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June 27, 2023 newsletter

Tuscan Tea Towels

Are you old enough to remember Nat King Cole’s song – 🎶 Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer 🎶? As we head into the summer, we thought it might be the time to have an eye-popping but easy warp waiting for you on your loom for when you were ready for a bit of “lazy” instead of “crazy” in your life. 
These Twill towels were designed and woven by a team – designed by Susan Brown (Jane’s first – and longest employee) and woven by Sharon (Jane’s newest employee, who also doubles as JST’s new silk dyer). They are relatively simple and relaxing to weave when you need to give yourself a gift of “lazy” 😉

Project Specs

Level of Difficulty: Advanced Beginner
Weave structure: Twill Weave
Material: 8/2 cotton
Each kit makes: 6 Towels

Loom Requirements

Shafts: 4, Reed: 10 dent, EPI: 20, Weaving width: 22″, Finished Dimensions: 27-30″ X 19″


School of Weaving Season 2 kits are in stock!

Many new and experienced weavers have learned or refreshed their weaving knowledge by learning from the samples of Season 2. If you haven’t woven these episode projects, we thought we’d introduce you to the kits that are available and just waiting for you. There are no rules about what you choose to weave through the School of Weaving, but… Season 2’s projects will help you understand the information you will absorb in these episodes. They will also create a base of weaving knowledge which will be the “ground” you will walk on as you move through the years of exciting new possibilities. This knowledge, and the confidence gained, will also help you create original designs.

Asymmetry and Division of Space

Kit includes 8/2 cotton: 2 Bleached, 1 Light Grey, 1 Dark Grey, 1 Red and 1 Black.
P.S. included is one sheet of Dr. Beckmann’s Colour & Dirt Collector in case your red wants to run away 🙂


Colour and Weave Gamp

Kit includes the following 8/2 cotton: 3 Natural, 3 Navy and 1 Apricot.


Fibonacci with Gradation AKA Parrot

Kit includes the following 8/2 cotton, one cone each in, Apricot, Pale Orange, Fuchsia, Peacock, Hot Pink and optional 1 Navy.


Designing Plaids

Kit includes the following 8/2 Cotton: 2 Red, 1 Olive, 1 Gold, 1 Purple and optional 1 Fuchsia.

In this episode Jane uses the following 20/2 Bombyx Silk as the weft for the scarf: Ariel’s Voice, Buddha Berry, Tiger Lily, Dragon Fruit.


All About Stripes

Kit includes the following 8/2 Cotton, 2  Lemon, 1 Butter, 1 Nile and 1 Pale Limette.

In this episode, Jane used 12 gauge Bambu in Aruba and Indigo for the weft of the scarf.


Muted Colour Gamp on Natural Ground

Kit includes the following 8/2 Cotton, one cone each in Forest, Natural, Navy, Raspberry, Gold, Purple and Cayenne.
Jane used these colours of 18/2 Merino in the weft of one sample: Black, Navy and Bottle Green.


Primaries & Secondaries on Black

Kit includes the following 8/2 Cotton: one cone each in Lemon, Orange, Red, Light Purple, Royal, Emerald and Black.
Jane uses these colours of 20/2 Bombyx Silk in the weft of the scarf: Margaretta Violetta, Ariel’s Voice and Buddha Berry.

JST Shipping

We offer a $17.00 CAD flat-rate shipping on orders to Canada & USA. Spend over $250.00 CAD and you’ll receive free shipping! Receive 10% off & free shipping when you spend over $500.00 CAD (Some Exceptions Apply).


From Our Inbox

We thought we would share some of the magic that came into Our Inbox in early December 2022 from weaver David Schulz of Sydney, Australia. We were delighted to see what he had created after watching Summer and Winter in Season 6 – Episode 8. Jane wrote back to share our delight in seeing what he’d created and before we knew it photos of another piece of magic flew over the ocean! David sent photos to show us what he’d done with Taquette layered on the graphic and the use of colour in the Parrot & Fibonacci sample.  

