Sample blanket in linen

There's generally a lapse between me weaving something and writing about it, but with all the excitement of inkle weaving and my new Henning band loom the story of weaving Janet Phillip's sample blanket in linen yarns is over a month old. This is what I was up to at the end of August. I had this on the loom between my Japanese Indigo dye sessions.


A fellow weaver asked recently if I use a temple (or stretcher), yes, I normally do. There are weavers who do and weavers who don't and some have strong opinions about them. I don't have any strong views. This is what works for me. I favour the Toika and Glimakra wooden temples, I have some of each and a good range of different sizes. I also have Toika metal temples but with their larger and longer teeth they are brutish in fine fabrics, so I save them for rugs.

If you don't know what a temple is, in the above photo there is one next to the weaving shuttle. It has little teeth at either end that are down into the woven fabric, teeth pointing outwards and maintaining an even fabric width. While weaving this linen sampler I was moving it more frequently than usual because linen stretches less than cotton or wool and needs keeping at even tension. If the edges draw in a little this increases the tension in the selvedges.

I had several threads snap when this warp was first on the loom and I was weaving my header rows to get the threads spread and check the set up was right. This problem was cured by use of a "size". Size is painted onto the threads to protect them. It helps the fibres stick together and dries to make the yarn smoother in the heddles and reed, less friction means less broken threads. Actually, it meant no more broken threads, worked a treat.

As I have never used size before I dug around in various weaving books and found different recipes. I didn't know what to choose, so I e-mailed the Yahoo list "WeaveTech" to ask for help. I got a great response from people who were used to linen and had their own favourite recipes. I also got advice about different types of size to use on different types of thread.

The top favourites for linen are a recipe given by Kati Reeder Meek in her book "Reflections from a Flaxen Past" (details given below) using flax seeds or alternatively a mix of flour and water with a vegetable oil or tallow.

I was going to try out more than one recipe, but Kati's method worked so I stuck with it. I did get into some difficulties first time I tried to make it because of the differences between US measuring systems and European, but basically the principle is you need eight parts water to one part seeds (whatever the unit of measurement), put in a saucepan and heat gently. I found it takes about 3/4 hour to turn to a gel "the consistency of egg white". First time, I got stuck because I brewed it up too strong (not enough water) and then I couldn't get the flax gel through a sieve in order to remove the seeds! It works beautiful at 8:1. I added a teaspoon of vinegar as preservative, although the mix is kept in a jam jar in the fridge. To apply it to the warp I used a piece of synthetic sponge, wiped it on to the top and bottom of threads between the back beam of the loom and the heddles. I tied a twist of bright thread to the selvedge as marker so I knew how far the size went, even when the warp was advanced along the loom. It dries very quickly, but a slightly damp warp is an advantage with linen, which is 20% stronger when wet.

If you haven't looked back at my earlier posts about Janet Phillip's sample blanket, the details for weaving this are given in her beautiful book "Designing Woven Fabrics" which was published last year, here's Janet's website. It is a twill sampler, with 10 different patterns across the width of the loom, and 50 different treadling patterns, so you end up with 500 different weave patterns displayed. This gives you a design tool for your own weaving projects.

O.K., so I wove it once before in cotton, why weave it again? My theory was that I could learn about how linen behaves by comparing this blanket to the cotton one I wove before. I also chose to work with a lower colour contrast between warp and weft, and then to use two different colours in the weft. As the linen thread is finer than the 2/6 cotton I used before I doubled each pattern section, using twice as many warp threads, but I left out the last threading pattern which is a wavy twill. Because of using two different weft threads, I made my warp extra long, this time I put on 6 metres. Looking back I used a 6 metre warp when I wove in cotton, and added a chenille weft sampler at the end of the warp.

I actually have another warp on my loom at this moment, and am weaving the same sample blanket in wool, and once again learning a great deal about weaving, weave patterns and how different wool yarns behave compared to the cotton or linen. No photos just yet, so let me entertain you with some of the lovely patterns in the linen sampler.




And here's the whole great length of fabric off the loom. Once it was off the loom, for the first time ever I was handling a great length of hand woven linen, and it feels simply gorgeous. It is both soft and smooth at the same time, even before I'd washed out the linen size, but even more so when washed and finished.


Washing? This I did in the bath, with many changes of water. Then so as not to damage the linen I took it outside wet through (no washing machine spin) to drip dry on the washing line. I pegged it by one selvedge, taking care to wrap as little fabric as possible around the line, again, to avoid damaging the linen. The fabric was so, so soft now. Beautiful.

Then, following the instructions common to all my reference sources for weaving linen, it was time for the cold press / smoothing iron / mangle. In my case, the tools I had for this job were my marble pastry board and a (very carefully cleaned) rolling pin.

Why the cold press? Heat can make linen brittle. The purpose of this cold pressing is to push the threads into place around each other, and make sure that they set into the weave structure - not into folds or creases. This actually increases the strength and integrity of the woven fabric. It didn't take long. The rolling pin I used as a smoother, pushing back and forth, not as a roller. The process brought a lovely shine back to the linen, but it remained soft to touch.

Looking at the finished blanket, I wanted to compare the pattern squares in linen with the same pattern squares in cotton. I realised this would be easier if the pattern sections were labeled, especially as most were woven twice over in the linen sampler, in the two different weft colours, and a couple I left out because I had got to the end of the warp and ran out of space to weave them all!

These little tags were made from a cotton cloth tape I bought in the local sewing supplies shop, it is a special weave that doesn't need hemming. I wrote the names with a laundry marker pen, cut the tape, sewed on the labels with my sewing machine.

Now for anyone wanting to learn about weaving linen, here are my three favourite books.

Linen Handspinning and Weaving, Patricia Baines, pub. Batsford, 1989, ISBN 0-934026-52-1
(Out of print)

This book includes a lot of history. It is the best book if you want to grow flax or spin linen thread, as well as weave, not to forget caring for your woven cloth. There is a lot of detail, and a long bibliography.


The very best information on hand weaving linen as at the end of this amazing history book,
Reflections from a Flaxen Past, for Love of Lithuanian Weaving, by Kati Reeder Meek, Pennannular Press International, 2001, ISBN 0-9700648-0-2.

This is a self published book, and Kati has crammed into its 202 pages more than you would imagine possible. She travelled to Lithuania and carried out extensive research there and also among ex-patriate Lithuanian weavers who have settled in the U.S. There is a section featuring the individual weavers and their work, showing a rich and varied tradition.

One of the pages of old photographs shows some wonderful old band / sash weaving looms, little table top looms but some have dobby or jacquard devices (no drawlooms though, like my Henning Band Loom).


This third book is another good history book, not much on techniques for weaving, but plenty of 19th century American linen patterns collected by the author.

Linen Heirlooms, Constance Dann Gallagher, pub. Charles T Branford Company, Massachusetts, 1968, Library of Congress Catalog Number 68-55173 (no ISBN).


