Year: 2021

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July 20, 2021 newsletter Maiwa

Maiwa Fundraiser

Abalone & Ebony Tea Towels & Scarf

Treat yourself to a project that will have you mentally wandering a west coast beach. Something catches your eye; you pick it up, turn it over see the beautiful colours of abalone sparkling up at you hidden inside a clamshell. Look closer and you will see that it’s framed by the ebony black of the outside of the shell. As you know, I love anything that is nicely framed   🙂

We are delighted to once again bring you a beautiful “Pay What You Want” pattern to benefit the Maiwa Foundation and this one, Abalone & Ebony Tea Towels & Scarf has been created by Barbara Mitchell. If there is one thing that Barbara and I have in common it is the urge to just play at our looms to see what will happen. Barbara started off with the plan to “play” with Bronson Spot but, before she even got to the point of winding her warp, she thought … what if I layer it with Log Cabin – and the magic began! She has created a canvas for you, so you can wonder “what if?”

Barbara has generously shared this amazing draft to give us another opportunity to work towards our goal of helping the Maiwa Foundation.  The Foundation is supporting many artisan groups across India who are currently suffering due to the pandemic.  A special group that Jane knows and loves is the Artisan’s Alliance of Jawaja (handweavers and leatherworkers) who are being particularly challenged during COVlD, and we’d really like to continue supporting them during this difficult time.

All proceeds from this pattern will be donated to the Maiwa Foundation.

Buy this pattern & choose how much to pay!

Abalone & Ebony Tea Towels & Scarf Patterning

With this towel each square has 4 quadrants, each different depending on float colour, background colour and direction of Log Cabin.

Lace Unit profile with Colour & Weave effect! This third towel is woven alternating two colours over and over creating that beautiful Abalone effect 🙂

This towel is uniquely layered with Log Cabin squares. Each woven in a different colour and framed with the black and white dividers.

The Bronson Spot Log Cabin Scarf woven exclusively in JST’s hand-dyed 2/20 silks in Ariel’s Voice, Starfish & Lime light.

Buy Abalone & Ebony Pattern Now!

We’ve Put The Kit Together!

This kit is now available on our website to purchase. Your kit will weave 3 towels and 1 scarf when you add a skein of 20/2 silk or, if you prefer to just weave towels, you have enough to weave 5. This is a 4-shaft Bronson Spot pattern with a weaving width of 19.5″.

Each Abalone & Ebony Kit includes:

  • Weaving instructions (including draft) plus:
    • 6 cones of 8/2 cotton, 1 cone each of:  Bleached; Black; Medium Blue; Magenta; Pale Limette and Limette

You will need to purchase 1 skein of silk for the scarf (not included in the kit). The colours used in the scarf were: 

You can choose 1, 2 or all 3 for your scarf 😉

More Pay What You Want Pattern Downloads!

At a price that anyone can afford…you choose how much!

All proceeds of each downloaded Pay What You Want pattern to benefit
the Maiwa Foundation

Check out all the patterns!

Inspiration From a Sari

Mai-what-ta Lovely Towels & Scarf

Tea Towel Time with Jane

Stash Crackle Pop

Shop all the fundraising patterns!

Here to help

You can always find us on the Jane Stafford School of Weaving Forum or

on Weave with Jane Stafford at Ravelry.

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June 29, 2021 newsletter

Fulford Mist Linen & Silk Scarves

Here on Salt Spring Island, we are so lucky to live near both the ocean and the mountains. At Fulford Harbour you can admire the two at once, especially as you approach the island on the ferry. Lovely deep ocean views complemented by misty mountain tops – so West Coast, so subtle and inspiring.

These elegant scarves are made with two colours of our 30/2 silk woven on our 40/2 linen in a timeless 2/2 twill. The combination of crisp linen and shimmering silk is exquisite, and is also a wonderful project for summer weaving and wearing 😉

Level of Difficulty: Advanced Beginner
Weave structure: 2/2 Twill Weave
Material: 30/2 Bombyx Silk & 40/2 linen
Each kit makes: 2 Scarves

Fibonacci and Division of Space

In my Colour and Design workshops, we always look to the world around us to gain our initial source of inspiration. Photographs, gardening, travel, and fashion magazines can provide you with images that make your heart sing. I had a huge stash of magazines for students to thumb through, and once they found the right one we got started on the second step of the design process.

