weaving sett - how close to put the yarns together when weaving (yes, it has two T's)

Weaving sett or E.P.I (ends per inch) is a huge stumbling block when weaving.  There's no one true correct answer.  Yarns change slightly depending on the manufacturer's machines, the fibre, and if we have natural fibres, the year.  The loom and other weaving equipment has a huge influence.  The weave structure.  And the weaver - they have the most influence of all.  For example, my friend setts her yarn at 24epi and I weave the same yarn, the same weave structure, at 16epi.  There is so much variation.

In an ideal world, we would sample, but where does one even begin?  How do you know which sett to sample first?  

This is where Sett charts come in handy.

Mostly I am making this so I don't have to do a search every time I need to look up a sett.  But also it's a great place for you guys to ask any weaving questions you might have.  

PDF link to Jane Stafford's Sett Chart

pdf of interweave (handwoven's) sett chart

But even so, we can learn more by sampling than anything else, so sometimes we just got to sit down and start weaving.  Here's an example of how I work with sett samples when combining or working with non-standard yarns.

The problem is, none of these have 18/2 alpaca that I need.  

Peggy  Osterkamp has some good information on sett
https://peggyosterkamp.com/ashenhurst-rule/
https://peggyosterkamp.com/2023/03/select-the-sett-for-purpose-width-yarn-type/
https://peggyosterkamp.com/oeggys-weaving-tips-sett-making-weaving-easier/

Lots of good information on her site so I would suggest spending some time exploring it

r ranson wrote:The problem is, none of these have 18/2 alpaca that I need.  

A good tip that I learned from Darly Lancaster for working out sett for clothing fabric:
- Take the warp yarn in question and wrap it tightly around a ruler. Really pack it in there.
- Count the  number of wraps in an inch.
- Halve that number. That’s your sett.

This is supposed to give you a good place to start for a plain weave. I’d love to know if there’s a similar rule of thumb for working out a starting sett for twills…

The above probably wouldn’t help much if you wanted to weave, say, a shawl or scarf - something that’s supposed to drape and flow, and not need to stand up to being cut out and sewn back together.

I was at my local weaving guild last week for our monthly meeting. Lo and behold, two of the members were running a warping demonstration. Among other things, they talked about sett.

They repeated Daryl Lancaster's advice about how to estimate the sett for a tabby weave, but without the "wrap it really tightly" part.

Even better, they stated that the same trick works well for twills! Where a plain weave sett starts at about 50% of the wraps to the inch, for twills you should use 75% of that number.

So if you wrap your warp thread around an inch of ruler and end up with 20 loops:
- Try out 10 epi for a tabby weave
- Try out 15 epi for a twill weave

Wraps per inch is a great starting place for sampling.  But it also lacks a lot of information that we need to know how the finished cloth will behave.  I've noticed the more experienced the weaver, the more we can fill in the gaps by instinct.

When teaching new weavers, I get them to wrap the weft with the warp in the same pattern it would be woven.  So PW, would be one warp one weft or whatever depending on the weave structure.  Then remove the weft and count what's left.  Quite often, we are mixing different yarns in the cloth for warp and weft, so it's good to include the weft in the wrapping process.

However, this doesn't tell us how the finished cloth will behave at that sett after fulling.  Some yarns shrink, some yarns fluff up, some yarns slide around, and some yarns felt together.  Experienced weavers find the wraps per inch technique so useful because we have the experience to fill in these gaps.  Beginner weavers aren't so lucky, so I like to teach this method as a starting point for sampling instead of a tool to tell us exactly what sett is best.  

Been playing around with sett sampling this spring, so I made a video about it and how I use the information I learned to make the shawl of my dreams.