Now if I didn't sneek in enough views of the linen in the above photos to get across the interest and beauty of this, here are some more views







Just to finish, some pictures showing the same weave patterns, first in cotton, then linen.

Band Weaving

While my Henning Band Loom is being repaired I decided to try out patterned band weaving on my inkle loom, following the instructions in Anne Dixon's "Baltic Style Patterns on the Inkle Loom".

This is Anne Dixon as in the recently published "Handweavers Pattern Book" or "Handweavers Pattern Directory" as they call the U.S. edition. She has also published three booklets on Inkle weaving which are printed on folded A4 paper. I only bought them this summer, having started Inkle weaving with proper books - little did I realise that Anne Dixon's booklets tell you everything you need to know with very easy to follow directions and diagrams. The three can be bought from Fibrecrafts and P&M Woolcraft in the U.K. for less than £10 - I think every Inkle weaver should invest in them! Anne also taught Inkle weaving at this year's Association of Guilds Summer School, and I have heard very good reports of her teaching.

One thing I learnt from Anne Dixon was to use three lolly sticks at the start of the warp, I used two before, three is better. It gives something to beat against when you start weaving so that the weaving is good and firm from the start. The warp here is all cotton, the light blue is 2/12 mercerised and the deeper blue a 2/6. Both yarns from William Hall & Co., Cheadle, England.

A couple of other changes to weaving equipment, I had seen in "Weaving Bands" by Liv Trotzig and Aastrid Axelsson, that Swedish band weavers use a bobbin shaped shuttle and beat the weft in with a weaving knife. I found an Ashford boat shuttle bobbin (which is a bit too large to handle easily) and an old cake knife. The cake knife as a beater has greatly improved my bands, as I beat the weft in more soundly with this narrow, blunt-edged knife I am getting much neater edges. It also features a fancy tip which is good for picking up the pattern threads.


When I was given the Henning Band Loom I had no idea what it was or what to do with it. Naturally, I turned to the wonderful international weaving contacts I have on the Yahoo "WeaveTech" list and in the Online Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers for help.

The response was superb, many helpful people contacted me with information and advice. In addition to finding a couple of experts, I was also advised to see the website of Anneliese Bläse (for those of us who don't know German, Google will do a reasonable translation). Recommended books were the one mentioned above, plus Bandweben (German) or Bandveven (original Dutch) by M. G. Van Der Schaaf (this can also be found in Spanish translation).

I learnt that patterned woven bands are a long standing tradition in all the countries that surround the Baltic Sea, except for Denmark.

By chance I came across another book that is a special publication about the narrow pattern bands woven in East Prussia.

Here are books I would recommend:

In alphabetical order:

Baltic - Style Patterns on the Inkle Loom, Anne Dixon, pub. by Anne Dixon, 1995, ISBN 1-899972-09-9
and by the same author / publisher:
Inkle Loom Weaving - the Basics and Design, ISBN 1-899972-08-0
Lettering on the Inkle Loom, ISBN 1-899972-00-5

Very good and inexpensive instruction books.

Bandweben, M.G. van der Schaaf-Broeze, pub. in German in 1976 by Hornemann Verlag, ISBN 3-87-384-201-7.

Lots of band patterns that you can read without knowing much more than names of colours.

Byways in Handweaving, Mary Meigs Atwater, first published Macmillan Company, New York, 1954 (other editions since, still in print).

Card weaving, inkles and the inkle loom, twined weaving, brading and knotting, plaiting, beltweaves, and in Miscellaneous "Scandinavian warp-faced weave".

Inkle Weaving, Lavinia Bradley, pub. in 1982 by Routledge Kegan and Paul Ltd., ISBN 0-415-05091-X

Excellent book on inkle weaving, possibly the best, and includes a chapter on pick-up designs, also lettering and Bolivian Pebble Weave

Ostpreußische Jostenbänder, Irene Burchert, pub. 2007, Husum Druck und Verlagsgellschaft, ISBN 978-3-89876-364-6

Specifically written to record and preserve the patterns and techniques of the narrow pick-up patterned Jostenbands woven in East Prussia, used as skirt and apron ties, an inexpensive and useful book, although written in German (I bought from Amazon.de).

Weaving Bands, Liv Trotzig and Astrid Axelsson, pub. in English by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1974, ISBN 0-442-30032-8 (hardcover) and 0-442-30033-6 (paperback), first published in Swedish with the title "Band", by ICA Forlaget, 1972.

Includes: plain bands, patterned bands using pick-up, tablet woven bands, plaited bands, pillow bands, and over 40 pages of patterns.

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I have also found it necessary to improve my knowledge of the German Language, so have invested in a dictionary and grammar book, and borrowed a CD lesson course from the local public library.

If any of my readers are particularly interested in having a go at weaving these bands, why not join the Online Guild for 2010 so you can participate in a workshop to be led by Sue Foulkes in November 2010 for learning to weave patterned bands Baltic style on a backstrap loom? Sue has been preparing for this workshop with a trip to Sweden to research the subject and has woven many bands to learn and practice the technique.

*******

I am having to come back and edit this post to add the most wonderful resource of all, the editor of Swedish weaving magazine, Vav Magasinet, Tina Ignell, was able to find for me a copy of an article in Vav Magasinet 1984 / 4 where the Henning Band Loom is reviewed and instructions are given for weaving three bands. I heartily recommend Vav Magasinet!!

Knitwear design

Surprise, surprise, another new book..(?) o.k. you already know, I collect books like nothing else...

This is a good one. The best bit is that having bought this book, there's a long list of other books I thought I might want that I can now say I don't need. I might borrow them from the library instead(!) but I have got myself a reference book that covers many different knitting techniques.

This book is splendid. Lots in it. Not too expensive, in fact, cheap for the range of knowledge and the beautiful clear instruction and photos. I am reading it steadily and it is giving me all sorts of ideas about things I could do in knitting. It's a book for anyone who wants to design any knitting, and the subject is colour. It probably says all you really need to know about colour and knitting.

It's very good on choosing colours to use together, knitting with different coloured yarns and multi-colour yarns and the effect stitch choices have, creating pattern effects in the colour, or random effects, and then special techniques: stranded knitting, intarsia, helix knitting, shadow knitting, mosaic knitting, twined knitting, double knitting (two layers at once), designing with modules (a.k.a patchwork knitting), entrelac. There's a nice "design workshop" section with basic garment design and most appropriately it ends up with finishing touches.

It is:

The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques, by Margaret Radcliffe, pub. Storey Publishing in the U.S., 2008, ISBN 978-1-60342-040-2

A new book (!)

I have a wonderful new book that arrived in the post today, I must tell you about it...

Actually, I have a number of wonderful new books that have been turning up in the post and I've been keeping quiet about it. I have totally failed so far to keep to my planned book budget. My sister reminded me that the same thing happened last year when I said I was going to stop buying books - that time I lasted 5 weeks and then bought all the books I'd not been buying all at once.

