The present invention relates to the weaving of cloth. In particular the invention relates to a method of making weaving shuttles for hand weaving looms.

A weaving shuttle is used as part of the process of weaving cloth. The shuttle is wound with thread or yarn, and then repeatedly passed between alternating threads on a loom to create the woven cloth. Many different designs for shuttle exist, covering a range of applications from high volume production equipment to small hand weaving sample looms. The present invention relates specifically to use in hand weaving.

At present, all shuttles for hand weaving exist as single elements, which must be manually wound with thread or yarn before use. If multiple colours are required to create a pattern in a weaving, each shuttle must be individually wound, a time consuming and laborious process. Accordingly, the exists a requirement for a more efficient method of loading shuttles with thread or yarn.

Accordingly, there is provided and set of shuttles comprising: A number of shuttles cut from a single piece of rigid material, joined by a perforated feature allowing the individual shuttles to be broken off the single sheet as required. The advantage of this system is that whilst joined, every shuttle on the single piece can be wound at the same time using a simple rotating winder, thus greatly reducing the amount of time and labour to prepare the shuttles for weaving.

In the presented embodiment of the invention, the shuttle material is thick cardboard, however it could be made from any suitable material without affecting the claims of this application.

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of an embodiment thereof, given by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

• FIG 1. shows the front view of set of shuttles joined together in a sheet
• FIG 2. shows an individual shuttle as separated from the sheet
• FIG 3. shows an isometric view of a set of shuttles as joined together in a sheet, and wound with yarn ready for use

Referring now to the drawings and initially to Figure 1, there is illustrated a sheet of shuttles, in the iteration presented as a set of five, but could consist of any number of shuttles in a similar configuration. The dashed lines visible reresent a series of perforations, thus weakening the structure of the card along this line, allowing it to be broken or torn along these lines, thus allowing the individual shuttles to be separated from each other, either before or after they are wound with yarn.

Referring to Figure 2, this shows a single shuttle as separated from the main card, without any yarn or thread wound on to clarify the illustration.

Referring to Figure 3, this shows the main card card as wound with a thread or yarn, illustrating the anticipated embodiment of the invention, ready for the individual wound shuttle to be broken from the main sheet ready for use.