It starts with division of space.

The weaver has a canvas in my mind—perhaps a tea towel, blanket, or a scarf. They have already decided what yarns they want to use, what the EPI/PPI is, and the overall size of the canvas. Then they divide up the space on paper.

You can divide a canvas anyway you want, but I usually start with a division of two and build from there.

In Season 1, Episode 5  of School of Weaving, we put it all together!

I draw vertical lines first that represent the warp and then I play with horizontal division of space which represents the weft. You can add a frame, you can imagine a darker line or zinger. It’s playtime!

Sketching should be fun, fast, quick. Leave your rulers in the drawer; this isn’t about straight lines.

Our guiding light for division of space is the Fibonacci numeric sequence. Basically, it works like this: Start by counting 1, 2.

1, 2

Now add those together. The sum is your next number: 3.

1, 2, 3

Now just keep going: add the last two numbers in the sequence to get the next number.

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21

…until you want to stop. Sounds a bit contrived, but this sequence underlies some of the most stunning designs in nature—including your own DNA, the spiral formed by the hairs on your head, the leaves of a lettuce, the seeds of a sunflower, and the shell of the nautilus snail.

Now that’s magic in design. And we can leverage that magic to help us make decisions in weaving.

Next time I’ll go into more detail about how I use the power of Fibonnaci in my design process. It can be as simple as 1, 2, 3 😉 

Both kits offered in this newsletter are great examples of division of space.  The Fulford Mist Scarf is a perfect example of a division of space in 2 “canvas” to explore.  The Spring & Easter tea towels give you an asymmetrical “canvas” of stripes to which you can add layers of design in the weft and create your own unique cloth.

A Must Watch Video!

Nature by Number

Organic Spring & Easter Stripes Tea Towel Kit

This kit is made entirely of organic cotton. Using organic cotton is a great way to begin supporting yarns that are respectful of the earth and the farmers that grow them. We know it is more expensive, but even if you use regular cotton for your warp and organic cotton for the weft you will still be making an important contribution. Our organic cotton is GOTS certified (Global Organic Textile Standard)

This kit comes in 2 colour ways; Spring Stripes & Easter Stripes

Level of Difficulty: Beginner
Weave structure: Plain Weave
Material: 8/2 Organic Cotton
Each kit makes: 4 Towels

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June 22, 2021 newsletter

New JST Kit!
Sea Foam & Pebbles
Designed from the lessons below

These towels are the result of a friend’s request for a thinner towel, with texture. We often weave towels with Bouclé in the warp and weft. That combination sett at 12 EPI and woven at 12 PPI makes for a lovely drapey, textured towel.

How to make them thinner….hmmm. Okay I’ll change the warp to 8/2 cotton and keep the same EPI/PPI – I’m always up for a challenge! The beat was very light and I watched the negative space in the web more than I watched the actual fell line. I was looking for little squares at the interlacement points and that really helped. After the first few inches, my beat was bang on and these wove up very quickly. Once washed, they fulled beautifully and have given my friend exactly what she wanted. The colours she chose reminded me of pebbles on the beach. It was so much fun to play with colour and repetitive sequencing in the weft. I thought I had made a 13 yard warp but it turns out it was only 10, so I just got 9 towels…but if you make it 13 yards, you’ll get 12! You’ll have plenty of yarn in your Sea Foam & Pebbles kit.

Level of Difficulty: Beginner
Weave structure: Plain Weave
Material: 8/2 cotton & Bouclé cotton

Each kit makes: 12 Towels

Purchase Sea Foam & Pebbles Kit

Jane’s Weaving Architecture:

Step 1 of the Design Process, Part 2

Above are 2 samples woven from the same warp. In Season 2, Episode 2 we learned how to pull the red stripe out of the warp and replace it with a charcoal stripe. Then we learned to resley the warp to a more open sett and then used a heavier weft which created a perfectly balanced piece of cloth.