So where does this leave the book budget? O.K. I can't afford the books - unless I re-arrange all the other budgets. I've cut my planned spending for yarn, travel and clothes. It looks like the vet bills should be less this year and I've got a statutory off road notice for my motorbike (that last one hurts, but it makes sense just now).

When I thought things through, the books really matter to me, more than most other things.

I'm restricting myself to good reference books and meanwhile making use of the local public library who charge 80p to request a book that's in the county and only £1 extra for "out of county". Out of county includes the British Library, so there's a vast range of books I have access to.

Excuses over.... the new book is:

Couture Sewing Techniques, by Claire B. Schaeffer, published by The Taunton Press, US, 2007, ISBN 978-156158-497-0.

Thanks to Peg for her review of this book last year.

I've had my eye on it ever since. I don't know if anyone else has spotted this, but Amazon (at least in the UK) are suddenly offering some big discounts on a few titles, and also free postage on all purchases. When the price of this book, delivered, showed up at £9.87 last week I did not hesitate to place my order.

Peg wrote a description of this book, I won't repeat what she has said. I'll add to it by saying why this book is important for me.

I came to textile crafts in my 30s, having avoided learning as much as I could avoid as a school kid, because I resented the fact that there was a tendency to push girls into domestic science when I wanted to learn to construct things - I wanted to learn to fix machinery and build furniture and boats - and there was virtually no opportunity for me to do any of this. In my 30s, a bit more relaxed about life in general, I discovered one Sunday when we went for a walk in the Peak District a business called Heirs and Graces which was at that time in an old chapel in the village of Longnor and run by Ann Esders who had started out making christening gowns and moved into supplying materials for patchwork sewing and teaching patchwork skills. I was bowled over by the range of gorgeous fabrics and signed up for a "block a month" sewing class on the spot.

One of the very first fabrics I bought were simple fabrics from the Kaffe Fassett range, woven with different warp and weft colours, plain and striped. I learnt more about these special fabrics just recently when I heard him talk on Weavecast (link to episode 37) It turns out they are handwoven fabrics that came about as a result of a project with Oxfam to help villagers re-establish a traditional industry after a tsunami - quite a story. Even without knowing the story, these have been my favourite fabrics ever. From first seeing them, I looked at them closely as I wondered why they were different to other fabrics; that was my first lesson about weaving and cloth construction.

I came back to sewing garments, something I'd avoided for years, via patchwork. With Ann, I learnt hand and machine stitching of complicated designs as well as applique and quilting. As I'd made my own patterns and designs for patchwork, so I went back to sewing clothes with a pattern cutting book* and a roll of brown parcel paper. The dressing gown specially designed and made for my boyfriend is so successful it's been made up 4 times now in two different wool twills, a plain weave wool and plain weave linen. Making the same pattern over again is a good way to learn about different fabrics.

* Metric Pattern Cutting, Winifred Aldrich, 3rd edition, Blackwell Science 1997, ISBN 0-632-03612-5

Now the reason why I especially like Couture Sewing is because unlike the other books I have on sewing up garments, it deals with the details and it is largely about design, cutting out, preparing to sew and hand stitching. The careful attention to small details (such as pages about button holes, handmade buttons, handstitching technique) reminds me of my patchwork sewing classes, where I learnt to be patient with the fiddly bits. I learnt to slow down, plan and prepare everything carefully and then have the pleasure of seeing how careful preparation enables you to get everything just right and produce something so good it looks like someone else made it!

Oh, and Couture Sewing also tells you how this or that fashion house finished this or that detail of their garments, so it's all in context and opens a door on a world of high fashion where designer garments are still handmade to measure for those who can afford to pay. Entrancing. Unusually for a reference book, I can see myself reading this one from cover to cover as I would a good novel.

Here are a couple of quotes from the author's introduction:

"What makes haute couture garments so special that some cost as much as luxury cars and small houses? What construction techniques are used for these garments? Are they really different from those used in home sewing ..... If so.....can home sewers duplicate them?"

"The book itself is divided into two sections. The first five chapters are designed to introduce you to the world of haute couture and familiarize you with the basic skills and essential techniques of haute couture. The last six chapters focus on the application of couture techniques to garments."

Books and sources on natural dyeing

I was going to load up pictures of my weaving today, but when I got down to the library today, for some unknown reason their computer won't link to blogger, so no photos today. Instead, Deborah has asked for some tips on getting a dye garden started, good books etc. These are my book recommendations for learning about plants you might use and growing them: Dye Plants and Dyeing, by John & Margaret Cannon, published by A&C Black in association with the The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2003 edition, ISBN 9780713663747, £14.99. This book focuses on plants (rather than dyeing techniques) and includes some scientific and historical information. Each double page gives a full page painting of the plant and information about using it to dye. However, it is not about planting & growing the plants so you'll want another book for that. A Dyer's Garden, from plant to pot - growing dyes for natural fibres. By Rita Buchanan, pub. Interweave Press, ISBN 1-883010-07-1, £9.99 Only a small book, but full of useful information and the title describes it well. A Dyer's Manual, by Jill Goodwin, 2nd edition 2003, pub. by Ashmans Publications, ISBN 0-9544401-0-2, £14.95

A lovely book in which an expert in using natural dyes passes on a lifetime's experience of growing and using dye plants. Includes a useful and extensive lists of plants and the colours they give. Website for this book: Ashmans Publications There are many other books I like about natural dyes, but these are the best for someone in the UK who wants to grow plants in their garden to use in dyeing. Then there are the websites and blogs: Teresinha's website on growing and using woad. Teresinha on growing and using other dye plants both these web sites are absolutely excellent, very highly recommended. Yes she does sell dyestuffs, but she also has superb information on growing your own. Yes she is a friend of mine - but I don't think I'm biased, she knows her stuff and is generous with information. Author of several books on natural dyes, only not recommended as they are not about growing plants, Jenny Dean has a lovely and informative blog. Do take a look. Another of my friends whose blog I'd like to recommend, Helen Melvin. Do especially take a look at this superb post about mordants for natural dyes - what they are, when, how and why to use them. Click here for the archive list from this blog of everything I have written about natural dyes.

Plain weaves with quality threads

It's a coincidence that there's been a few significant changes in my life at the start of 2009. Mostly not related to my fibre / weaving interests, so I'll just mention in passing that the start of a new working hours and different work locations last week kept me from writing about the many things I'm thinking about and working on in my 'spare' time.

So, where shall I start? Not with the new loom. I'll just say for those of you who haven't heard yet I have a new (extra) weaving loom and am very pleased with it. More on that another time when I can get my photos uploaded.

I was wondering where to start writing about the different subjects of different books I've been reading, I was thinking that I'd been following several lines of investigation at once, then I looked at the pile of books again and they re-arranged themselves in my mind. I see the connection, it's in my title, plain weaves and interesting, quality yarns.

I'm interested in the history of handweaving and different national traditions.

