Elder

 

The photo is of a page from The National Geographic from an issue around the theme of wool.  It is a great comparison of the different fibres - and gives a really excellent look at what a single fibre of the main different types of natural fibres look like.

Why is this important?  Well, the more you know about the individual fibres, and their natural characteristics, the better choices you can make when you start designing your own textiles.

Getting a designed project and working from someone else's notes (including my own) means that you get the knowledge of the project designer.  Sometimes this will include the design process - but rarely.  The 'successful' results are what people who work from someone else's project notes are after.  

But here's the thing.  You may not have the same loom.  You may not have the same skills in terms of beating consistently.  You may not get the same brand of yarn, which may behave differently from what the project designer used.

And so on.

So how do you know what to do?

You sample.  You examine your results.  You record your results.  You keep records of your results so that you can look back when you want to do something similar.

And you keep learning.  Reading books.  Articles.  Pick the brains of 'elders' of the weaving community.  Ask them to tell you the story behind the completion of a project.  What went wrong?  How did they adapt?  

It has been a long hard 13 months since my brain bleed, and along with everything else I'm dealing with, trying to decide how much longer I *can* weave (I will not stop *wanting* to) I have had to adjust, re-arrange my expectations, and generally examine my life.  Again.

Wayne Dyer used to talk about the 'stages' of life and the final one was to mentor others.

I honestly didn't know what I could do, given I cannot teach in person anymore.  But I found myself shaking the pom-poms of encouragement whenever I could.  And late this summer I wound up being asked to 'review' read two manuscripts by two different people.  

Since I was going through a rather trying spell, physically, I said yes.  If I couldn't weave, maybe I could use my brain.  And nearing the 12 month post injury anniversary, I felt that I could manage to do that.  Slowly, perhaps, but I could do it.

I am halfway through the first ms and...I am feeling honoured and privileged to be part of the process.  When I can I will share when the books are ready.  

In a time of masses of mis- and dis-information, I am firmly of the opinion that weavers, more than ever, need good information, solid information, subtle information, to base their decisions as they work through the design process.

I have had to acknowledge that I am not immortal (kinda relieved, really) and I won't always be here.  But in the meantime, I can share good information with the weaving community.  I can hold the stories in my memory banks.  I can share them with newer/younger weavers.  And I can continue to shake the pom-poms of encouragement to explore.  Learn.  Grow the craft by sharing knowledge.

Keep On, Keeping On

 

A local friend phoned this morning.  We haven't spoken for a while (last year?) so it was pleasant to catch up a bit.  She advised me that her raspberry bushes were producing well, and I offered a couple tea towels for the fresh fish she and her husband caught and a bowl of fresh raspberries from her garden.  

Her family has been dealing with health issues and we commiserated about dealing with bodies breaking down and agreed that since we are still here, we need to keep on, keeping on.  In spite of everything (waves hands).

The photo above was taken for one of my 'small' publications called A Good Yarn, this one was for the cotton issue cover.

So many people don't really know much about the materials they work with, and my attitude is that if you don't know your materials, it's a lot harder to make 'good' - or appropriate - decisions.

Someone gave me the cotton boll on one of my trips to the US south, and I love it.

Yesterday I worked on a couple of the articles for WEFT, sent one off to be read by my alpha reader, the other was a review to remind myself of the samples I'd woven for another - and which I need to add to fairly quickly.  I've got to the end of August to get them to the editor to be rolled into the issue they are for.  Plus there is another cotton article to be written.

And then got another contract for one more.  So, yes, I'm going to keep on, keeping on.

One the things I need to do is to get all the contract copies and lay them out and then enter them on my planning calendar.  When I fell and had the brain bleed last August, I cancelled all my teaching and let the writing 'slide', only working on them when I felt able to do so, and tried as much as possible to ignore the ticking of the clock, the flipping of the calendar pages.

Now that I seem to be feeling a bit better, I'm getting a bit stressed at how much I've let things slide.  So this week I'm going to work on the other cotton article and try to get that to alpha reader asap.  I have a few samples for one of the articles, and I'd like to send them and the extra ones I'm about to start weaving in the same parcel, which should help lower the cost by paying shipping for 2 (or three) articles, not one.

I managed to get to the loom 'early' today (in spite of still not sleeping well) because I'm occupied with appointments this afternoon.  After lunch I'm going to begin pulling my thoughts together.  You'd think it would be easy, considering how many years (decades?) I've been pounding my 'drum' about some things.  I think I did the A Good Yarn series around the mid 2000s - 2004?  5?  And written lots of posts for this blog, given guild programs, zoom classes, hammered the message home at the Olds College level 1.

But every time I need to sit and think about who I am going to be talking to.  Order my thoughts.  Choose the words that seem 'right'.  Fold into my presentation anything knew I've learned since the last time I presented the material.

Because there is always something more, something new to learn.  (heart cockles, warmed...)

Flax vs Cotton

 

Fabric Science 7th edition page 23

cotton (left) and flax (right)

Textile Science 2nd edition page 51

flax

A while ago I was reading an article about a new discovery that placed humans working with fibres back even further than we thought previously.  

Textiles tend to degrade and discoveries were rare, or were dismissed as being too insignificant to be of interest, until lately.

