fringes cut from weft floats.

When long weft floats are part of a weave structure, floats can be cut to give an interesting tactile surface to the weave. However, the weft pick has to be securely woven into the cloth before and after the float otherwise, it can easily be pulled out. Here are one or two hand cut examples.

On the left is an industrially produced design from an old Kendix collection.± 1982

The effect yarn gives decorative tufts and when woven in also show the quality of the effect yarn. This was designed to comply with the restrictions of the looms  at that time which used shuttles, which meant the floats couldn’t be too long or there would be a danger of the shuttle shooting out of the open sections of the weave. The loom could not weave pick  à pick so the effect yarn had to be two picks,

!n the sample above the blue weft has been cut through the middle to form fringes.

Using the same thead-uo and warp, in the sample below the blue and the pink floats have been left uncut.

Six samples in which the weft floats have been cut to give small fringes. In the two top right hand samples, the background cloth has blocks of hopsack for added interest..