Indholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2015 i Handwoven

Many of us have heard that there are two types of weavers: color/texture people and structure/pattern people. If you read Madelyn van der Hoogt’s descriptions of their weaving habits, you might see yourself in one category or the other. But I had the pleasure of meeting with the Handweavers Guild of Boulder in April, and during that visit, it struck me that we are all texture people. At the show-and-tell portion of the guild meeting,the presenter said “What you can’t see from your seats is the wonderful ‘hand’ of these pieces, so come up during the break and feel them.” Later, at lunch, we talked about how many of us start with the look and feel of the yarn when we plan a project. After lunch, Elizabeth Shoeman, guild president,…

INSPIRED BY HANDWOVEN I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the Sett Fiesta Runner and Shawl project in your May/June 2014 issue. I had been looking for a weave structure that would give me the loosely woven style of scarf that is so popular now, and this draft was perfect. The added fun of this project was the notion that I could let go of lining up weaving structure changes with color changes in the warp and weft. Besides making the project much less stressful, it turned out to be great for using up stash. I was able to combine fibers of roughly the same weights—I even combined yarns of different fiber content—and everything seemed to work. Thanks so much for another great inspiration! —Robin Frasier, via…

Are you looking for some fun fiberrelated activities to attend? Check out this small selection from our online calendar. You can find additional information about conferences, festivals, classes, and more on weavingtoday.com. June 13–14. The 25th Annual Estes Park Wool Market will be held at the fairgrounds in Estes Park, Colorado. Along with the usual demonstrations, vendors, and woolly animals to ogle, this year’s market will also feature the free Wooly Wonder Fashion show. For more information on the market and premarket workshops, go to www.colorado.gov/townofestespark/signatureevents. June 18–20. The Weavers Guild of Minnesota will host the 2015 Midwest Weavers Conference “Urban Fiber with a Minnesota Twist” at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. The event features exhibits, tours, and a fashion show, as well as a selection…

On March 18, at the Montana Historical Society Museum in Helena Montana Mary Biehl, the great granddaughter of Mary Meigs Atwater, spoke to a crowd. She gave a lovely lecture entitled “Mary Meigs Atwater’s Shuttle-Craft Weaving Guild (1916–1946) and Black Beaver Fur Farms (1928–1932): The Successes and Failures of a Montana Businesswoman.” A small group of the weavers and spinners of the guild were able to attend what ended up being a wonderful retelling of the amazing life of a pioneering woman. Atwater resided in Butte and Basin, Montana, while pulling together her life’s work of weaving, which meant many guild members had known her personally. It was so lovely to listen to these members explain how they had taken lessons from her. So close did one member live to…

Jeane Pierre Larochette with Yael Lurie BERKELY, CALIFORNIA: GENESIS PRESS. 2014, PAPERBACK, 368 PAGES, $30. The careers of the tapestry weaver, Jean Pierre Larochette, and his wife, the artist/designer, Yael Lurie, are interwoven in this dual memoir. He envisioned their story as “a tree with branches symbolizing the family, friends, places, and experiences that have shaped our lives.” Beyond a simple autobiography, this book is also a travel journal of the peripatetic couple, a love story, the history of the Aubusson tapestry tradition, and a how-to book on living lives dedicated to art. Weaving words, Larochette and Lurie tell the story of a Spanish-speaking man from Patagonia, born to Swiss-French parents, and a Hebrew-speaking kibbutz-raised woman from Israel, born to Lithuanian parents, who had no common language when they met…

What I call “crimp-cloth” is a form of woven shibori that uses heat-setting to create permanent texture in the cloth. From a hobby weaver and workshop junkie who wanted to try every weave structure out there, I have evolved into a crimp-cloth addict. All those years spent learning about weave structures has paid off , as they helped me understand how any structure can be crimped. Once you understand the process for making crimp-cloth, the possibilities are limited only by your creativity and imagination. This scarf was inspired by the plumage of the greenwinged macaw my grandson Max is holding in the photo. I chose an overshot threading because four blocks of pattern are available for crimping on four shaft s. The ground cloth is plain weave. The floats on…

