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Broken Ends

Before I start with the main body of this post, I thought I'd share this.

Don't you just hate the way selvedge threads are always breaking because you don't use a temple because they leave nasty holes in the cloth, are a pain to move and anyway, whatever?

This obviously doesn't apply to those blessed by the rolling temple, you lucky people you.

Anyway, check it out. It's an elastane yarn that's been twisted with 2 plys of worsted, to make a 2/48Nm yarn with a composition of 97/3 worsted/elastane.

The worsted has been competely worn away by the reed, yet the elastane filament holds out. Cool huh?

Now check out these awkward guys here.

The way this cloth is constructed is that there are 4 main blocks. The black is woven on the first 4 shafts, to make a 2/2 twill, and the colours are woven on 3 seperate 6 shaft blocks. the whites are on 5-10, the lights on 11-16 and the darks on 17-22. The back two shafts have some spare heddles for in case I felt like putting in a floating selvedge.

What's happening is that I am losing a lot of ends, more even than I'd expect to use from an awkward sod of a yarn like 2/32's worsted, which has never treated me with the greatest kindness, if truth be told.

But not throughout the cloth in total, just on the back sections. Which would lead one to think there was something wrong with the elevation of those shafts perhaps, or the heddles I put on them.

Except that it's only happening in the blue and the pink. Which would suggest that the yarn is weak.

But then why does it keep happening when I repair the ends with a different spool?

I just don't know, I really don't.


See that? That's how things should look. I've not broken a single end in any section except the deep pink and dark blue. Maddening.

Like I say, I suspect I have a couple of rubbish cones in there. Maybe they were sitting up there in the boxes for so long they've totally dried out and gone brittle, it happens apparently.
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Comments

Unknown said…
A possible reason: because of the dying process dark yarns tend to break more easily.
26 February 2013 at 07:12
Anonymous said…
Oh my, that looks like a headache and a half. Maybe those dyes are a bit more brutal on the yarn than the lighter ones and it doesn't have as long a shelf life? I'm liking the stripes, though.
26 February 2013 at 18:52
Andrew Kieran said…
I see you are in consensus here. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I remember weaving something that was mostly black in the 2/36 worsted a few years ago, and I was having plenty of problems and my teacher explained that it was probably because the dye lab tended to turn any bodged dye job into black, so it had been dyed twice.

I suspect a comibnation of factors, not least of which is that the yarn's been sitting around for ages. Because I've woven with new yarn and it almost never gives me any problems. For instance the 2/60's cotton which is incredibly fine but doesn't bother me at all
26 February 2013 at 21:26
Kerstin på Spinnhuset said…
"tooting" myself here (but the fact that I inherited the trick should make it better?): here is how I mend a warp...
(YMMV, but I was oh-so-happy with this method when I wove horsehair yardage doem years ago...)
1 March 2013 at 21:57
Andrew Kieran said…
Cheers Kirsten :-)

You get bonus Karma Points and a placement on my "people I learn from" page, I have no idea why you're not there already.
7 March 2013 at 00:09
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