Ask Madelyn: The Loose Sett Blues

Hi Madelyn,

I just finished a sample for a project and the sett is too loose. If I change the sett from 12 epi to 16 epi, the overall width of the warp will be reduced from about 18-1/2" to 14-1/2". Do I need to re-beam the warp? 4" seems like a lot of difference, and I am worried that the edge threads will be going through too great an angle compared to the others, so that warp tension will be a problem. If I do need to redo the warp on the beam is there an easy way to do it?

Thank you

--Olivia

Hi Olivia!

If you resley to 14-1/2”, you are taking the outermost threads only 2” out of their straight paths from back beam to the reed. This is not enough of a difference to affect warp tension. I haven’t ever thought about determining a rule of thumb for this! It would be asking to much to go from a 20” weaving width to a 5” width, but in general changes in sett are small enough not to require rebeaming.

When you are deciding on the appropriate setts for yarns for a weave structure you haven’t used before, any sett change will usually not be too different from your first guess. When you have designed something yourself and really don’t know how it will turn out, I usually recommend (rather than threading a small sample), threading for the full piece. Your guess as to sett should be determined by your understanding the general weave structure (plain weave, twill, warp rep, weft-faced, etc.), the fiber content of the yarns, and the desired hand of the finished fabric. When you have a yarn you haven’t used before, you can check out the recommended sett for plain weave on the Master Yarn Chart and adjust from there (for twills, closer, for doubleweave twice as close, etc.).

After you have woven some inches (more for wider pieces), you can wet-finish the sample. Weaving a small sample and washing it doesn’t give the same information as weaving the full width will give. You may not be able to beat the same number of picks per inch on a wide piece as on a narrow one, for one thing. And, this way you only thread once (and resleying is not an onerous task). I’ve never really come across anything that required such a drastic change in weaving width that rebeaming seemed even remotely necessary. I can’t think of any easy way to do that other than to resley, unwind the warp completely, and then rebeam.

Weave away!

--Madelyn