Introduction - How long does it take to weave a scarf
I am often asked this question which I am sure it is a question which other weavers are familiar with, whether it be a scarf, tea towel, shawl or piece of fabric. It is not an easy question to answer because there are many stages to weaving and calculating how long it has taken to hand weave a scarf. This blog attempts to shed some light on this question.
What factors affect how long weaving a scarf takes?
There are many factors which affect the weaving time. Perhaps the most crucial factor is the yarn thickness. The type of yarn used affects the sett of the fabric and the number of warp and weft threads that are needed. So, for example, if you are weaving with a double knit thickness yarn you would weave this at a sett of approximately 10 ends per inch in both the warp and weft. So, if you wished to make a 30cm wide scarf you would need approximately 170 warp threads which allows for shrinkage. That is 170 warp threads to measure and then thread individually through the heddles and then reed. Mostly I weave with fine 2/17nm lambswool and I weave this at a sett of 15epi. A project I undertook weaving with very fine wool and silk threads was woven at a sett of 40epi which took significantly longer in the setting up of the loom- you can read about this project here.
The length of the warp has an impact on the time to weave each scarf
The throwing of the shuttle is actually one of the later steps in the weaving process. Designing a scarf, measuring the warp, warping the loom, threading the heddles individually for each warp thread and then threading the reed takes a large amount of the time. This can take over a day of time and sometimes as much as several days if the weave is either wide or using fine yarns. I tend to weave small collections of each design/colourway often setting up a warp of around 10m. From this length I am usually able to weave three scarves and a couple of snoods. This being the case, the setting up time is then spread across each of these handwoven accessories. If I choose to weave another 10m weave, perhaps with a different colourway but using the same heddle threading pattern then sometimes I will tie a new warp onto an old warp. This does negate the need to rethread the heddles but it is also time consuming to tie each new thread onto each individual thread of the previous warp.
How long does it take to weave this scarf - a time study
In an attempt to try and be more helpful when people ask me the time question I have undertaken a time in motion study on a weaving project. The project was a simple twill design so nothing too complicated which did reduce weaving time. Combined with this, rather unusually nothing much went wrong. No time was therefore used sorting out issues! Rather than re-thread the heddles I was able to tie the 10.5m warp of 2/17nm lambswool of 300 threads onto a previous warp. I suspect an additional 2 hours would have been taken had I needed to rethread the heddles.
The final washed fabric measured 9.5m and took a total of 19.5 hours to get to a point where the fabric could be cut into scarves or fabric to make cushions or other items. (This 19.5 hours being made up of 2 hours to measure the warp chains, 5 hours to tie and wind the warp onto the back beam, 11.5 hours to weave and 1 hour to wash and finish the fabric). So, a scarf of a 1.8m length on this occasion has taken me 3.7 hours to make without a tea break. Next up is to do the same thing with a different weave, a window pane double weave takes longer but I wonder how much longer?
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