Liz I’ve been thinking a lot about drafts lately. As many of you know, I am in the process of writing a new guide to the wonderful world of weave structure with the rigid-heddle weaver in mind. It is humbling and overwhelming work and I am eternally grateful to the Yarnworker Patreon community for giving me …
In November, my desktop started giving me trouble. I couldn’t tell if it wasn’t happy with the latest operating system upgrade, or if I was dealing with a corrupt file. My bluetooth was cycling on and off, which made me think it was a hardware issue, but I wanted to rule out software or file issues. …
Swatching may seem to imply that you are striving to make a perfect thing. For me it is about bringing more joy to the process. A chance to stroll through the what-ifs without the worry. Will I like this color combination or that combination? Will this yarn finish the way I hoped it will? Will …
I was reading an online article about the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Mean, and I was once again reminded what a powerhouse these two systems are for weavers. Before I even knew what they were, I discovered I was using them completely unintentionally. My “clever” stripes turned out to be Fibonacci. My asymmetrical blocks …
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts during the 2022 Yarnworker Check-In Survey. Over 700 rigid-heddle weavers responded to the survey. In addition to the numerous multiple choice questions, I asked a number of open-ended ones. This is an act of putting on my active listening ears to let you describe your weaving …
I remember the first time I saw a fiber-producing animal. It was at the petting zoo in Greensboro, North Carolina, where my grandparents took me to feed the ducks. I don’t know exactly how old I was, somewhere between preschool and school. In one pen off to the side was a llama and I was …
The fell is formed where the last laid weft pick is pressed into place. The fell line advances as the weaving advances. Crooked fell lines are the bane of rigid-heddle weavers. The rigid-heddle reed isn’t fixed in a straight line as the reed is on other loom types. Because of this, we rely on our …
I’m often asked about the best ways to measure your work as you weave. Although I’ve covered various methods in my books, patterns and classes, I have yet to write about this subject on the Yarnworker blog. Here is a round-up of my favorite ways to keep track of where I am. Markers When I first …
The more I teach, the more I learn. A few years ago, I wrote a post about how to create more space on your cloth beam. Since that time, I’d thought more about the issue and have a much simpler way to work this maneuver to create space on your cloth beam. This method is …
During the latest weave-along, we have been exploring warp-faced colorwork to weave bands on a rigid-heddle loom. This has led to all sorts of exploratory questions about tape and box looms, many of which utilize a rigid-heddle style reed as the shedding device. Every weaving culture has some sort of band technique that expresses their …
