Selvedges

Rule of thumb: the narrower the fabric, the straighter the selvedges need to be.

This was something I was thinking about this morning as I wove a scarf that will be featured in Berroco’s Knitbits e-newsletter next month. What I noticed as my hands passed the shuttle back and forth was that even when I was weaving plain weave on my Flip loom, I couldn’t just proceed mindlessly. I had to engage, pay attention. Was my beat even? Were my selvedges straight and not drawing in? Were there any skips? Though my thoughts wandered to other tasks of the day, I constantly returned to my hands. I like this back and forth. And as I thought about the new weavers who will try this project, I was reminded of the challenges of the beginner to keep the selvedges straight and the beat even. Weaving with my experienced hands, these things happen almost automatically, though not without paying attention. I think it’s one reason weaving appeals to me.

As word of encouragement to new weavers with wavy edges, I suggest you compare your technique from one end of the scarf to the other. This examination will reveal that you’ve improved. And if you compare each successive project, you’ll see that these too have improved. This is encouraging and challenging. My mother Dorothy’s “Practice makes perfect,” admonishment to me as I ran through my scales on the piano certainly applies to weaving as well.

Christy's Scarf

I wanted to share with you the scarf Christy wove during my Weave-A-Scarf-in-a-Day class at my LYS, Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins. Christy works in our accounting department at Schacht and took the class I was teaching at Shuttles. For some weaving newbies, their selvedges and beat are even from the start. Christy is just this kind of new weaver. She’s getting her first rigid heddle loom (the Schacht Flip Folding Loom) and I’m looking forward to where she goes from here. Her enthusiasm reminds me of the excitement I felt when I first started weaving. Can you still remember the thrill of it all?
You’ll find the instructions for this woven and felted scarf in the Schacht Winter 2008 on-line newsletter. Just go to www.schachtspindle.com and click on “Recent Issue”. It’s easy to subscribe.