How to Make a Yarn Butterfly for Weaving
When you are tapestry weaving or working on a narrow warp such as a belt, a yarn butterfly can be a preferred way to carry the weft, instead of on a shuttle. On a tapestry, it can hang loosely in front while you work on other parts of the tapestry because it's so light. You can use a yarn butterfly any time you don't need to carry weft yarn across a wide expanse of warp. In effect, it's a very small, center-pull ball.
Instructions
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Cut about 3 yards of yarn. Put one cut end between your two middle fingers on one hand, so that the tail end is in back and the rest of the yarn in front of your hand. Take the yarn with your other hand and wrap it around the back of your thumb.
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Take the yarn across your palm and over to your little finger, in a figure-eight motion. The yarn should go behind your little finger, and back to your thumb, crossing the first course of yarn to form an eight. Continue wrapping the yarn from thumb to little finger in a figure-eight motion until you have wound almost all the yarn into this butterfly-shaped package.
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Take the remaining 6 inches or so of yarn and wrap it around the center of the eight several times. Catch the beginning of the yarn, or the tail that is coming out from between your two middle fingers on your palm. When you have wrapped the bundle securely in the middle, tuck the tail under one loop of the wrapping loops. Slide the butterfly off your fingers.
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Pull the initial tail end of the yarn -- the end that was between your two middle fingers -- out a little bit. Insert this end of weft into the shed on your weaving. When you pull on the butterfly at its center, the yarn feeds out from the butterfly without tangling.
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Tips & Warnings
You can make a lot of butterflies at once and store them in a basket next to your loom, or you can make them as you go, as needed.
References
- YouTube: How to Wind a Butterfly of Yarn
- The Weaving, Spinning, and Dyeing Book; Rachel Brown
- Photo Credit Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