Today we continue our adventure into the architecture of cloth. As those of you who know me – you’ve seen how excited I get when talking about the endless possibilities of sett. Sett is like a magic wand that you can wave over your design and have the results change with very little work on your part 😉 You can even change your mind after the warp is on your loom.  Hummmm, think you want to open things up – easy peasy – as members of my School of Weaving have learned. The possibilities that sett brings to your cloth are endless. You’ll find a link below that will give you the setts that I use after years of weaving with the yarns we carry in the studio. But first – just look at the possibilities with just 8/2 cotton!

For most of my weaving career I have used many of the same yarns over and over again and I have learned that there is not just one sett for any one yarn, even if the structure never changes. For instance, consider the number of setts possible for a 8/2 cotton:

For our visual learners, these photos of finished pieces should give you a better idea of the many possibilities for handwoven cloth:

8/2 cotton warp and weft sett at 22 EPI /22 PPI woven in Twill as in our Garabaldi Flats 4 shaft version Tea Towel Kit

8/2 cotton sett at 12 EPI woven with boucle cotton at 12 PPI woven in PW delightfully illustrated in our new kit Sea Foam & Pebbles

Jane’s Fave Tea Towel Kit woven with an 8/2 warp and weft sett at 18 EPI /18 PPI woven in PW

8/2 warp and 20/2 silk weft sett at 18 EPI/18 PPI woven in Twill was the finale piece from Primaries & Secondaries Episode Kit….crazy huh!

8/2 warp and 20/2 silk weft sett at 16 EPI/16PPI woven in PW as in our Plaid Lesson Kit finale piece

8/4 cotton warp and 7 gauge bambu weft sett at 36 EPI for Repp Weave and then resleyed and opened up to 12 EPI/ 12 PPI in Plain Weave….two dramatically different fabrics from one yarn and one warp. I demonstrate this piece in the Warp Faced Episode.

Two things of note….

  1. We can only weave the open setts if we have great technique and know how to control our beater.
  2. As our sett increases there will come a point when we will no longer be able to weave the cloth balanced, no matter how hard we beat, because the fabric is heading towards warp-predominance. That’s not a bad thing, and under some circumstances might be just what you’re looking for.

At 40 EPI, 8/2 cotton will be totally warp-faced. So, if you want to use this yarn to weave Repp….you got it, baby! One yarn, many different setts and many different types of fabric. How cool is that! So many possibilities hidden in one yarn and it is knowing how to use your reed that makes it all possible.

I sample in plain weave then twill and finally explore supplementary weft structures.

From this testing, I develop what I call my “canvases”—and once I have those canvases I get to add graphic and colour, which I’ll get into in greater detail on the next blog post.

As promised, here’s the link to Jane’s Master Sett Chart – this is just my experience, try changing your sett and keep notes on your results on your own Master Sett Chart. Next time, we’ll delve into design and division of space as we start to see the world through Fibonacci’s eyes 😉

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Weaving Architecture: Step 1 of the Design Process: Part 2

Our featured scarf was woven with 8/2 cotton & 20/2 Bombyx Silk
from Season 2 Episode 6 – Designing Plaids
which eventually branched out and moved into stripes 🙂

Hey Kids,

In our last newsletter I told you a bit about an experience that changed my life and sent me running down many paths of exploration. Each path has provided me with the skills of testing, comparison, observation and have given me a lot self confidence around decisions I make. Many of these paths have also enhanced my sense of humour. I’ve had many opportunities to laugh at myself and my choices but now I realize nothing is the end of world,…..it is all a joyful journey, missteps and all. You could say that a mistake isn’t a mistake…it is a success in a different direction:)

Sending you all tons of love,
Jane

Weaving Architecture: Step 1 of the Design Process: Part 2

The experience of spending 3 weeks weaving samples formed the basis of my design process. I break this process down into three main components, which I identify as Architecture, Graphic, and Colour. In today’s post, I’ll start with Architecture. When I think about the architecture of a piece of cloth, I liken it to the architecture of a building.

  • Buildings have good foundations; cloth has hemstitching or a straight header upon which to build.
  • Buildings have studs; cloth has warp threads.
  • Buildings have floors; cloth has weft threads.
  • Buildings have a strong beam structure for exterior walls; cloth has a selvedge.

