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June 28, 2022 newsletter

Season 3 Kits

Pushing the Boundaries of PW

Season 3 gave us the freedom to create amazing cloth by using different ways of exploring Plain Weave. When I travelled through India with Maiwa, I was amazed at the beautiful cloth that the weavers created using “simple” Plain Weave and lots of colour! A number of the PW structures we explored in Season 3 were inspired by the magic of India. So many of you loved weaving these “samples” and we thought that now you have more School of Weaving under your belts, you might enjoy weaving them again – the easy way – using a kit! Need some help weaving this fabulous kits? Take advantage of the 7-day FREE trial featured below, then you can watch and learn more about the kits you have chosen to weave.


Denting

C$54.00

In this first sample from Season 3 we are using our reed to create a wonderful lacy looking fabric in Plain Weave. In the video I use 16/2 cotton for the weft and in the final piece I used 30/2 silk, which may be purchased separately.

Things we learn:

  • to weave with finer threads
  • dented fabrics need to have a firm sett… they are not woven on an open sett. Our reed and our beat create the open space
  • we open our minds to adapting our weaving technique, i.e. – throwing two picks to create resistance, then tap, tap, tap
  • we learn to control our beater
  • how to really visualize negative space
  • how to bring gradation work over from Colour and Design and overlay it onto a new idea
  • that we can mix cotton and silk.

Denting Kit includes one cone each of Black, Charcoal, Dark Grey and Light Grey in 16/2 cotton. 


Cramming and Denting

C$90.00

This sample is all about using multiple setts in one piece of cloth. We learn how to adapt our sleying and beating to create beautiful fabrics and we do it all inLinen 🙂

Things we learn:

  • linen is awesome
  • we use our reed to create all the patterning in the cloth by having different sleyings
  • we learn to identify negative space
  • we are in charge of our beater and we have to beat each section appropriately based on what we want
  • we can mix silk and linen.

Cramming and Denting Kit includes one cone each of spruce, olive, green tea and teal 40/2 linen.


Log Cabin

C$53.90

Oh my goodness, I love Log Cabin sooooooooo much. Log Cabin can be inserted into any existing graphic that you have. Imagine if we took some of the samples from last season, like Parrot for instance and we overlaid Log Cabin on top of that graphic. Or…what if we built Log Cabin into our Plaid graphic. Or…what if we brought those repetitive sequences that we learned in the Colour & Weave Gamp and overlaid them on top of our Log Cabin……what if, what if, what if…..those 2 little words have driven my study of simple patterning for decades.

Things we learn:

  • inserting Log Cabin into any existing graphic
  • thinking of plain weave in terms of block weaves
  • making Log Cabin 3 D
  • making it symmetrical
  • making it symmetrical and adding a frame
  • the importance of odd-numbered end stripes (i.e. 3, 5, 7…)
  • tucking our tails at the colour change and splicing those tails so they don’t show.

Each Log Cabin Kit contains two cones of white 8/4 cotton, one cone each of charcoal and cherry.


Weft Faced

C$6.00 – C$11.00

It is so good to weave this sample after the last sample because we bring over those colour and weave effects from Log Cabin and pour them into Weft Faced Plain Weave. They are definitely connected. We do branch out into Twill and other tie-ups and we master the ideas around weaving on opposites.

Things we learn:

  • how your sett controls your weft coverage, not necessarily your beater
  • colour is controlled by weaving on opposites
  • weaving with one shuttle and two shuttles
  • we bring sequencing from Colour & Weave into the game
  • floating selvedges are beneficial
  • 14 possible tie-ups on 4 shafts
  • division of space still rocks it all.

Weft Faced Kit includes one cone of 12/4 linen and however many skeins of Quebecoise you order to play with. Two skeins will make approximately four hot pads.


Warp Faced

C$80.35

This time around we’re going to have a peek at warp-faced fabrics. We’re going to sett our warp threads so closely together that the weft will be nothing more than a burrowing worm searching for a selvedge to pop out at. 🙂 We will learn how to obtain different colour effects and how sett controls the success of warp-faced fabrics. We’ll adapt our shuttle throwing technique yet again to get fabulous selvedges with the greatest of ease. And, we’ll learn how to hemstitch on honking dense warps without losing our minds.

Things we will learn:

  • how to obtain different colour effects
  • how sett controls success of warp faced
  • how to get nice selvedges easy peasy
  • how to weave Repp using thick and thin
  • how to bring repetitive sequences into our thick and thin
  • how to hemstitch on honking dense warps 🙂

Warp Faced Kit includes one cone each of 8/4 black, white, pale limette, peacock. One cone black mop cotton (you will also need a bobbin of 8/2 black but I’m hoping you’ll have some in your stash).


