Knitting With Silk

The table at right is for setts that produce a 50/50 or balanced fabric using the same weight warp yarn as weft. Setts should vary according to use of finer or heavier weights used in the weft. For instance, sett the 8/2 at 40 EPI for warp-faced fabric using 30/2 as weft, beat in at approximately 20 PPI.

Calculating How Much Yarn Is Needed

Once you have decided on a project and what yarn you want to use, look at the sett chart to get an idea of the sett.

The arithmetic for figuring a project is simple: WIDTH x EPI x LENGTH

Example:

2 scarves — 8" wide x 72" long, using 20/2 silk in twill weave.

8" x 28 EPI = 224 warp end

Scarf length:

72"+ 72" = 144" = 4yd + 1/2yd loom waste.

Each of the 224 warp ends must be 4.5yd long

224 x 4.5yd = 1008yd

This is what is required for the warp only. The weft requires only slightly less yarn. Two skeins of 20/2 will weave two scarves.