Tag: Turned Twill

Posted on by — 2 Comments

January 3rd, 2023 newsletter

Happy New Year!

It’s so hard to believe that we have quietly stepped into another year! It seems that I’m not the only one that can’t get my head around how quickly time flies by. My wish for you is to have a healthy, happy, 2023 that gets filled with good memories of time with family and friends. I wish you carefree times at your loom and feeling the joy of learning and creating, alongside our little School of Weaving family. I’ve enjoyed watching you develop friendships on the Forum as you weave and share your challenges and successes. I look forward to watching and hearing about your growth in your weaving whether you are a brand, spanking new weaver or are waiting to explore Season 7. Best wishes for a Happy New Year from me and my staff. 

Jane

In case you missed it

School of Weaving Season 7 trailer is out! We begin our new season with one more episode on Turned Twill on January 19th. Lots of time to binge-watch Season 6 before we dive into the extended Units, Blocks & Profiles for 2023! That’s right, we are layering colour sequences on what we learned in Season 6. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so with our 7-day free trial.

Start your 7-day free trial

Season 7 Episode 1

It is so much fun to start the year with another overlay idea. This year is about adding Colour and Weave sequences to units and blocks.

We’ll start with Turned Twill for the 3rd year in a row…adding my favourite Dark/Light sequence from Season 2 Episode 4, which was Dark/Light/Dark/Dark/Light. We’ll add it to units and then to blocks and make that cute little motif bigger and bigger and bigger. This should set your mind on fire. 

I also demonstrate how to wind 2 warps…a light one and a dark one and then beam both warps, at the same time, onto your warp beam. This method comes in really handy when you have a lot of colour changes in a warp.

Get ready to weave along with our next 8-shaft Turned Twill episode where we add Colour and Weave to the magic in the cloth. The kit for this episode is available now – should you want to have your loom ready and waiting to play along.

Things we will learn:

  • How to overlay C&W sequences from our C&W gamp S02E02 onto units and blocks, to make these motifs as big as we want.
  • We use D/L and D/D/L/D/L in the composition.
  • How to bring other sequences into the treadling.
  • We can also play with all those other tie-ups from S05E01 and S06E02.
  • How to warp with 2 warps, a dark warp and a light warp.
  • A discussion about whether we want to tie knots or warp with 2 warps.
  • One isn’t right, one isn’t wrong…they are just different ways to warp and it’s good to know.

Level of Difficulty: intermediate
Weave structure: 8-shaft Turned Twill
Material: 8/2 cotton
Each kit makes: 8 Tea Towels

Read More!

From our Inbox

We start 2023 with a bang and share the photos that Lindy Brown of Crescent Head, Australia, has sent us. She has been “playing” with Turned Twill and wrote “I enjoyed the turned twill and colour and weave lessons, here are some of my turned twill towels, many of which I have gifted to friends. So many great concepts and design ideas in these lessons. Thank you, Jane and team”

Lindy was inspired by our two Turned Twill episodes…so far 😉 – Season 5 Episode 1 and Season 6 Episode 2.

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 by — Leave a comment

October 4, 2022 newsletter

New JST Kit!

Squares & Rectangles Tea Towels

This pattern comes to you from the loom of Janet Cameron of Salt Spring Island. I have known Janet for years, and her weaving is stunning. She is also Elizabeth’s Mom (Elizabeth is our indispensable JST Office Manager).

I first met Janet Cameron at a conference in Edmonton in 1999 when Janet took the Colour and Design workshop.

Janet beside Jane, Edmonton 1999

When she went home she designed a draft with what she had recently learned and put on a beautiful warp for the new draft she had created. Elizabeth, who was around 8, wove the last part of the warp off.

Elizabeth’s weaving age 8

Fast forward 19 years, Grant and I were going through the cash at our grocery store with a huge order, and the teller asked us what we were doing with all the food. Grant said, “my wife runs weaving retreats,”  the teller responded, “is your wife Jane Stafford?” The teller was Elizabeth and the next time Grant was in there he slipped her my phone number and offered her a job. Janet moved to Salt Spring to be closer to her granddaughter Olivia and Olivia’s Mom and Dad too 😉 It’s a small world and a pretty wondrous one too 🙂 

Elizabeth age 8

We thought it would be fun to put an example of Janet’s weaving into a kit for you. I love the hand and drape of these towels, they are very absorbent, soft and pliable – like a good kitchen towel should be. You’ll have a lot of fun playing with the Turned Twill treadling options and the graphic while you weave these towels.