Take time to watch Season 6, Episode 8 – Summer and Winter before watching Season 7 Episode 7 – Summer and Winter with Colour & Weave which airs August 17th! Also – mark your calendar … Season 7, Episode 8 – Turned Taquette will arrive on your screen on September 21st.

Hi Jane and the JST Team,

I recently watched the episode on Summer and Winter and got all excited to put everything I have learned together into an original design. I designed a profile draft, placing the stripe and its secondary pattern using our good friend Fibonacci. Then I tweaked the threading to strategically place the threads so that motifs would be complete and the turmeric accents would line up with one motif of the secondary pattern. I also used a narrow stripe of light grey on the selvedges as a subtle kind of frame. I’m super duper happy with the way they came out and can’t wait to give them away for Christmas.

Take care of your lovely selves and all the best for the year ahead.

Regards,

David Schulz
Sydney, Australia


Hi Jane!

Oh, thanks so much! You’re so encouraging and inspiring in all of your videos and I always get so many ideas from watching each episode. I just wish there were more hours in the day to explore everything. I just watched the promo for next year and it looks AMAZING. I love turned taquette and I’m glad to see that episode coming up and I can’t wait to try all of the weave structures overlaid with colour and weave. Those supersized graphics look fantastic.

I wove some turned taquette towels a couple of months back using the parrot graphic (I’ve attached a photo). TT makes for such thick and thirsty towels. Such a fun structure.

These were woven on my David 90. I bought my David back in 2012 and haven’t regretted it for a second.

Thanks for an inspiring year. 

Regards,

David


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 toward 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 20, 2023 newsletter

Limited Edition!
Beach Umbrella Tea Towel Kit

Even the thought of a beach umbrella means that summer is just about here. School is winding down in our world, with summer holidays just around the corner. Our families and friends will soon be looking for ways to enjoy this time together. So we took the June photo from the JST calendar (see below) and imagined those colours in a beach umbrella that would be easy to spot on a sunny day. We then created a limited edition tea towel kit featuring June’s photo colours. You can bring these towels on a picnic with you – they would be happy to wrap your food and then act as mats for your picnic. When summer is over bring them into your kitchen to keep summer with you all year!

Get this limited edition kit before they are all gone!

Level of difficulty: Beginner
Weave structure: Plain Weave
Material: 8/2 cotton
Each kit makes: 7 Towels

Loom requirements:
Shafts: 4
Reed: 12 dent
EPI: 18
Weaving width: 24.25″
Finished Dimensions: 21″ X 27-30″ long


JST June Calendar Image

Can you smell the lavender? Does it smell like purple? 😉  JST carries many different purple hues, in a variety of yarns. Choose your favourite yarn and create your own garden of lavender on your loom……

Clockwise starting at the bottom:

8/2 Venne organic cottolin Light Lilac
8/2 Venne organic cotton Iris
8/2 Venne organic cotton Light Lilac
8/2 cotton Light Plum
8/2 cotton Lilac
30/2 Bombyx silk Princess Pamuk
Bambu 12 Sugar Plum
18/2 Zephyr Elderberry
Bambu 7 Crocus


Last Chance for Kiki’s Swedish Lace Tea Towels

These gorgeous classic towels were designed by my dear friend Christel Knoth, lovingly known as Kiki to everyone here on Salt Spring Island. She created them for one of our School of Weaving’s Show & Tell, the one about Swedish Lace. Every weaver that sees these towels wants to make them and Kiki has graciously shared her pattern. As our shelves are filling up with new kits, we will be discontinuing this one once we run out.

Level of Difficulty: Advanced Beginner
Weave structure: Swedish Lace
Material: 8/2 cotton & 16/2 cotton
Each kit makes: 8 Tea Towels

Loom requirements:
Shafts: 4
Reed: 10 dent
Weaving width: 24″
Finished Dimensions: 18.5″ X 26-30″ long


School of Weaving

Testimonial

Have you been weaving for a few years or more and wondered if it would be worth your while to join the School of Weaving? Are you undecided as to whether you would see and learn anything that would add to the weaving skills you’ve already developed? Have you wanted to learn how to design, prepare and weave a unique cloth instead of always following a pattern? 