However, one of the photos that had been used in the magazine article (which I cannot now find, of course) showed an example of what they said was linen (or flax) fibres.  But what that photo showed - to me at least - wasn't flax but cotton.  I went searching on line and found the original paper and no such illustration was included with the paper so I wondered - had the magazine randomly done a search online and found a picture labelled flax, but which was actually a photo of some cotton fibres?  And I did actually find the magazine photo posted online, labelled 'flax'.

The topic came up on a group I belong to and I began to question what I had seen, and if I was correct in my interpretation.  Late last night I rooted around on the web and looked for better photos of fibres magnified such that their shape/structure could be seen so I could better compare them.  What I found pretty much confirmed my conclusions, but there is such a thing as confirmation bias, so today I sifted through several of my textile science books.  Not all the illustrations were helpful in trying to show the actual structure of the fibres.  Some just had really good word descriptions, others had simple sketches.  But I did find interesting images in several of the books and chose these two to share in the post today.

The first one has a decent comparison of cotton and flax, including a cross section.  The second has a bit more detail about flax.

Cotton fibre comes from the boll (or seed head) of the cotton plant.  While growing it forms a hollow tube, closed at the tip.  When it is harvested, the tube 'deflates' and the fibre becomes a ribbon, with twists back and forth along the length.

Flax is a 'bast' fibre and comes from the stalk.  It is segmented along the length, and while it has a very small 'hollow' at the centre, there isn't much room for the 'tube' to flatten in the way the cotton fibre will.  

And this is why I don't ever just accept whatever the first site I find says.  I will go digging, deeper and deeper, if I can find more websites, to see if the various resources agree, and if they have different conclusions, do they say why?  

While I search I ignore the now overbearing AI 'recommendations' because there is no 'intelligence' involved.  There is no intellect that can rationalize and/or interpret the subject.  AI is *not* your friend in such a search (or most searches, imho).  In the end, I went back to my trusted library (I have at least six textile science books in my library!) to try and tease out the best information I could find.

My 'usual' first book that I grab didn't have quite as much detail as I was looking for, so I pulled the rest off the shelf and checked all of them before I chose which ones I would use.

So, am I right?  Dunno.  But what I saw in the photo labelled 'linen' were cotton characteristics.  My concern is that someone who doesn't have the resources I have will accept that photo in the magazine as being accurate.  And as far as i can tell - it isn't.

I'm not saying the archeologist didn't know what they were doing - *they* didn't use the photo in their paper - it was the publication that included the photo.  It was, more than likely, just a mistake.  But it's a mistake that will be carried on with people who don't know repeating it.  Or looking at cotton fibres in the future and assuming that they are looking at linen instead of cotton.  

How important is this?  Perhaps not at all.  But it is a good example of not believing what you see online without double checking.  Because mistakes happen...

Reflections

 

This is a photo that appeared in an old issue of National Geographic a while ago.  I thought it was an excellent example of a variety of 'natural' fibres, showing how each of them look as a single fibre.  I used it (with credit, of course) in some presentations I used to do because most weavers (at least) don't really have an understanding how individual fibres look - and that how they are constructed into yarn will affect how they function once spun and woven (or other construction technique).

I then arranged to get scanning electron photos of some of the fibres I use in my weaving so that I didn't infringe copyright, and I stopped using this photo, even though I routinely see it used online, with zero accreditation whatsoever.

In the current article I'm working on for WEFT, I'm looking at fibre characteristics - one of my soapboxes that I frequently clamber onto.  I've woven two towels, with the only difference the weft used, and will send them as an example of 'change one thing and everything can change'.  I'm aware that the change is not so much visual as tactile, but the point is, not all yarn is created 'equal'.  Or perhaps I should more accurately say 'the same'.

If the weaver does not learn about the nature of their materials, it will make decisions more difficult.

For anyone who has known me for any length of time (I've been teaching for 50 years as of this September) will recognize that the articles I write, including for this blog, will return to recurring themes over and over.  Sometimes I learn more.  Sometimes I finally figure out something that had been puzzling me.  Sometimes I learn something new-to-me.  Sometimes a student asks a question and I re-think what I 'knew' and arrive at a greater understanding of the craft.

The past few years have been...difficult...in so many ways.  One of those ways is that my mentors keep dying.  As a new weaver, most of my teachers/mentors were at least 10 years - or more - older than me.  So it's not particularly a surprise that some of them will (have) die(d) before me.  But the last two years it seemed that I kept hearing of more and more of them heading off to the great loom room in the sky (or down below - not sure where I'm destined to go.)

If there is an afterlife, I just hope to make it to the weaving room.

In the meantime, since I'm still here, I will keep on with my soapboxes.

If you want to know more about your materials, there are loads of books on textile science which will give the details on fibre characteristics.  My favourite is A Guide to Textiles for Interior Designers by Jackman and Dixon.  The first edition is fine and generally a lot cheaper than the newer editions.

But there are lots of others - ignore the AI web searches and look for textile science books.  They will all give pretty much the same information.  I like A Guide for the simple comparative charts and illustrations.  

Above all?  Never assume you know it 'all'.  There will always be something more, something new, to learn.  And that is why I keep getting up in the morning and getting to the studio.  And why this blog is called Weaving a Life.

Deep Dive

 

If you don't understand your materials, you won't know how to use them appropriately.