Jane.

In case you haven’t ‘met’ Elizabeth in person, we thought we’d share a photo of her today at our studio.
Jane and Elizabeth today

Squares and Rectangles Tea Towel Kit

Level of Difficulty: Advanced Beginner
Weave Structure: Turned Twill
Yarn: 8/2 cotton & Bouclé cotton
Each kit makes 12 towels

Loom Requirements:
8 shafts
8 dent reed
22 3/4″ weaving width

Shop Now
Shop Squares & Rectangles Tea Towel Kit

A Few More Turned Twill Favourites

Can’t get enough of Turned Twill? Why not stock up on a couple of the kits below – like the 8 Shaft Turned Twill Garibaldi Flats kit – OR – Tea Towel Time with Jane either in English Garden Version or the original design. Both of the Tea Towel Time with Jane kits can also be woven on 4 shafts. The first 10 towels were woven in plain weave and 2/2 twill but I changed the tie-up for the last 2 towels. For you Turned Twill lovers, you could weave them all using the turned twill tie-ups provided. Just think of the pile of tea towels you could have in your gift stash for the busiest time of the year racing towards us 😉

Tea Towel Time with Jane – English Garden

Read More

Tea Towel Time with Jane – Original Design

Read More

Garibaldi Flats – 8 Shaft Version

Read More

Want to learn how to weave Turned Twill?

Our School of Weaving has you covered!
This kit has all you need to follow along with our Season 5 Episode 1 lesson.
Check out the videos right here!

Season 6 Episode 2 lesson on 8 Shaft Twill Block and Tie-up Quadrants Kit is also available!

School of Weaving
Watch anywhere, anytime!

iPhone   Apple TV   Android   Android TV  Fire TV  Roku ® Website

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 on Ravelry.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

April 5, 2022 newsletter

A Few Turned Twill Kits

Turned Twill and its 8 shaft tie-up variations are so much fun to weave! So, I thought it might be the perfect structure to immerse ourselves in during the last messy days of spring! The sun has been out in our world and the cherry blossoms are opening in pink clouds over our heads. However, on our coast, we know that rain is always on the horizon and that the perfect spot to avoid getting wet, is at our looms 😉

Kiki’s Bambu 8-Shaft Scarves Kit

A number of years ago, my friend Christel Knoth (and talented Salt Spring Island weaver) – aka Kiki – wove these scarves which then became a favourite project among our weavers! We decided it was time to “dust it off” and share it with you. For a quick fix of Turned Twill – we have the scarves available in a kit waiting for you.

Shop Kiki’s Bambu Kit

Garibaldi Flats 8 Shaft Turned Twill

Are you looking for a more practical project for exploring Turned Twill? These tea towels provide endless possibilities when playing with your treadling. The draft includes the simplest tie-up for Turned Twill but also includes an alternate tie-up should you want to change things up. There are just so darn many things that can be done with this weave structure!

Shop Garibaldi Flats 8 shaft kit

For Our 4 Shaft Friends…

Garibaldi Flats on 4 Shafts

Garibaldi Flats is inspired by the greys and white seen on the mountains in Garibaldi Provincial Park in our home province of British Columbia.

Weaving these simple twill towels can be quite a bit of fun if you play with the graphics in the overall pattern. Get out your notebook and pencil crayons and draw your stripes on the paper – then, have some fun coming up with ideas of how to create a different look for each towel. You can weave 8 unique canvases (tea towels) using the kit!

Shop Garibaldi Flats 4 shaft kit

From Our Inbox

Hanneke van Gorcum, from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, was inspired by Season 6: Episode 2 – 8 Shaft Twill Blocks and Tie-up Quadrants. Not only was she excited by the possibilities of this amazing structure but also by the Show and Tell.  Henneke was so inspired by Sharon Broadley’s scarves that she rushed off to design a table runner for Easter. Henneke thoughtfully sent us photos of this fabulous runner along with her thanks to Sharon and Jane for inspiring her!

Jane Stafford School of Weaving
Watch anywhere, anytime

website  iPhone   Apple TV   Android   Android TV  Fire TV  Roku ®

New episode was released last week, Monk’s Belt.
Watch our little trailer!

