Yarn Catalog
Overview
The Yarn Catalog is your gateway to thousands of real-world yarns and your personal yarn stash. It lives in a dockable panel on the right side of your workspace and has two tabs:
Yarn Lines — A built-in, read-only catalog of commercial yarns with accurate colors, fiber content, sett recommendations, and more
My Yarns — Your personal collection where you can add, edit, and organize your own yarns, track inventory, and build your stash library
From either tab, you can copy yarns directly into your project palette with a right-click.
The Yarn Catalog icon is on the Yarns menu:
This opens a Dialog Box on the allowing access to the TempoWeave deployed commercial yarn lines "Yarn Lines", including properties and colors, as well as the "My Yarns" that may be created by the weaver for their personal collection that may not be covered in the deployed yarns.
Note the ">" symbols to expland the information. In additon the panel can be expanded by hovering over the left border and dragging to the left:
Opening the Yarn Catalog
Ribbon: Yarns tab > Yarn Catalog button
View tab: Yarn Catalog toggle
The panel opens docked to the right side of your workspace.
Docking and Window Management
The Yarn Catalog panel is fully dockable — you can arrange it however works best for your screen and workflow.
Docking Options
Dock to any side: Drag the panel's title bar and drop it on the left, right, top, or bottom edge of the workspace. Drop targets appear as you drag.
Float: Drag the panel away from any edge to make it a floating window. This is handy if you have a second monitor.
Auto-hide: Click the pin icon in the panel's title bar. The panel collapses to a tab on the edge of the workspace and slides out when you hover over it. Click the pin again to keep it open.
Close: Click the X to close the panel. Reopen it from the Yarns tab or View tab.
Focus Mode
When you enter Focus Mode (F11), the Yarn Catalog automatically hides to give you a distraction-free workspace. It reappears when you exit Focus Mode.
Remembering Your Layout
TempoWeave remembers whether the Yarn Catalog was open or closed, so it restores your preference the next time you launch the application.
The Built-In Catalog (Yarn Lines Tab)
Browsing
The catalog is organized in a three-level tree:
Supplier — The yarn company (e.g., Louet, Valley Yarns, Brassard)
Yarn Line — A specific product line (e.g., Euroflax, 8/2 Cotton)
Color — Individual colorways within that line
Click the expand arrows to drill into suppliers and yarn lines. Each color shows a preview swatch next to its name.
Sorting
Click any column header to sort by that column. Click again to reverse the sort order.
You can also sort colors within a yarn line by right-clicking and choosing Sort Colors:
By Order — The catalog's default sequence
By Hue — Arranges colors around the color wheel (reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples)
By Lightness — Lightest to darkest
By Color Family — Groups similar colors together
Warm to Cool — Warm tones first, cool tones last
Choosing Columns
The catalog shows a default set of columns, but there are over 50 available fields. Right-click anywhere in the tree and choose Choose Columns to customize which information you see. Columns are organized into categories:
Core — Name, color preview, type
Classification — Supplier, SKU, color number, description
Specifications — Weight category, thickness, fiber content, ply, twist
Measurements — Yards per pound, length per mass
Physical Properties — Hand/texture, loft, elasticity, drape, pilling, tensile strength
Performance — Warp performance rating, sett recommendations, recommended applications
Care & Source — Colorfastness, shrinkage, washing, country of origin, tags
Your column choices are saved and restored between sessions.
Expand and Collapse
Right-click and choose Expand All to open every supplier and yarn line at once, or Collapse All to close them all. This is helpful when browsing a large catalog.
My Yarns Tab
My Yarns is your personal yarn library. Unlike the built-in catalog, you have full control — add new yarns, edit any field, track your inventory, and organize however you like.
Adding Yarns
Use the toolbar buttons at the top of the panel or right-click for the context menu:
Add Supplier — Creates a new top-level group (e.g., your favorite local dyer's name)
Add Yarn Line — Creates a product line under the selected supplier
Add Color — Adds a new colorway under the selected yarn line
When you add an item, you'll be prompted for a name. You can then right-click and choose Edit to fill in all the details.
Editing Yarns
Select a yarn and click the Edit button in the toolbar, or right-click and choose Edit. The Yarn Editor opens with four tabs of information you can fill in:
Note - you will need to scroll to access all the fields in the editor dialog.
General Tab
Name and Description
Color — Click the color swatch to open the color picker with RGB, HSV, and HSL controls
Color Number and Dye Lot
Variegation — Set up space-dyed, ombre, heathered, or marled color patterns (see the Variegated Yarn Guide for details)
Tags — Add searchable keywords
Classification — Supplier name, yarn line, SKU
Source — Availability, country of origin, website URL
Photo — Browse to attach a photo of the yarn
Specifications Tab
Weight Category — From Thread/Cobweb through Super Bulky
Yarn Thickness — 1 to 16 scale (affects how threads are drawn in the draft)
Yards per Pound — For calculating yardage needs
Fiber Content — What the yarn is made of (e.g., "100% Merino Wool")
Fiber Prep — Worsted spun, woolen spun, etc.
