Do floating selvedges make everything better?
After fretting about draw-in, I decided that for me, floating selvedges really do make everything better.
I made use of my (first-ever!) empty cones to weight the floating selvedges...and since I only have 3 empty cones, I used an empty paper towel roll.
I know film canisters are also popular selvedge weights, but, film is so last century! (Although, I bet if I rummage around there are a few stray film canisters somewhere.)
I don't know if these floating selvedges are helping me....beyond my belief in their almost mythic properties! At least they helped me get out of dithering mode and start weaving the first towel on this warp!!
Remember to count your heddles, Sue!!!
Even though the article I read about huck before I started this project said very clearly to count the heddles needed on each shaft for lace weaves......
Even though I actually made a note that I consulted every time I sat down to work.....
Even though Fiberworks actually provides a heddle count.....
What did I do???
Said to myself "Bah, I'm just doing a bitty towel. I'm sure I have plenty of heddles on each shaft."
Plus, for extra rationalization, I thought "Well, I don't really know for sure how to do this threading until I actually do it." Which has some truth to it....
As you can see from the picture, I had only two heddles left on shaft two! Close call!!
I did read a tip in Handwoven that I could use one of the unused shafts on my loom in addition to shaft 2 to provide those heddles. The workaround for this wouldn't have been awful.
But I'm promising myself I'll count next time!! Really....I promise!
10 comments:
Better 2 too many than 2 too few (despite available workarounds)! It's looking good.
Sue, great looking towels! I've had to add heddles
mid project. It's fussy work but can be done.
MUCH better to have just enough! ;-)
floating selvedges shouldn't help with draw-in. They should help when the weft doesn't turn consistently on the threading at each edge, as in a twill treadling.
Have you ever looked at Sandra Rude's cool temple solution?
http://sandrarude.blogspot.com/2007/06/using-temple.html
You can also use empty softdrink bottles as weights. If you need strong tension, you can fill a little water :-)
Glad to know other people have survived having to add heddles....even though I just publicly promised to count in the future....I might break that promise sometime!
Yeah - these floating selvedges are mostly helping me feel more confident - and are adding a slight bit of width to the outer two stripes in this warp - so they're a little wider....but I do have a bit of draw-in. An acceptable bit though.
That Sandra Rude temple idea is cool. It seems nicer to the cloth than those pointy temples!
Good tip on the soft drink bottles. My husband has quite the collection of water bottles that he re-uses....I'm sure he wouldn't notice if I snagged a couple of them!!
Thanks for the encouragement!!
Sue
Hi, Sue, I guess I came in in the middle of your project but why are you using floating heddles? Just asking : )
Q: Why am I using floating selvedges??
A: This warp has 3 panels separated by pink stripes. There are 4 pink stripes - all 17 threads wide. The two selvedge stripes appear a little thinner than the two middle stripes due to draw-in.
I added floating selvedges to make the outer stripes wider. And because I like floating selvedges. I know several quite accomplished weavers who use floating selvedges on everything - even if they don't need it to help with the threading at the edge.
I considered adding several threads to those edge stripes, but didn't want to unbeam the warp and didn't want to have multiple threads hanging off the back of the loom. (Mostly out of laziness....er, energy conservation)
In this older post, you can see a bit more of what I'm talking about, and the comments have a bunch of different approaches.
I'm definitely still working on both the techniques of weaving, and learning about design for weaving.
With this project, I suspect that a design change to those outer pink stripes might have been helpful.
I'll be cutting the first towel off the loom sometime this week, and finishing it, to see how it turns out.
Thanks for your interest!
Sue
Sounds like you're very meticulous and I'm sure that the towels will be beautifully made. I've never using floating selvedges so I will look forward to reading how your experiment works out.
I also like using floating selvedges. For some strange reason I seem to get better selvedges when I use them.
Counting heddles. Nothing more frustration than not having enough heddles!!! One of the few things I try to do on all my projects.
Love your colors.
Hi Sue. A few thoughts about your towels, which look nice on the loom.
- If you look at your draft (at least as I see it) your selvage edges are plain weave. Therefore, the floating selvages won't help at all. They'll just slow you down.
- One of the best ways to minimize draw in is to make sure you have a 20-30 degree angle to your weft when you throw the shuttle and make sure you aren't pulling the shuttle back with the beater (I throw the shuttle and actually lift it a little and bring the beater in under it).
- Finally, when you throw the shuttle, make sure you throw it well past the end of the warp so that when you throw it back the other way you have plenty of slack. That way the weft won't start pulling on the selvage until it is part way through the shed. This has less of a pull on the selvage.
- That said, you can't avoid draw in, even with a temple. If you need a wider border, add some threads to the warp in the border area. Experience will help you figure out how much.
Good luck!
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