Many experienced weavers have enjoyed the Seasons and Episodes of the School of Weaving. They have discovered a new way to approach a task, a tip on how to adjust their current approach to a weaving step to make it more efficient or how to create an original design. Thank you, Dena – for sharing with us the obvious delight you are getting from taking what you’ve learned at the School of Weaving and using it to create your unique cloth. 👏

I’ve woven for more than 35 years, but up until about 5 years ago, I was a hesitant, scared weaver who was intimidated by most of the process. I successfully got through overshot, doubleweave and many twill projects, but always dreaded warping. So I started watching your videos to basically get better at warping and oh my God, now warping is my favorite part of the process! Easy peasy.

I ended up subscribing to all the classes, started back at the basics and made it through the Primaries Color Gamp before getting totally sidetracked on all kinds of related plain weave colorful placemats, scarves and kitchen towels. I’ve been having the most fun! Every month or so, I get an email about a new class that’s ready, but I am just having the time of my life with plain weave, so all those later classes will just have to wait. I’m still back at the beginning of season 3. ha ha! It’s unreal.

So thank you for all you do. It’s very impactful for so many of us weavers out here in the world.

Happy weaving,
Dena Hirchak
Morrisville, VT

Dena’s favourite placemats!

She eliminated the yellow and green in the warp, then wove with 4 threads together for weft, using up old bobbins.


Join the School of Weaving

ALL-INCLUSIVE subscription

Unlimited access to 65 lessons

130+ hours of instruction
95+ downloadable PDFs
A new lesson every 5 weeks during your subscription
AND access to our forum!

US$99.99

PER YEAR

MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION
(US$9.99/month)
(local currencies may apply)


Video Lessons

Season 1 – Foundation

Making a Good Warp
Dressing Your Loom Back to Front
Good Weaving Techniques
Let’s Have a Little Chat About Sett
Project Planning 101… Putting it All Together
Division of Space
All About Yarn
A Few Things About Looms
Making a Mohair Blankie
Finishing up with Finishing


Season 2 – Colour & Design

Colour & Design
Asymmetry & Division of Space
Colour… colour… and more colour
Colour & Weave Sample
Parrot & Fibonacci
Designing Plaids
All About Stripes
Muted Colour Gamp on Natural Ground
Primaries & Secondaries on Black
Bonus: Basket Weaving with Joan Carrigan, weave a garlic basket!


Season 3 – Pushing the Boundaries of Plain Weave

Denting
Cramming and Denting
Log Cabin
Weft Faced
Warp Faced
Simple Collapse Weave
Double Width, Double Layers
Plain Weave With Supplementary Warp
Plain Weave with Supplementary Warp & Weft


Season 4 – Twills on 4 Shafts

Introduction to Twill & Simple Two Stripe Sample
Small Threadings Twill Gamp
Point Twill Gamp
Large Threadings Gamp
Colour & Weave Meets Twill
Twill & Basket Weave
Shadow Weave
Weft Faced Twills
Bonus: Fiberworks Weaving Software workshop for Mac & Windows!


Season 5 – Laces!

Canvas Weave
Huck
Huck Colour & Weave
Swedish Lace
Bronson Lace
Bronson Spot
Blended Lace
Huck and Twills
Bonus, Turned Twill for 8 shafts weavers!


Season 6 – Units, Blocks and Profiles

Introduction to Units, Blocks and Profiles
Monk’s Belt
Overshot
Name Drafting
Crackle Weave
M’s and O’s
Summer and Winter
Block Analysis
Bonus: 8 Shaft Twill Blocks & Tie-up Quadrants for our 8 shaft weavers!