I build a piece of cloth the way I imagine a carpenter builds a house. And I feel that the most important decision that I make—the very first decision I have to make, right at the outset—is what my ends per inch (epi) are going to be. Ninety percent of what I weave is balanced cloth, because I generally make simple items—scarves, stoles, towels, blankies—things that we can wrap ourselves in. Highly functional and useful. Now, all of these items need to have optimal drape. And what I know is that a 50/50 piece of cloth will have the best drape possible, because it will have perfect bias. (For any newbies out there, a 50/50 cloth has the same number of ends per inch and picks per inch.)

Next time we’ll dig into the magic of sett and how knowing the right sett you need, to get the cloth you want, will change your weaving life forever. For our visual learners, we’ll have photos of finished pieces which will give you a better idea of the many possibilities for your handwoven cloth.

Sea Foam & Pebbles New Tea Towel Kit!

These towels are the result of a friend’s request for a thinner towel with texture. We often weave towels with Bouclé in the warp and weft and that combination sett at 12 EPI and woven at 12 PPI makes for a lovely drapey, textured towel.  Bouclé is such a treat to use in your kitchen or bathroom – nothing can beat it for practical use when you want softness and absorbency.

How to make them thinner….hmmm. Okay I’ll change the warp to 8/2 cotton and keep the same EPI/PPI – I’m always up for a challenge. The beat was very light and I watched the negative space in the web more than I watched the actual fell line. I was looking for little squares at the interlacement points and that really helped. After the first few inches, my beat was bang on and these wove up very quickly.

Once washed, they fulled beautifully and have given my friend exactly what she wanted. The colours she chose reminded me of pebbles on the beach. It was so much fun to play with colour and repetitive sequencing in the weft. I thought I had made a 13 yard warp but it turns out it was only 10, so I just got 9 towels…but if you make it 13 yards, you’ll get 12! You’ll have plenty of yarn in your kit.

Buy Sea Foam & Pebbles Kit

Sea Foam & Pebbles Kit
C$114.00

Bouclé Cotton

An amazing selection of 50 colours to choose from when you dream of creating your own soft and absorbent towels

Shop our selection

Here to help!

You can always find us on the Jane Stafford School of Weaving Forum or on Weave with Jane Stafford at Ravelry.

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Weaving Architecture: Step One of the Design Process

Hi kids, I thought I would share a bit of my journey with you. It’s my story of how I learned and adopted design elements that enabled me to become a professional weaver and teacher. Each week we’ll go down a different path, starting pretty much at the beginning. Some of you may have read this series before – but it doesn’t hurt to revisit the basics of design, opening doors and giving you an aha moment. So – away we go down memory lane 😉

Part 1 into Weaving Architecture:

I’ve started every Colour and Design Workshop off by explaining to my students that there are hundreds of different ways to tackle the subject of design. Every designer has their own particular way of working, of organizing thoughts, and of bringing ideas to fruition.

All I can do, as a designer and a teacher, is to share my own system. It isn’t necessarily better than any other system. But it works for me, and it seems to provide my students with a good strong solid foundation around the process of designing.

I didn’t always work this way, early on there was a lot of hit and miss. But gradually, I paid attention to things that worked, I analyzed why they work, and I developed my system. I’m still refining it, and hopefully, I will be able to work on it until the day I die. I want to weave forever. I will never ever tire of making beautiful simple cloth.

We all have pivotal moments in our lives, and one such pivotal moment for me was having the opportunity to be the Teaching Assistant for Jack Lenor Larson at the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1984. Jack and Randall Darwall taught a course called “The Consummate Cloth.”

It turned out to be three weeks of doing nothing but studying sett and finishing our cloth. We wove everything mostly in white yarn and in 2 structures: plain weave and four-shaft twill. We sampled. And sampled. And sampled. And sampled. And over a three-week period, the 12 students attending created hundreds of samples striving for our teachers’ vision of “the consummate cloth.” Their criteria were simple⎼the end product had to have all of exceptional drape, hand, and bias. 