There is a persistent piece of information that gets shared around in the weaving community - a 'myth' I have tried to explain is not helpful.

The assumption is that yarn counts give you everything you need to know about your yarn.

The photo above is the same 'count' of cotton - the brick red is the same 'count' as the blue/green - in this case 2/16 (brick red) and 16/2 blue/green.

What is not immediately apparent when you look at these yarns with just your eyesight, is that they are NOT the same.

The brick red yarn is thinner, smoother, and has a different number of twists per single and ply than the other, which is thicker, fuzzier and a different ratio of twists per single and plyed yarn than the other.

What is less obvious is how the fibres have been prepared for, and spun.  Why does that matter?  It matters because the yarns will not behave the same in the loom, or in the cloth.

How do we know?  We don't, unless we have some background in spinning, and understand the nature of the fibres themselves, and therefore have the information to understand what those changes are.

Now, it is not necessary to understand that, except that if you don't, you will be confronted with 'bad' yarn, when in reality, the weaver is not able to make appropriate choices.

It is why I took the time to make up a publication called A Good Yarn, in which I tried to explain some of this 'hidden' information to weavers.  And why I make a point of explaining this when I write articles.

A 'cheap' digital microscope can provide valuable information to weavers to learn more about their yarns.  The little microscope I bought magnifies to 20 times, I think.  To go higher meant a significant increase in purchase price, but I sometimes wish I had bought the next one up.  OTOH, this one gives me a peek that I cannot see unaided, so I'm glad I purchased it.

My goal right from the beginning, was to understand my materials, in much the same way as other craft practitioners need to understand *their* materials - potters need to understand the clay they work with, woodworkers need to understand the wood they work with, metal smiths, their metals, etc.  

That doesn't mean a weaver is constrained from using something, just they will understand the limits of the materials and how to handle them.  A 'tender' yarn can be strengthened by using warp sizing, and so on.  

The more we know, the better choices we can make.  

And yes, sometimes the yarn is 'bad' - it may have been stored improperly for too long, for example.  Or it may have critter damage - wool moths for example, will eat through wool yarns.  In that case, it really isn't worth a weaver's time and energy to try to 'fix' it.  Perhaps it needs to be assigned a different use than for a warp.  

When acquiring yarn from an older weaver, sometimes the labels are gone and so is any memory of what the yarns are made from.  In that case burn tests can be applied, as well as a close look with a magnifying glass.  The information is readily available - the weaver just needs to know that it is and go looking for it.

Lots of fibre science books will have fibre characteristics listed and detail the results of using a burn test.  Mine, for example, has a review of this information.  If you want more detailed information, my favourite book is A Guide to Textiles for Interior Designers by Jackman and Dixon.  The first edition is still available at a fairly good price.  More recent editions are more expensive and have more information on 'modern' textiles.

Also?  Don't consult AI.  It is proven to be riddled with misinformation and not reliable.  Check with an actual book.  Most libraries have books in their collection, or invest a book that you know you can trust.  There are plenty available - I own at least 3, if not more.  What can I say, I tend to collect good information to have at my fingertips.  

But if nothing else, I'd like weavers to realize that the 'count' does not give *all* of the information about a specific yarn.  All it says is how many yards/pound (or metric measures.)  After that the weaver must take a deeper dive - and weave some samples!

Why?

 

More photos from the publication A Good Yarn.  I enjoyed writing these.  I felt - still feel - that weavers don't know enough about the materials they are using and the better acquainted with the threads they are using, the closer to success they will come.

If you don't know someone who can help you with this, there are lots and lots of books around that will give you the specifics of the various fibres and yarns.  Having a basic level of knowledge about spinning will help, too.  My particular favourite fibre science book is A Guide to Textiles for Interior Designers, although there are lots around.  Look up textile science on line, I'm sure you will find plenty.  As far as that goes, my guild has one for sale*.  It's 'old' but all the the information about 'natural' fibres is still accurate.

Understand the processes involved in the preparation of fibre and how the spinner can adjust the basic characteristics of the fibre - reducing some, enhancing others - good information to have at your finger tips, IMHO.

And then the weaver - if they really want to understand what is happening - would do well to ask themselves 'why' when they are not happy with what they had accomplished.  What is disappointing about my results?  What do I need to change to get closer to my goal?

Above all, set the judge in you aside.  You are not there to judge yourself and find yourself lacking.  You are there to learn.  In order to learn, we have to think the processes through, and more importantly, perhaps, be willing to change something.  Perhaps, several somethings.

The warp on the loom right now is an example.  I was weaving with yarns that were well known to me, but I decided to change weave structures, and I knew from experience that changing the epi would likely be necessary.

I could have proceeded with the 2nd sample at the same density, but I have the yarn, and the time, so when the current warp comes off the loom I will beam another with the same quality of yarn (different colour) and try again at a *slightly* lower epi.

Even so, I'm not entirely sure I will be happy with my results, so if the first option doesn't please me, I have another back up plan.

There will be times when you are not happy with what you have done.  Take the lesson; try again.

*Pretty sure this one is still for sale, although Canada Post is currently on strike.  If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll check if it is still available, and the cost including shipping...

