Tag: floating selvedge

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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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August 24, 2021 newsletter

3 kits back in stock and Part 1 of
In Praise of Good Selvedges

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.

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

Buy the Fulford Mist Kit

Ganges Sunrise Linen & Silk Scarves

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!

We always have spools of 30/2 silk kicking around so we did another version adding 2 more colours… Favourite Wine and Buddha Berry. Please NOTE that if you want to get these colours you must select the “Ganges Sunrise Scarf Kit with Additional Silks” from the drop down menu when ordering.

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

Buy the Gange Sunrise Kit

Sassy Brassy Log Cabin Tea Towels

Kathy Ready is a fabulous weaver and weaving teacher from Victoria, B.C. Last fall Kathy wove our harvest splendour tea towel kit and this year she watched the log cabin episode from the Online Guild, Sassy Brassy is the result of blending those two ideas. Kathy graciously shared this pattern when I started salivating over it in the studio. I love the contrast between the brilliant check pattern and the dark/light colour and weave log cabin which is beautifully symmetrical and framed.

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate
Weave structure: Plain Weave
Material: 8/2 organic cottolin
Each kit makes: 7 Towels

Buy the Sassy Brassy Towel Kit

In Praise of Good Selvedges: Practical Tips for Weavers:  Part 1

We’re all in search of that perfect straight edge, that golden selvedge, and there are many ways we get there. We employ special threadings, floating selvedges, denser edges. You can use regular shuttles, open bottom shuttles, end feed shuttles or temples to aid you in your selvedge journey.
A good selvedge shouldn’t be hard to find. I have trained a lot of weavers over the years, and selvedges are always (cough) on the table. Over the years, I have come to feel that some of the thoughts below are quite important, so I’m sharing them with you today.
Thought #1: The loom is my instrument! I always tell people that the loom is my instrument…it is my version of a violin. The shuttle is my bow and the cloth is my music. Any string musician will tell you that their bow needs to feel good in their hand, and so my shuttle needs to feel good in my hand too. My favourite “bow” is the Schacht open bottom shuttle because it allows me to tension my bobbin from underneath each time I handle the shuttle. My shuttle fits my hand perfectly—it is not too big or too small—and I use the same shuttles for all my weaving.
Thought #2: Bigger isn’t necessarily better! Sometimes we weave with thin yarns, sometimes we weave with heavier—and when we do we think we need to change the size of our bobbins in regards to the size of the yarn. If we use a bigger bobbin we can get more yarn on it and therefore weave for a lot longer. The choice of a longer bobbin necessitates the need for a longer and larger shuttle. Bobbin lengths increase by 1″ of length. When you stop to figure out just how much more yarn you can get on that 1″ longer bobbin, you will be surprised to find out that the answer is “Not Much”. However, you now have to put that bobbin in a shuttle that is 2″ longer than your favourite regular shuttle which fits your hand like a glove. A 4″ bobbin (the regular kind) fits an 11″ shuttle, 5″ bobbins fit a 13″ shuttle, 6″ bobbins fit a 15″ shuttle. (I’m glad they don’t make longer bobbins because then we would be wielding lengths of 2×4.) Any advantages we gained from those 1″ increases in bigger bobbin size are quickly and dramatically lost because now our “bow” doesn’t fit our hand as well and we can lose control of our technique.
Thought #3. Sequence of events. The sequence that you use to throw each pick is very important. I throw the shuttle and then beat on an open shed. I leave the beater against the fell of the cloth while I change the shed and then I bring it back to the castle after I have changed the shed. So this is the sequence: Throw, Beat, Change, Beater Back; Throw, Beat, Change, Beater Back. (See Thought #8 in the next newsletter)for the additional tug that could be given at this time if needed.)
When you beat on an open shed, you allow the shed to take what the shed requires. The beater actually pulls yarn off the bobbin and into the shed. It stops when the beater touches the fell of the cloth and it has taken just the right amount. When we consider the alternate way of beating in a weft yarn (which is to bubble and beat on a closed shed), we have created a closed situation where you must create the same scenario exactly the same way each time you throw the shuttle—and that is a very difficult thing to do. If your bubble is too high, then the excess yarn squishes out the side at the selvedge. If your bubble is too low then there isn’t enough yarn in the bubble to fit the shed and your selvedges draw in. Try the method above and see how this little sequence solves so many selvedge problems.
Thought #4: Wind a good bobbin! I know that everyone reading this will have had this experience. You are weaving away and you get towards the end of your bobbin and the yarn on your bobbin starts to jam up. When this happens all of our focus is on that stupid bobbin and yarn not coming off, but as we tug and pull we aren’t paying much attention to the fact the other selvedge is being tugged and pulled. One of the reasons your yarn is stuck is because you filled the corners of the bobbin when you first started winding it and those corners have now collapsed like a mountain slide of scree—I know! I know! We are all taught to do this. It’s in every book you open. Here is an alternate approach. It provides you with a situation where the yarn is able to leave the bobbin freely, right down to the last inch. If you need a visual demo, we have a video on my School of Weaving website from Season 1 Episode 3 – Good Weaving Technique, Bobbin Winding! Once upon a time, before there were plastic bobbins with end bits there was the paper quill. Paper quills were wound with a firm straight movement from side to side, slowing moving away from the edges and winding closer to the centre with each pass. Now, I love plastic bobbins with end bits, but I wind them the old fashioned way, like a paper quill. You wind straight across from side to side, filling up the bobbin until it is half full, then with each successive pass I come a little closer to the centre creating a ‘sausage’ shape. As the bobbin fills, you stay away from the sides and you wind them firmly with your fingers, guiding the yarn onto the bobbin, right up close where you have the most control.
Watch for next week’s newsletter when we’ll dig deeper into the tips on how to improve our selvedges.
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Here to help

You can always find us on the Jane Stafford School of Weaving Forum or

on Weave with Jane Stafford at Ravelry.