This past weekend I ended up doing some tabletweaving in the park during our weekly fighter practice. Someone watched me for a while and then commented that although they’d done tabletweaving before they hadn’t dealt with the weft the same way that I do..so I figured it might be worthwhile to document how I deal with my weft.
I honestly don’t remember where I originally learned about this method. I’ve been using it for the last 9-10 years. This is what I do to keep my band width consistent and to keep my weft from peeking out too much at the edges.
Weft thread lying loose in the shed.
Weft thread pulled close to the woven band just as I’m starting to turn the cards.
Cards have been turned, thread is trapped. Wooden weaving sword (spare shuttle) in the shed to bead down the previous weft.
After the shed is beat. Notice the loop hanging off the edge of the band.
This loop is held down (towards the weaving) to prevent any funny loops/twists while the weft thread is pulled taut. Pull until the loop is gone and the band is compact. Don’t pull too tight or your band width will vary.
First pass is complete. Now passing the shuttle through the new shed for the next pass.
2 thoughts on “Tabletweaving Technique: Weft management”
Hiya,
I’ve just stumbled onto your blog via Google, and wanted to thank you for the patterns and info you’ve shared.
One thing – I’m interested in the look if the loom you’re using in the pix, but can’t see enough of it to work out the structure properly. I’m demonstrating at a couple of our county shows this year, and I’d like to find an inexpensive type of loom – possibly to make myself – so I can have several for people to have a go on. I use an inkle myself, but can’t afford to buy half a dozen of them! Could you possibly give me some info about your loom please – it looks small, portable and easy to set up, so would be ideal, especially if it’s one you made yourself.
Many thanks
Ann
Hiya,
I’ve just stumbled onto your blog via Google, and wanted to thank you for the patterns and info you’ve shared.
One thing – I’m interested in the look if the loom you’re using in the pix, but can’t see enough of it to work out the structure properly. I’m demonstrating at a couple of our county shows this year, and I’d like to find an inexpensive type of loom – possibly to make myself – so I can have several for people to have a go on. I use an inkle myself, but can’t afford to buy half a dozen of them! Could you possibly give me some info about your loom please – it looks small, portable and easy to set up, so would be ideal, especially if it’s one you made yourself.
Many thanks
Ann
Hi Ann,
The loom in these pictures is my simple board loom. I put up an entry about the loom here: https://research.fibergeek.com/2014/03/04/simple-board-loom/