Simple Collapse Weave

C$173.00

In this episode, we learn how to use active yarns (shrinkers) and inactive yarns (not so shrinky) to create highly textured fabric. This time our perfectly wonderful Plain Weave is woven at a ridiculously open sett in 30/2 silk and 18/2 merino. We continue to push our technique to another level….learning how to control that crazy open sett and stabilize the fabric during the fulling process. If you loved Denting, and Cramming & Denting, I’m pretty sure you’re going to love this one too. I know I sure do.

Things we learn:

  • how to use shrinkable yarns and non-shrinkable yarns (active and inactive) to create three-dimensional fabric
  • how to weave with a very open sett and control it
  • how to manage the distortion that will occur in the weaving
  • how to full and finish your silk and merino scarves
  • how to deal with your hemstitching.

Simple Collapse Weave Kit includes 2 -100g skeins of 30/2 Bombyx Silk & 4 – 50g hanks of 18/2 merino wool.


Simple Supplementary Warp

C$111.00

In this episode we’re going to add a little pizzazz to our Plain Weave warps by adding supplementary warp threads right into the warp when we make it. I always think of supplementary warps threads as simply extra threads that come down from the sky and sit on our warps. They aren’t an inherent or necessary part of the Plain Weave fabric…they are just extra threads that can be woven into the ground cloth, float on top of the ground cloth, or underneath it, depending on what YOU want them to do. They are fabulous for enhancing our graphic with extra lines and texture and, they do not have to live on a separate beam, honestly truly! 🙂 

Things we learn:

  • how to add supplementary warp threads to a Plain Weave warp
  • how to warp those extra threads in with the base warp
  • that you don’t always need a supplementary warp beam
  • how to manage the tension on the supplementary warp with a simple rod
  • how to manipulate those supplementary warps threads via the tie-up.

Simple Supplementary Warp Kit includes one cone each of 16/2 cotton in Fuchshia, Purple, Raspberry, Cayenne and 1 skein of 20/2 silk in Lime Light.


Supplementary Warp & Weft

C$78.50 – C$95.75

Dr. Seuss could have written a children’s book about it….Oh the places you’ll go!

Our pasta this time around is a very fine Bambu yarn and the sauce is 18/2 Merino with two colour options to choose from. The supplementary warp threads are interspersed within our ground warp in 5 stripes. As always you’ll be given a gazillion things to play with and explore. In the end we have the option of taking this fabric to the sink to give it a heavy fulling and create yet another layer…this time collapsing it.

Things we learn:

  • how to overlay the idea of Collapse Weave on supplementary warps
  • how to thread supplementary warps a new way
  • how to weave with fine bambu at a very open sett
  • how to introduce the idea of supplementary weft
  • how to create 2 completely different sides on a 4 shaft fabric.

Supplementary Warp and Weft Kit includes: two cones of 12 gauge bambu in carob and one skein each of 18/2 merino in claret, copper and raspberry OR two cones of 12 gauge bambu in carob and one skein each of 18/2 merino in sage and teal.


School of Weaving
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Don’t be shy – share your creative designs with us 🙂

We’d love to see how you’ve taken what you’ve learned through the School of Weaving using JST Kits and/or our yarns and made it your own. Send us your photos, including the story behind your cloth. Click here to share your information, photos and adventure with us. With your permission, you might see your work featured in a future newsletter!


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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June 21, 2022 newsletter

Season 2 – Colour & Design Kits

Have you always been tempted to do (or redo) the Colour & Design projects from way back in Season 2? There is something magical about the simplicity and versatility of creating cloth using these basic tools. Once you’ve had a chance to “play” with them – so many “what if” ideas will pop into your head 😉

Each kit comes with a weaving draft so you can follow along while you watch the videos of me playing with so many colour and design elements. Each kit includes enough yarn for a 6 yard warp which becomes your personal canvas to experiment and play on. You will learn how to weave towels on these warps – and on some – magically see that by opening up your sett, you can also weave a scarf or shawl on the same warp. You can even incorporate some of your own stash yarns for your weft. The possibilities are endless.

excerpt from Season 2 on SoW:

Season 2 lays the foundations of Colour and Design for your journey into weaving. We learn about colour theory, graphic, division of space and the architecture of design. All are presented in a way that allows weavers to bring their ideas to reality.

