I wove up the first motif last night, and have been having trouble with my selvedges.  ( I also made a couple of mistakes but we won't go into that, hmmmmm)

anyway, to cut a long story short, by the time I got to the second half of the motif, I noticed that the white threads were not covering the orange weft as much as I thought they had ( I have no idea if this white is mercerised or not) and as you can see, the selvedges are drawing in. I'm about to change colour and do the motif in reverse. I know the black cotton is mercerised so hopefully I won't have the same problem with my selvedges.

Which is a long winded way of saying does anyone with belt weaving experience, know of any tricks to stop the selvedges narrowing?

And for those who wonder why I don't know my cottons, they all came from thrift shops because our regular shops that sell yarn don't stock cotton ( its winter, its very, very expensive, and usually imported), and we don't have LYS like you do in the States.

Comments

Sun, 08/23/2009 - 11:31

WillingtonWeaver (not verified)

Hello I usually pull my weft in as tight as I can so that I get a good firm braid!

All I can suggest is that after you've changed sheds, but before you send the shuttle throught the new shed give the weft a bit of a tug.  This will keep the selvedges nice and neat and prevent that irritating bobble at the edge where the last end bulges out to show the weft.

Hope this is of use.  It's a very nice pattern by the way!

Alison

Sun, 08/23/2009 - 12:20

bolivian warmi

Yes, as Willingtonweaver says, give your weft a little tug before you pass your shuttle through the shed.

When you are pulling your weft through.......stop when there is a loop of about 3cm left to go through. If you are passing your weft from right to left, pinch the right edge of your warp hard with your right hand-this will force the edge warps to stay straight and stiff and stops them from bending or pulling out of shape in any way when the weft snugs up against it.

So you pinch the edge with your right hand and then go pulling your weft through slowly with your left until you feel it just touch the outside warp.

Congratulations on your double weave!!!!

Sun, 08/23/2009 - 14:19

Caroline (not verified)

hi Alison, thank you for your comment. I'd tried to do that, but you know what its like when you are learning something new, the stuff you already know can go straight out the window if you're not careful, lol!

My efforts this evening have improved and its looking a lot better. The back looks far neater than the front, not so many odd bits of weft showing, so the final photo will be taken of the back view.

Good night all.

Sun, 08/23/2009 - 14:32

WillingtonWeaver (not verified)

I'm glad you're improving, and yes it's very easy to lose yourself in the excitement of the moment!

Tue, 09/01/2009 - 18:12

bolivian warmi

A WORD ON EDGES...............

Once of the hardest things as a novice weaver is keeping the edges straight and even. The weaver either pulls the weft through the shed too hard or too loosely. This photo shows how your weft should look up against the edges. I used a different color weft to the edge warps so you can see clearly how each weft is positioned. I got this idea fromTiia who is using a contrast color weft in the double weave weave-along.

To stop yourself from pulling the weft in too hard and bending the edge warps out of shape, you should pinch the edge hard with one hand as you draw the warp through with the other. This pinching will not let the warps bend out of shape. When you feel the weft just bump up against the edge warp you can let go and the weft should be ideally positioned.

it also helps a lot to give the weft a tug at the edge BEFORE you pass the shuttle through.