Have you ever noticed the colors in a tropical sea? A friend’s photographs from a recent sailing adventure through the Virgin Islands revealed magical colors— calming, soothing, even alluring. Inspiration was born. Where the water meets land, hues of green vegetation merge into magnificent sea blue. From the air, seaweed-covered underwater islands are visible. Scenes like this capture my imagination. Th is scarf is my interpretation of a tropical sea in wearable fiber. Aft er a lot of sampling, I decided to combine an interesting structure with added areas of interest that shrink in the wet-finishing process. The structure is a combination of basketweave and herringbone twill, which I modified from a draft in Marguerite Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Seven shades of green and blue interlace to create the…

My weaving study group has recently been studying honeycomb. I decided to make a project, so I started with the draft in Sharon Alderman’s Mastering Weave Structures but changed it slightly. I deepened the look of the cells by creating a darker “shadow line” with taupe 8/2 cotton to contrast with the light color of the fabric. Then, I wove beads into the fabric to cast additional shadows. Their sheen against the matte background adds to the texture and depth. This project ended up having other contrasts as well: humble but elegant, fussy but free. The yarns used are basic and inexpensive but the shimmer of beads and the neutral colors look sophisticated. The beads are inserted by threading them onto a separate length of weft, slightly longer than the…

Kids love to help decorate play areas or bedrooms, and handwoven rugs in beloved colors are the perfect way to add a little handmade fun to their favorite spaces! Creative kids will definitely enjoy the process of weaving, and this easy-to-follow plain-weave structure partnered with a sturdy handmade hula hoop loom means that any mistakes can easily be fixed. Lovely DIY T-shirt rugs woven on hula hoops are popping up all over the Internet right now, but I really wanted to try my hand at making a more permanent hula hoop loom that kids could use without having to worry about the warp threads slipping off of the hoop if they pull too hard or the project needs to be moved before they are done. (I like to think of…

I love learning about people’s traditions. For example, in Scandinavia, people eat pickled herring at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve to bring good luck for the new year. Who knew? Here’s a lovely Pennsylvania custom. In the early part of the 18th century, William Penn granted many acres of land to German immigrants fleeing their homeland because of religious persecution. We know their descendants today as the Amish and Mennonites. Like any immigrant group, they brought along the traditions they knew, including the way they cooked (our beloved “Pennsylvania Dutch” food) and dressed, and the textiles that they wove. One of these beloved Old World traditions was the “show towel,” so called because it was made to be decorative only, never to be used to wipe your…

The comments above refer to my observations about how each yarn performs with different amounts of finishing. I also wanted to compare the worsted- and woolen-spun yarns. This is complicated somewhat by my choice of setts. I chose 8 epi as the appropriate sett for Erin (worsted) and 6 epi for Columbia (woolen). After seeing the finished samples, I think 8 epi would have worked for both, and this is an important point in itself. In fact, any of the 12 samples would work just fine for one project or another—some are more appropriate for a mediumweight throw and some for a sturdy jacket. I observed in the Erin yarn that the draw-in, take-up and shrinkage were more significant in natural than in the dyed yarn and this difference was…

September/October 2015 Handwoven for the Home: Everyday Heirlooms From an elegant runner to a humble kitchen towel, every handwoven household textile is a treasure. In our 2015 Reader Challenge, we’ll celebrate everyday heirlooms from the loom. November/December 2015 Two-Shuttle Weaves Double your weaving fun with this issue devoted to two-shuttle weaves. From overshot to shadow weave and even deflected doubleweave, weaving with two shuttles opens up a world of new design possibilities. Learn tips and tricks for keeping track of your shuttles as you weave and how to keep your selvedges neat and clean as you switch shuttles. January/February 2016 Celebrating Linen Fall in love with flax! Crisp and classic, linen has been a favorite of weavers for millennia. In this issue, we’ll explore the history of linen throughout the…

