Ask Madelyn: More About Floating Selvedges

More about floating selvedges...

In last week’s post, I recommended entering each shed by passing the shuttle over the floating selvedge and exiting the shed by passing the shuttle under it. I pointed out that sometimes this order causes the last thread in the warp to weave with the adjacent floating selvedge on one side, thereby producing a doubled thread on that edge. By changing the shuttle’s behavior, I pointed out, you can eliminate the doubled thread (either by going over both floating selvedges in one direction and then under both floating selvedges in the opposite direction or the reverse of that). I thought it might be hard in that case always to remember which one you were supposed to do next. (What was I thinking!)

Photo A: Left Selvedge

Photo B: Doubled

Photo C: Fixed

This situation came up in my very next warp. In Photo B, on the right side of the cloth, the edge warp thread weaves with the floating selvedge, and the contrast in warp and weft colors causes the doubling to show. To shift the shuttle’s behavior to avoid this doubling, I passed the shuttle over both floating selvedges when entering the shed from the left and under both floating selvedges when entering the shed from the right. In order to exit over a floating selvedge, I had to lower it with a finger of my catching hand, but this turned out to be easy to do and became automatic in a short time. The easiest part was remembering which one to do: over both from the left, under both from the right.