Twill Selvedge

[The problem: selvedge floats]

At the beginning of almost every beam it becomes clear once again that I'm really just an apprentice. This time, I failed to think all the way through the selvedges on an overall pointed twill cloth.

Ordinarily, I would just look for the harness that's always changing when the shuttle is on that edge, and use it as the outermost thread in the selvedge. With a pointed twill it's more complicated because there's no one shaft that fits the bill. The shaft that catches in the right-sloping section is skipped entirely in the left-sloping section. So I decided to add two shafts just for the selvedges.

Then I remembered that a tabby selvedge would not work. Tabby requires more thread, less tension, however you want to say it. I would have ended up breaking threads all the time so I designed a three thread 2/2 twill selvedge to match the rest of the cloth. It has a maximum float of three threads, too. (That's why it's so narrow.)

[My selvedge draft in Excel]

The important feature of this design is that the outermost thread always changes position when the shuttle is on that side. This makes sure that the weft interlocks and doesn't leave edge floats. A few hours after designing this, I had the loom rigged up with two more shafts.

[See the two almost empty shafts? I had to add heddles just to bear the return spring tension.]

It worked! The selvedges are just beautiful - smooth and acceptably even with no floats.

[Woven with the three thread selvedge]

It's not a perfect solution in that it has me lifting an unequal number of shafts on each pick. This makes for muscle strain as I anticipate the weight. It's good enough for now.

Does anyone know of a better solution? This still seems kind of makeshift to me.

[Pretty Navy Twill]