My books are still available.  If you are in the US, they are printed in the US so they can still be purchased even though Canada Post is currently on strike.  All three available here while my 'memoir' is available for pdf download in my ko-fi shop

Change One Thing

 

pale teal 16/2 cotton, blue 2/16 cotton

 2/16 cotton yarns with two different twists per inch in the ply

Reminder:

I use ply before count to denote ring spun yarn; count before ply for open end spun yarn, because they are very different in their natures.  When I identify them with their 'count' in this fashion, I am *also* telling you how they have been spun.

One of my 'Laura-isms' is 'change one thing and everything can change'.

The changes can be nearly 'invisible' if you don't know what to look for - and any weaver who has not taken at least an introductory class in spinning will not know about the *how* of getting fibre into yarn and why they should know the differences.

So, here I am - again - to explain why.  (Note:  I'm not a spinner, as such, but everyone should at least have an understanding of the basics so they can make 'good' choices.)

What's the difference between the two?  Significant, as it happens.

For ring spun yarn (I'm talking industrial methods here - a loose comparison would be worsted spun for handspinners - but again there are spectrums involved) the fibres are generally combed so that they are aligned parallel, then given X number of twists per inch for the single, and Y number of twists per inch for the ply.  The number of twists for a single that is intended to be plied will generally be more than the number of twists applied during the plying.

Open end spun yarns are more akin to woolen spinning with the fibres in disarray, and then given X number of twists for the singles, and Y for the plying (if the yarn is meant to be plied).

What are those X and Y numbers?  It depends.

Let's take cotton.  Fibre intended for seine twine, for example, is going to have a whole lot more twists per inch than something intended for garments.  And so on.

The spinning mill spins yarn for specific purposes.  They do not set out to make 'bad' yarn.  But weavers can, and do, make poor choices.

When the weaver looks at yarn, there are things they could ask themselves - is the yarn strong or weak?  Does it have a lot of elasticity or no?  Is it stiff or flexible?  How does it feel?  Coarse or smooth?

All of those things can be determined, right down to number of twists per inch for the ply, quite easily.  It simply takes a close look and an awareness that those things are going to have an impact on how the yarn behaves.  And how the cloth they make will behave and feel.  And why you can't necessarily make substitutions without making changes to things like density (epi/ppi).

A few weeks ago I had a question from someone about why their different brands of cotton behaved so differently.

They were using American spun and Swedish spun cotton, and a cotton/linen blend with 40% linen, and they *appeared* to be different thicknesses.

I told them that was because they were.  The US spun 8/2 cotton is open end spun, while Swedish (and Canadian) 2/8 cotton is ring spun.  Swedish 2/8 cotton is also generally spun from Egyptian cotton, while the source for the yarn spun in Canada is unknown, but quite likely the US.  

Egyptian cotton tends to have a longer staple.  The cotton from Brassard has a shorter staple.  The open end yarn (in every sample I've examined) appears to have the shortest fibre used in industry to spin yarn.  In the photo above with the two blues, the dark blue is Borgs (if memory serves) and even though it appears to have fewer twists per inch, it is very strong.  I cannot break a Swedish 2/8 cotton easily with my hands, while I can break the Brassard yarn with my hands without difficulty.

The cotton/linen blend (referred to variously as cottolin, cottlin, cotlin) is, at 40% linen, denser than 100% cotton.  Therefore, even though the yarn is spun to the same number of yards per pound (or metric measure to kilo), it will be thinner than a 100% cotton yarn of the same count.

With open end spun yarn, the fibres not being aligned and generally with fewer twists per single and ply, the yarn is loftier and weaker than the ring spun of the same count.

Knowing these things allows us to understand that if we use open end spun cotton yarn as weft in towels, for example, that will increase the absorbency of the cloth over 2/8 cotton for both warp and weft.  Using the ring spun yarn as warp will reduce breakage in the warp.  Generally I tend to use cottolin as weft only, in part because it is more expensive than 100% cotton.

In addition to these considerations, there is also the fact that 8/2 cotton will release a lot more fibre dust into the air during weaving.  Another good reason to use it only for weft (less abrasion).  Even so, I have filter fans that I use in order to suck the air from the loom away from me and remove as much of the cotton lint from the air as possible.

People who work in the cotton industry can develop 'brown lung' which is like black lung but cotton dust instead of coal dust.  It's probably fine for a small project, but if you have lung issues, I recommend getting one of those box fans and put a filter over the intake side of the fan and make sure you use it during weaving.  Then when the project is done, give your studio a good cleaning to remove any remaining dust from around the loom or your studio area.

The density consideration extends to other fibres, too.  I routinely see people assuring others that 2/8 (or 8/2) Tencel can be used at the same epi as cotton.  Unfortunately, Tencel is a very slippery fibre, PLUS it is much denser than cotton, and therefore it is thinner than cotton spun to the same count.

Tencel on the left, cotton on the right, both spun to 2/8 count (3360 yards per pound).  Given the thinner grist of the Tencel, *my* recommendation for Tencel would be around 24 for plain weave, more for twill.  How much more?  That will take sampling to factor in your weave structure and width, and the degree of drape you want in the cloth after wet finishing.  Remember that Tencel is a regenerated cellulose, and only after wet finishing will you see the true nature of the cloth you have woven.  (Although imho, that's true regardless of fibre!)

So!  Sample!  

