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July 11, 2023 newsletter

Limited Edition
Popsicle Tea Towel Kit in Bouclé

We’ve had so much fun designing tea towels using the photos in our current calendar. The colours in the July photo reminded us of popsicles. You start to realize that summer is really here when you see the brightly coloured popsicles lined up in the freezer. You can’t help smiling when you see the children enjoying them with all their drips and happy faces. Some of us have never grown up and we look forward to popsicle season too 😉

Here’s your chance to grab a Limited Edition tea towel kit woven in plain weave with Bouclé cotton as your warp and weft. You’ll discover that Bouclé towels are a “workhorse” in your kitchen and quickly dry anything you “throw” their way. The kit comes with a basic Bouclé Tea Towel PDF, (which was designed with a different colourway). It has all the information you’ll need to create your towels using the colours provided in the Popsicle kit. You’ll also get the information for your warp colour sequence as well as the instructions for weaving 5 towels. The warp will be long enough to weave 9 towels so you’ll have enough left to go crazy designing creations of your own!

Grab a kit now because when they are sold out – they are gone…….


JST July Calendar Image

July’s calendar photo gives us a “riot” of colours to choose from to create and weave a stunning summer scarf or ……. let your imagination run away with you 😉 Just picture a few of the colours and yarns below dressing your loom and cheering you on to the finish line 😉
  Starting at the top from left to right:

30/2 Silk Sweet Potato Pie
Venne 8/2 organic cotton Bright Pink
8/2 cotton Fuchsia
8/2 cotton Salmon
8/2 cotton Bleached
8/2 cotton Orange
Zephyr Wool/Silk blend Mythical Pink
Bouclé cotton Hot Pink
Bouclé cotton Lemon

A few more favourite Bouclé kits

We have quite a selection of Bouclé tea towel kits – some woven with only Bouclé like the one featured above or with 8/2 cotton in the warp and Bouclé in the weft. They are fun to weave and handy as appreciated gifts should you need one at the last minute. 

Choose from the always favourite – Granny Pam’s Inspiration Tea Towel Kit or picture a tea towel called Ocean, Country Renaissance or Not Enough Green for Grant – but wait ….. there are more, check them out!

Bouclé Tea Towel Kit – Granny Pam’s Inspiration

Bouclé Tea Towel Kit – Ocean

Bouclé Tea Towel Kit – Country Renaissance Kit

Bouclé Tea Towel Kit – Not Enough Green for Grant


From Our Inbox

PK in New Zealand sent this to us when we asked for submissions to our From Our Inbox. Yes – the same PK that you’ve already seen in this space – we love how she has taken what she’s learned from the School of Weaving and said “What if” …. What she has created with the Parrot sample from Season 2 Episode 5 – Parrot and Fibonacci blows us away!
 
Finished S2 Sample 3 Parrot. As you will see, I really enjoyed this colourway. I kind of went to town with it. Not only did I do two 6 yd warps for both colour way napkins/tea towels, I also opened up the sett and made myself a cotton scarf – this time long enough!

After each lesson I use what I have learned so far to create something in merino (my go-to fibre). So I dyed merino in the 5 similar colours and made a shawl (that I actually sold at the market!!). I called the shawl Amazonia. It has elements of stripes and asymmetry.

I also wove an inlay for a jeans jacket gift I made for a 3 year old. Her fav colours are pink/purple (pinkle) and this gives the jacket its pièce de résistance.

Thanks for the fun and permission granted!

PK


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 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