It is said, that the difficulty of sizing handspun yarn is a serious
handicap from which the movement suffers. As a matter of fact, the
method of sizing it should be no different from that of sizing mill-made
yarn. It is slipshod spinning which is at the bottom of this difficulty.
The best way out of it is to organise and improve the production of
handspun yarn. It is superstition to say that the yarn spun on the
_charkha_ cannot be strong and even. Where proper care is taken, it does
improve and even surpass mill-made yarn in some respects. Punjab and
Marwad, where spinning has been carried on from past times, have also to
improve their yarn. Not that the spinners there do not know their work,
but they as well as the merchants who purchase their yarn are careless
about the quality of the yarn turned out. Unless this work is taken up
by men imbued with the true Swadeshi spirit, the condition is not likely
to improve. The spinners should be visited at their work from time to
time, and proper instructions as to the required twist and test to be
given to the yarn should be imparted to them. The payment of a
reasonably higher wage than the present is another way of improving the
yarn. The wages we have arranged for our guidance are given below in the
form of a table. Where living is cheaper than in Gujarat, they can be
adjusted accordingly. The yarn having improved, the difficulty of sizing
will disappear.
When a country weaver shows inability to weave hand-spun yarn, it means
that he cannot weave it in the same reed space as he uses for the
mill-made yarn. This is quite evident. The hand-spun yarn not being
even, it requires wider reed space. The table given below also shows the
number of ends of different counts to be drawn in an inch of a reed.
Then if the cloth to be woven is meant for shirting or coating and not
for _dhotiyan_ or _sadi_, and if the yarn has a good test, two to four
ends can be added to the number denoted in the table.
Column headings:
C: Count.
T: Approximate twist per inch.
R: Rounds on 4 feet hank frame.
+---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+
| | | | | | Number of | Number of | Rates of |
| | | Wage | | | ends in an | double | weaving per |
| C | Test.| per | T | R | inch of | ends in an | square yard. |
| | | pound. | | | reed. | inch. | Rs. A. P. |
+---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+
| 6 | Warp | 0 4 0 | 10 | 96 | 24 to 28 | 18 to 22 | 0 4 0 |
| | | | | | | | |
| 6 | Weft | 0 3 0 | 8 | " | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | | | |
| 9 | Warp | 0 6 0 | 12 | 144 | 26 to 32 | 20 to 24 | 0 4 6 |
| | | | | | | | |
| 9 | Weft | 0 4 6 | 10 | " | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | | | |
|12 | Warp | 0 10 0 | 14 | 192 | 30 to 34 | 22 to 26 | 0 5 0 |
| | | | | | | | |
|12 | Weft | 0 8 0 | 12 | " | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | | | |
|16 | Warp | 0 12 0 | 16 | 256 | 34 to 38 | 24 to 28 | 0 5 6 |
| | | | | | | | |
|16 | Weft | 0 10 0 | 13 | " | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | | | |
|20 | Warp | 1 0 0 | 18 | 320 | 40 to 44 | 28 to 32 | 0 6 0 |
| | | | | | | | |
|20 | Weft | 0 13 0 | 15 | " | ... | ... | ... |
+---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+
If the yarn is very weak and uneven, it should be woven with two ends in
warp as well as in weft. This will give a strong texture to the cloth,
making the process of weaving easy at the same time. The proportion in
this case of ends to be drawn in an inch of the reed space is also given
in the above table. If this course is adopted, heaps of handspun yarn
that have accumulated all over the country can be woven out without much
difficulty.
As a fact, the method of sizing traditionally followed by the weavers
cannot be improved upon. Their selection of the sizing material is
appropriate to the climate, season and circumstances. For the most part
they use the staple corn. Jawari and maize being the cheapest are used
in many parts. In the rainy season, however, they use wheat flour as a
stronger sizing material to counteract the over-softening influence of
the moisture present in the air. In the Madras Presidency, a cereal
called _ragi_ with a yellowish flour is used for coarse counts, while
rice is used for finer counts. Rice and wheat are the best ingredients
for sizing. The proportion used is from 10 per cent required for fine
yarn to 20 per cent for coarse yarn.