Season 7 – An Overlay of Colour, Weave and Texture on Units and Block Structure

Available right away:

Bonus: Fiberworks Weaving Software, Colour & Weave
AND Turned Twill with Colour & Weave for our 8-shaft weavers

Monk’s Belt with Colour & Weave
Halvdrall
Overshot with Colour and Weave

Still to come for 2023:

Crackle with Colour & Weave
Summer and Winter with Colour & Weave
Turned Taquette

Watch anywhere, anytime

iPhone   Apple TV   Android   Android TV  Fire TV  Roku ®

You can watch any of the previously aired videos during your FREE trial!


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 toward 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 13, 2023 newsletter

JST Dye Studio

We are so excited! Finally – our on-site JST Dye Studio is operating in full swing. 😄 It’s so much fun to be able to have our whole Jane Stafford Textile business operating on our property. Our new Dye Studio is able to use larger dye pots than we were able to in the past which means we can dye more skeins a day! Win-win!

Check out the website to see the rainbow of colours just waiting for you to weave into your next project!

Freya with hand-dyed silks ready for our shelves!


JST Hand-dyed Silks

Did you quickly check to see our rainbow of colours after reading the paragraph above? If you did – you will have discovered that we use Bombyx silk in 20/2 & 30/2 weights which produces clear, bright colours as well as 20/2 Bleached Tussah silk which gives a more muted colour. Our silk is dyed in a palate of 34 magnificent colours.

Have we ever told you the story of how we named our silks when we first started thinking of dyeing our own? Picture a few weavers, relaxing over a glass (or 2) of wine in the evening. Some colours are named after the magic that is Salt Spring Island, some are inspired by old songs and some special ones for special people in my life: Margaretta Violetta….my Mom;  Mary’s Blue Cardigan….for Mary Andrews who always wore a blue cardigan; Granitius Green….my darling and my rock; and Princess Pamuk named after our dog who was lying on the floor at our feet 😀 

Jane wanted to create a perfect analogous colour harmony to work with her favourite 8/2 cotton colours and she did!

Naming Party

Cheryl, Charlotte and Klare

Charlotte, master of the names!

Cheryl and Jane making the final decisions on which colours made it.

Bring Salt Spring Island, and JST’s little corner of it, into your studio, and onto your loom through the magic of its colours.

20/2 Bombyx available in 100g skeins with 1,100 yds/skein (5,000 yds/lb)
30/2 Bombyx available in 100g skeins with 1,650 yds/skein (7,500 yds/lb)
20/2 Tussah available in 100g skeins with 1,100 yds/skein (5,000 yds/lb)

Ganges Sunrise Scarf Kit

These lovely scarves are perfect for spring and summer! Woven with silk on linen in alternating bands of 1/3 and 3/1 twill, they have gorgeous sheen and drape with a slightly crisp texture that will only get softer and more shimmery with wear. This pattern requires only 4 harnesses, but there are 8 different tie-ups required for weaving. If you have an 8-shaft loom, you’re stylin’, but if you have a 6-treadle loom, we’ve provided a tie-up system to ensure your success!

Level of Difficulty: Advanced Beginner
Weave structure: 1/3, 3/1 Twill Weave
Material: 30/2 Bombyx Silk 40/2 linen
Each kit makes: 2 Scarves

Ganges Sunrise Scarf


Collapse Weave Pucker Up Scarf Kits

These scarves are a great introduction to simple collapse weave. These kits provide enough silk and merino to create 2 stunning scarves with finished dimensions of  12″ x 75″ plus fringe. All you need is a simple 4 shaft loom a 10 dent reed and a weaving width of 18″.

Level of Difficulty: Advanced Beginner
Weave structure: Plain Weave
Material: 30/2 Bombyx Silk & 18/2 Merino
Each kit makes: 2 Scarves

Each kit includes:
Weaving instructions (including draft)
2 skeins of 30/2 Bombyx
2 cones of 18/2 Merino

Autumn Equinox


Jane’s virtual seminar at ANWG

This Saturday, Jane will virtually present her seminar ‘Weavers of Sabahar’ at the ANWG Conference. There are a few spots left to purchase and join in via ZOOM!

