Of Fat Yarns and Skinny Reeds

 So far, my projects in crackle weave have been woven in traditional (overshot) manner (table runner 2 and table runner 3). It's time to have a go at different way to weave crackle. Since I still have some time before family Christmas get-togethers, I thought about a scarf for my son in one of his favorite sports team's colors.

For the yarn, I chose a low-pill acrylic, so it will be machine washable. 

I've not used these before, but I have woven scarves and blankets in regular acrylic yarns and know how easily they pill with repeated washing and drying. It doesn't take long for it to look shabby. But, I think acrylic yarns are a plus for folks not interested in hand washing and drying wool (which can also pill). Maybe the low- and anti-pill yarns are a good compromise. 

My current concern is the size of the yarn versus my loom. Specifically the reed. 

The yarn measures 10 wraps per inch. 

So for plain weave, it should be sleyed at 5 ends per inch, which would be every other dent in my 10-dent reed. That's easy enough, but the question is how the yarn fits in the spaces. Yarn is squishy so I can make it fit, but I don't want too much rubbing on the reed as the shafts are raised and lowered and the warp advanced. I don't want frayed looking yarn in a brand new scarf.

The best answer to this is to buy another reed, one with fewer dents per inch. This is extremely tempting. Already on my wishlist is a 12 dent reed, after discovering that the 2-2-3 threading for table runner 1 created lines in the plain weave where three threads were crammed into one dent. My table loom takes a 24-inch length reed, and these run around $100. This isn't an outrageous price, but enough for me to rein in my impulsiveness in deference to other financial priorities.

Anyway, I'm going to give it a go with this reed and see what happens.

Of Fat Yarns and Skinny Reeds © Dec 2023

by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

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