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    • Yarn
      • All Yarn
      • Alpaca
      • Bamboo
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      • Weave and Sew
    • Weaving Tools
      • All Weaving Tools
      • Bobbins and Winders
      • Shuttles
      • Warping Tools
    • Weaving Patterns
      • All Weaving Patterns
      • Rigid Heddle Patterns
      • Plain Weave Patterns
      • Colour and Weave Patterns
      • Twill Patterns
      • Overshot Patterns
      • Double Weave Patterns
      • Guest Patterns
      • Weave and Sew Patterns
    • Sewing
    • Macrame
    • Natural Dyeing
    • Books
    • Gift Cards
  • Online Courses
    • 4 Shaft Weaving
    • Rigid Heddle Weaving
  • Workshops
  • Our Studio
    • Contact Us
    • About
    • Artist Residency
      • About
      • Past Residents
      • Apply
    • FAQ
  • Resources
    • Project Planning
      • Weaving Terms
      • Reed Substitution Chart
      • Sett Chart
    • Weaving Tips
      • How to Beat
      • How to Improve a Small Shed
      • How to Weave with Wool: 10 Tips
      • How to Determine the Right Sett
    • Equipment Tips
      • All About Shuttles
      • Loom Maintenance Checklist
Home Weaving Education

Weaving Education

Understanding Sett: The tools you need to be confident choosing the best sett for your next project

Understanding Sett: The tools you need to be confident choosing the best sett for your next project

February 01, 2021

“Sett” is one of those fabulous old-fashioned weaving words that might seem strange at first, but refers to something pretty simple: how many strands of warp yarn there are in a single inch of weaving width. Because sett describes how many warp ends there are in an inch, it is commonly expressed using the term “ends per inch” or “epi” for short. A project with a sett of 20 epi, for example, has 20 warp ends in each inch of weaving while the project is on the loom.

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How to Improve Your Shed: Practical solutions for improving a small (or non existent) shed

How to Improve Your Shed: Practical solutions for improving a small (or non existent) shed

February 01, 2021

You’ve done all the hard work of setting up warp and dressing your loom. You sit down and press a treadle (or flick a table loom lever) to throw that satisfying first pick and
 nothing happens. The threads just sit there. Or maybe they open a little, but certainly not enough to throw a shuttle through comfortably. You, my friend, have a small (or missing) shed.

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How to Beat: Improving accuracy and consistency when weaving

How to Beat: Improving accuracy and consistency when weaving

February 01, 2021

‘Beating’ is one of those weaving words that sounds much more dramatic than it really is. Each time a weaver throws a line (or ‘pick’) of weft, they need to push that weft into place to make a clean and even grid. This is called beating the weft. On a multi-shaft loom, you beat by swinging the beater bar towards you. On a rigid heddle loom, you use the rigid heddle reed to beat the weft. Some styles of weaving, like tapestry weaving and some rug weaving, require a special tool called a hand beater, which is a heavy wooden comb used for heavy beating. The tools are different, but the goal is the same: to get each pick of weft exactly where it needs to be.

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Choosing a Shuttle: How to decide on the best shuttle for your next project

Choosing a Shuttle: How to decide on the best shuttle for your next project

February 01, 2021

Every shuttle is a work of art. Finding the one that’s perfect for your hand and your weaving style is a joy! Gather stocks over a dozen models of shuttle so that you can find your shuttle soulmate. Get started on the hunt with this handy shuttle guide.

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How to Weave (Nearly) Perfect Selvedges on your Rigid Heddle Loom

How to Weave (Nearly) Perfect Selvedges on your Rigid Heddle Loom

December 08, 2020

Selvedges. If you’ve woven any length of time at all, you’ve heard people fret over them, brag about them, or trade all sorts of miracle cures for making them perfect. Double thread the final slot! Always end in holes! Add a strand of fishing line to either side! And my personal favourite: stop after every pick of weft and tug each loopy edge tight with a fork! If one of these selvedge tricks works for you, by all means, enjoy it and enjoy weaving. But you don’t need any “hacks” to consistently produce clean, satisfying edges on your woven pieces. 


What do you need? Focus, practice, and a spirit of experimentation. 


Whether you’re weaving on a Cricket, a Flip, or any other loom, the basics of good selvedges remain the same: when you pass your weft through, do it at a slight angle or in a gentle “bubble” shape.This leaves enough length for the weft to travel over and under the warp threads. Be sure that the weft is snugly wrapped around the far edge of the warp before beating to prevent loopy edges. Beat evenly.


Simple enough, but while we weave, our minds wander. We start getting a bit sloppy, or picking up bad habits without noticing. Before we know it, half our scarf is fine and the rest makes us want to take a pair of sharp scissors to it. That’s where attention comes in. While you weave, be mindful of what you’re doing. Pay attention to your hands. Do you pull harder with your dominant hand? Many weavers do. Does this make a better selvedge for you, or a worse one? Can you copy it with your ‘off’ hand? Get curious about your habits!


How to Succeed: Turn off the TV, turn down the podcast, banish your cats or your children to another room (at least for a little while). Mute your phone so that it doesn’t interrupt your focus. Weave at a time of day where you have good energy and enough light. And be gentle with yourself! Getting stressed about your selvedges makes your body tense which translates into, ironically, bad selvedges. 



Once you’ve taken some time to pay extra attention to your weaving? Keep going. Everything worth learning takes practice. For beginner weavers, the key is not only practicing weaving, but practicing all of the steps that lead up to it: measuring a warp, winding on, and lashing on with firm, even tension. Check that your warp separator is thick enough to do its job (if it isn’t, your warp beam will bulge in the middle like a cigar). Use your hand to feel for uneven tension when you are lashing on, and adjust before you start weaving. About 80% of your selvedge quality is determined by how good your set up is. You can still weave bad selvedges on a good warp, but you have to work really hard at it! 


How to succeed: Aim for quick, satisfying projects that you can get off the loom in a few days or weeks. Put the extra-long, extra-fine tea towel projects on the back burner. The more you can practice warping inda dddrelatively short period of time, the better you will remember what you learn. Keep notes on what you did (solo warping? help from a friend? lashing on?) so that you can identify what makes a project turn out fabulously well and do more of it!



And finally, give yourself permission to experiment! 
thoughtfully. Remember high school science, where you learned that you need to control all the variables in an experiment except for the one you’re testing? The same thing goes for weaving. There are many different ways of warping, winding, and lashing on that are all capable of producing beautiful selvedges. Trying different ones is the only way to figure out what’s best for you. But if you change several variables for every project, you’ll have no way to know which one did the trick! Was your tension better because you solo warped this time? Was lashing on in smaller bundles the trick? Or was it just that wool is more forgiving than the cotton you used last time? Make changes slowly and intentionally, and add the results to that notebook you started. Make your craft room your laboratory.


How to Succeed: Keep it simple. Weave similar projects with similar fibre so that you can see the impact of your techniques. Keep a notebook (have I mentioned that yet?). 


Rigid Heddle looms are simple tools, but there’s a lot of art to how we use them. If you’re willing to put in some extra work up front, your projects will start to fly off the loom. Clean selvedges aren’t an end in themselves. They are, however, a good indication that a weaver has put conscious effort into mastering the foundations of their craft, from preparing the warp to throwing each pick.

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