Books available here

Classes available at SOS

Classes also available at Long Thread Media

Zoom presentations listed here

Seeking Substitutions

Photo of four different yarns, all approximately the same thickness and yards per pound.  Sort of.

Further to the earlier blog post, I wondered if I could show how difficult it can be to make substitutions or not.

I found four different yarns that were approximately the 'same' when it came to thickness, two of them rated the 'same' yards per pound, the other two not very far off.  Remember that yards per pound (or meters per 100 grams or whatever scale is used) is only ever an approximation.  A guideline.  Not set in stone.  It varies.  It depends.

The two red yarns are both types of rayon (regenerated cellulose).  Both of these yarns are made up of finer two ply yarns, one with 5, one with 6.  The one on the left has 5 2-ply yarns very loosely twisted together.  The next one to it has 6 2-ply yarns much more tightly twisted together - both the finer yarns and the plied thicker yarn.

The kind of yellow/green shiny one is silk and is a two ply - two thicker singles plied together.

The white one is a 4/8 cotton.  In other words, four singles have been plied together.  This format is not as common as it once was as one of the major suppliers of 4/8 cotton now plys several 2/16 cotton yarns together to make up the yarn that has the same number of yards per pound as a 'true' 4/8 cotton, very similar to the rayon yarns in the photo.

The red yarns could most likely be used interchangably.  They are pretty close to the same thickness and both made from rayon.  The one that is more tightly twisted will be somewhat stiffer, and will likely hold it's shape better than the one that is very loosely twisted together.  It might also resist abrasion better than the more softly twisted yarn.

The rayon and silk both have excellent drape qualities, both will press up a lovely sheen after wet finishing if given a good hard press (or cold mangle - the compression is the key, not whether it is hot or cold).

The cotton would not make a good substitute for either the rayon or the silk.  It will not drape as readily, even at the same epi/ppi and weave structure, and it will not finish up with much of a sheen.  It is unmercerized, so generally matt in appearance.

So this is why it is difficult to just willy-nilly substitute a yarn of a similar thickness, yards per pound for another. 

Textile artists need to understand their materials.  They need to know how the preparation for spinning and actual spinning affects the inherent characteristics of the fibre.  They need to understand the quality of the cloth they are trying to produce and how to choose appropriately when it comes to the yarn they are using.

A few years ago I did a small run sample series called A Good Yarn.  Each title looked at an individual fibre - cotton, wool, linen/hemp, and rayon.  I had intended to do silk, but Life Happened and that issue...didn't.

I have heard of people being able to find these at estate sales.

As far as resources go, a place to learn more?  Google Textile Science or Fibre Science, or fibre characteristics.  There are websites with some information, or there are textbooks, like the one I linked to in the previous post:  A Guide to Textiles for Interior Designers.  While the focus of the book is on interiors, there is a gold mine of information about fibres that any person working in the textile field can find useful.

The book was used as the textbook for the textile program at the U of Manitoba, and still is, so far as I know.  The most recent edition is expensive, as textbooks frequently are.  I paid $35 for my 1st edition back in oh, 1989 or so, and it has been worth every penny.  You can still find the 1st or 2nd edition for fairly cheap prices.  The link in the previous post was to Amazon.ca where the copy I found there was listed for $17.50, I think.  Look at other re-seller sites like abc books and so on.  My students routinely find the title for less than $10, although sometimes they do have to dig.

To expect a pattern designer (regardless of craft) to provide info for multiple different yarns is asking the designer to provide a lot of information.  They are usually making pennies for their effort, needing to sell hundreds of patterns just to cover the cost of the copy editor, paying their sample knitters, or their time developing the pattern, providing technical information on sizing, etc., etc., etc.

Textile crafters would do themselves a favour by learning more about the technical issues involved themselves so that - if they want/need to make a substitute - they will be able to make A Good Choice by choosing an appropriate yarn.

And just an FYI - it took me the better part of an hour to dig through my yarn stash to find a variety of yarns of approximately the same thickness/ypp, then take photos, then sit down and write this post.

If I were teaching, I would be expecting to be paid $55/hour (which is the going rate in BC for people teaching classes - IF you can get it.)

Instead I have given this hour to you, dear readers, to do with as you will...

(and if you want to buy me a 'coffee', you can do so on my ko-fi account - link at the side or the tags for this post)

Sustainable

Organic  or not?

Over the years of my career, I have struggled with the whole issue of sustainability and the fibres I use in my practice.

When I first began weaving, I tried everything.  And by that I mean everything.  As I learned more about how fibre is grown, how it is made (synthetics), spun/dyed, the life cycle of natural and synthetic fibres, I eventually made some decisions that I tend to follow.

A friend educated me on the meaning of 'organic' and that it doesn't necessarily mean that no pesticides are used, but only approved ones.  Click on the link above for the entire article but here is a quote from it:

"Organic cotton, however, is grown without chemical pesticides or harmful fertilizers, which is why is it often seen as more environmentally friendly than conventional cotton. This does not mean that organic cotton is free from all pesticides or insecticides, however - organic cotton farming does allow for the use of natural and synthetic pesticides in moderate quantities. In turn, these natural pesticides can also be harmful. For example, Rotetone is a natural pesticide which was used in cotton farming since the 1800s until it was found to cause symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease in rats. In 2011 a study from the US National Institutes of Health indicated a link between rotenone use and Parkinson's disease in farm workers, but the natural pesticide is not included on the FDA ‘white’ list. In addition, a study funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada on four synthetic and two organic insecticides found the two organic insecticides to have a significantly higher toxicity than the synthetic counterparts."

