Ask Madelyn: Where to Put Floating Selvedge

Hi Madelyn, I like using a floating selvedge in my weavings.  I thread it singly through the reed and not through the heddles, weighting it at the back of the loom.  I’m doing a scarf in 8/2 Tencel, 24 epi, threaded 2 per dent in a 12-dent reed. The total threads for the pattern are 159 plus 2 for the floating selvedges, 161 threads, so, this means I will have either 2 threads in a dent (one being the floating selvedge) or have a single pattern thread in one dent followed by the floating selvedge in a separate dent on one edge of the cloth. Does it matter which way I decide to go?  I’m thinking it really doesn’t matter.  What are your thoughts? – Victoria

Hi Victoria!

The truth is that it probably doesn’t matter, especially with a smooth yarn like Tencel. However, I usually put the floating selvedge in a dent by itself. When it is in a dent with another thread, it can sometimes cling to that thread a bit and be a little harder to distinguish. It takes its proper place in the middle of the shed and is easier to see/feel when it is sleyed in its own dent. Any irregularity in sleying order that might be caused by having the last dent before the floating selvedge sleyed a bit differently from the rest of the warp is not a problem. The threads at the edge crowd a bit more closely together no matter how they are sleyed.