When you move beyond plain weave into more complex patterns, you’ll eventually run into a common frustration – the weft yarn simply refuses to catch the outer warp thread.
You enter the shed with the shuttle, beat the pick, and then realise your yarn hasn’t wrapped around the outer edge warp thread.
If you ignore this, your selvedges will become wonky, unstable, and downright messy!
Fortunately, achieving neat edges in this situation is easy once you know the trick.
Regardless of whether you are using a multi shaft loom or a rigid heddle loom, there is a quick and simple fix to keep your weaving tidy!
If you continue to weave, your edges will be wonky and they will be unstable.
Fortunately, there is a quick and easy fix to this problem!
You could add floating selvedges and ensure that you go around them between each woven pick.
OR
You can go around the edge thread manually, which is really, really simple.
Usually, if you’re weaving a repeating pattern, the problem will occur on the same side, in the same shed. For me, on this particular pattern, it was the down shed.
By simply entering the shed by first going over the edge thread, you fix the problem. The weft yarn wraps around the edge warp thread, and all is right with the world again.
In these photos I am weaving my downloadable pattern, the Rainbow Lap Blanket. I designed this pattern for little loom weavers who crave to weave something large and also for those who are in a cold part of the world and wish to snuggle up with something bright and warm. I hope you love it as much as I do!
Oh, before I forget, there is a companion video to this post, just in case you need to see how it all works!
Until next time…
Happy Weaving!
Hi Kelly,
Thank you for an interesting explanation. I can see your answer to readers’ comments, but their comments aren’t appearing on my screen, I would love to see the video, but it to does not appear on my screen either.
Kind regards,
Jane
Thanks for pointing that out Jane, the video link had vanished! I’ve put it back now, so you should be able to access it 😊
Yes, they are long-ish floats, but it's fine, the fabric is completely stable 🙂
It looks like you have floats going under 5 threads; does that not cause a problem on the backside of a cloth? I'm new to weaving but I know what floats do in a knitted garment so I'm curious.
Thanks for watching, Marjan!
Beautiful explanation! The video is handy to go along with this blog (I am more a watcher and listnener than a reader.😉)
Thanks Kelly.🌷