Posted on Leave a comment

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.

Posted on Leave a comment

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.


Not subscribed to Jane’s School of Weaving?

Included with a monthly or yearly ALL-INCLUSIVE subscription:

All lessons to date which includes past Seasons 1 to 5, that’s 57 lessons.
Upcoming new episodes for the duration of your subscription.
A new episode released every 5 weeks.
60+ PDFs available which include 40+ pattern drafts, all available for immediate download with your subscription.
Access to our active community via forums & comments.
Free app to download and watch from your Android or Apple device.

All for the low price of US$99.99/yearly or US$9.99/monthly

(local currencies may apply)

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

Watch anywhere, anytime!


iPhone
  
 Apple TV   Android   Android TV  Fire TV  Roku ®


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.