I have found that broadly speaking these differences in the 20th century handweaving traditions I have been reading about:

- the US tends to favour jack looms, overshot, plain yarns and at times very complex weave patterns,
- from Scandinavia I see countermarch or counterbalance looms, more high tension warps such as linen and the distinctive weaves such as rep,
- in the UK I have found more tradition of balanced plain and twill weaves, wool yarns and tweeds, and then fancy yarns in these weaves (see my earlier post about Bernat Klein).

Taking the UK, I read some time ago Theo Moorman's autobiography Weaving as an Art Form, a personal statement, published Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1975, and last year I added to my understanding of her life and work with Theo Moorman 1907-1990: her life and work as an artist weaver, edited by Hilary Diaper, published University Gallery Leeds 1992, ISBN 1 874331 01 4 (hardback) and 1 874331 002 2 (softback). Theo Moorman worked largely by creating designs in plain weave cloth with inlaid yarns.

I rediscovered Theo Moorman once more in Fine-Art Weaving, by Irene Waller, published by Batsford, 1979, along with other weavers of the late 20th C. The work of some of the others looks very dated and "70s" to me (I do know this is currently fashionable, but I recall the 1970s). A few stand the test of time very well - such as the amazing Peter Collingwood. In the introduction, the background of early 20th C British weavers is given, and I found a tantalizing, but short biography of Ethel Mairet (1872-1952).

Nigel, a fan of Ethel Mairet, directed me to A Weaver's Life: Ethel Mairet 1872-1952, Margot Coatts, published by the Crafts Council, 1983, ISBN 0 903798 70 0. Here I found links in attitude to cloth design that reminded me of Bernat Klein - simple weave (she used plain weave, he used simple twills) and an interest in yarn. I quote Margot Coatts (p.82)

"Ethel Mairet's approach to weaving was that it should be an intuitive and expressive response to the colour and texture of the yarn",

and Margot herself (p.104) quotes the representative of Greg's yarn spinning mill, who later created yarns for Ethel, saying that he:

..."very soon realised she was not a weaver, not a designer, but a yarn enthusiast - not just for the look of a yarn but also in the feel".

Inspired by weavers she had met in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Ethel Mairet started her weaving workshop using handspun yarns. Later Greg's of Stockport created characterful yarn for her such as a fine cotton snarl yarn which she coloured with natural dyes.

Now to move into a totally different part of the world, but more handspun yarns used by handweavers on simple looms to create the most beautiful cloth.

Last autumn I very much enjoyed seeing Kente cloth in the permanent exhibition at Bankfield Museum, Halifax. About the same time Syne Mitchell wrote about Kente cloth in Weavezine, Fall 2008, she referenced "African Textiles" by John Picton and John Mack. I now have two, different editions of this book. =Sigh=

I borrowed from the local library (by request, for 80p) the second edition, which I highly recommend:
African Textiles, John Picton and John Mack, published 1989 by The Trustees of the British Museum, ISBN 0-7141-1595-9. Discovering it to be an invaluable reference, I ordered a book I found on www.abebooks.co.uk, only to discover that I had ordered the first edition, published in 1979. The second edition has much more material, both writing and photos. So, I found a second edition and ordered that too. It's getting late and if I start telling you how much I like this book I'll be still tapping the keys into early tommorrow a.m., best leave that for now. However, there goes my book buying budget for up to March. Yep, this year I have set myself a budget with monthly amounts and aim to spend less on books -
this is to compensate for buying The New Loom - I'll tell you about that someday soon, with photos!!

Silk

In writing my bibliography I was startled to discover I had not written about a very, very good book that I discovered last year on silk. I did write on "Silk: what every weaver should know", with details of other books, so I must have purchased this particular book after I'd published that entry. I also wrote last May on the local history of silk spinning and weaving.

I was hunting high and low for information about silk as I wanted to know all about silk production so I could understand the yarns available, and also because I like to see the things in my life as part of a bigger picture. A yarn has more meaning if I know and understand: where does it start and where will it end?

Yes, I am turning philosophical now - I think it is important to know because we all make decisions that effect other people, and the sequence - what we acquire, how we use it, where it goes when we are finished - is a process that contributes to shape the world we live in.

I was also motivated by having bought some yarn of a quality that I thought was rather poor for expensive silk. More exploration showed I had bought relatively cheap, maybe this was part of the problem. It was full of knots and all wispy at the edges. I queried with the seller whether it really was thrown silk, as claimed, they told me they had it checked by an expert and and that it was (but there was no written report, so I don't know quite what the expert said)... and I thought thrown silk was made from long continuous filament and shouldn't have wispy ends protruding. So I hunted high and low on the internet to learn more.

This book which I found is about the big picture, it is:
Global Silk Industry: A complete source book, by Rajat K Datta and Mahesh Nanavaty, published by Universal Publishers, USA, 2005, ISBN 1-58112-493.
I found and bought it via Amazon.com, it was inexpensive - at a time when the dollar-pound exchange rate was more favourable!

The authors are well qualified. Rajat K Datta is a retired director of International and National Sericulture Research Institutes in India (author of 300 scientific and technical papers) and Mahesh Nanavaty has worked for over 30 years in the silk industry, in the USA and India. The foreword is written by Xavier Gavyn Lavergne, as Secretary General of the International Silk Association.

As regards the content of the book, the preface has this neat summary

"Here are gathered, indeed, the main information and anaylsis regarding the history of production and trade of this exceptional fiber, from the origins of silk to the 21st century, covering the important changes in the silk scenario notably in the course of the 20th centruy, which explain today's situation and enlighten the future."

So we have history, we have a chapter looking at silk in relation to other fibres, an overview of the global silk industry today, and several chapters on silk production. There are reports on current and developing technology, and on the uses and market / marketing of silk.

However, this is not a heavyweight textbook, it is a paperback, 352 pages plus appendices and I found it a good read. Not only that, it filled in many gaps for me, I'm happier now that I understand how to find the quality of silk, and type of yarns, I want to buy, and where my use of silk fits in to the big picture.

The latest colour sampler

Here is a reminder of my latest warp colours:
I set out to weave a colour sample in more muted colours than I used in my first colour sampler in September, see below.

I spent a long time not getting started on this 2nd sampler, wondering how useful / important it was. Now it is done I am very pleased with it and feel it was well worth while. Not only did I get to explore how different colours with a lower degree of contrast to each other behave, I also used my bright yarns with this warp and was interested to see how they toned down.

This first picture shows the plain weave section in which the same colours were used in warp and weft:

The next shows the brighter yarns against this warp, again in plain weave:

..and to demonstrate more clearly the effect of the softer / duller warp colours on the bright yarns, here are two photos showing the same weft colours on the different warps:




I was running out of warp by the time I'd been through all my colours in first plain weave and then twill, but I made use of the final inches to weave horizontal pleats, sections of 1/3 twill alternating with 3/1. These turned out lovely and are I feel inspired to do some larger project in these colours & weave. Please note these photos were taken to show off the colours, not the weave, so I had pulled the pleats out and pressed them flat, but before I did this it really did hang in nice soft pleats.







