Warp Styles
One of the questions I've gotten over and over in regards to design/style for warps is this: what is the difference between dye styles?
Let's get into it! The options for dye styles are as follows: factory dyed, skein dyed, or chain dyed.
Factory dyed is not a method Winnowing Wovens has offered previously, but we have stocked a few factory, or mill, dyed yarns over the years. If this is something you are interested in, it may be a possibility! These colors are generally going to be very even and without variegation. A factory dyed black warp for example would be truly black vs a handdyed black warp, such as The Witching Hour (woven fall 2025) has a lot of subtle color variation throughout. Neither is better or worse -- they're just different styles. Factory dyed yarn is more limited both for colors & fibers.
Left 3 photos above show factory dyed black yarn - woven photos courtesy of Green Grass Handwoven.
Right 3 photos above show The Witching Hour, a hand dyed skein style warp.
Skein dyed warps are offered here at Winnowing Wovens -- the yarn is measured into long skeins, dyed, and THEN measured into the warp. These warps are going to be very consistent the entire length of the project. This style can be very blended or more of a stripe style. Below are examples:
Skein dyed warp with heavy speckles - there are vibrant colors but in small amounts on a natural yarn. Once measured on the loom the colors appear much softer at a glance with vibrant speckles upon a closer look.
Skein dyed warp with blended color gradient left to right - the more saturated skeins compared to the speckled warp above give a more solid color appearance.
Skein dyed warp with more distinct colors, still with some blending
Skein dyed warp with sharp color changes
Chain dyed warps are also offered by Winnowing Wovens! The method for this is the opposite of skein dyed warps -- first, the yarn is measured into the final length of the warp and THEN it is dyed. This allows for color pooling and different color sections throughout the warp.
With standard chain dyed projects it is not possible to guarentee color placement (ie to have more of one color than another, or to guarentee a certain color at the middle marker or tail(s)).
Winnowing Wovens generally dyes all chain dyed warps in approximately 2.5 meter repeats. This allows the colors to repeat fairly consistently throughout the warp, though there is still some variation in options as well!
From left to right: largest color sections / biggest color gradient with repeats to more blended / even colors. Top photos are the warp during dyeing process above woven pieces from the same warp.
It's also possible with chain dyed projects to have a left to right gradient; the Just Dance warp (shown above) has terracotta reds on one rail and darker colors on the other rail with larger sections of colors.
Chain dyed - flat - is another option infrequently offered by Winnowing Wovens. This style almost always requires a full custom and is not available as a semicustom slot. These warps are shorter and require an additional dye fee. This option is excellent for color gradient warps from end to end with dramatic tails as shown below:
