Yarn

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The time-saving magic of a few simple records (and the yarn I don't remember dyeing)

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The time-saving magic of a few simple records (and the yarn I don't remember dyeing)

I’ve been working on a design for a new large format tapestry. At this point I’m still calling it the “rock piece” and it is fortunate that I have been using that term in my notes in various places for years because that consistency allowed me to unravel a little mystery last weekend. I’m pretty set on the cartoon for this piece and have even enlarged it full scale as I consider final color selections and potential ways to realize this idea. Seeing it full scale allows me to really see what the forms will be like when woven and gives me another opportunity to play with the design if I want to change it. Most of my decisions will have been made by the time I start weaving.

What is the best way to use a skein of yarn? Put-ups for tapestry and other yarn activities.

What is the best way to use a skein of yarn? Put-ups for tapestry and other yarn activities.

Yarn comes in many forms. If you saw the video I did last week about making yarn balls, you’ll realize that there are different ways your yarn might come packaged. Many of those forms are usable just as they are, but one particular configuration is almost impossible to use without transforming the yarn into a different shape, the skein or hank.

How a yarn is packaged is called put-up. That just means that it comes in a skein, on a cone, on a tube, in a cake or ball, or wound on a card. The image and gallery below shows those various put-ups.

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Questions from The Art of Tapestry Weaving: Ball Winders

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Questions from The Art of Tapestry Weaving: Ball Winders

I have had some wonderful emails from people all over the world about my book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving, which was published in November of 2020. There are some concepts that are harder to translate into images and text and a video can really help demonstrate and some of you have sent me these questions over the last few months.

I have had yarn around me my entire life. Because of this long exposure to this very addictive substance, it is sometimes hard for me to remember that the way we use or manage yarn can be pretty foreign to people who did not toddle around with a ball of it in hand as an infant.

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What do you need to get started with tapestry weaving?

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What do you need to get started with tapestry weaving?

Tapestry weaving can seem like a pursuit that requires A LOT. A lot of equipment, materials, and knowledge.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Weaving tapestry can be quite simple and your materials and equipment do not have to be complicated. If you want to learn tapestry weaving, below are some suggestions for how to get started. There are also many resources for people already deep into the tapestry experience, but this post is for people who are pretty new to tapestry weaving.

At the end of the post is an actual list you might use to shop with.

Using our "special" yarns

Using our "special" yarns

If you’re anything like me, you are a bit of a yarn hoarder. I’m sure there are those of you reading who only purchase or make yarns for one project at a time, but I can hardly imagine such a world. Nope. I have shelves of yarn and a growing stash of spinning fiber. I wrote THIS blog post on a similar subject on March 19th, 2020. The yarn I was going to use during the few months of pandemic lock-down. Little did I know we would still be here in late August expecting it all to continue for the foreseeable future.*

I figure all that stash was waiting for this moment. Lock-down. Stay-at-home. Social distancing. COVID has given me more time in the studio. It is time to consider those “special” yarns and whether I need to gift them or use them or continue to save them.

I put the word special in quotations because the reason they’re special is almost entirely not because they’re expensive but because I have some emotional or sentimental connection to them. As the tapestry by Alex Marriott at the bottom of this post says, I am so blessed. Not only do I have the funds from time to time to purchase more yarn than I can use, I have equipment to knit or weave them on and some time to do those non-essential tasks.

Still, many of these yarns are special to me and I thought it would be interesting to dig them out, share them, and think about why I’ve been saving them, sometimes for years.

Need to know how much of that mystery yarn you have? Get a yarn balance.

Need to know how much of that mystery yarn you have? Get a yarn balance.

Mystery yarns! We all end up with them eventually. There are ways to figure out what sort of fiber it is which I won’t cover in this post, but if you simply need to know how MUCH of a yarn you have, there is a simple tool to tell you. It is called a yarn balance. I’ve had mine for decades and it does come in handy if I need to know how many yards I have of something calculated from the weight of the ball of yarn.

Long ago in my fabric-weaving days, someone told me about the McMorran Yarn Balance. I pulled it out recently to calculate yards per pound of a tapestry yarn I was testing and thought you, dear readers, might not know this simple tool exists.

How, why, and when to scour yarn for tapestry weaving

How, why, and when to scour yarn for tapestry weaving

Why would you need to consider scouring yarn for tapestry weaving? And what does scouring mean anyway?

Scouring is simply the textile word for washing. Some (very few) yarns come with machine oil in them from the carding process and that needs to be removed before using the yarn for tapestry weaving. This usually only happens with coned yarns because the yarn goes right from the carder to the spinning and onto cones without any other processing. The oil is added in the picking process so that the fibers go smoothly through the big carding machines.