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Choosing a sett from the float

The single number that decides whether your cloth holds its shape is the sett, and the float length is most of what sets it. Here is the reasoning the catalogue's suggested setts come from.

Why the float decides it

A long float has nothing holding it down between its ends, so at a loose sett it shifts under the hand and the cloth goes slippery; at a close sett the same float packs into a firm, lustrous face. Plain weave, which binds every crossing, is the opposite case and wants an open sett or it will not beat in at all. That is why the catalogue gives plain weave 80 ends per 10 cm and five-end satin 140.

A working method

Wrap the yarn around a ruler for 2 cm, touching but not crowded, and count. That wraps-per-centimetre number, halved for plain weave and taken nearly whole for a close twill or satin, is your starting sett. Weave a sample the width of your hand, wet-finish it the way the finished cloth will be treated, and measure again - linen shrinks one way, wool fulls the other. The catalogue number is where that sample starts, not where it ends.

What the program adds

Draft reads the reed plan against the sett and names the dent that is over-filled before you sley it, and the float overlay boxes any float past your limit with the end number so you can see exactly where a close sett is doing the work. Open any structure in the generator to read its longest float straight off the drawdown.