In A Weaver’s Guide to Yarn I start with sett. Understanding warp density’s effect on cloth is where the rubber meets the road, or in our case, the yarn meets the loom. Sett is the number of warp ends within an inch of the rigid heddle reed. Because rigid-heddle weavers often double up our ends in …
There is nothing like browsing through shelves of yarn at shop that speaks weaving, and in particular, rigid-heddle weaving. I live in a small town and the only local yarn available is at Walmart, the local Alpaca farm, and the occasional yarn swap at my local guild. I’m about an hour and a half drive …
It is such a great feeling unrolling the cloth beam to reveal a set of freshly woven towels! Now it is time to finish them off. I often save my handwork for car trips or when I’m visiting with family and friends. You may be doing a little of both this holiday weekend. View this post …
It is so rewarding seeing so many weavers trying something new. Some are trying new warping methods, some are weaving with fine cotton for the first time, and some are stretching their design wings and changing up the pattern to suit their needs or because they may have made a threading error and followed the …
As I hoped, the color-and-weave pattern for this weave-along has already generated lots of discussion about warping. For those who are still newish weavers, don’t let all these geeky details overwhelm you. Take what you need and leave the rest. Think of these weave-alongs as an interactive pattern instead of a class. The Facebook and Ravelry groups are …
The Yarnworker Doubleweave Throw Weave-Along is drawing to a close. It was a truly amazing experience. We laughed, we cried, we celebrated, and we persevered. We learned as a group that making mistakes really isn’t that big of a deal and that anything and everything can be fixed. In fact, we had such fun, I am …
I met Sarah Anderson a few years ago at a National NeedleArts trade show, where she as promoting her book The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs. As a spinner, I have long admired Sarah’s work in making sculptural, highly functional yarns. She introduced me to the wonders of xanthan gum as a sizing material—a coating …
I’ve noticed that if a pattern calls for cotton yarn most weavers tend to dig into their stash and pull out whatever cotton they have on hand. All cotton yarns are not the same. Depending on their type they can behave differently in the finished cloth. Here is a brief rundown of the kinds of cottons …
