People were making worsteds as early as 12th century. The name "worsteds" comes from the name of the village in England, where this craft first appeared, that is in Worstead. The same name "worsted" is used for both yarn and fabric, so it is necessary to differer the process of making worsteds yarn and the process of making worsteds fabric. The main material that is used in making worsteds is wool (the most widely spread is sheep wool, of course). All wool fibers are twisted very well, so as to form hard but very smooth (that is because in worsted yarn all the fibers lie parallel to each other) worsted yarn. And that yarn, in its turn, can be used in the production of clothing or for weaving rugs and carpets. And as long as wool is pretty easy to color, dyeing of worsted yarn is possible. In fact, it is so simple that you can perform dyeing at home. And that way you will be able to obtain just the very colors that are needed for your design idea. With pretty simple technique you can even try gilling. There is no denying that the quality of home made yarn would not be as good as the quality of yarn produced on special machines (modern technique of making worsteds yarn on industrial scale is pretty complex.



The principle styles of making worsteds cloths are coatings and trouserings, delaines,voiles, merinos, cashmeres,lastings, crep-de-chines,lustres of various types (plain abd figured), alpacas, etc. Many of these are made entirely of worsted yarns, but others are compound so far as material or yarn is concerned. Thus amazons are made from mule-spun worsted warp and woollen weft. Lustres are made from fine hard spun cotton warp and English or mohair weft, and so on. The spinning of worsted yarns is usually effected on the frame, with gilling taking place, and the yarn is spun into a compact, smooth and level thread, which, when woven into cloth, is not necessarily milled or felted. At all points, however, wollen and worsted yarns overlap each other, some woolens being made from short staple wool, carded as well as combed. Worsted yarn is largely spun om the mule frame, while milling or felting is a process done in all degrees-woolen being sometimes not at all milled, while to some worsteds a certain milled finish is given. For worsted yarns the fibers are treated, as in the case of all other textile materials, by process designed to bring them into a smooth parallel relationship to each other. Working with worsted yarn is very popular, so you will easily find a lot of information on that subject. There is no doubt that Internet is probably the best place to look at. There is just enormous number of different web sites dedicated to yarn knitting and yarn weaving. There you can talk with other people who love working with worsted yarn. These web pages will also provide you with basic steps in yarn weaving, for example, as well as with detailed description of pretty complex techniques. So, it does not matter whether you are just a beginner or have been working with worsted yarn for a very long time, you will find a lot of useful information there. Looking through works of other people which are usually placed on such web sites you can get new ideas for your own things. And you can also download ready made patterns for carpets and fabrics from yarn. Such patterns are offered by different visitors of these web sites. This means that you do not need to be that good at design because with the downloadable yarn patterns you can make very beautiful and colorful things.