Determining a mixed sett

When combining a variety of yarns in a warp, the appropriate sett to use depends on how exactly they’re combined. In a mixed warp where all the warp yarns are used in equal proportions and evenly distributed across the width, a good starting sett is the average of the appropriate setts for each individual yarn.

Therefore, the first step is to determine an appropriate sett for each yarn on its own as described back in Chapters 2 and 4. If you’re using the M&W Twill from the sample project, that’s the twill sett. If you’ve decided to weave a different structure, use an appropriate sett for your chosen structure instead.

Pitfall: don’t forget the suggestions from Deciding on a Sett back in Chapter 2 when coming up with a starting sett for each individual yarn!

Once you have an appropriate sett for each individual yarn, the next step is to find their average. Below, you’ll find a handy calculator for doing just that. Enter the sett for each of your warp yarns in the first box and you’ll see the average of them all in the second.

For example, if you’re winding four yarns together and have decided that the appropriate setts for each are 10, 12, 10, and 16, those numbers go into the first field, and the second will tell you that 12 is their average.

Finally, if you’re aiming for a balanced fabric (with the same number of weft picks per inch as warp ends per inch), the average warp sett can be adjusted further according to the typical picks per inch (PPI) of your chosen weft yarn. Determine an appropriate sett for it as well and enter that value into the third field. The fourth will show you the average between the average warp sett and the weft “sett”.

For example, if your warp combines the four yarns from the example above and the appropriate sett for your weft yarn is 20, put 10, 12, 10, and 16 into the first field and 20 into the third field. The fourth field will tell you that 16 is the average of the average warp sett (from field 2) and your specified weft sett.

Note that this is not the same as averaging all the setts together! Simply averaging together 10, 12, 10, 16, and 20 gives a result of 13, not 16.