide in half that would be 12.5. If that is the case then I could have just put an extra warp a couple of times and been fine? Or maybe the twelve dent reed would work? They told me at the LYS the 12 dent was for things like lace weight yarns. 

I wasn't aware that cotton might shrink enough to remove the holes in the cloth. I will keep the photos of the work, but I decided to unweave it and use two strands of weft. I'm not sure how that will work in the end. I throw the yarn across, then loop it around the selvedge thread and throw it back through. I am able to see the design of the colors a little better, which is what I was going for. I hope that doing 2 passes, and then wrapping over or under the selvedge won't cause problems. I guess I'll see.

I can't wait to get it off the loom so I can wet it now and see the final product. I'm glad to know that I was on the right track and getting the even weave was the important thing. It makes me feel a little better about what I am doing. Thanks for all your help!

Thu, 07/28/2011 - 19:06

Claudia Segal (not verified)

That's a very good way to deal with it being lacier than you had hoped.  Yes, if the wpi is 25, the sett or epi (ends per inch) is 12.5.  A 12 dent heddle would be good but threading one extra in the 5th hole and slot out of 5 (10 dents/inch) also works.  

Please post the project in your project folder when it's done.  YOu can also put you first pnoto there as a reminder of what the project looked like when it was threaded at 10.  

Claudia