Month: April 2022

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April 26, 2022 newsletter

Discontinued Silk Colours…

get them while they last!

Well, we’re doing our own spring cleaning 😉 We’re changing up the colour range in our hand-dyed silks. In order to add some fabulous new colours, we need to say goodbye to others. If you have fallen in love with any of the following colours – stock up now before they disappear.

20/2 Bombyx Pistachio
C$54.00
30/2 Bombyx Pistachio
C$54.00
20/2 Bombyx Persephone’s Pip
C$54.00
30/2 Bombyx Demin
C$54.00
30/2 Bombyx Gold Rush
C$54.00
30/2 Bombyx Green Tea C$54.00

Asymmetry

One of the great things about the School of Weaving is that we have students working on every sample, all of the time. New students are working on Season 2, others are midway on their journey and many, who’ve been with me since the beginning, are working on Season 6. I love seeing everyone’s work….on the forum, Ravelry, Pinterest and Facebook. The Asymmetry sample was the first sample of Season 2 from way back when 🙂 …the first sample where I introduce graphic and repetitive sequences. I love seeing it woven in new colours or changed in some way that reflects the weaver’s aesthetic…this makes me so happy. I’m inspired by this simple idea to this day. xox Jane

From our Inbox

So…..I sent out a little request to members asking them to send in their photos of asymmetry. We’ve picked a few of them to share with you, and maybe inspire you to look at this sample again. Thank you to everyone who sent us a picture 🙂 Some of them aren’t featured here but will be featured in another newsletter.

Pat Olsen’s samples following the PDF for the lesson and breaking out with new colours on her last one.

Lee Scott’s napkins, woven using 8/2 cotton at 18 epi/ppi.

In addition to weaving towels with the Asymmetry draft, Jennifer Bogut wove this beautiful scarf.

Gabi Tomas used Venne’s Organic 8/2 cotton along with some Bouclé cotton to weave her samples from the episode.

Lynn Pitet pushed the asymmetry idea to a new place and wove towels in twill using our Falling Leaves Tea Towel Kit and adding Fuchsia and Pale Limette.

Joey Barnes used a hemstitch on two of the pieces and then made napkins with the rest. She replaced the red zinger with green.

Lise added texture to her pattern via the tie-up and treadling and was inspired by Easter colours.

Mary’s beautiful sequin top! Who says any of this has to be a towel? Take it where you want to 🙂!

The Asymmetry sample was the first of the lesson projects out of the gate! There was a great deal of excitement and discussion as we finally got down to putting a project on our looms! If you want to see and read what was happening in 2018 as we got down our first challenge – it’s all on the original Forum – which you can find here… Asymmetry at the Loom. And, we have gone through our Forums, emails and Ravelry to find some examples of how this simple graphic can create wonderful woven cloth.
Tara’s chose Spring crocus colours to be Easter treats tea towels for her family. She increased the white thread count to weave a good size towel.

Maria-Theresia wove 4 towels using cottolin and had fun playing with the weft.

Lise Marleau Nesbitt used alpaca yarn she had on hand for the Asymmetry project and wove these three pieces. The cowl was woven with a cotton Bouclé.

David Schulz decided to put his newfound knowledge to use and design a warp inspired by Jane’s sample for this project. He used Fibonacci numbers to work out the thickness of each stripe.

Amy opened up her 8/2 cotton warp sett to 12 EPI and wove it with wool.

 Michelle wove something completely different and created a Ruana by cutting up the middle of the fabric to the halfway point and then stitching it up.

Anita wove her 3rd ever warp with our Asymmetry sample back when the episode was first released!

Jean wove one of her samples using repetition of 3rds.

Jennifer wove a blanket after a friend of hers saw her asymmetry samples. She used purple as her zinger and wove it in Twill instead of Plain Weave.

How about Mohair! Woven by roellien sett at 12 ppi.

Sharon using completely different colours as well.

Gabriele used blues & greens for her towels.

Jean took her inspiration from a trip to Galapagos. She concentrated on the designs she was creating.

Sue made a second Asymmetry warp and used different colours & fibre. She opened her sett to 16 epi and used 8/2 cotton for the warp and bouclé for the weft.

And Clare, who we featured in our September 2019 Weaver Spotlight with her beautiful shawl.

This little idea went on a great walkabout….so much fun. If you would like to contribute to posts like this one, please send us your photos.

We love celebrating everyone’s work!

If you are a subscriber to School of Weaving and want to learn more about asymmetry and design, watch Season 2 Colour & Design episode 1, an introduction to Colour & Design and episode 2, Asymmetry and Division of Space.

We offer FREE shipping on all Louet looms within Continental North America. We also offer the option to pay a $1000.00 CAD deposit on your loom with the balance due when the loom ships out to you. This gives you the flexibility to make smaller payments towards your balance, at your convenience.

