More on Sett

The figures I gave on sett from the Osterkamp book are rather typical figures for her. In her tables she frequently has very peculiar numbers such as 19, 27. The only way I could achieve these kinds of setts is through uneven sleyings. Uneven sleyings occur when you do not put the same number of ends in each dent. The sleying might be, for example, 2-3-3-3-2-2-3-3.

I do not like uneven sleyings. First, I am much more apt to make a sleying error when I have to change, even in a regular fashion, the number of warp ends in a dent. Worse still, I would find it much too easy to miss a sleying error until I was in the process of weaving.

Also it is my experience that fabric weaves better with equal numbers of threads in each dent. There is less possibility of ends slipping around in the final fabric or, perhaps even worse, of the whole fabric simply not evening out in the final finishing. In this case, the warp ends would not be evenly spaced.

Uneven spacing of warp ends can be a design feature, but if it is, it ought to be intentional. Uneven spacings, skipped dents, crowded dents, are all ways of achieving this kind of design feature. But right now my concern is obtaining a regular cloth.

The result of this rejection of uneven sleying is that I have a large number of reeds. I would like more, but I would have to have them made to order. I don't consider this particularly a problem, but whenever I think about it, I cannot make up my mind which of several possibilities I would get the most use from. Reeds do not come cheap!