A note on weaving pleats

Here is a link back to my first attempt at weaving pleats, a year ago in November 2007.

Since then, I have learnt more about pleats by talking to other weavers and by reading. I would especially like to recommend Anne Field's new book Collapse Weaves, because she looks into the "hows and whys" of creating textured weaves. It's a discursive book, not a pattern book. If you are already weaving and designing weaves and want to explore the possibilities of texture this book should be on your shelf - or in your hand, being read!

One reason why these pleats work better than my first attempt, in spite of the same 2/12 mercerised cotton yarn being used in both samples and this one using in warp and weft, is the sett. Last year I was working at 24 epi (ends per inch) and the cloth was loose and soft, then I increased to 36 and a finer weft. The finer weft worked and denser warp worked, but so did this latest sample at 30 epi. Once again, this shows what can be learnt by getting to know your yarn by weaving samples.

Here's a note to myself: when I try a new type or size of yarn, I should put on a sample warp and test out basic weave structures at different epi, and finish my samples by washing and ironing before planning any weave project.

Book details:
Collapse Weave: creating three-dimensional cloth, by Anne Field, pub A & C Black, London, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4081-0628-0, £19.99

the same book in the US is published Trafalgar Square Books (September 1, 2008), ISBN-10: 1570764042, $26.95.

Anne Field spent 3 years writing the book and over that time it became a bigger book than originally intended, because she had explored further and had more to say. Her definition of "collapse weave" is that:

"when taken from the loom and washed, the change from a rigid arrangement of threads on the loom to a cloth that bends, distorts and deviates from the usual linear movement of most other cloth is amazing".

Doesn't that make you want to read on?

My second jumper

Here's a picture of me in the second jumper knitted to my own pattern:

Sorry about lack of smile for the camera! I was a bit anxious about whether I had got the set up right - I was using the camera's self-timer setting and had to guess the focusing. The camera was on a book shelf pointing in roughly the right direction and I just hoped for the best. It worked - what a super camera! I'm using a Canon 350D (digital SLR) which has all sorts of features - every now and again I go back to the instruction book and learn a new one.

About the jumper: it's knitted in Twilleys Freedom spirit and I drew up the pattern myself. I finished the first jumper in this pattern and wool in April, and to celebrate I started another straight away. It got put on one side over the summer while I knitted socks and baby things, but as the weather turned cold I realised that I shall be wanting warm woolies soon. I knitted up the second sleeve and the collar in a couple of weeks.

The wonderful book from which I learnt how to design a knitting pattern is Montse Stanley's Knitting - Your own designs for a perfect fit, published by David & Charles, England, 1982, ISBN 0-7153 8227 6. This book is absurdly cheap second hand in the UK, see abebooks.co.uk, or Scottish Fibres who are offering a copy in good condition for £3. Go on someone, follow my link and snatch it up, it's a treasure!! It's about knitting technique, different stitches, but above all, pattern designing made straightforward so you can D.I.Y.

In the background of the photo, as I'm sure you noticed(!) is my loom and the latest colour samplers.

Something else I've been up to recently is washing fleece. I was given a couple of sacks of Jacob's (possibly equivalent to 3 sorted fleeces). Doesn't it look lovely? And all now ready to card and spin.... it feels medium soft, has a very distinct and tight crimp, no lustre at all, a bit finer than the Shetland wool which is a usual favourite of mine.


A tip I was given when I bought my special Timbertops spinning wheel from the Williamson's last year was that Ann separates the out the colours of a Jacob's fleece, cards them separately, then combines the colours again as she spins. This gives a beautiful marled yarn.

I have about 3 x the amount of fleece, in the above photo.


Note the very useful plastic trays from the local organic grocer. His supplier doesn't take the trays back, so he's pleased if anyone can make use of them. They are very good for drying wool, easy to carry, and ventilated as it's an open structure.

We also use them in the garden, for organising pots of seeds, shifting pots of plants about, and sometimes for temporary planting of things that need more space than an ordinary plant pot.

I've got a lot of spinning to do on the dark nights ahead - I still haven't spun the Wensleydale and Ryeland fleeces that I washed last year.

A couple of new weaving books

I have bought two more weaving books. These are not books that I needed. They do not really add anything to my weave book collection and don't tell me anything I didn't know... but I think most of you know that I am a great bibliophile and can't resist a good book.

That being said, I've made a resolution not to buy any more weaving / spinning / dyeing books this year and instead to start saving up in case I want to extend my loom equipment or buy a new loom next year. I'm already struggling with this resolution, but I know it makes sense. (I shall console myself with a list of the books I'm not buying and a list of new loom equipment - don't ask how much I spent on books since 2008 began, it would be a serious contribution to the cost of a new loom!)

My new books are:

The Big Book of Weaving, by Laila Lundell & Elizabeth Windesjo, published by Collins and Brown, in the UK in 2008 (an English translation of a Swedish book published in 2005). ISBN 978-1-84340-456-9, £16.99.

Weave Structures the Swedish Way - volume 1, by Ulla Getzmann, translated by Becky Ashenden, published by Vav Stuga Press, 2006. (No ISBN, sold in UK by Fibrecrafts £25.20, in US by Vavstuga.)


The Big Book of Weaving.
(sub-title is Handweaving in the Swedish Tradition: Techniques, Patterns, Designs and Materials.)

This is a beginners book and I wish I'd had this when I started weaving. It is very good on parts of the loom, how to assemble a loom from a box of bits (the loom featured looks like a Glimakra counterbalance) and how to get a warp on your loom. The diagrams are superb, the text concise and precise.

Just a word of warning here - it does not include jack looms - only counterbalance and countermarche systems.

Although I am not working through this book as a beginner, I am fairly confident it has everything a beginner needs to get weaving interesting cloth. It's got yarn choice, project planning, yarn calculations, washing and finishing. There are several attractive and useful projects using a good range of traditional Swedish techniques - including (as well as the more usual blanket, scarf and cushion fabrics) a rya rug, a rep rug, lacy cotton curtains, a paper yarn screen, a bag with beaded panels, and some fancy inlay weaving techniques. These projects are described in full detail making it easy to work out what you need to do to produce each item.

Mmm. I shall definitely take up some of these - there's some very attractive bathroom mats and I fancy a large alpaca shawl.

Now although I say this is the book I wish I'd had when I started weaving, if you're a beginner you might like to use Deborah Chandler's Learning to Weave book. Many, many people have learnt to weave with this book. Many people like it a lot. I learnt to weave with it and I didn't like it at all. I didn't like the way it was written and found it hard to read and understand, learning as I was all on my own at home. I borrowed it from the library and took it back as soon as I could manage without. BUT in fairness I did learn some useful stuff in spite of not liking it and there's no getting away from the fact everyone else seems to like it.

I have often mentioned Peggy Osterkamp before. I wish I'd had her books from the outset too. Superb for tips "how to.." and problem solving.

