1 + 1 = 1? How weaving defies mathematics
Here is a little bit of weaving trivia for you; when does one plus one equal one? This seems impossible, based on what we’re taught in grade school. However, one plus one DOES equal one when you are talking about warps and tying a new warp onto an old one. There are many reasons to […]
How to choose the best reed (and sleying order) when the perfect reed is not available
Many weavers have a limited number of reeds available to them. If you have a 12 dent reed, and the project you are working on has a 24 epi Sett, you simply sley 2 ends in each dent. Easy peasy! What happens if you DON’T have the perfect reed available? Example 1: Anne Hiemstra ran […]
How can I fix twill floats that are too long?
When a twill’s floats are too long, the solution is to change the float lengths in its tie-up. “But tie-ups don’t have floats!” you say? You’re quite right: a tie-up doesn’t have actual floats. A tie-up is the connections between the shafts and treadles that make the sheds required while weaving, and those connections don’t […]
What to do when you haven’t got enough heddles on a shaft
A question came up in a Facebook group from a weaver who wanted to use a huck threading like this… …but she didn’t have enough heddles on Shafts 1 and 4. If she was working with a four shaft loom, she would be limited to either moving heddles, or adding repair heddles to Shafts 1 […]
Making and Fixing Spaghetti
No matter what the actual topic of my in-person weaving classes happens to be, there’s always someone who says that some random, unrelated tip is the best thing they’ve learned that day. It’s usually a tip for fixing a problem that they’ve struggled with several times, and more often than not it’s this simple trick […]
Design with me: Kathy’s Snow Dyed Warp, Part 2
Last week, I explained my dye process and showed the warp I’ll be working with. This week I beamed the warp, so follow along with me and learn: First I needed to decide what order I wanted the chains in. Because I “winged it” for this warp, without much planning, I did not take the […]
Colour your Heddles!
Have you ever started threading a project, and JUUUUST before you finish, you realise that you don’t have enough heddles on one or more shafts? This can happen for a few reasons. You might have made a mistake in your threading, or an error in your calculations. Most likely though, you made an error in […]
Using a Trapeze
This blog was written by Sue Willingham. Each year, about this time, I’m preparing the looms in my studio for a three day class that Janet and I call “Towelapalooza”. All ten looms in my studio are pre-warped with ten different drafts, checked, and ready to weave on when folks arrive. Since we have up […]
No Fuss Floating Selvedges
I’m not a fan of floating selvedges. Moving their weights, separating them from the threaded ends they’re next to, lifting them up to go under or pushing them down to go over – that all detracts from my weaving experience. Anything that slows me down and interrupts my weaving zen irritates me every single time. […]
Save your selvedges!
It isn’t unusual to hear a weaver say “My selvedge(s) keep fraying and breaking!” This is an issue that often is caused by a combination of yarn/weave/threading that results in the outermost thread on one side of the warp slowly unplying, while the twin thread on the other side of the warp is slowly plying […]
