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November 8, 2022 newsletter

It’s the little things that make our weaving lives easier and the weaving fun!

It’s that time of year when you can start dropping hints for the items that will make your weaving life a tad easier. We now have the Harrisville Cone Holder in stock – it can hold up to 4 cones while you are winding your warp or bobbins -making winding easy peasy. Wishing for an extra Schacht shuttle so you don’t have to keep changing your bobbins while you weave?? We have them in stock! Or…do you really want to make your bobbin winding faster and more efficient (including being able to wind those luscious silk skeins onto Leclerc’s large Styrene Spools) – using your brand new double-ended bobbin winder? We’ve got all these items and more….even lots of my handy-dandy JST pointer, which is actually the Harrisville Brass Heddle/Reed Hook, that is often found in my hand in the videos 😉

Jane

Shuttles


Bobbins


Fringe Twiters


Double Ended Bobbin Winder


Dr. Beckmann Colour & Dirt Collector


Harrisvillle Cone Holder – NEW PRODUCT!


Harrisville Brass Heddle/Reed Hook


JST Hand dyed Silk

Add some colour to your Christmas wish list – nothing is more wonderful that receiving beautiful silk that you will have a delightful time designing and weaving into your own unique cloth.


Wish List

Since we’ve mentioned Christmas gifts – and I know Christmas is still a way off, but ….. have you been dreaming about that particular tool, some fabulous yarn – or dreaming really big, maybe about a new loom? Set up a Wish List on the JST Shop Store and just in passing mention that your list can be found there 😉 You can manage your list under your account which gives you different options on how you might want to share it. Your close circle can get a chance to look at your list, find something perfect for you OR possibly give you a JST Gift Certificate towards something that you are really wishing for.


Get these lucious “one-off” colours while they last!

At the moment we have some “Limited Edition” silk skeins that are available at a reduced price – lovely 20/2 Blue Mist or Dusty Rose. Get them while you can! The cones of yarn are sold out – sorry 🙁


JST Pattern Page

After having a lot of requests – we have decided to create a Pattern page where our wonderful weavers could purchase a selection of our most loved patterns. There are 11 patterns available to download and add to your weaving wish list for $10.00 each. And – listen for the drum roll ……

Autumn Orchard Wrap

Burgoyne Berry Wrap

Ruckle Beach Wrap

Cornucopia Towels

Harvest Splendour Towels

Heavenly Check Scarf

Jane’s Favourite Towels

Undulating Towels

Spring Stripes Mohair Blanket

Three Stripe Mohair Blanket 

Whole Lotta Huggin Blanket


Merino & Silk Scarves – Chocolate & Vanilla

This supremely beautiful scarf ticks all the boxes! Since it is made with silk on merino, it is super soft and warm with silky drape, and has that magic sheen we all love. The design is simple and classic with two stripes on the warp and design options for the weft. This is one of those life-time scarves. It just won’t go out of fashion or favour. The cosy colours you will use in this scarf are Suede and Vanilla merino in the warp with silk in Violet Ice and Double Chocolate for weft. Delicious!


From Our Inbox

PK Maracin has reached out to us from Cromwell, OT on the beautiful South Island of New Zealand – about as far south as you can get on our planet before reaching Antarctica! PK – your adventure in weaving was a delight to read and I can’t get the smile off my face after reading your saga with your Fanny loom. How wonderful to know that we are reaching out to weavers everywhere through our School of Weaving – it makes it all worthwhile.
 
Hi team Jane!

Weaving toddler here. I just finished Sample 1 – Season 2: Asymmetry.

From my local weaving guild I was able to purchase a 1950s Fanny loom in very good condition some months ago. Hardly used from the dear old lady. But, of course, zero directions on how to use (though LeClerc sent me some). You can imagine how happy I was when Jane used her Fanny to show some warping techniques!

So off I went learning to use my warping board, chaining up and then putting the warp on the Fanny. I am quite proud that I was able to change out the zinger mid stride. Well not really mid, but after 1 napkin and 4 tea towels. Then came the tea towel and napkin sans red.

Then I thought I would try the resleying at 12epi. Even though I didn’t really want to, I am in Weaving School for a reason = to learn. You never know when it may come in handy. I admit that was quite difficult. I think I left the process too late in the piece. My back beam would not hold any tension, I guess it was too short. I resleyed with no tension and then tried to wind the warp back on the back beam to get things tight. Therefore I lost warp length as my tie on was too long. And my “new” zinger grey threads all fell back on the floor because I forgot about them! So I had to rethread those. I persevered over hours, determined not to give up. All that for a dinky winky boucle wash rag! It could have been wider but I ran out of boucle. I only dyed so much. Really don’t see why I would do this in the future, but I did it here.

The 12 dent reed that came with the loom is very narrow (probably for a table loom). Only 2 1/2″. So it was sometimes difficult for wee me to get a nice shed. And I only had 2 narrow boat shuttles to fit through the shed! I have since ordered a new 12 dent reed from LeClerc and am waiting for that to arrive.

Anywho… I learned heaps from this first section of the course. Your teaching style is very similar to how I teach sewing. So an obvious big like!

I cannot continue right now as I am waiting for your yarns to arrive. Here in NZ there is a limited amount of cotton yarns, and if they do sell Brassard half of the colours are out of stock (hence no white). And Ashford, for some odd reason, sells 10/2 and not 8/2. I decided to purchase the rest of the Season 2 kits from you as 1) I like your colours and 2) I know I will have enough of what I need.

Cheers and thanks for the journey
PK

School of Weaving

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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 toward your balance, at your convenience.
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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.

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.


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

Inspiration From a Sari

Mai-what-ta Lovely Towels & Scarf

Tea Towel Time with Jane

Stash Crackle Pop


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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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.

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 🙂