Next time I will share with you what I took away from that amazing experience – other than my commitment to sample, sample, sample 😉

Ocean Bouclé Towel Kit

You asked for it – we listened 😉

We’ve been asked for more design options in our Bouclé towel kits. The pattern that comes with all the Bouclé Towel Kits is just your jumping off point to create your own design. Each kit weaves 9 tea towels on a 4 shaft loom using a 12 dent reed. Weaving width requirement is 22″ wide.

Below you’ll find a more detailed approach to one version I did using the Ocean Kit … I have provided the exact warping sequence and treadling sequence I used in this set of towels. More to come in future newsletters.
There are 262 warp threads in each Bouclé Towel Kit…you can use this graphic with any of the kits.  Play with the colours in the kit 😀 All towels were woven 30” ish in plain weave. Some a little shorter, some a little longer. 

Warp Colour Sequence:
6 Royal
60 Pale Limette
4 Royal
38 Alternating Turquoise/Limette 
4 Royal
38 Alternating Limette/Turquoise
4 Royal
38 Alternating Turquoise/Limette
4 Royal
60 Peacock
6 Royal

2” Peacock (includes hem)
4 picks Royal
4 picks Peacock, alternating with 4 picks Pale Limette for the entire towel
I started each colour on opposite sides and let them scallop up the selvedge.
4 picks Royal 2” Peacock (includes hem)

2” Limette (includes hem)
3” Peacock
5” 3 picks Limette/1 pick Peacock
1” Peacock
2” 3 picks Limette/1 pick Peacock
1” Limette
1” Peacock
16” Pale Limette (includes hem)

4” Peacock (includes hem)
4 picks Royal
3” Turquoise
4 picks Royal
3” Alternating Turquoise/Limette
4 picks Royal
3” Limette
5 picks Royal
3” Alternating Turquoise/Limette
4 picks Royal
3” Turquoise
4 picks Royal
5” Pale Limette
4 picks Royal
4” Peacock (includes hem)

2” Royal (includes hem)
2” Peacock
4 picks Royal
20” Turquoise
5 picks  Royal
5” Limette
2” Royal (includes hem)

JST Cotton Boucle Tea Towel Kit
Colourways

Country Renaissance

Delphinium

Not Enough Green for Grant

Granny Pam’s Inspiration

Ocean

The Charlotte Special

Here to help

You can always find us on the School of Weaving Forum or on 
Weave with Jane Stafford at Ravelry

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May 2021 Update on Maiwa Foundation

& New Pay What you Want Tea Towel Pattern called “Inspiration from a Sari”

Maiwa Foundation logo

As the news spreads of the disastrous toll that Covid is having on India – we know that Maiwa needs our support even more. Please read this brief update by Charllotte Kwon – the founder of Maiwa.
Jane

The majority of the artisans that we work with have been able to live in their small village communities, following COVID-19 safe practices, and at the moment, they are well and are able to continue working at their particular craft. 

However, one of the groups has required crisis assistance – that is Jawaja, the leatherworkers and weavers.  All the money raised from Jane Stafford Textiles has been used to support this entire village.  The commercial branch of Maiwa, is finally in the position to donate $10,000 to the Maiwa Foundation.  

In Canada, when the pandemic first started, the Canadian government offered something called the “Canada Emergency Response Benefit” or CERB as we all call it. The Maiwa Foundation has been able to offer its own form of CERB to Jawaja – with a huge thanks to Jane and her weavers.  With lockdowns and restricted international travel, this group (The Artisans Alliance of Jawaja) could not sell their goods through their normal channels in India – via craft fairs, where their work is sold through craft alliances and in airport boutiques.  Maiwa has been unable to find ways to sell their work at the same rate we did before COVID-19.  The Maiwa Foundation stepped in and, for the first time in our history, provided funding for basic living expenses to an entire group of artisans.  We are actively looking for ways to turn this situation around and are hopefully optimistic that it can be done, but it will take more time.   We need to do what we can to help them keep this “CERB” funding in place for at least one more year. 

In addition, Maiwa has just started to fund the Jiwaja group and all the artisans we work with by paying for their two vaccine doses.  We realized that they were waiting for the free vaccines but because of caste, religion or status, they have not yet been made available to them. The Maiwa Foundation Vaccine Program is just starting but is being hugely appreciated.  