Weave Structures the Swedish Way - volume 1.

Volume 2 is not translated into English, I asked the publisher when my book arrived as I wondered if I was missing something. Especially as this is an expensive book to buy from Fibrecrafts, at £25.50, and although beautifully bound and produced, it's only a thin book of 35 numbered pages.

If you're a beginner weaver, this book is superb for describing with absolute clarity the different weave structures you need to know about.

But would I advise you to buy it? Not if you haven't already bought Anne Dixon's book The Handweaver's Pattern Book (or Handweaver's Pattern Directory in the US edition). Get Anne Dixon first because her book is superb, it's about so much more than just weave structure, and is much better value for money. Also excellent are Mary Black's Key to Weaving (out of print, but widely available 2nd hand) and Janet Philip's books.

And if you have 8 shafts on your loom you should make sure you have one or both of Eight Shafts a Place to Begin by Wanda Jean Shelp and Carolyn Wostenberg and A Weaver's Book of 8 Shaft's Patterns edited by Carol Strickler. Both these books explain how weave structures work as well as giving examples.

If you are seriously interested in weave structures and not intimidated by heavyweight books, look on the ABEbooks web sites for: William Watson, Advanced Textile Design (first published 1912, several re-prints) and Harry Nisbet, Grammar of Textile Design.(Published 1906, my copy cost me £40).

But wasn't I writing about Weave Structures the Swedish Way? Yes, but beyond saying it covers all the important weaves, is beautifully laid out, easy to read and understand and I'm very pleased to have a copy, there isn't anything to add. Except that there are no photos of cloth inside the book, they are on the cover and an indexed diagram takes you to the page describing the weave. Simple but effective. If it was half the price I'd say this book was a "must have", but at the price I paid it's a luxury.

Colour and Weave

... or Color and Weave for those of you over the Atlantic.

I'm just taking a break from sleying my reed. My latest sampler which is a colour and weave experiment takes nearly the full loom width. It occured to me that it's a good idea going out to maximum width on a sampler before I try it for something special, so that's something extra that I'm getting out of this project.

I wanted to stop and write about what colour and weave is, before I start telling you about the sampler. I kept hearing the phrase "colour and weave" and people saying things about "colour and weave sampler" but I really didn't know what it meant. It didn't seem to come into the books I was reading, and I hadn't seen anything on the internet to help.

Then I picked up a book I'd neglected for months, Ann Sutton's "Color and Weave Design - A Practical Reference Book" and it dawned on me that this book is mostly photographs of a colour and weave sampler. I took that as my starting point. I have followed the same colour pattern she uses.

It goes, in two inch sections:

1 white / 1 blue
1 white / 2 blue
1 white / 3 blue
1 white / 4 blue

2 white / 1 blue
2 white / 2 blue
2 white / 3 blue
2 white / 4 blue

3 white / 1 blue
3 white / 2 blue
3 white / 3 blue
3 white / 4 blue

4 white / 1 blue
4 white / 2 blue
4 white / 3 blue
4 white / 4 blue

I've threaded in a straight 1-2-3-4 pattern. I'm using plain green selvedges and a couple of green threads between each section. My selvedges are "crammed" as per Janet Phillip's sample blanket, from shafts 1-4: alternate threads are doubled in the heddles, 2-1-2-1 on one side and 1-2-1-2 on the other.

I had started preparing this sampler before I got to reading all my other books. I dug into the bookshelf again this week as I was thinking about where to start writing about colour and weave.

A good start is a definition, so here's one from "A Textile Terminology" by Dorothy K. Burnham:

Colour and weave effect - The form or pattern produced by a weave in combination with the order in which two or more colours are used for warp and weft.

And a useful phrase from "Handweaving and Cloth Design" by Marianne Straub:

"When weaving with contrasting colours, the relationship between the weave construction and the warping and picking plan forms the basis from which many strongly patterned cloths can be designed."

Marianne Straub has only a short section on the subject, but interesting, as she shows the same alternate one black and one white thread order with three different threading and treadling patterns producing three very different results.

The new "Handweaver's Pattern Book" by Anne Dixon (a.k.a Handweavers Pattern Directory) doesn't have a separate colour and weave section, as the different possible colour effects are shown for every pattern on every page. Super book!

I was planning to weave my sampler with 16 different thread patterns in two colours across the warp, and then the same 16 colour patterns in the weft in first plain weave and the 2/2 twill. This is what Anne Sutton shows in her book. But now I have discovered another sampler plan in "Designing on the Loom" by Mary Kirby and I'm wondering how far I can adapt my plans to include more patterns. Wish I'd put a longer warp on!

Mary Kirby has 8 different threading sections, using light and dark warp, and 23 different treadling patterns, including chevron, herringbone, hopsack, 1/3 and 3/1 twills, Bedford cord, tabby and twill combined. Maybe I'll have to wind another warp to try this out!

However, by far and away the most comprehensive study of colour and weave, although not a "how to weave your sampler" book, is William Watson's "Textile Design and Colour". This is a classic text book, first published in 1912 (I have a 6th edition copy, from 1954). If you can cope with reading pdf files you maybe able to download a copy from the Online Archive (see my list of web site links) having said this, I can't access the archive today, I do hope this is a temporary internet problem.

William Watson has written a long chapter on colour and weave, which starts simple and gets more and more complex. I can't read right through it yet, it moves beyond my mental grasp for now. But this is good stuff and it is a very well written book.

So, back to where I started again, why weave this sampler?

Ann Sutton says:

"... colour-and-weave effects are some of the most important and accessible in the weaving world. The fashion cloth industry uses them extensively.... "

"Handweavers, concerned with the restrictions on the numbers of shafts (harnesses) available to them for patterning, can make great use of these effects... and can produce thousands of dynamic cloths and colour mixes."

However, she goes on to say:

"Many beginner weavers are set the task of weaving a colour-and-weave sampler at the start of their training. It is tedious work for a beginner, and although it should build up an understanding of the way in which colour order in warp and weft can relate to the weave structure, it is often abandoned, unfinished, in favour of other projects."

Hmm. Give up half way? Not me! So must get back to sleying that reed....

And for those of you who couldn't face such a large project, here's a link to a very pretty and useful colour and weave sample woven by Judy.

Designing Woven Fabrics - the sample blanket

From this box of yarns I ordered from William Hall & Co.:


(not the yellow, that's for another project)

I have woven this:




With a determined effort, weaving 8 different patterns each evening for the last couple of days, I finished my sample blanket before going on holiday last week. This is the blanket designed by Janet Phillips. Her book, Designing Woven Fabrics, gives the instructions for weaving this blanket and then directions for how to use it in designing your own fabrics.

I was able to take my blanket when I went to stay with my Aunt, an artist who enjoys beautiful textiles, and I also to it to show a fellow member of the Online Guild (from whom I was buying a second hand knitting machine - more on that another time!). I think they were both nearly as impressed with the blanket as I am. I don't think it's big headed to say that! So much of the achievement is the work of Janet Phillips, who came up with the idea of writing the book and designed and wove the blanket (more than once) before writing her instructions.

