Yarn-aholics Anonymous Meeting Minutes

I opened the closet today to look at some linen that I've been saving for a formal napkin project. It's a lovely shade of green in a 40/2 line linen. A balanced plain weave sett for this yarn is 36 e.p.i.. There is 8.8 oz on a tube measuring a total of 3,300 yards per tube. At a very generous warp for 12 22" square napkins with 6" between each napkin and a whopping 72" of loom waste, I will need approximately 8,844 yards of warp. That's a bit less than 3 tubes. I'll shorthand the weft yarn needed to an equal amount (though it will be less than that). So, 6 tubes will weave 12 22" square napkins. (5.36 tubes, really, for that shorthand)

I have 17 tubes of this linen.

17. Seventeen.

That's enough to weave a napkin set for a dinner party, individual placemats, and probably a tablecloth.

There is no way that I'm weaving that much linen. I bore easily, and the thought of spending the next three years weaving linen napkins chills me. I had enough trouble weaving the cotton napkins for the WGGB 50th anniversary party. There's an iconic photo of me bent over my loom weaving the umpteenth napkin looking pretty unhappy that the warp still had quite a bit to run.

Even if I up the sett to a twill weave, I'd only consume about a tube more. Owning this much linen is insane.

And yet, I have that much linen and an entire tub of linen of other varieties in my reserve stock. I don't even like weaving linen very much. It's a fussy yarn to handle.