This entire year we will be working with 7 warps that all start at 18 EPI but I change the sett throughout, so it is important that we talk about sett even further to lay our foundation. I provide all the technical information you need to do this on your own looms.


Asymmetry

Asymmetry will give you a great foundation. We start out at 18 EPI and 18 PPI and as you will see in the videos, I change it up once we get some of the basics covered. 

And the things we will learn

  • How beautiful asymmetrical graphics are.
  • Fibonacci used as an incremental unit of 10 ends – movement of weight across a Canvas… dark to light. 
  • Graduating colours.
  • The power of a zinger.
  • Training your eye to see square.
  • How to change out a colour in the warp.
  • How to change our sett in relationship to changing our weft.

Asymmetry Kit includes one cone each of Black, Dark Grey, Light Grey, Bleached & Red in 8/2 cotton.


Colour & Weave

Gamps are great for getting a lot of information out of one warp. Colour & Weave is pure magic. How can all these little sequences of dark and light net us so many remarkable little patterns. The patterns themselves are remarkable but the sequencing is very important, it is the source of so much of the “play” in all of my work.

Things we will learn

  • Practice making a warp with different numbers of warp ends in the seven different sequences.
  • How putting in coloured divider threads help us keep each section clean and easy to read.
  • How crazy beautiful these pattern are 🙂
  • How to read a gamp.

Colour and Weave Kit includes 3 cones of Navy, 3 cones of Natural & 1 cone of Apricot in 8/2 cotton.


Fibonacci with Gradation AKA Parrot

The inspiration for Sample #3 was a parrot. It honestly had all these colours in it, it was just breathtaking. All my early inspiration comes from some external source and eventually morphs into something that has my fingerprint on it.

Things we will learn

  • Using Fibonacci in yet another way. I have taken the numbers; 2, 3, 5, 8 and 13 and added a zero to each one e.i 2>20,3>30,5>50,8>80, and 13 > 130. The graphic grows systematically.
  • The power of a line.
  • The idea of same/same. You have two ways to make your warp with the same colours – you get to pick – either way is equally beautiful.
  • Colour gradation plus another element with strong contrast.
  • Clasped weft technique.

Fibonacci with Gradation AKA Parrot Kit includes 1 cone each of Apricot, Pale Orange, Hot Pink, Fuchsia & Peacock in 8/2 cotton.


Plaid

We are weaving this simple pattern made up of 2 different sized squares with a striping sequence in a very traditional layout. When you watch episode 6 you will start out playing in a very traditional way with the squares and the stripes, but by the time we finish you won’t even recognize this warp. You won’t be thinking traditional tartan or plaid.

Things we will learn

  • Yet another way to use Fibonacci.
  • Working with complementary colours.
  • Challenging our ideas around value.
  • Creating more complex colour by mixing values… One in the warp, one in the weft.

Plaid Kit includes 1 cone each of Olive, Gold, Purple & 2 cones of Red in 8/2 cotton.


All About Stripes

The stripe has an ancient history but hasn’t always been loved. For much of history the stripe was used to label one as an outcast of some sort, a leper, a prisoner or a prostitute to name just a few. Stripe had to wait for modern times to be seen as loveable.

Things we will learn

  • That big division of space come first, even with stripes.
  • How to create repetitive sequencing with narrow and wide stripes.
  • How to work with colours of very close value and still see graphic.
  • How to use up your stash.
  • Learn the power of a zinger, even a thread or two.

All About Stripes Kit includes 1 cone each of Butter, Nile, Pale Limette & 2 cones of Lemon in 8/2 cotton.


Muted Colour Gamp

This is the first of two colour gamps in this workshop. Don’t let the word “muted” fool you, we take this warp and bring brilliance to the muted warp colours by overlaying all those bright colours from the other samples you have woven so far. You will have so much fun doing this.

Things we will learn

  • Arranging muted version of the primary and secondary colour wheel in gradation from light to dark, laying them all on a natural background.
  • Weaving the colours solid on solid and alternating on alternating.
  • Bring the loud members of the family to the party to brighten things up.
  • Working with textured weft yarns.

Muted Colour Gamp Kit includes 1 cone each of Forest, Natural, Navy, Raspberry, Gold, Purple & Cayenne in 8/2 cotton.


Primaries and Secondaries

This gamp we work with primary and secondary colours in purer hues on a black background. We will weave it very much like the last gamp but this is the first time we delve into twills.

