Tips for Weaving with Malabrigo Yarns
In general, the Malabrigo yarns have a lot of color depth and change within each skein. I find that one color as warp and one color as weft creates beautiful fabric. I generally like highly variegated yarns as my warp. The color variations stretch out into long stripes. If you use these as your weft, your stripes will be shorter and less integrated. Speckled yarns work really well for both warp and weft.
If your weft has a lot of variation in the skein, you will avoid abrupt color changes by keeping your weft bobbins in order (or winding just one at a time) and winding and then rewinding your bobbin (wind it off your cone or ball the first time and then wind it from your bobbin onto a second bobbin). This will keep the yarn in the same direction that it is coming off of the skein and avoid bold stripes due to large color changes.
When weaving with any of these yarns, beat gently. There should look like there are spaces between the threads. This will give space for the yarns to settle in to each other when the piece comes off the loom. It will help give your piece a lovely drape and feel.
I have chosen to carry the bases that I feel are most versatile and also best suited for weaving. Color assortments will change over time.
Rios: DK/Worsted weight, fairly stretchy. 100% superwash merino wool. Works well on a rigid heddle or shaft loom with lower tension. Use 8 dent reed. One skein for warp, one skein for weft.
Scarf Math: Make a scarf up to 9” wide (72 ends total). Length of warp up to 8ft which will give you a nice long scarf. 210yds/100g per skein
Dos Tierras: DK weight, 50/50 Uraguay wool/alpaca blend. Super soft and squishy. Works well on a rigid heddle or shaft loom with lower tension. Use 8 dent reed. One skein for warp, one skein for weft.
Scarf Math: Make a scarf up to 9” wide (72 ends total). Length of warp up to 8ft which will give you a nice long scarf. 210yds/100g per skein
Arroyo: Sport weight, fairly stretchy, although not as stretch as Rios. 100% superwash merino wool. Works well on a rigid heddle or shaft loom with lower tension. Use 10 dent reed. One skein for warp, one skein for weft.
Scarf Math: Make a scarf up to 12” wide (120 ends total). Length of warp up to 8ft which will give you a nice long scarf. 335yds per 100g skein
Sock: Fingering weight, fairly stretchy. 100% superwash merino wool. Works well on a rigid heddle or shaft loom with lower tension. Use 12 dent reed. One skein for warp, one skein for weft.
Scarf Math: Make a scarf up to 13” wide (156 ends total). Length of warp up to 8 ft which will give you a nice long scarf. 440yds per 100g skein
Silkpaca: Lace weight. Less stretch than other Malabrigo yarns, but beware of small burrs that cause threads to stick together. While weaving, change sheds before pushing beater back to clean out shed for next weft throw. If a small tuft of yarn gets stuck between two threads while weaving (it will appear that the threads are just stuck together and not lifting properly), pull the tuft off before continuing. This can also happen when beaming the warp.
Sett at 20 epi for plain weave, 24 epi for twill. On a rigid heddle loom, two per slot and dent in a 12 dent reed.