Here to help

Have a weaving question? Find us on the Jane Stafford School of Weaving Forum and

on Weave with Jane Stafford at Ravelry

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April 19, 2022 newsletter

Maiwa Foundation

New “Pay What you Want” Tea Towel Pattern

Just Monk’ing Around

Most of you know how passionate I am about supporting the Maiwa Foundation in any way I can. You’ve helped me raise money for the Foundation as they work hard to help some incredibly skilled textile artisans in India. I asked Charllotte Kwon (the founder and fearless leader) of Maiwa for an update that we could share with you…and this is what she wrote.

“We are still supporting the Jiwaja weavers. Maiwa has finally been able to place a large order with the leatherworkers that will keep them working from February to December 2022. Like everywhere, the supply and delivery infrastructure in India (and therefore for Jawaja) is slow but they are innovative and things are getting done – just a bit slower. There are very few craft fairs opening up and retailers in India are not yet placing orders as tourists have yet to return. But that is slowly happening, however – the tourist season is mainly over now until September. 

Maiwa has not yet placed an order for the handwoven carpets but we are working on that and should be able to place one by July. In the meantime we continue to support monthly. The entire village and the Jawaja cooperative are incredibly grateful for the assistance the Maiwa Foundation has been able to give – and 90% of that has come from your fundraisers. We all truly believe, that had we not stood up immediately, the craftspeople of Jawaja would have really suffered.  

The Maiwa team will (finally) be returning to India in September of this year – for two months – and we will have several meetings at Jawaja. We will visit all the artisans in India who we work with. It will be good to be able to sit, in person together, and hear all the stories and see the situation first hand.”

We are adding a new “Pay What you Want” tea towel pattern to our list of Maiwa Fundraising towels. Our Dream Team member – Arlene Kohut took one of this year’s featured structures – Monk’s Belt – and created a new, fun, set of tea towels for you to play with, Just Monk’ing Around! The Maiwa Foundation receives 100% of the money raised on these PDF downloadable pattern sales. Please…help me, help them!

Purchase the downloadable pattern here!

Monk’ing Around Kits Available!

You can also purchase Just Monk’ing Around in kit form including the pattern and all the yarn you need. You have 3 colourways to choose from!

Surf’s Up Towels

Kiwi Towels

Berry Bowl Towels

Monk’ing Around Tea Towel Kit available here!

More ‘Pay What You Want’ From Our Maiwa Fundraiser

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

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. In 2021, JST was able to give over $20,000.00 to the Maiwa Foundation. This was all raised by the continuous sale of these patterns and, in particular, the weavers on my Dream Team who so generously designed and donated their patterns to help the Maiwa Foundation.

Thank you so much…..Sharon Broadley, Barbara Mitchell and Arlene Kohut.

Please feel free to share this post with anyone you think might be interested in helping us to raise funds for Maiwa in 2022, let’s see if we can beat what we raised in 2021 🙂

xoxo Jane

All proceeds from the “Pay What You Want” PDF downloadable patterns will be donated directly to

the Maiwa Foundation.

Check out all the patterns here!

Abalone and Ebony

Inspiration From a Sari

Mai-what-ta Lovely Towels & Scarf

Tea Towel Time With Jane

Stash Crackle Pop!

Take me to the patterns!

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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April 12, 2022 newsletter

Twill & Grace

New Placemat Kit in Stock!

You’ll have fun playing with this gorgeous idea. It is a threading from one my workshop gamps in Season 4 of the School of Weaving. One threading and oodles of options for treadling. Rebecca Logan wove these up for me and had a blast playing with options. You can have 8 or possibly 10 placemats depending on your loom loss allotment. Some folks use more than others 🙂

We can make this kit in any colour you’d like. Take a peek at our 8/4 cotton page to see the colour range and check availability. While you are in the cotton section of our yarn list – also choose the 8/2 colour you want for your cotton hems (it should match your main warp colour). Then, simply put the Twill & Grace Kit into your cart, go to the note section of the checkout screen and let us know what colours you have chosen for your version of this fabulous kit.

Shop Twill & Grace Kit!

Back in Stock

Traditional 11 inch Brass Scissors

Scissors don’t come much meatier than these 11″ bad boys. They have quality hand-forged brass handles which provide the perfect grip and are ideal for efficiently cutting through your handwoven cloth as it comes off the loom or on the cutting table. These heavyweight blades give you excellent control as you cut your cloth. Hand-forged in India.

Shop Scissors

Ask Jane

Do you need a floating selvedge?

From the JST Knowledge Base Files

In answer to a question raised on the JST Online Guild Forum ……..