After finishing, the blanket is 274 cm long and 50 cm wide. There are 10 warp patterns across the width, and 50 different treadling patterns, giving no less than 500 different weaves! Wow! I can loose myself trying to choose a favourite square. All the rows are photographed in the book alongside the treadle patterns (very useful for spotting errors as you weave).

It's not easy for me to photograph such a large blanket, I tried several times before I realised that hanging it on the back of the loom would give an idea of scale. I took a few more pictures to indicate just how varied the patterns are:













An important question is - what will I do next? The instructions for weaving this blanket are only part of Janet's book. I've been reading on to learn about other aspects of design, including colour and yarn choices, and see examples that Janet gives of items she wove using some of the sample blanket weaves.

I think I need a better understanding of yarn and colour before I proceed. I went back to Ann Sutton's book "Colour and Weave Design" and to Janet's earlier book, "The Weaver's Book of Fabric Design".
Chapter 8 of Janet's book describes a colour and weave sampler, and Ann Sutton's book is an illustration of a 500 square colour and weave sampler. Ann suggests that if you have her book you don't need to weave the sampler for yourself. I think I do. I enjoyed the pictures in Janet's book of the sample blanket, but weaving it made it real for me and gave me something I can examine closely and feel for myself. The feel of a weave is important, and the way it looks from different angles, and also, if you weave it yourself, you have seen what it happens as it comes into being.

I also want to weave a different colour sample, using several colours across the warp and the same colours in bands in the weft. I want to see how they interact in plain and simple twill weaves.

Maybe I'm being ambitious, again, but I think that these will be invaluable to weave and have for myself.

Before I move on, I have several little collections of photos from various stages in the process of weaving this blanket, so, if you're interested you may learn from my mistakes!

A Fine Book

I have a new book, it is A Fine Fleece: knitting with handspun yarns, by Lisa Lloyd,just published by Potter Craft in the U.S., ISBN 978-0-307-3334683-4. I'd seen a couple of brief reviews of this book and thought that I'd buy it on the basis that if I didn't like it I could probably find another home for it without too much trouble.

It arrived a couple of days ago, from Amazon U.K. (for £12.59 it was the last copy in stock, and now strangely they now suggest it isn't yet printed - weird?) and I'll be keeping it. I like it. It's basically a patterns book. Did I need a patterns book? No, not really. But I think this book is a bit special. It's also about preparing and using handspun yarns and about choice of yarn for a particular design.

The author is an experienced knitter and knitwear designer learnt to spin quite recently. That's just about the opposite to me – I learnt to spin so had to re-learn knitting!

It's not a book about spinning, but she does give her thoughts on spinning the yarns for the projects in this book, and I found it good to read. I love good writing, I adored Shakespeare at school and then studied English Language and Literature at University. Nowadays I find that too many books seem to have been written in a rush, barely edited and don't read well. Lisa Lloyd doesn't use words just for effect, every word has meaning. She has interesting things to say about spinning and knitting and there's an underlying sense of good humour. She seems to love her subject and also love writing about it. She sees herself as a storyteller, punning on the word “yarn”.

This is from her introduction to the book:

“After more than thirty years of knitting everything from acrylic to buffalo, I know one thing: It's all about the yarn. And so my storytelling begins.”

This is the right book for me at this time because I'm working at understanding yarn and fibre choices for knitting and weaving. I'm also interested in planning better – thinking more about the end purpose before I start spinning.

If you need help with learning to spin, you need to work through an instruction book (or class) first. However, anyone who has mastered the basics of spinning can prepare their own yarn for her patterns as the yarns she uses are basic 2-ply semi-worsted. She uses some blends of fancy fibres for some of the patterns and provides good information on how to blend fibres and on her own fibre choices. One idea I liked was adding a little angelina fibre to fine wool for a lace scarf, giving a delicate sparkle.

Strangely for a pattern book, this book is about breaking rules. It's about how to make choices and decisions for yourself, whether you buy a yarn or spin the yarn you want for a particular project yourself.

"The first rule of knitting is that there are no rules." (p.14)

Each pattern is shown knitted in a handspun yarn and in a commercial yarn, emphasising the freedom to chose. Yarn characteristics are properly described – how much yarn, the weight and length of commercial yarns used so it is easy to make substitutions. She makes it clear that the most important thing – whether you use handspun or commercial yarn - is to knit a swatch not just to check needle size but also to make sure the yarn looks right in the stitch pattern.

"Classic design never goes out of style". (also p.14)

The 26 patterns are traditional in style: cabled sweaters, a couple of lace scarves, a hat, socks, cardigans, jackets and vests (waistcoats). The styling has little contemporary touches and the stitch patterns have a fresh look to me – traditional and yet a bit of originality about them. They look simple, but a bit special at the same time. All the patterns are graded for intermediate beginner, intermediate or experienced knitters and she explains clearly what these categories mean by giving examples of the type of garment you might have knitted before. I'm just about “intermediate” – this is exciting progress, 12 months ago I was definitely “beginner”.

The resources section at the back of the book is very good for book recommendations, but the suppliers listed and commercial yarns are all U.S. If you are in the U.K., and don't spin yourself, then here's a little list of interesting spun yarns for traditional knits offered by small businesses:

UK Alpaca (yarn from fleece of Alpacas farmed in the U.K.)

Garthenor Organic Pure Wool (organic wool yarns from named sheep breeds).

Moondance Wools (spun from natural coloured fleeces from their own multi-coloured flock of Shetland sheep).

Wingham Wool Work (take a look at the Aran weight yarns from British sheep breeds and 5 ply gansey yarns).

For sources of fleece for handspinners in the U.K., and sources of spinning wheels and tutors, see those listed by Chris Jordan at her handspinner's resources page.

On silk yarn - what every weaver should know!

I was going to write about this very useful book a couple of months ago, I took the photo but didn't get much further than that. At the time, there had been a discussion on the Weavetech discussion list about identifying what type of fibre was used in a yarn by carrying out a burn test. This book includes burn test information.

It is:
Handbook of Textile Fibres, by J Gordon Cook B.Sc.,Ph.D.,
published by Merrow Publishing Co. Ltd, first published 1959, 2nd ed. 1960.


I found my copy at a secondhand book fair, and bought it because it looked useful, although I had not heard of it. My copy has parts 1 (natural fibres) and 2 (man made fibres) in a single volume, I just looked on the Abebooks web site and found that some of the copies offered are just part 1, or part 2, and that it seems to have gone on to a 5th edition (1984). Prices start low, at around £4.

This book is a superb reference book. It's a great book to dip into, or to look something up, but there's so much information in it that it's not the kind of book that it's easy to just sit down and read. Because of that, I'd had it a while before I really got to understanding and appreciating it's value. In fact, I do recall at one time wondering why I'd bought it! But I did buy it a few years back, some time before I started spinning and weaving. Now, I find it is invaluable.