Things we will learn

  • The power of a black background.
  • How black keeps other colours clear.
  • How the balance of colour changes in twills because we see more of each colour due to the float length.
  • How colour and weave patterns appear in twills when we alternate colour in the warp and weft.
  • We have been developing our technique to control our beater throughout this whole workshop and now we will use this control to weave twill and plain weave at the same sett.

Primaries and Secondaries Kit includes 1 cone each of Black, Emerald, Royal, Light Purple, Red, Orange & Lemon in 8/2 cotton.


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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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June 14, 2022 newsletter

JST Hand-dyed 20/2 Tussah is back!

We are so excited to share the re-launch of our JST Hand-dyed 20/2 Tussah silk!

We’ve switched the Tussah line over to a bleached Tussah. This produces colours that are brighter and clearer than they were on the natural Tussah, more like the sparkle of the 20/2 and 30/2 Bombyx. Our dyer has dyed half of our line of colours so far and we’re so happy to have them back in stock, brightening up our shelves while they wait for you to put them to work 😉

100% Silk Spun in Switzerland – 20/2 Tussah 5000 yds/lb.
Available in 100 gr. skeins with 1100 yds/skein.

Autumn Spice

Weave a Spring scarf with our beautiful linen…Lavender Lace Scarf Kit

C$71.00

This linen scarf is so wonderfully light and luscious. It billows like a sail in the wind and the light shines through this delicious cloth. Woven in our fine JST 40/2 linen makes it strong and very easy to weave. The kit will give you all you need for 2 scarves!

Canvas Weave, is such a lovely, delicate lace weave. It has an interesting characteristic, double threads coming out of the lace areas showing up in the plain weave areas in both warp and weft. The vertical lines are coming from the double 2’s and 3’s in the threading and, where you see them horizontally, they are from the 2 picks in 1 shed. The full instructions and draft for these delightful summer weight scarves, come with the kit. 

We can make this kit in any colour you like! Simply, put the Lavender Lace kitinto your cart and on the checkout screen, in the “notes” section, let us know what colour you would like us to create your kit in.


Spring Stripes Tea Towel Kit

C$71.00

After a long, cold, wet spring on the “wet” coast – we thought what we needed was to weave a bright spot for our kitchens! These towels are perfect – easy to weave and fun to play with while you create your own design with the weft.

This kit is made entirely of organic cotton – you can actually feel the difference in the cloth once woven. Using organic cotton is a great way to begin supporting yarns that are respectful of the earth and the farmers that grow them. Our organic cotton is GOTS certified (Global Organic Textile Standard).


School of Weaving

Season 6: Episode 6

Crackle Weave Kit is in stock!

Do you want to be ready weave when the Crackle Weave Episode goes live next month??? The Season 6: Episode 6 – Crackle Weave kit is now available in the JST Shop. Look at all the fun you are going to have with this exciting episode 🙂 Such a variety of possible patterns will be yours to create in Crackle, once you understand how this structure works.


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.


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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June 7, 2022 newsletter

New yarn on our shelves!

Venne Eco Jeans banner

We’re excited to share the news that we are now carrying Venne’s Eco Jeans recycled yarn! It’s a beautiful yarn that is amazingly spun from items that would have been headed for a landfill somewhere in the world. Given a new life on your loom – this yarn would create a wonderfully soft wrap or scarf for anyone in your life – including you 😉

Venne Eco Jeans Recycled Yarn Nm 12/2
50g cones – 328 yards per cone (2971 yards/ lb)

100% recycled. The Eco Jeans yarn is made from recycled jeans and used plastic bottles. Worn jeans, jackets and other articles of jeans fabric will get a new life. Made of 48% cotton and 47% polyester and 5% other material. This super soft yarn is slightly thicker than 8/2 cotton and is a bit textured.

Sett

  • plain weave 14 epi
  • twill 16 epi

From Our Staff!

Elizabeth has woven Twill & Grace Placemats in Dusty Blue and Pale Limette on an Ivory warp. Just think of the different colours you could use to weave these placemats. Choose colours from your kitchen/dining room or your china to weave with and make this kit your own. They would make a wonderful, useful gift for someone in your life who is setting up a new home – or would appreciate a new spark of colour to a well-used one.

We can create your kit in any colour you’d like!

Simply, put the Twill & Grace kit into your cart, on the checkout screen and in the “notes” section let us know what colours you would like your kit in. Take a peek at our 8/4 cotton page to see the colour range and availability. Be sure to let us know what colour you want for the 8/2 cotton hem (it should match the main warp colour).


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.