Embarking on my Handwoven Adventure - by PY Wong

The idea of weaving my own wrap was first planted in my head by Chen Chen after she wove a toy wrap for my kid. Thinking that it may be a fitting end to my babywearing journey, I started looking into how to go about weaving one for myself. When I started on this project, there were only two things I knew I wanted: the size of the finished piece and maybe the fibre.

I also only knew a tiny bit on how looms worked (not that I am much more knowledgeable now), from having watched Youtube videos on how Jacquard looms work. As I started doing my research, I quickly realised that to understand the realm of weaving, I needed to learn a new language. There are reeds, heddles, shafts, treadles, shed, warp, weft, and many more terms that refer to various parts of the loom as well as the woven fabric. Then there are all the techniques to learn about how to get the hundreds of threads on a loom in ways that do not end up in a huge tangle. Terms like choke ties, crosses, lease sticks, front to back and back to front wind up popped up. The good news is that there are a lot of Youtube videos that helped walk me through it. Some were even specific to the loom brand and model. Google searches on “How to get started on weaving your own baby wrap” was useful as well. Then of course taking classes, like those at Craft Atelier, helped me make sense of the whole process.

Once I had a vague idea of how to get the loom set up, the next thing I had to tackle was the type of yarn to use. Never have I found something so overwhelming to figure out. Apart from the colour, one of the first things I had to decide on was the thickness of the threads. This would determine my sett, which is basically the density of the woven piece, and hence the amount of yarn that I needed to purchase. Here, I realised that the terms used to describe knitting/crocheting yarns are different from that of weaving yarns, even though the thickness may be similar. And the conventions used for weaving yarns in the US and EU are different too! After some researching, I figured out that the best way would be to convert each yarn that I was looking at into the number of yards per unit weight. There were many resources available that helped me figure out the yarn thickness that I could use, from facebook groups, such as Open Shed and Warped Wrappers, to weaving resources, such as Interweave. Between reading through these Facebook groups and bothering other babywrap weavers on Weaving Love Asia, I have found some guidelines on the thickness of yarns to use and the corresponding range of sett or number of ends to use that work well for baby wraps.

From my research, it seemed like the more popular thickness are 8/2 yarns with a recommended sett of 24-26 ends per inch or 10/2 yarns with a higher recommended sett of 28-30 ends per inch. I have also found that that the thickness of the yarn may vary due to their material. For example, an 8/2 tencel will seem to be thinner than an 8/2 cotton yarn, so if I had wanted to use tencel in my warp, I may have needed to consider using a 5/2 tencel instead. In addition, some yarns only come in a particular thickness, like mercerized (shiny) cotton only seems to come in 10/2 but not 8/2 thickness.

Next, I found that deciding on the threads to use for my warp and weft was a balance of the type of fibre, thickness of threads available, general availability in the colours that I wanted and, of course, cost. There are popular and established yarn sellers, such as WEBS, Lone Star Loom Room, Gist, Lunatic Fringe Yarns, Saltwater Rose Studio that sell reasonably pocket-friendly weaving yarns that come in a range of colours. However, if I wanted something special and decided on hand-dyed yarns, whilst pretty, those will come at an additional cost. Hence, if I went for a thin silk yarn, where I would need more yards of it because the sett is high, and then if I sent it to a dyer, the cost of my yarns will escalate rather quickly.

From my experience, purchasing a hand-dyed warp from a reputable dyer and a readily available weft from one of the reputable yarn sellers is the best way to go for a first woven wrap piece that is unique. One such reputable dyer that I will recommend here is Blazing Shuttles. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, her colours are unique, saturated and beautiful, and I think that it is almost impossible to pick a weft colour that will turn the whole piece into a mud colour. Secondly, she gives suggestions on the sett to use and also has recommended sister warps, which are warps that are dyed in different colourways and will work well when used separately or when blended together. Lastly but not least, she winds the warp threads in a way that gives flexibility in how the threads are dressed onto the loom, as there are enough crosses and choke ties. They are also done in a way that makes the wind on as painless and tangle-free as one can get.

After figuring out how the loom works and what yarns to get, the next step is to then put what I have learnt into practice by weaving up a test piece. The best way to do a test piece is to try it out in a design that you want your actual piece to be woven in, and also in a similar colourway. This allows you to see how the combination of your chosen draft (the design) looks like with the interplay of colours from your warp and weft threads. Another thing to note when choosing the draft for your wrap, is to avoid one that has long floats (i.e. the length that a particular thread goes on without intersecting with another thread). In general, the longer the floats present in the draft, the more pull-prone the resulting wrap will become.

Whilst we are on how the resulting wrap will be like, this seems like a good time to share my thoughts on achieving a particular wrap quality. If you come from a woven wrap user background like me, I’m sure you will have come across terms that are used to describe how the wrap feels like, like grippy, soapy, stretchy, bouncy etc. I’m also sure that you have particular wrap qualities that you like and will want to emulate in the piece that you are weaving. For me, I had a machine woven wrap in a cotton/tussah blend that I really liked and as such tried to achieve that for my first piece. However, that was not very successful. It turns out that the wrap quality of how a handwoven wrap turns out is really difficult to predict. In addition to the fibres used and the composition in which they are used, it also matters whether the fibres are in the warp, weft or both, how they are distributed in the wrap and the source of the fibres. The thickness of the yarns, density that they are set at, the draft chosen and how hard you beat the wefts, all come into play as well.

I think if you have done a lot of customs or semi-customs with various weavers, and can find out all the information from them, you probably will have a good chance at getting a wrap that is as close as what you like as possible. However, most weavers do not really share this information readily (understandably, because it is their bread and butter!), so the best chance you have at success, is to weave a sample piece that you can at least touch and feel.

In summary, starting on weaving your first baby wrap can be daunting, because of the amount of choices and decisions that need to be made. The language, technique and materials used are likely something foreign to most people. However, spending time looking at the vast amount of online resources, joining Facebook resource groups and going for classes do pay off. Sourcing of fibres from reputable sources is important as well. Lastly but not least, making a sample piece will help increase your chances of success.