Sabahar is an Ethiopian company that produces uniquely designed, handwoven cotton and silk textiles. Sabahar was founded 20 years ago by Kathy Marshall from Beaver Lodge, Alberta. Her passion for preserving and celebrating the rich weaving tradition of Ethiopia, combined with her desire to create respectful and ethical work opportunities for marginalized people, have laid the foundation for the company. Sabahar’s 3 core values are Sustainability, Innovation, and Caring for each other. They are members of the World Fair Trade Organization. In 2016 Kathy invited Jane Stafford to come to Addis Ababa to trouble shoot production problems the weavers were having. It was a remarkable journey and she returned again in 2019 to set up a design department teaching unfamiliar weave structures to the weavers and exploring the possibilities of the yarns they have available; including all the Eri silk they raise in great abundance. Jane invites you to walk through the studios of Sabahar, to meet the silk rearers, spinners, dyers, weavers and finishers of an amazing organization that now employs over 700 artisans.

For more info on Jane’s seminar and late enrolment, please visit ANWG 2023 Conference.

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 toward 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 6, 2023 newsletter

New Québécoise Colours

We’ve added 6 new colours to our range of Québécoise colours – bringing up the number of colours you can choose to 20!

  Khaki, Tangerine, Gold, Navy, Sunset Yellow, Forest Green
Made of 100% wool, Québécoise is a sturdy yarn that softens with brushing. Durable, washable and affordable. There are approximately 217 yards per 100g skein (984 yards/ lb).

New JST Sample Cards

We now have sample cards for Québécoise 2 Ply Wool and Venne’s Eco Jeans Recycled Yarn.

When you order sample cards from us, you can be sure that the actual yarn is attached to your card (except for our silk card). It’s the only time we like to say that something from JST comes with strings attached!

Each card is hand built and will help you make those perfect design decisions with more accuracy than you get by just looking at a photo of the yarn. We try to pack every card with all the information you’ll need when planning your project – suggested setts, yardage per lb. and cone, and material.

Québécoise 2 Ply Wool

Venne Eco Jeans


Schacht shuttles back in stock

Schacht has started producing 13-inch, 15-inch shuttles again and we are really excited to have them back in stock.

Schacht shuttles are Jane’s favourite. Why are these fabulous shuttles Jane’s favourites? Because they are the tool that is always in her hand at the loom and it needs to be light, the right length and have an open bottom to control the spin of the bobbin with her finger. Jane can even choose between maple or cherry depending on the colour of wood she prefers ;-).

You can see these shuttles fly in Jane’s hands as she weaves using her mantra – Throw – Beat – Change – Beater Back – in so many episodes of the School of Weaving. New weavers – you can watch Jane explain her mantra in Season 1 Episode 1, video 1.3.3.

Looking for a Double Open Bottom Shuttle – those are in stock as well!
Double Bobbin Open Bottom Shuttles

From Our Inbox

We were excited to see the email from Martha of Lake Orion, MI, USA. She has combined and layered so many techniques from School of Weaving seasons and episodes to create this magnificent piece.

If you want to follow her journey – start with Season 2 – Episode 3: Colour… colour… more colour and Episode 4: The Colour and Weave Sample plus Episode 4: Parrot & Fibonacci. Then Martha moved on to Season 3 – Episode 1: Denting

You are an inspiration to us all, Martha!

Hi Jane and team,

Thank you so much for all of your lessons and inspiration. We have a guild that follows and meets to go over the classes, here in Lake Orion, MI. I have learned so much from them and your dream team over the years I thought I’d share a 4 shaft color and weave using the tools you have taught me. Inspiration from a photo, picking yarns. Color and Weave. Denting. Fibonacci. Thick and thin, but most importantly sett. I love being able to use my handspun yarn successfully in weaving now that I truly understand sett- it has opened up a whole world of ideas for me. So here is a version of color and weave on 4 for season 7.

Thank you all.
Martha


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 toward 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.