Not All Yarn Is Not Created Equal

As the title suggests, this blog will be about yarn. The weaver's choice of yarn greatly influences the finished tapestry. Before we get to far into talking about yarn, what exactly is tapestry. 
"Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible. n tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous; the artisan interlaces each colored weft back and forth in its own small pattern area. It is a plain weft-faced weave having weft threads of different colors worked over portions of the warp to form the design."[ 1] Wikipedia"
A shorter definition might be: a weft facing woven textile that creates an image from yarn. So the yarn used is pretty darn important. Four natural fibers used in tapestry are wool, linen, cotton and silk. As a beginning weaver, I use wool yarns specifically designed for tapestry weaving. These yarns are not usually found at your local arts and crafts store. Most of those yarns are intended for knitting or crochet and have too much loft (air) in them to be used for tapestry. I did give into the temptation to use some cotton yarn to weave, even after being specifically warned not to by Rebbecca Mezoff in her online course. The result can be seen in the upper right corner above. The poor result really sticks out in comparison to the other pieces woven around the same time using proper tapestry yarn.
Harrisville Designs, located just and hour from Nashua, carries two yarn collections that are meant for tapestry use: Highland and Shetland. My Friendly Loom included the Harrisville Highland yarn, which is used as a single strand for tapestry weaving. They also have Shetland, which requires two strands allowing for color blending.  The piece in the upper left is woven with Highland and the lower left is Shetland. Both of are available in a wide variety of colors.
Gist Yarn, an online yarn shop has their relatively new line of yarn specifically designed for tapestry weaving called Array. Array is a very fine yarn and is intended to be used in bundles of 3-4 strands. It is available in 76 shades allowing for blending and shade variations in tapestry weaving. The piece in the lower right was woven with Array in three strand bundles. Different colors and shades were mixed using the photo below as inspiration.

Each yarn has its' own characteristics in how they behave on the loom and how the finished product feels or its' "hand." I am enjoying getting to know these yarns and switch back and forth for different practice pieces.