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.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

February 8th, 2022 newsletter

Louet David Loom III

We are so happy with the new Louet David Loom III and it’s new features. It is a beauty to weave and I just had to do a demonstration video about it 🙂

Check it out!

Louet David III Loom

A few Louet Loom accessories!

Lift Help for Spring II & David III looms

This Lift Help accessory for the Spring II & David III allows a user to lift the loom by oneself in order to install the extension legs which raise the loom approx 12” making it easier to access the treadles to do tie-ups.

Spring II and David III Loom Leg Extension

The Leg Extension Kit provides Spring II and David III users 4 leg extension poles which attach to the loom legs (4). The purpose is to raise the loom approx 12” to make accessing treadles for tie-ups easier. When used with the loom lifting device, a user can install the legs by oneself.

Spring II Treadle Kit

Want to increase your pattern capabilities? Add 2 extra treadles!

Spring warpbeam handle/brake drum upgrade kit

Want to upgrade your Spring I loom handle and brake drum? We have a few in stock!

Louet has made a lovely new handle for the warp beam. What a wrist saver! This new handle is standard on the new Spring II but they have also made it available as an accessory for the original Spring. Winding on the warp has never been easier.

please note: This handle will not fit on the David loom.

Louet David III Assembly Video

The new David III has an assembly video on Louet World Wide’s YouTube channel, a step by step instructions on how to put your new loom together.

Check it out to see how easy putting this loom together is!

From our JST Knowledge Base files

Ask Jane

New to 8 shafts and not sure how to tie up the treadles?
I have some questions about the treadle tie-up process, and how the 10 treadles might come into play. I have only had 4 shaft looms, so using 8/10 treadles feels quite different to me. Once I pick my pattern, get the threading going and then the tie-up, it will probably be much clearer. If not, I’ll be sure to ask for guidance.

Just think of all those extra treadles as your reserve forces. When you make the move to more pattern shafts you will need those treadles because you will have so many more options for tying them up in different sequences. Typically every loom has 2 more treadles than they have pattern shafts. Most 4 shaft looms have 4 shafts/6 treadles, 8 shaft looms have 8 shafts/10 treadles, 12 shaft looms have 12 shafts/14treadles etc. Eventually, the more shafts you have will limit how many treadles you can fit under a loom and that is why dobby looms are in existence. And that is another world …… Which you don’t need to think about yet :^)

I guess my thinking will shift as I become familiar with 8 Shaft patterns. On my previous loom, I generally had a direct tie-up with 4 treadles and used the other 2 for plain weave/tabby,  but now I can’t assume the ‘additional’ 2 on the Louet are used for tabby…right??

Here is an example of how treadles work on 4.  A twill requires 4 treadles:

One treadle tied up to 1 and 2
One tied up to 2 and 3
One tied up to 3 and 4
One tied up to 1and 4

Plus 2 leftover treadles for tabby.
For an eight shaft twill there are many more options for tying up your twill and you will have threaded your warp on all shafts so here is just one option:

1234
2345
3456
4567
5678
1678
1278

Plus 2 leftover for tabby
I would recommend getting the book The Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns by Carol Strickler. The world’s your oyster now.


Turned Twill Online Lesson

Are you a subscriber to School of Weaving and would like to weave Turned Twill on your 8 shaft loom but haven’t done the plunge yet? Check out Season 5 Episode 1 – Turned Twill! You’ll learn that Turned Twill is based on a 4 shaft weft and warp predominant tie-ups, that you can have 2 blocks on 8 shafts and the twill direction changes with blocks. You’ll also learn the importance of clean cut lines, how to change the tie-up to frame a block and to weave a quadrant in broken twill. Jane also shows us how to use a broken treadling that gives you False Damask. You can weave so many different colourways on one warp … you won’t believe it! Check out the episode right here 🙂

Just a heads up, our very next episode release for 2022 expands on our Turned Twill Episode where we will learn how to manipulate our tie-up box and consider it in quadrants. We’ll frame Lace with Twill, Plain Weave with Twill and play with graphic and colours. So much more coming up on February 24th!

Not a subscriber yet but want to check it out? We have a free 7-day trial! You can watch any episodes during your trial. Binge-watching time!

Try your FREE 7-day trial today!