Why? Well, for example, there are 35 pages about wool . There's a brief history of the wool trade in England then all you might want to know about wool production and processing, physical properties and behaviours, chemical structure and rather more besides.

For example, did you know that "Wool... can be curled by coiling it round a rod. If it is placed in boiling water and cooled it will remain in the form of a spring. It is acquired a permanent set."? This happens because water attacks wool keratin and can cause changes in the chemical structure. Did you know that as wool absorbs moisture it generates heat? And that it releases the water it has absorbed very slowly and gently, which means that you don't get sudden cooling?

There's also extensive information about insects that attack wool, about shrinkage and felting (what happens and why) about washing. Here's some information on washing wool - the ideal temperature is about 100 degrees fahrenheit / 38 degrees C, and the best technique for washing is a process of soaking and squeezing - avoid agitation, tumbling and stirring. And another notable fact - handknitted yarns benefit from a residual tendency to felt, helping the knitted garment to hold its shape.

There is similar information in the book about other fibres, so it's good to compare and contrast and for understanding the relative properties and uses of different fibres.

By now you will be wondering why on earth the title of this post is silk yarns!

Answer, it's because this is what I was looking up last week. I needed to find out about: the different types of silk yarn, how they are made, what their different properties are, what might make a good warp yarn.

I also referred to:
A Silk Worker's Notebook, by Cheryl Kolander, pub. Interweave Press 1979, revised edition 1985

Silk, Luther Hooper, Pitman's Common Commodities and Industries Series (1930's? no date given)

From Fibres to Fabrics, Elizabeth Gale, Mills & Boon Ltd., London, 1978 edition.

These are all good and useful books. Cheryl Kolander's book strikes me as rather a slim volume for everything she wants to include, and sometimes I wish she had taken more space and written more. It is a lovely guide book to have covering basic information of history and use, handspinning, caring for silk, and has appendices with notes on weaving and knitting.

Luther Hooper's book is about silk production, from the moth(s) that produce silk to factory processes, going through to weaving. It is a lovely and useful book, although I am writing more about the others today.

Elizabeth Gale's book is a text book, written by a textile designer, for use in schools and colleges, "to assist those who wish to know about textiles without going into the technology of the subject in great detail". It was this book sitting on my shelf that inspired my blog name!

From Cheryl Kolander, I learnt that there are two types of silk yarn, reeled and spun. The reeled yarns are "thrown". She says "throwing is the process of twisting the unspun filaments of reeled silk." Thrown silk produces fabrics "stronger and more durable than comparable fabrics of spun silk". She says the two most important types are organzine, a tightly twisted and plied yarn, and tram, which has only enough twist to hold it together and is used for weft.

She says that spun silk is comparatively modern, a means of making use of the waste from thrown silk, which had in former times been used as wadding to provide insulation. The machinery for spinning wool and cotton made possible the spinning of silk waste into yarn:

"Spun silk yarns go by many names, some refer to the fiber-length, some to the fiber's character, and some to the yarn's spin."

The list she gives includes tussah (wild silks), meche (soft, long staple, regular twist), shantung (slighty slubby), cord (twisted and plied), flourette (long staple, spun from combed fibres) bourette (short staple, spun from carded fibres of 1-2" length).

Elizabeth Gale says of spun yarn that "Long raw fibres are cut to a maximum length of about 30 cm and are spun as for worsted, and short lengths are spun like cotton."

I remembered Peg wrote recently about the behaviour of two different skeins of yarn she had dyed, one was oraganzine - so a high quality thrown yarn - and the other bombyx - possibly a spun yarn? This might explain very different behaviour, the two yarns are probably very different in construction and from very different fibre lengths.

I'd look after that organzine carefully, Peg. Cheryl's book tells me that "thrown silk yarns are rarely available to handweavers. This is partly due to their expense... partly due to the fact that thrown silk yarns are usually very fine, much finer than most of us are comfortable with."

Indeed, I have here my catalogue and price list from H.T.Gaddum & Co. Ltd, a specialist silk importer in Macclesfield, England, (tel: 01625 427666) generally regarded as the best source of silk yarns for handweavers in the U.K., and they offer only spun silks - which range from £40 to £64 (per kilo, excluding V.A.T. ) and textured silks.

(Another good source of interesting spun silk yarns is Texere Yarns, of Bradford, England.)

So, what about my little Handbook of Textile Fibres on the subject of silk? There's 20 pages, so it is not as easy to summarise as Cheryl Kolander's book. It even includes a short section on "spider silk"!

Looking at the types of silk yarn, however, thrown silk (the name coming from the Anglo Saxon word "thrawan" meaning to whirl or spin) is made from "multi-filament strands.. twisted together to form heavier threads", although sometimes weaving is done from the filaments as they are, without twisting them. I was interested to learn that the "natural gum, serecin, is normally left on the silk during reeling, throwing and weaving" because "it acts as a size which protects the fibres from mechanical injury". The weight of the woven fabric may reduce by a third when the serecin is washed out! The cloth before the serecin is washed out, which is dull in appearance, is known as "hard silk" and when dugummed as "soft silk".

The extra information about thrown silks in this book tells me that tram is made from two or three strands of silk, and could be low twist with 2-3 twists to the inch, or high twist with 12-20. It is of moderate strength. Oraganzine is very strong, 2-3 strands are twisted together and then the compound thread is twisted 9-30 times to the inch in the other direction. Very high twist yarns, 30-70 twists to the inch are known as crepe.

There's an interesting section on the spun silks:
"....the throwster is fortunate if he can make use of half of the available silk in filament form. The rest of the silk is unsuitable for reeling, and is know as 'waste silk".

"This waste silk is much too valuable to throw away, and it is used for making the yarns we know as "spun silk"......"
".....After dugumming... The silk is opened and loosened in a machine that delivers it in the form of a gauze-like blanket or lap. The fibres are then combed and sorted into length-groups, and then draw into rovings and spun by twisting so that the short fibres hold tightly together."

The section on silk ends, as with other fibres described in the book, by giving details of effects of sunlight, age, moisture, heat, chemical properties, electrical properties, effects of acids, alkalis and solvents.

Did you know...

- Silk can take up 1/3rd its weight in water without feeling wet to the touch,

- and wet strength is 75-85 per cent of the dry strength?

- It has less elastic recovery than wool, but better than that of cotton or rayon.

- Once stretched by 2% of original length, it will be permanently stretched.

- It will stand higher temperatures than wool, but decomposes quickly at 175 degrees C.

- It is a poor conductor of electricity, and gets a static charge in dry atmosphere.

- Silk is so costly that fabrics are often "weighted" with metallic salts to create artificial density, a moderately weighted silk could contain 25-50 per cent salt, heavily weighted 60 per cent. Weighted silks are not as strong and can deteriorate rapidly - e.g. perspiration will cause rot. But I don't think handweavers will be using this technique!!