What’s The Difference Between Rug Yarn & Regular Yarn?
Axminster rug yarn samples in our studio
In my last blog for Balfour & Co, I talked about the best warp yarns for rug weaving. The warp is the strong core of your rug, and will determine its overall weight and texture. But the weft also has a crucial role to play. In a flatwoven rug, the weft covers the warp and protects, ensuring that your rug stands the test of time. Using the right weft is therefore just as important as the right warp.
But if you’re new to weaving, choosing the right weft yarn for your rugs can be a challenge. In fact, the number one question I get from beginner rug weavers, whether that’s in my online courses or in-person workshops, is “how do I choose the right yarn?”
And I completely understand where they are coming from - it’s a tricky decision! Yarn shops that stock rug wool are few and far between, and while online shopping is great for lots of things, it’s not the best for buying yarn. Yarn is tactile, you want to run it through your fingers, check the weight, texture and density. All these things are difficult to do over a screen.
Here at Balfour & Co, we’ve done our best to help you guys out. We’ve written blogs on choosing the right rug yarns, made lists of our own recommended rug yarn sellers, and put together a rug yarn collection that we sell on our own online shop.
But in today’s post, I want to dive a bit deeper into what actually sets rug yarn apart from your standard weaving and knitting yarn. I hope this will give you a greater understanding of what rug yarn actually is, and what to look for when you are sourcing it.
High Micron Count
The first thing that sets rug yarn apart from standard knitting yarn is the fleece it is spun from. Rug yarns are spun from fleeces with a high micron count. The micron count measures the diameter of the individual fibres in the fleece, and the higher the micron count, the thicker the fibre.
Softer fleeces like Merino have lower micron counts, and produce yarns that are designed to be worn against the skin. Coarser fleeces like Herdwick, Swaledale or Romney have high micron counts and produce yarns suitable for outerwear, functional items and rugs.
It’s difficult to be sure of the exact fleece used for most mass-produced rug yarns, but they are generally made from New Zealand Romney. If you buy from specialist yarn sellers, they will be able to tell you what fleece the yarn is spun from. There are several helpful charts online which list the micron counts of various fleeces (I use this one) and you can cross-check against these to decide if a yarn is suitable for rug weaving.
Finally, even if you’re not able to establish what fleece the yarn is spun from, you can still tell if it’s good for rug weaving by the texture. Does it feel coarse between your fingers? Does it compress down when you squeeze it? Knitting yarns will often compress into almost nothing when you press them between your finger and thumb, and they will sometimes also pill quite severely with any friction.
A good rug yarn will be rough and solid, able to withstand the wear and tear of daily use. They will not pill when you weave with them, or when lying on the floor. This is what we look for when we source our rug yarns, so you can be sure that any rug yarn sold in our online shop is suitable for rug weaving.
Reinforcement
Another thing that sets rug yarns apart from standard yarns is the reinforcement. Most rug yarn is either 100% New Zealand wool or 80% New Zealand Wool and 20% nylon. The nylon adds an extra layer of protection and durability. It also adds a speckled effect to the yarn, as it does not dye in the same way that the wool does.
If you’re planning to weave a rug in a high-traffic area like a hallway or entrance way, it’s worth using a reinforced yarn. The yarns we sell on our website are all 80/20 yarns, commonly referred to as Axminster rug yarns in the UK. The nylon reinforcement means that our yarns are extremely long-lasting, and are perfect for rug weaving.
You can definitely weave rugs with 100% wool yarn, and many weavers prefer this. Just make sure, as we’ve already seen, that your yarn is made from a hard-wearing and durable fleece.
Yarn Weight
The last, crucial factor that sets a rug yarn apart is the yarn weight. Thinner yarns are great for weaving cloth or detailed tapestry, but for rugs you need a yarn that is thicker. For starters, it makes the process of rug weaving much faster. It also creates a stronger, more durable surface on your rug, as the weft yarn is thicker and will not wear down so quickly.
However, establishing yarn thickness when shopping online can be a real challenge! Different countries use different measuring systems for their yarn - and don’t even get me started on regional measuring systems within the UK. (Anyone who’s ever spent an hour trying to work out the difference between Bradford and Dewsbury count will know what I mean.)
I touched on this in my previous post about ordering rug warps which you can read here, and many of the same principles apply when you are shopping for a rug weft as well. But as a general rule, the best way to choose the right weight of yarn is to cross check against yarn conversion charts like this one and to use WPI. WPI stands for wraps per inch. For a good durable rug you need 8-16 WPI.
The Colour Blend Rug from Rug Weaving On A Mirrix Loom
Most of the rug yarns we sell on our website are 16 WPI. That means that on a standard warp spacing of 4 warps per inch, you should use 3 or 4 strands of our weft yarn to weave with. 4 strands will give you a chunkier, stiffer rug, and 3 strands will create a rug that is smoother and thinner.
Personally, I think a 16WPI rug yarn is ideal. Weaving with multiple strands allows you to combine colours, and create more complex blended effects while weaving. In the image above from my Rug Weaving On A Mirrix Loom online course, you can see how I’ve woven sections of weft across the loom, with a different combination of yarn colours in each one, creating a speckled blend between the shades. This type of technique is only possible if you’re working with multiple strands.
Yarns laid out for our Rug Weaving Workshops
I hope you’ve found this blog post to be a useful starting point in understanding what makes rug yarn different from your standard weaving or knitting yarns. Here at Balfour & Co our goal is to equip you with everything you need to make your own tapestries or rugs - whether that’s yarn, weaving tools, online courses, or a supportive weaving community 💙 So if you have any other questions about our rug yarn, or choosing the right yarn to weave with, let us know in the comments 👇🏻
Finally - for a limited time only you can pre-order our Core Collection rug yarns at a discounted price! Pre-orders close on October 1st, and rug yarns will ship in early October. Click the link below to browse & place your order!