Yarn

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On sheep street.

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On sheep street.

I love learning about sheep and fleece. The heart of the matter is the material. The art I make starts with wool. Wool doesn't come in just merino. It comes in a fantastic variety of characteristics grown by a large number of sheep breeds.**

As tapestry weavers, many of us are used to just purchasing whatever "tapestry yarn" is available and leaving it at that. I think we can and should look a little more closely at the materials we use. After learning the techniques to weave tapestry, it is important to start thinking about how different materials contribute to the final piece of art.

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Sett: How does it affect materials for tapestry weaving?

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Sett: How does it affect materials for tapestry weaving?

I frequently get questions in my online classes about which yarns to use for tapestry weaving. To answer that question, you have to think about what sorts of imagery you want to weave and at what sett. Of course I can give you a list of my favorite yarns, but I may be looking for different characteristics in my weaving than you are. Knowing how sett and yarn interact will allow you to make the best choices for what you want to accomplish in terms of image creation and the look and feel of the resulting fabric.

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Warp and weft: a cooperative relationship in tapestry weaving

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Warp and weft: a cooperative relationship in tapestry weaving

In tapestry weaving, the relationship between warp and weft is an important one. How to reach a happy consensus between these two elements of your piece is not immediately obvious.

These questions might sound familiar:

What warp should I use? How do I even decide with all those numbers?
Why is my warp showing?
Why does this weft yarn look so bad woven when it is so pretty in the skein?
Why is my fabric so loose?

The warp has a big job. Warp is the ground of your piece. It is the tightly-held strings upon which your image is built. The warp is completely covered in traditional tapestry weaving, yet it is the necessary core of the structure.

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I'm in the dye studio.

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I'm in the dye studio.

I've spent much of the last week in my dye studio. I will likely spend another couple weeks there. I do love the dyeing and putting together colors for a new project is a whole lot of fun. And global warming has hit Colorado and it isn't even that cold for January. This particular tapestry will need about 25 pounds of yarn, but since there are so many colors and I hate running out, I always make enough extra that I won't. I suspect in the end I'll have dyed about 50 pounds. I don't like games of yarn chicken and the extra yarn is always welcome in the tapestry classes I teach or for my next piece.

What makes a good tapestry yarn?

What makes a good tapestry yarn?

If you're newer to weaving, you may not realize that not all yarns are made equal. In fact, there is so much variety in yarns it is rather hard to qualify what are the best combination of characteristics. And it can be even harder to purchase yarn that has those characteristics. Throw in the need for a large color choice for tapestry weaving, and the options do narrow somewhat.

I live in the USA, so I mostly talk about yarns that are easily available here with one favorite exception from the UK.

So what does make a good tapestry yarn?

Can you use knitting yarn for tapestry weaving?

Can you use knitting yarn for tapestry weaving?

Growing up, I thought yarn was just yarn. I was perfectly happy with a big skein of Red Heart and my crochet hook. Then I learned more about yarn and dyeing and I became a little snobbier. I do apologize for that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Red Heart yarn and a crochet hook. But I maintain that if possible, there are better yarns for tapestry weaving.

Knitting has been very popular over the last decade and yarns made for knitting are everywhere. There are so many indie dyers out there creating incredible yarns that it is hard to resist them when it comes to choosing yarns for tapestry.

But resist you probably should.