One of the most versatile adds to your weaving equipment is the shuttle. Saori Looms come with one boat shuttle but two can be very handy in working on the loom. Traditional advice for weavers advocated at least two shuttles with the same size in the hand to create a more efficient weaving process but also a better experience in weaving. You can actually ‘fall in love’ with a shuttle or two! Beautiful tools that make your life more enjoyable.

I have used many boat shuttles from different makers over the years and the Swedish Glimakra ones were great for me. But I do now use the Saori medium shuttles a lot because they are nice in the hand as I throw them too.

Two shuttles are needed for blended colour work and combining colour/texture in unpredictable ways in the cloth. But with our two shaft Saori looms you can use them to create faux double layer weaving. This technique is great for looms that only produce two shaft plain weave.

Fill a shuttle with a yarn that you would like as the ground/main weave. I used a fine wool here. Fill the other shuttle with a thicker yarn (or doubled plus). In each row weave the ground weave and the other shuttle but let the second shuttle float over some of the weave. See above that the floats from the second shuttle are on the top, separate to the ground weave.

Those floaty jumps can now be cut or create your own wrapping or even another manual weaving through them.

This is just an idea for how to use the two shuttles to create another dimension in your work. I know you’ll have your own ideas and you can use this to expand your Saori practice.