Pillow Sampler Weave-along Day 1

October 5, 2020

Welcome to Day 1 of the Weave-along!

Today we’ll cover: Clasped Weft

Materials & equipment:

• 2 shuttles
• 2 colors of weft yarn about half the weight of the rest of your weft (because it’s doubled)

Stephanie warped her project with our Rocky Mountain Meadow yarn at 8 epi, 13.5″ wide in the reed, 108 ends. She used a warping peg and the direct warping method to warp her Flip with a 56″ long warp.* She lined up colors while threading the slots and holes so stripes would appear in the warp.

* Factor in your loom waste before you measure the warp. On a rigid heddle loom, you can weave almost to end of your warp. On a shaft loom, you may need to add length to the warp. Tie on to the front apron bar using knots with very short tails to minimize loom waste.

If you generally need more than 20″ for take-up and waste, but you already measured a 56″ warp, don’t fret: weave each section a little shorter and make your pillow a little smaller.

There’s no hemstitching in this project, because the woven fabric will be sewn on a sewing machine. However, if you would like to use hemstitching on your pillow, please see our how-to video below.

Spreading the warp: With heddle up, weave a pick and leave a 6″ tail. Move the heddle to down position without beating and weave another pick. Wind the shuttle yarn around the weft tail. Move heddle to up position and weave another pick. Now beat. At the topmost pick, you can see that the warp is evenly spread. This method for spreading the warp works best when bundles tied onto the apron bar are small, about 1″.

Weave a header for 1/2″. Stephanie used color 1 to spread the warp and to weave the header, so the tail for color 1 has been woven in.

Start clasped weft:

1. Weave a pick from the right with color 1.
2. Loop color 2 at the left selvedge.
3. Without changing sheds, insert the shuttle with color 1 into the shed and move it back to the right selvedge.
4. Pull on color 1 to the right—this draws color 2 into the weaving. Stop pulling when color 2 reaches a point that you like.
5. Bubble both colors in the shed to keep selvedges neat. Beat.
6. Change sheds. On the second pick, weave in the tail for color 2.

Repeat steps 1 through 6 for 3-1/2″. Shape and move the places where the colors meet however you like. You can even create curves with clasped weft if you work it over a large area.

To weave in tails at the end of a clasped weft section: leave the shed open. Wrap each tail around the selvedge end, then set in the shed for about 1″ and let tails hang down—you’ll trim them after washing.

We can’t wait to see you tomorrow! If you have questions, you can post them in the Pillow Sampler Weave-along Facebook Group. Join Here.

In the meantime…

Print the Tomie dePaola Coloring Page here: https://resources.schachtspindle.com/pdfs/S&W%20week%20coloring.pdf

Enjoy our first weaver rock star interview
with Deborah Chandler

Deborah Chandler has been teaching weavers for over 36 years through her book Learning to Weave. She has also taught countless people to weave through her workshops, classes, and Handwoven articles. Deborah moved to Guatemala in 2000 where she worked with the fair-trade organization Mayan Hands until her retirement in 2012. She has written three books about Guatemalan weavers and textiles: Guatemalan Woven Wealth: Preserving a Rich Textile Tradition (2009, with Ray Senuk), Traditional Weavers of Guatemala: Their Stories, Their Lives (2015, with Teresa Cordón), and A Textile Traveler’s Guide to Guatemala (2019). She blogs at Weaving Futures With Deborah Chandler.

Interview highlights

• founding Spinning & Weaving Week in 1981
• returning to weaving
• weaving in Guatemala
• learning as a weaver
• handweaving gifts
• how weaving helps

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