Hand Weaving?

[Mr. MacDougall]

Does anyone know of any good resources -- web pages, books, instructional videos -- for learning to weave tartan? Twill is a fairly simple weave, requiring a four-shaft loom, but there are some tartan-specific details I'm a little fuzzy on, and I'd like to find out more.

[The Wizard of BC]

Can you be a bit more specific on what you are asking?

Do you have a loom and want to weave some Tartan fabric?

What are your specific questions?

[BEEDEE]

My ex was a weaver. There are lots of Weaving Guilds around the country and most are willing to help newbies. Try a Google search for weaving guilds or hand weaving.

Brian

[Mr. MacDougall]

Do you have a loom and want to weave some Tartan fabric?

Yes, exactly. I have a four-shaft loom that I picked up just about literally for a song at an estate auction, and I've woven some plain cloth with it, but I'd like to learn to weave tartan. I'm a little unclear about what one does with the threads of the color one isn't currently using, and I'd like to learn more.

And I don't currently have the money to go see the Tartan Lady for instruction, even if she weren't closed until 2008.

[Barb T]

Hi

I've woven tartan before, and it's theoretically quite a simple process. Set the loom up for a straight twill, and weave the colors in the order that you wound the warp. The only tricky part results from the fact that the warp is under tension when you weave, so blocks that look square when the fabric is under tension will "shrink" parallel to the warp threads when you take the tension off the warp. So, you just have to be a little careful when you beat - trial and error is the key, here. Weave a few inches, take the tension off, and measure your ppi to make sure it's OK. Tartan should be a true 45 weave (although commercial tartan is never, in my experience, a 45 weave...).

OK. What to do with the colors you're not using? If you intend to cut up the fabric and sew something with it, just set the shuttle aside when you switch colors, and carry the floats up the side of the web to the next time you need that color. If you want to make a kilt (more on that later), be sure to carry the floats on one side only (that's what Dalglish does when they weave a custom single-width), and be very careful to make a perfect selvedge on the other for the bottom of the kilt. Be careful about irregular draw-in (using a web stretcher helps). If you don't want floats on either side, you'll have to end each color after you're done weaving it.

Now, about weaving tartan for a kilt. This is really hard to do well on a hand loom. 16 oz commercial tartan is a tight, hard weave at more than 48 ppi. That requires very fine wool, which breaks easily, and the threads have to be really close together. Any fine wool that I've tried to weave tartan from tends to stick together when you try to open the shed, even though the loom is threaded for twill (which does help some - plain weave is almost impossible). If the shed doesn't open cleanly, you can be virtually guaranteed to boing the shuttle off one of the errant threads and break it. Much swearing. It sometimes helps to have a spray bottle with water and a teeny bit of fabric softener in it to spray the warp to keep the static and fuzzies down that cause the threads to be a little too friendly. Just don't let your reeds rust.

I'd suggest trying something blankety and heavy first before you plunged into trying to weave something that could be used for a kilt.

Cheers!

Barb

[Mr. MacDougall]

Thanks, Barb. That will help me in my goofing around expirements, and I've discovered there's a place in my home town that offers weaving classes. I'll take some, next summer when I'm home.

[JimB]

If you are around the Mesa area, there is a shop in downtown Mesa called the Fiber Factory. My wife used to work there teaching how to weave. She probably still would be but we moved.
That's the place to go to learn. Give them a call.