Inspiration From a Sari

The warp colours for the Inspiration From a Sari warp come straight out of the muted colour gamp from my Colour and Design workshop. When I presented that project to the Online Guild, I wove the bright saturated colours from a sample called Parrot on top. That took me straight to India where I had noticed that muted warps with brilliant wefts were extremely successful, and if you threw in peacock you get iridescence. The first towels on this warp follow the concept of weaving a gamp, working the colours across the warp from one side to the other. After the first 3 towels were done, I broke out those Parrot colours and that is when I really started to have fun. They are my favourites, bright happy and intended to make you smile.

The colours of India will inspire my weaving forever and I hope they inspire you too 🙂

All proceeds from this pattern will be donated to the Maiwa Foundation to support their work with artisans of Jiwaja in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purchase the pattern here!

You can also purchase the Inspiration From a Sari Kit with the pattern draft and all the yarn you need to weave 12 towels!

Buy the Tea Towel Kit here!

More From Our
Maiwa Fundraiser

All proceeds from the Pay What You Want patterns will be donated directly to the Maiwa Foundation.

I also want to take a minute to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all the support you have already given.  JST was able to send another $10,000.00 to the Maiwa Foundation in April from the continued sales of these patterns and in particular our last pattern so generously designed and donated by Sharon Broadley. 
Please feel free to share this post with anyone you think might be interested in helping our dear artisan friends.  xoxo Jane  

Mai-what-ta Lovely Towels & Scarf

Tea Towel Time With Jane

Stash Crackle Pop!

Take me to the patterns!
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February 2021 Newsletter – Maiwa Fundraiser

Mai-wha-ta Lovely Towel

Maiwa Fundraiser for the Artisan Alliance of Jawaja

Pay What You Want Pattern Download

Hey….remember that marvellous Stash Crackle Pop pattern from Sharon Broadley…..well…..we’ve got another one 🙂 Sharon is an ardent weaver, lover and supporter of Maiwa, and that girl can take any towel warp and turn it into a luxurious shawl with a mere change of sett and weft yarn. We are so thrilled to present the Mai-Wha-ta Lovely Towel Pattern. And…..you can thank her daughter Lee for the name.


“I began very literally. I typed “helpmaiwa” into the Name Draft tool in Fiberworks and then played around with various options until I came up with a design I liked. Wanting to mimic the intricate Jacquard head borders on traditional Indian textiles, I threaded the design into 3 areas and left the remainder of the warp in plainweave. The colours come from the saturated colour palette that reminds me of India.” Sharon Broadley  

This pattern is written for 8 towels and 1 shawl. The 8 towels are woven at 20 EPI and then, after the towels have been woven, the warp is cut and re-sleyed at 16 EPI for the plain weave and 24 EPI for the twill, making the twill section more warp predominant.  The pattern could have been woven on 6 shafts but Sharon used 8 so she didn’t run out of heddles on her first 2 shafts…..that’s thinking ahead 🙂 The plain weave sections are threaded on 1-4 and the twill section is on 5-8.


So…..imagine a mostly plain weave towel with 3 bands of twill running vertically from top to bottom. The entire warp is made of 8/2 cotton. 


In this project we have 2 different weave structures threaded side by side. The plain weave section will have greater take-up in the warp than the twill sections. There is an interlacement between every single warp thread in the plain weave areas while, in the twill areas, the interlacement is between every 2 threads. This causes tension differences between the 2 areas. The twill section may feel loose or grow in length a little bit due to the take-up differential. If you raise shafts 5 to 8 with your hand you will be able to separate the twill sections of your warp. Standing at the back of the loom insert a 1/4” rod or dowel under those raised warp threads and then slide it down to the bottom of your warp beam – see the picture below. This is a simple way of dealing with tension differentials in warps. You may need to add additional weight to the rod if you find the twill sections becoming too long. Add your weights to both ends of your rod.


You will also notice that as the cloth winds onto the cloth beam, there is a differential in the buildup. Don’t worry about it.