There are so many steps along the production line, fibre to cloth, and there is the opportunity for impact to the environment at many of them.

So, my personal line in the sand is that I do not use anything that will not degrade back into dust.  I do use rayon, but have become concerned about the negative impact on the environment, yes, but also the health issues for the human beings who work in the factories where rayon is produced.  Once I have used up what I have, I will not buy more.

I think about the fact that as a weaver I add to the surplus of textiles we have in the world.  I take some comfort in that my textiles are 'slow' cloth:  my textiles are made by hand and will wear for years - in some cases, decades.  Which is another definition of 'slow' cloth in my books.

My advice is to learn as much as possible about how fibre is produced and the processes used to make it into cloth.  Or at least into the fibres and yarn that we, as spinners/dyers/weavers etc., use to create our textiles.

Many people are now growing their own fibres, be they shepherds, flax growers, silkworm raisers, etc.  Learn as much as possible about environmental impacts, not only of natural fibres, but synthetic ones.  Make informed choices.  Pay attention to the source of your information.  If it is from the Cotton Council, they may not be presenting good information about other competing fibres.  If it is from a website promoting organic, they may not be telling the entire story, either. 

Find out who is giving you information and seek out other sources of information.  In this day and age of 'fake' news, propaganda is rampant.  Think about who is telling you what (e.g. PETA and their misleading campaigns about wool) and be skeptical until you can confirm the information with other sources you trust.

So, cotton uses enormous quantities of water and pesticides.
Flax will strip nutrients from the soil which must then be remediated  after each growing season, plus the retting may release toxins into the environment.
Silk worms get stifled in order to preserve the long filament they have extruded.  Best quality get fed mulberry leaves.
Wool comes in an almost infinite variety of staple length, crimp, fineness/coarseness.  According to a large animal vet I know, mulesing is not practiced in North America, even in large flocks.  The animals are NOT butchered to obtain their fleece, they simply get a haircut.  A good shearer takes very little time to shear the animal who then enjoys a much cooler summer.  Domestic sheep MUST be shorn because they cannot shed their fibre as wild sheep can do.

Educate yourself.  Make informed choices.

Guest Post - Barbara S

In my weaving life, I learn something from every warp.  Sometimes the lessons are based in exploring different structures, techniques or yarns; other times they come from air-brained moments of inattention.  My latest adventure was a puzzle that required thought and analysis.

As a student in the Olds Master Weaver program, Level 1, one of my assignments was weaving a value gamp composed of six colours of woollen-spun wool. The goal was to complete a twelve-inch grid with each cell measuring two inches after finishing.

Using information from previous work with my chosen yarn, I forged ahead and produced a sample with five colours behaving predictably and one very long stripe that was not conforming in either warp or weft directions.

As my frustration grew, I recalled that, when winding the warp, the colours had not felt the same when running through my fingers. Some had felt smooth and fine while others gave the impression of being rougher and bulkier.  It was time to examine the yarns in more detail.

First, I checked the staple length of the fibres, pulling apart the strands and extracting small quantities of wool.  I found that the longest staple lengths varied between 1" and 1 3/4" depending on the colour.  These results were repeatable over three samples. Next, I looked at the fibres under a magnifying glass and noticed differences in the diameters of the fibres as well as the degrees of crimp.  The longer samples were greater in diameter with less crimp. Since we know that these differences can translate into variations in fulling properties, I hoped I was starting to decipher the puzzle.

Yarn from a cone is generally quite inelastic and needs to be wetted to awaken its resilience. In an attempt to discover any variations in how the yarns responded to wetting, I measured equal 15-inch lengths of all the colours, tied them together evenly at one end, and gently washed the bundle.  After drying, two colours were longer than the others by about half an inch. Interesting ...

As a final check, I measured each colour on a McMorran yarn balance, so that in theory I had the same weight of each yarn - 1/3,600th of a pound. My theory was that if these yarns had all been spun to the same yards per pound, the resulting strands should have been the same length - or close - given  my basic measuring technique and acceptable variation between processing batches in the factory.  The results revealed significant differences between sample lengths of different colours both before and after washing.

The measurement techniques used in these experiments are crude; nonetheless, they do provide an overview of what is happening with these yarns.  The results were enough to convince me that when the fleeces were selected and blended in the mill prior to spinning, there had been definite differences in the characteristics of the wool used.

As a final test, I purchased another cone of the problem colour from a different dye lot.  It worked!  The next sample finished with straight hemstitching and no wonky selvedge.

Lessons learned included the need to trust my own perceptions of a yarn, strategies for checking yarn collections for similar properties, and the importance of sample, sample, sample!

Method/Madness

I know this looks rather a jumble but there is method to my madness.

Although I still have not had the A Good Yarn one day workshops confirmed at Sarasota and Asheville, doing the prep work is going to be time consuming so I figured I'd better get started on it.  I'm winding a whole lot of skeins and my neck isn't best pleased if I do too much of that all at one go.  On the other hand, I can't use my work table for anything else until I get the winding done, so I do feel somewhat under the gun to get it finished and cleared away.