Walter F. Morris, Jr., and Carol Karasik LOVELAND, COLORADO: THRUMS. 2015, PAPERBACK, 214 PAGES, $34.95. Maya Threads is a joyous celebration of a living tradition. Author Walter Morris starts his narrative by quoting a historian who said that centuries of invasion, wars, plagues, and oppression should have wiped out all traces of the classic Maya culture of Chiapas and other parts of Central America. Yet not only have some ancient textiles survived the ravages of time, the techniques that created them and the sacred symbolism of the ancient cloth survive today among the descendants of the Maya, evolving through the centuries in joyous profusion. Morris and coauthor Carol Karasik trace the evolution of textiles in Chiapas from their origins in classic Mayan times to the work of contemporary artisans. Lush…

When traveling by air, I carry a knitting project, a water bottle, my Kindle, essential medications and toiletries, a shawl or sweater, a notebook, and for a long flight, snacks and a travel pillow. To carry that many items, I need a sturdy, roomy tote that will easily tuck under the seat of the airplane and is comfortable to carry. My shaggy travel tote fits the bill and is large enough that I can fit my purse inside when I need to consolidate carry-ons. It is also a fun and colorful means of carrying class materials when I’m teaching. I used a commercial sewing pattern mod ified slightly to fit my needs. It’s a bit larger than the original, and I customized the interior and closure as follows: The inside…

A Snakeskin Accessory for Animal Lovers One advantage of being a weaver is that you can create a scarf for every occasion. Sometimes it is just a plain scarf with a single color. Other times you may want something more intricate. On occasion, you may even want an exotic scarf, something resembling a leopard or a zebra hide, but none of us wants to sacrafice a real leopard or zebra for our fashion needs. So how about snakeskin? When I saw draft number 45548 on www.handweaving.net, I thought it would make a great exotic scarf. I could mimic snakeskin by keeping the width narrow and lengthening the motif with a light beat. And sure enough, the finished product is 6 inches wide and 70 inches long—a perfect snakeskin. I chose…

Waffle weave, with its strong absorbent qualities, is the ideal weave structure for kitchen towels, and can be woven on a rigid-heddle loom with just one pick-up stick. I have made an abundance of towels using solid and variegated yarns but wanted to try mixing color blocks with waffle weave for something new and diff erent. Aft er sampling many color combinations, I chose three colors that were of similar value but with enough contrast to make the color-block squares show prominently throughout the towels. Th is project is an excellent way to explore color and texture on your rigid-heddle loom. Happy weaving! STRUCTURE Waffle weave. EQUIPMENT Rigid-heddle loom, 22" weaving width; 12-dent heddle; 3 shuttles, 1 pickup stick. YARNS Warp: 8/2 unmercerized cotton (3,360 yd/lb; UKI), Mint #3, 360…

Every summer, I invite twelve to fifteen kids, grades 2 through 5, to participate in an art camp in my backyard, a week of creativity and art-making. I like to incorporate a wide variety of art media, including some type of fiber art or weaving. I developed this project for my students so they could wear their art around their neck all week and then hang it for display in our art show at the end of the camp. I like to recycle whenever possible, so cardboard was the ideal material to make a small loom. As this was a mixed-media art camp, we used colored markers for drawing patterns, and beads to embellish the weaving. All of the students’ weavings were different, and they all were amazing. Any scraps…

My weaving projects are oft en inspired by things I see around me. Do you remember the antique coverlet that I reinterpreted as a table runner? Now I wanted to weave a version of a Pennsylvania show towel that paid respect to the tradition, but I didn’t want to learn to cross-stitch, so I decided to weave simple variations on a pattern. There would be a full repeat of the threading pattern at the bottom. Then I wanted to weave simple treadling variations to break up the long area in the middle. Toward the top, I would weave another pattern repeat but change it up a little from the bottom panel. This would be a true sampler, like the original show towels. The pattern is an adaptation of the pattern…