Yarns & Colours Used for the Warp:
1 cone each of 8/2 cotton in Purple, Royal, Fuchsia, Cherry, & Turmeric

Towel Wefts:
All warp colours were used plus Orange, Apricot & Pale Limette. Remember…this is a great stash busting pattern as you only need approximately 3 full bobbins to weave a towel.

Shawl Weft:
One skein of JST Hand-dyed 20/2 Silk, some suggested colours are Coral Flame, Shameless, Starfish, Buddha Berry, Dragon Fruit or any colour that grabs your heart and reminds you of India.

So there you have it….another amazing pattern…..more great learning…..and a giant huge THANK YOU to Sharon. Ya gotta love it…..”helpmaiwa”

Jane

You can follow Sharon on Instagram @colour.woven

Take me to the Pattern Download
Take me to the Pattern Downloads

Recently I was on Soufilled Sisterhood Podcast with host Nicole Burguess speaking about my favourite topic weaving! No, her podcast is not a weaving or fiber arts podcast, but I shared with her listeners how I got interested in weaving, giving myself permission to play more with my weaving, and my goal of reaching more people with my teaching. This inspired Nicole to incorporate some of those mindsets and beliefs into her business. So whether you are a creator, entrepreneur, lover of yarn, or curious about my path in textiles click here to listen and read the show notes.

Season 5 Kits are Back in Stock!


We’ve restocked our shelves with Season 5 Kits all ready for your looms!

Episode 2 airing February 25th – Canvas Weave

Episode 3 – Huck

Episode 4 – Huck Colour & Weave

Episode 5 – Swedish Lace

Episode 1 is live! – Tunred Twill

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January 2021 Newsletter

Picnic Basket Tea Towels

Lovely Linen Towels

I know it’s only January – but it’s never too early to think about a picnic – so, here is a new kit celebrating Venne’s GOTS certified Linen and Cottolin. 8 glorious towels can be woven on this warp. All you need is a 4 shaft loom with a weaving width of 21″. Twill and basketweave are combined in the threading to offer a multitude of treadling opportunities. 4 towels are woven with a linen weft and 4 towels have a cottolin weft.

Rustic Elegance Tea Towel Kit is back in stock!

C$109.00
We’re so happy to have Rustic Elegance back in stock…..another fabulous towel celebrating Venne’s GOTS certified linen. 

Rustic Elegance gives you 4 stunning towels exploring Colour and Weave on Huck Weft floats and a simple 2 stripe design. All you need is a 4 shaft loom 23″ weaving width. It’s time to weave some modern elegant heirlooms! 

JST Online Guild Season 5 Kits

We’ve been busy kitting up yarns for the start of Season 5’s JST Online Guild presentations and have plenty of kits for 5 episodes …. well, only a few for Episode 3 but there is a huge shipment of cones on the way. 

Season 5 Episode 1 – Turned Twill

Season 5 Episode 2
Canvas Weave

Season 5 Episode 3
Huck Weave

Season 5 Episode 4
Huck Colour & Weave

Season 5 Episode 5
Swedish Lace

Surprise! Partial Cones Available 🙂

Do you want to add a dash of colour to your next warp?
A splash of something that adds a zinger to your scarf, tea towel or blanket?

The Studio is overflowing with partial cones left over from winding down from big cones. So.….we are offering surprise bags of partial cones at a steal of a price! Each bag is guaranteed to have a certain amount of yarn depending on the type of fibre. The bags will have a palate of different colours in them with no guarantees on what you will get, so.…have fun being surprised!

200g of 18/2 Merino
(3-6 cones of surprise colours)
C$40.00

150g of 18/2 Zephyr
(3-6 cones of surprise colours)
C$50.00

200g of 40/2 Linen
(3-6 cones of surprise colours)
C$30.00

200g of Bambu 12
(3-6 cones of surprise colours)
C$28.00

200g of Bambu 7
(3-6 cones of surprise colours)
C$28.00

150g of brushed mohair
(2-5 cones of surprise colours)
C$36.00

Here to help

You can always find us on the Jane Stafford Online Guild Forum or on Weave with Jane Stafford at Ravelry.