Ply and Twist — Direction (S or Z) and amount
Performance Tab
Warp Performance — Rate how well this yarn works as warp (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Not Recommended)
Sticky/Hairy — Note if the yarn tends to stick or shed
Recommended Applications — What this yarn is best suited for
Sett Recommendations — Wide, medium, and close sett values (EPI)
Care — Colorfastness ratings, shrinkage potential, washing instructions, finishing techniques
Inventory Tab (My Yarns Only)
Quantity and Unit — How much you have (skeins, balls, cones, pounds, ounces, grams, yards, or meters)
Storage Location — Where you keep it (e.g., "Top shelf, studio closet")
Cost — What you paid
Purchased From and Purchase Date
Notes — Any additional information
Tip: When editing a Yarn Line (not a single color), use the Apply to Colors button to copy specifications like fiber content, weight, and sett recommendations to all colors in that line at once. This saves time when setting up a new yarn line where all colors share the same properties.
Duplicating
Right-click a yarn line and choose Duplicate to create a copy with all its colors. The copy gets "(Copy)" added to its name. This is useful when you want to create a variation of an existing yarn line.
Deleting
Select an item and click the Delete button, or right-click and choose Delete. You can delete at any level — a single color, an entire yarn line, or a whole supplier (which removes everything under it).
Sorting
My Yarns supports the same sorting options as the built-in catalog. Right-click and choose Sort Colors to reorder colors within a yarn line by hue, lightness, color family, or warm-to-cool.
Column Customization
My Yarns has all the same columns as the built-in catalog, plus the Inventory category with quantity, storage location, cost, and purchase fields. Right-click and choose Choose Columns to select which fields to display.
Copying Yarns Between Catalogs
From Catalog to My Yarns
Found a yarn in the built-in catalog that you own? Right-click it and choose Copy to My Yarns. This creates a copy in your personal stash that you can edit — add inventory tracking, notes, your specific dye lot, etc. The original catalog entry stays unchanged.
When you copy a yarn line, all its colors come along. Any photos associated with the yarn are copied to your personal image folder as well.
From Either Tab to Your Project Palette
This is how you get yarns into your weaving draft:
Adding a single color:
Right-click a color in either tab
Choose Copy to Palette
The color is added to the next available slot in your project palette
Adding an entire yarn line:
Right-click a yarn line
Choose Copy to Palette
All colors in the line are added to your palette
Colors already assigned to warp or weft threads are preserved
If the yarn line has more colors than available palette slots, a message tells you how many were added and how many couldn't fit
Your project palette holds up to 125 colors. When you add yarns, the following metadata transfers along with the color:
Color name and yarn line reference
Yarn thickness (affects thread rendering)
Sett recommendations (wide, medium, close)
Variegation profile (if the yarn has one)
Yarn Swatches and Photos
Swatch Types
Each color in the catalog can display as:
Solid — A single flat color
Swatch — A photograph of the actual yarn
User Defined — A custom variegation pattern you've designed (space-dyed, ombre, heathered, or marled)
In the tree view, solid colors show a colored rectangle, swatches show a thumbnail of the photo, and user-defined variegations show a gradient preview. For more information on Variegated Yarns see Variegated Yarn Guide
Adding Photos (My Yarns)
In the Yarn Editor (General tab), click Browse next to the Photo field to attach an image. Supported formats include PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, and WebP. The image is copied into your personal yarn images folder, so the original file can be moved or deleted afterward.
Importing and Exporting My Yarns
Exporting
To back up your personal yarn library or share it with another computer:
Go to the Yarns tab in the ribbon
Click Export My Yarns
Choose a location and filename
Your entire My Yarns collection is saved as an XML file
Importing
To restore a backup or load a yarn library from another computer:
Go to the Yarns tab in the ribbon
Click Import My Yarns
Select the exported XML file
Your current My Yarns collection is replaced with the imported data
Important: Importing replaces your existing My Yarns — it does not merge. If you want to keep your current yarns, export a backup first.
Tips and Workflows
Building a Project Palette from the Catalog
Open the Yarn Catalog and browse to the yarn line you'll be using
Right-click the yarn line and choose Copy to Palette to load all its colors
Now when you assign colors to warp and weft threads, you're working with real yarn colors and accurate thickness values
The sett recommendations transfer too, so Project Info can reference them
Organizing My Yarns
Think of Suppliers as top-level folders. You can organize by:
Actual supplier — "Louet", "Valley Yarns", "Local Dyer"
Purpose — "Scarf Project", "Towel Yarns", "Sample Collection"
Location — "Studio Shelf A", "Storage Bin 2"
There are no rules — organize in whatever way helps you find your yarns.
Tracking Inventory
Use the Inventory tab in the Yarn Editor to track what you have on hand. The Storage Location field is especially useful if you have yarns spread across multiple locations. Add purchase information so you can reorder from the same source.
Working with Variegated Yarns
When you add a variegated yarn to your palette, the variegation pattern transfers automatically. Your drawdown, fabric viewer, and all printed output will show the multi-color effect. See the Variegated Yarn Guide for full details on setting up and customizing variegated yarns.
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