First off, I am a HUGE fan —and user of alpaca. I love it so much that it is usually my first choice of fiber for obvious reason. It’s hard to surpass the soft factor. However, in using the 16/2 for the deflected double weave, I am starting to hate it. It keeps fraying, and after repairing my floating selvages multiple times, I finally installed new ones in cotton. Is anyone else having this problem? In the future, I will only use this yarn in weft. It’s even fraying and breaking at the edges that were not floating occasionally. It’s just not worth the pain to repair the warp every six inches or so. It makes me sad, because I love this yarn in all other ways.
Hi Deb,
I'm sorry you are having problems. All I can say it that I have now woven 8 scarves with this yarn in the Deflected Doubleweave and haven't had any problems. May I suggest you increase the angle on your weft so you aren't drawing in as much. You could also add a little sizing to the selvedges. I used to have problems with fine wool until I got that angle correct and now it never happens....but back then I would mix a little flour with water and make a paste that I smeared on the selvedge threads. It really strengthens them and washes out in the wet finishing. Hope this helps.
Thanks, Jane. I do have a pretty steep angle which is making it so the edges go up slightly because the weft is catching on the warp threads at the selvage. I have had to repair several threads other than the selvage. I like your idea of adding sizing. I often use a clear, washable glue on broken threads--I learned that with the peacock bouclé that kept fraying and snapping. Oddly, most of these issues seem to be on the right hand side of the warp. Before a changed the floating threads to cotton, the right side broke 5 times and then finally the left side broke, too. That was when I decided to change it. As mentioned earlier, alpaca is my favorite yarn, and I do love this particular yarn, but I may only use it in weft from now on.
Thanks again for your input, Jane! 🥰