Normally I bring the box of cones, balls and tubes with me but with so many topics, such great distances to travel and airlines being the way they are with limiting luggage and weight, I decided to wind off small skeins - two of each fibre for the two workshops.  This will give the participants some options as they go through and attempt to identify the yarns during the hands on part of the workshop.  They can then cut up one of the skeins and everyone can have a sample of the yarns for their notebooks.

With so much photocopying to be done I'm thinking of just taking all the master copies to Staples and getting them to run the copies rather than me stand over my photocopy machine breathing in the toner fumes.  :)

And if the classes don't 'go', the skeins/handouts will be ready for the next time I do this topic.

The place mat warp is nearly done - 3 more mats to weave, I think - the next mat warp is wound and I need to get back to the AVL as I want to have some of the towels I wove cut off so they can be wet finished on Saturday and pressed on Sunday.  Not to mention the editing that still needs to be done.  For that, though, I need to be in the right mood and lately my distractibility has been a little too high.  Editing requires that I be able to focus and concentrate. 

And of course, with company coming next month, I really, seriously, need to get my house tidied so that they will have a bed to sleep in and a place to sit in the living room!

Knowledge and Soapboxes

A gamp of various wefts for the rest of the warp.  Colours are not true - the greyish one is actually a soft greyed lavender which looks very pretty on the warp but not so great in the photo....

There has been a lively discussion on one of the chat groups about recipe weavers vs weavers who draw upon their own creativity and the relative merits of each approach.

I started wondering how many weavers throughout history really were designers rather than weavers who learned how to weave one particular quality of cloth and wove that as their profession pretty much every day.  They probably knew every hint and trick about how to weave that quality of cloth and were experts at producing perfect cloth within that quality.  But how many of the thousands of weavers who were journeyman really knew very much about the ins and outs of cloth construction on a broad basis?

Modern weavers are amazingly lucky in that we do it because we love it.  Whether we do it from 'recipes' designed by others or start from scratch, choosing our own colours, yarns, set, weave structure etc., is really neither here nor there so long as we are enjoying what we are doing.  Even as someone who does this as my profession, I'm primarily doing it because I love it, not because it's the only way I have of putting food on my table or keeping a roof over my head.

I could go do something else much more lucrative in terms of income than weave!

What does concern me, however, is that general knowledge about cloth construction might get 'lost'.  Who, then, will design the recipes for the others?

Judith MacKenzie has a great quote (which I have probably used before but bears repeating) "When you don't know what you don't know, you don't know that you don't know it."  (Emphasis mine)

I joined the internet community in 1994 and almost immediately came to realize the lack of knowledge about wet finishing.  (Well, I knew that from attending conferences, but the internet allowed me to speak about the necessity for wet finishing and sharing how to do it in a public forum.)

In the years since I have spotted other areas where there is a distinct lack of knowledge, especially on the internet.  Much of the knowledge is contained in books, but as someone pointed out to me, the new generation doesn't go to books as a first line of knowledge source, they go to the internet. 

And so I have found myself straddling several soapboxes - wet finishing, of course. Issues of efficiency.  Fibre characteristics.

The only way I can see of encouraging new weavers to realize that they don't know something is to constantly (gently!) harp on about what they don't know.  Eventually those who want to know more will learn where to find out more and hopefully pass on that knowledge to others.

So I continue to climb up onto my soapboxes and natter on about the aspects of cloth construction that I feel are under represented in the weaving community.

Currently reading Death in the Dark by Kerry Greenwood

Cotton

Four different cotton yarns - from left - seine twine, 2/8 warp twist, 8/2 and 3/2 Perle

click to biggify

Chart showing cotton close up and fibre characteristics

New weavers sometimes don't understand that just because a yarn is made from a particular fibre, that doesn't mean that they are the same in terms of how they function.

Cotton fibres for textiles range from about .75 of an inch to up to 3" depending on the variety.  Some of the best quality fibres are Egyptian, pima and Sea Island.  A new variety called Supima is now available commercially although I doubt handweavers can get their hands on that, yet.

Even though all four of the above yarns are made from cotton, they are very, very different in how they behave as yarns, and therefore will create very different qualities of textiles.

Cotton seine twine is the original netting yarn.  It is extremely dense, hard wearing and stiff.  It is very useful to weavers for rug warp.

2/8 warp twist cotton is less dense than seine twine but more than strong enough for warp.  It is more flexible than seine twine and can be used for things like placemats, table runners, heavier weight garment fabric.  I've even used it doubled for rep weave rugs where it behaved quite nicely.  I still have some of these rugs and they are wearing quite well in lightly trafficked areas.

8/2 cotton is carded and much more loosely twisted than 2/8 warp twist yarn.  It is loftier and more absorbent.  It is also weaker than 2/8 and not much loved for warp because of that.  It is useful for weft in towels, baby blankets and other textiles where a lofty, flexible textile is desired.

Perle cotton is combed, not carded, mercerized and engineered for embroidery so built to withstand abrasion.  In comparison to 8/2 cotton, Perle cottons are extremely strong and much loved by US weavers for warp.  The yarn is generally available in a multitude of beautiful colours.

While all of these yarns are made from cotton, they are very different and weavers need to look beyond the colour at how their yarns have been manufactured to know and appreciate them for what they are, and what can successfully be made from them.