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Maiwa Foundation

Maiwa Foundation logo

An Update on Maiwa

To all our Wonderful Maiwa Supporters

I have a report for you :). Please read to the bottom because there’s a letter from India addressed to all of you ‘many Mam weaver mams’.

And, because this need is ongoing we have relaunched the ‘pay what you want’ towel patterns on our website. Stash Crackle Pop & Tea Towel Time with Jane are back. Just look for that Maiwa Foundation square on the shop drop menu. I’ll be adding new patterns this year so there will be more ways to participate. 

It is so important that you know how much you’ve helped. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. 
Love and stay safe,

Jane

Message from Charllotte Kwon
The Maiwa Foundation

To Jane and her wonderful community of weavers – a huge thank you for your incredibly generous donation.  The story of Jawaja is a long one .  .  . and now you are all part of that story.  

The whole process of making this donation from Jane and her community through the Maiwa Foundation during these extraordinary times has been amazing for us – not to mention coming with it’s own learning curve.   

We realized by September, that because all the artisans had been effected by covid we needed to be very transparent with whatever money we donated since the issues were not isolated issues of – for example – earthquake, or drought, or flood etc.  All artisans had issues and it was important that we let all those that we work with know about what money was available for donation.  

I decided to put together a small team to help wth the decision making – that comprised of a mentor of mine Ashoke Chatterjee (retired head of National Institute of Design and President of Craft Council of India) along with 4 artisans who head up groups we work with – from various areas in India.  

This took some time and what was surprising to us all was that the artisans who had ongoing orders from Maiwa told us that they did not think it was right for them to take any of the money.  They were fine as long as there were ongoing orders.  They explained that most, if not all, of their local work had stopped but if they had Maiwa work they were fine.    

So we then had to look at areas where Maiwa would not place large enough orders to various artisans for them to have income throughout the year – going forward.  I had always known that the artisans would be alright for the first 8-10 months but that their local work would end once the Indian economy felt the impact of no tourism, very little exports and an unemployed middle class.   

Maiwa has done well online with most products.  But two areas are slow – leatherwork and woven carpets.  Normally our orders would be fine because they are augmented by our annual India Tour (that is cancelled for February 2021). Jawaja sell three months worth of leather bags and carpets in that single day we visit.  Jawaja does sell at craft fairs in India – which are all cancelled now.   

Things slipped south for Jawaja Leatherworkers and Weavers quite quickly in early December  – they are 25 artisan families (a total of about 250 people as these are joint families) and they had run out of money to live.  There is no safety net in India – particularly for remote villages and low caste – both of which these artisans are.  We made the decision to send $16,000 to them and we have reserved $9000 as we continue to see what groups may be falling through the cracks.  

I, personally, am deeply grateful to all of you .  .  .    

Charllotte Kwon

Director – The Maiwa Foundation  

This is the letter we received today from Babulalji – who is the treasurer of the co-operative:

Respected Mam and Mam Jane mam,

Namskar, 

Thankyou for give work for and help us. At this time our artisan face very bad situation due to Kovid-19. No Work  No income so our artisan require work for income.  We need help for 25 artisan family for maintenance and feeding. Thank you of heart for 8 lakh.  We receive this from Maheshbhai today.  This save us at this time for no money for so long.  We are happy and we thank Mam Jane and many Mam weaver mams

We have deposit for next order.   No supplies is possible now.  

We hope we see you soon.  Are you come to Jawaja? 

Thanks & Regards. 

Babulal

Jawaja Leather & Weaver Alliance

Pay What You Want

Pattern Download

Tea Towel Time With Jane

These towels are a fantastic opportunity to explore some of the ways you can layer graphic and different weave structures onto the same warp. 

These colourful towels were woven during the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year. Over the course of 3 weeks these towels were woven live on Facebook and during that time a fun, creative, caring community was formed.

TAKE ME TO THE PATTERNS!

Stash Crackle Pop!

The “Stash, Crackle, Pop!” pattern is a great stash buster … you gain a lesson on Crackle Weave and … end up with some pretty eye-popping towels!
This ‘pay what you want’ pattern was designed by our darling Sharon Broadley, who contributes so much to JST and can be found on Instagram as @colour.woven 🙂

TAKE ME TO THE PATTERNS!