THE YARN: Imperial Yarn Company Erin, 3-ply worsted in 4 ounce skeins of 225 yards. Based on previous experience, I sett the sample warp at 8 ends per inch (epi). My samples were 12" wide but drew in to about 9.5" during them weaving. I wove three 10" long samples in broken twill at 8 ppi. If I had determined the sett by measuring wraps per inch (wpi), I would have chosen a sett of 6 epi, so I decided to weave another sample, spreading the warp to 16". Broken Twill Samples 1, 2, and 3, performed as expected. The moderately fulled piece (2) is denser than the lightly fulled one (1) and the felted sample (3) is quite dense and firm. The yarn definition in 1 is crisp, somewhat…

AMANDA ROBINETTE is a rag weaver who finds inspiration in waste textiles. When she’s not weaving, she is blogging at western sakiori.com and teaching tai chi. NANCY ARTHUR HOSKINS of Eugene, Oregon, is an author, teacher, and artist with a special interest in weaving, embroidery, color theory, and researching Egyptian textiles. SARA GOLDENBERG of Boulder, Colorado, is an artist and teacher. She received her BFA from California College of the Arts and her MFA from Colorado State University. YOKO ARAI is a fiber artist specializing in weaving, spinning, dyeing, and felting for over 42 years. Raised and educated in Japan, her influences come from Japanese culture and traditional techniques. MARILYNN COWGILL has been weaving for 25 years and still finds more to learn. She loves weaving luxurious fabrics and using…

These towels came about as part of the development of a class on “moving thread” structures for the Vävstuga Swedish Weaving school. As I was researching and thinking about projects for a class called “Nordic Deflections,” I was perusing Vävstuga's incredible library of Scandinavian and other weaving books and came across a fabulous draft in a book called Danske bondevævninger: Hvergarnsstoffer ca. 1750–1850 : analyser, materialer, mønstre og farver (Danish edition) by Paulli Andersen. I couldn’t read a word of the book, but I could understand the elements of the draft and knew that the structure would be perfect for the Nordic Deflections class. The next step was choosing colors and fibers. What a treat! I got to stand and make my selection in the “hall of colors” at Vävstuga…

It doesn’t have to take a lot of tailoring to make a stylish piece. This charming capelet is basically a long length of fabric with one edge shaped to form a collar. To join the ends, the top corners of the fabric are overlapped and trimmed with a decorative button. The loft of this fingering-weight alpaca/wool yarn combined with Brooks bouquet imparts a knitted appearance to this fabric. Once you get the hang of this technique, it’ll progress faster than you might expect. The bouquets are woven loosely for a textured look rather than pulled tightly for a lacy eff ect. RESOURCES Patrick, Jane. The Weaver’s Idea Book. Loveland, Colorado: Interweave, 2010, "Brooks bouquet," pp. 59–63. STRUCTURE Brooks bouquet. EQUIPMENT Rigid-heddle or shaft loom with 15" weaving width; 10-dent rigid…

THE YARN: Imperial Yarn Company Columbia, 2-ply mulespun and 2-ply woolen spun, 4-ounce skeins of 220 yards. I wove my first samples 12" wide at 8 epi. This seemed too dense to weave a balanced plain weave or twill (although the finished pieces are very nice) so I resleyed to 6 epi for my three test samples. Broken Twill I was surprised that the woolen-spun samples did not full or felt as readily as the worsted samples. Samples 5 and 6 are very similar in size and appearance. The felted sample, 6, shows more fulling in that the yarn definition is fuzzier and the fabric is denser, although it doesn’t have nearly the felted appearance and feel of the worsted sample 3. Sett: 8. Dimensions: Width on the loom:16"; width…