Currently readying Lying Dead by Aline Templeton

Gimp and Boucle'

When I was learning to spin, I was told that the yarn on the left was called a 'gimp' and the yarn on the right was a 'boucle' (accent over the e').

Since I'm not really a spinner I don't know the finer points of distinction in how they are constructed but they are both spun.

To my eye the biggest difference is that the loops in the boucle' have lots of air in them. They are a true loop.

The gimp has a much stiffer hand which leads me to believe that it has much more twist in it. It *looks* like there is a core around which the tightly spun silk is spun. The little knobs have no space or air in them and they are like a little bead in comparison to the loop in the boucle' which is very soft and lofty.

The two yarns have very different hands. The mohair loop is lovely and soft; the silk gimp is harder and much more textured to the touch. They both weave up nicely - I don't think I've had a broken end in either yarn - but they make drasticly different qualities of cloth.

Some people feel the silk gimp and they do not find it tactilely satisfying at all. They wonder what on earth you could make that would be nice. They decide that it isn't a good yarn.

But it actually makes quite a nice shawl set at 10 epi and woven square in plain weave. The little 'beads' of the gimp help hold everything together - although the cloth is 'delicate' - I think it's actually quite A Good Yarn.

Currently reading A Play of Piety by Margaret Frazer

Book Review - The Intentional Spinner

About 18 months ago I took a spinning workshop with Judith MacKenzie McCuin. I warned her when I arrived that I was not taking the class to become a better spinner (it had been 20 years since I'd done any kind of spinning at all) but because I wanted to become a better weaver. I wanted to learn more about fibre characteristics and how spinning a fibre can change, or perhaps I ought to say modify, those characteristics.

During the class she announced that she had a new book in the works - The Intentional Spinner. My copy arrived while I was on holiday, and while I haven't had a chance to read all of it, I want to urge all weavers to rush to read it.

For many years I have recommended my favourite resource A Guide to Textiles for Interior Designers for fibre and fabric characteristics, but that is an expensive book and not everyone wants to add a pricy book to their collection. The Intentional Spinner is much more economical at about $26 US a copy. It doesn't have the breadth of information contained in the Guide, but it covers the basics for natural fibres that most weavers prefer.

It has the added benefit of discussing in much greater detail than The Guide the mechanics of spinning and how those will affect the yarn and therefore the fabric constructed from it. The two books together make a great platform of essential knowledge weavers need to know.

Weavers need to understand the basics in order to make appropriate choices for the textiles they wish to weave. Judith includes information on both woven and knitted constructions which makes this book an invaluable resource for both weavers and knitters.

The extent and depth of Judith's knowledge takes my breath away. Her writing style is clear and concise. At times I have to simply stop reading in order to absorb the concept and information contained in one sentence.

She includes information on the newer regenerated fibres which ought to help dispel some of the assumptions that people have made and allow weavers to make intelligent choices about what fibres they will and will not use. She also points out that these regenerated fibres have been around since the early 1920's and '30's and are only now becoming economically viable as petroleum products become more and more expensive. The regenerated fibres are also bio-degradable, while the petroleum fibres are not. With an even hand she lists the advantages and disadvantages neither promoting nor denigrating any yarn allowing us to determine what we need in order to create textiles to suit our purpose.

The two day class I took was filled with nuggets of information. Now that I have The Intentional Spinner, I feel like a little piece of Judith now lives in my studio. A most welcome addition. :)

Who knows, I may even take up spinning again. :)

Tampa, FL

Arrived in Tampa last night, sans suitcase. The tight connection in Charlotte meant that while I made the flight to Tampa, my suitcase didn't. :( We're waiting for it to be delivered. Thankfully I had sufficient personal items in my carry on that I was able to shower and change this morning and have clean clothes. :) One of the joys of travel!

However, a treat was waiting for me. Interweave Press had mailed a book to a friend for me. (They had Betty's US address on file for me and sent it there instead of to Canada.) I asked Betty to mail it to my friend Jacqui in Tampa, and late last night I opened it and found a copy of Judith Mackenzie McCuin's latest book 'The Intentional Spinner'.

What a delight! Loads of great information on fibre characteristics, how the yarn is affected by the different ways of preparing the fibre and spinning it, and how it will then affect the textile created from it.

Here is a quote:

Two-ply yarns have a serrated edge that lets them do what they do best; hold their space and keep the thrads apart.

In knitting, when you make the loop to form a stitch, a two-ply yarn moves away from the center of the stitch; a three-ply yarn, on the other hand, folds into the center of the stitch, filling it up.

The information contained in this book is like little nuggets of gold. Each sentence is concise and clear. On page 2 I was looking for a notebook to start writing things down - until I remembered I own the book! I can now pick it up and find out what I need to know without having to dig through a notebook with my scratchy handwriting. And that makes me very happy. :D

The art of constructing cloth is so broad and deep no one person can know it all or keep it all in their heads (unless, perhaps, you are Judith!)

Knowing where to find the information I need about fibres and yarns helps to make appropriate choices when I start to construct a cloth for a particular purpose.

I am not a spinner, and never will be (except for the enjoyment of it). I DO want to be a better weaver, and this book will help me to accomplish that.

Thank you, Thank you, Judith. What a great resource!!!!