I hope I didn’t actually say….”avoid floating selvedges”. I personally don’t like floating selvedges because they slow me down so I only use them when I have to. Sometimes we do need them in our lives to keep our selvedges on the straight and narrow…haha! SO I probably wasn’t thinking about all the different weave structures that need selvedge treatment when I blurted that out. I think the point I was trying to make was that you absolutely don’t need a floating selvedge on Plain Weave and there were some beginner weavers in my life who were doing that. I want to encourage all new weavers to develop control over their selvedges and, if we can ace this on Plain Weave, we are well set for further adventures. So Plain Weave doesn’t need it, but Twills on 4 shafts do. Other weave structures that pop into my mind are Basket Weave and Canvas Weave where you have 2 picks in the same shed. Sometimes we start a Plain Weave project and we decide to throw in a little bit of twill for a border or something like that….then you will need a floating selvedge, especially if you are reversing your Twill directions a lot. In this case, I just cut off my first and last heddle and I have an instant floating selvedge. I weight those ends with an S hook and whatever thingme I have hanging around that I have 2 of…., so they are equal on both sides.

Some 4 shaft weave structures allow us to thread vertical Plain Weave sections into our warp….like the lace weaves. With those, we don’t need a floating selvedge if we’ve got Plain Weave threaded at the selvedge. Even pure M’s & O’s can have Plain Weave threaded into the warp which really cleans up the scallops on that structure.

Supplementary weft structures like Monk’s Belt, Overshot, Crackle and Summer and Winter have alternating picks of Plain Weave between each pattern pick. But, with those, I do use a floating selvedge just because you could then have longer pattern floats at the selvedge and the floating selvedge helps clean the edge up.

I think the best way to look at this topic is simply this….. there are a million different weave structures out there and they all have different requirements in regards to many things. We can’t treat the selvedge the same way with every weave structure. Sometimes you need em, sometimes you don’t. . Hope this helps. Jane
If you are a subscriber to School of Weaving and want to learn more about floating selvedges watch Season 4 – Twill on 4. You’ll also learn about Twill & Simple Two Stripe, Small Threadings, Point Twill, Large Threadings, Colour & Weave Meets Twill, Twill & Basket Weave, Shadow Weave AND Weft Faced Twills which includes 7 gamps to weave for your own weaving library!
We offer FREE shipping on all Louet looms within Continental North America. We also offer the option to pay a $1000.00 CAD deposit on your loom with the balance due when the loom ships out to you. This gives you the flexibility to make smaller payments towards your balance, at your convenience.

Here to help

Have a weaving question? Find us on the Jane Stafford School of Weaving Forum and on
Weave with Jane Stafford at Ravelry.
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April 5, 2022 newsletter

A Few Turned Twill Kits

Turned Twill and its 8 shaft tie-up variations are so much fun to weave! So, I thought it might be the perfect structure to immerse ourselves in during the last messy days of spring! The sun has been out in our world and the cherry blossoms are opening in pink clouds over our heads. However, on our coast, we know that rain is always on the horizon and that the perfect spot to avoid getting wet, is at our looms 😉

Kiki’s Bambu 8-Shaft Scarves Kit

A number of years ago, my friend Christel Knoth (and talented Salt Spring Island weaver) – aka Kiki – wove these scarves which then became a favourite project among our weavers! We decided it was time to “dust it off” and share it with you. For a quick fix of Turned Twill – we have the scarves available in a kit waiting for you.

Shop Kiki’s Bambu Kit

Garibaldi Flats 8 Shaft Turned Twill

Are you looking for a more practical project for exploring Turned Twill? These tea towels provide endless possibilities when playing with your treadling. The draft includes the simplest tie-up for Turned Twill but also includes an alternate tie-up should you want to change things up. There are just so darn many things that can be done with this weave structure!

Shop Garibaldi Flats 8 shaft kit

For Our 4 Shaft Friends…

Garibaldi Flats on 4 Shafts

Garibaldi Flats is inspired by the greys and white seen on the mountains in Garibaldi Provincial Park in our home province of British Columbia.

Weaving these simple twill towels can be quite a bit of fun if you play with the graphics in the overall pattern. Get out your notebook and pencil crayons and draw your stripes on the paper – then, have some fun coming up with ideas of how to create a different look for each towel. You can weave 8 unique canvases (tea towels) using the kit!

Shop Garibaldi Flats 4 shaft kit

From Our Inbox

Hanneke van Gorcum, from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, was inspired by Season 6: Episode 2 – 8 Shaft Twill Blocks and Tie-up Quadrants. Not only was she excited by the possibilities of this amazing structure but also by the Show and Tell.  Henneke was so inspired by Sharon Broadley’s scarves that she rushed off to design a table runner for Easter. Henneke thoughtfully sent us photos of this fabulous runner along with her thanks to Sharon and Jane for inspiring her!

Jane Stafford School of Weaving
Watch anywhere, anytime

website  iPhone   Apple TV   Android   Android TV  Fire TV  Roku ®

New episode was released last week, Monk’s Belt.
Watch our little trailer!

We offer FREE shipping on all Louet looms within Continental North America. We also offer the option to pay a $1000.00 CAD deposit on your loom with the balance due when the loom ships out to you. This gives you the flexibility to make smaller payments towards your balance, at your convenience.

Here to help

Have a weaving question? Find us on the Jane Stafford School of Weaving Forum and

on Weave with Jane Stafford at Ravelry.