Zoom session from Sunday, April 28, 2024, 7pm.
This Hangout was focused on two questions:
- What are some good sources for weaving yarns?
- How to take care of your stash?
Debbie Cummings agreed to head up this session which was moderated by Ann Rader. 34 people attended the hour-long session.
Sources for weaving yarns:
- Woolery
- Yarn Barn
- Halcyon
- Lofty Fiber
- WEBS
- Silk City Fibers (though they carry no silk)
- Treenways Silks (they do have silk)
- Loom Room
- Camilla Valley
- Jane Stafford
- Brassards
- Red Stone Glen
- Peter Patchis (discount, mill ends)
- R&M (discount, mill ends)
- Guild and estate sales (a chance to try out expensive yarns at deep discounts)
Notes on yarns:
- Knitting yarns have more loft than weaving yarns
- Weaving yarns have more twist that knitting yarns (makes them most suitable for warp)
- Mohair from knitting shops tends to have a lot of synthetic fiber; mohair from weaving sources tends to contain more mohair fiber.
- Brassards supplies exceptional 8/2 cotton (very soft, fulls nicely)
- Bamboo yarn is manmade, made from bamboo but highly chemicalized. Acts like a synthetic, won’t full and won’t shrink like natural fibers.
- Euroflax is a wet-spun, long staple (quality) linen, available from Lofty Fiber. Silk City also carries a fine gauge Linen (Linen14) and a fine gauge bamboo.
How to manage your stash:
- Sort by fiber and then by weight
- Debbie likes to keep her yarn in 66 qt plastic bins that are 24”x18” in size to protect from dust and light. Each bin will hold twelve 3-pound cones. She uses shoebox size plastic bins to store small equipment.
- Label each bin with fiber, weight, and recommended sett (makes it easy to mix and match fibers in a project).
- She keeps an inventory in Excel and adds to it whenever she purchases new yarn.
To protect yarn from moths and carpet beetles (especially when buying yarn at guild sales and estate sales)
- Sequester new yarn from your current stash to make sure you don’t introduce pests and treat it using one of these methods.
- Cold method: put wool in plastic bags into the freezer for a number of days. Remove for a couple of days and then put back into the freezer for more days. This kills moths throughout their life cycle.
- Heat method: put wool in plastic bags and leave in a hot car for a number of days. Needs to get over 100 degrees F.
- This applies to wool, alpaca, cashmere, any animal fibers.
Just as we were signing off, someone posed a question about reducing shafts. The following comments pertain to that limited discussion among seven remaining participants.
- When you’re facing a draft that requires more treadles than you have available to you, use Tim’s Treadle Reducer: https://www.cs.earlham.edu/~timm/treadle/form1.php
- For reeds: Palmetto Loom Reed Co. has taken over production from Gowdy Reeds
- There’s a great Facebook group called Strickler in Color: inspiration, get your questions answered. You need to apply for entry.
- To learn about profile drafts: Doramay Keasbey, Understanding Blocks and Profile Drafts