Learning Journey

 

Once again I'm playing with my little microscope, trying to see beyond the 'obvious'.  The yarn on the left is 2/20 merc. cotton, the one on the right is 2/10 merc. cotton.

I use that designation because it is pretty clear (to me) that they have been ring spun - the yarns are smooth (not just because of the mercerization) but the fibres are aligned, the twist is 'high' although not enough to make the yarn stiff.  There is little in the way of loose fibre poking out.

I didn't actually learn much more than what I already knew about this yarn, and because I have no way of measuring the thickness I can't tell if the 2/20 is one-half the thickness of the 2/10.  The best I can do is say that the 2/10 does not look twice as thick as the 2/20 - which is borne out by the ruler wrap *and* the recommended epi for each yarn.  If the 2/10 was twice the thickness as the 2/20, the epi would be half that of the 2/20?

Add into the equation that the smoothness of each yarn is...not consistent.  The profile of each yarn is a 'saw tooth' shape with a 'dip' as the two plies twist around each other.  The two yarns are made by two different manufacturers, and the twists per inch in the ply appear to be slightly different, but again, I don't have a measuring tool that I trust to give me accurate information at that scale (tiny!).  Plus the difference in twists per inch is also minimal - perhaps it's the very thinness of the yarn that makes it look more different than it is?

In the end, does any of this matter?  I suspect it does, but not in any 'grand' way?  But the number of ends per inch for each *does* matter, and why the recommended range for epi is a just that - a range.

New weavers get confused about the 'it depends' caveats that more experienced weavers tend to preface their answers with.  But that's the thing with weaving with threads.  It *does* depend.  Sometimes what worked for one weaver perfectly well, turns out to not work as well for someone else.  Because change one thing, and everything can change.  

One weaver may have used a completely different loom than another.  They may have used higher - or lower - tension on the warp.  They may have used a very heavy - or light - shuttle.  And of course two weavers using the same weave structure may have also wind up with different results, never mind using completely different weave structures.

As a new weaver, I absorbed everything that came my way.  I joined sample exchanges.  Study groups.  Took every workshop I could afford, read every book I could get my hands on.  It was like those 'compare and find differences' puzzles that would appear in the Sunday newspaper - can you find 5 differences?  

Trying something new?  Weave a sample.  Don't want to do 'just' a sample?  Add a yard onto your warp and sample before you commit to making 'something'.  And never judge your cloth until after it has been wet finished.