As I enter my fifth year of hosting weave-alongs, I’ve been musing on how we spend our time. Besides generally geeking out on all the things weaving entails, we seem to spend the most time talking about the endlessly fascinating topic of yarn selection, sett, and beat, or what I like to call, the weaver’s …
As most of you know, I’m a fan of the swatch. I make them for four specific reasons: to test out my ideas, try yarn substitutions, check my sett, and experiment with color. To make this process easier, I worked with Purl & Loop to develop the Swatch Maker Looms and subsequently wrote A Weaver’s Guide …
If you are totally new to weaving with the pick-up stick on the rigid heddle loom, check out my latest Knitty column. I give a very basic primer on how it works and discuss how to weave warp floats. In First Fall edition of Knitty, I’ll address weft floats. Here’s what I’ve been geeking out on lately. When using a …
Thanksgiving is a time to contemplate gratefulness and reconciliation. I am both thankful for, and recently reconciled with, failure and its cousin perfectionism. I just finished reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. It wasn’t a book I was drawn to by the subject—living the creative life—but rather by the author. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, Committed, …
In weaving we talk about “beating your yarn” a lot. I try to avoid using this phrase as it send the wrong message. It refers to what most of us think of as “weaving”, using the rigid-heddle to press the weft into place. Perhaps a more accurate instruction is to “place the weft”. Beating too hard means you end …
Creating cloth requires both engineering and imagination, but most of all it requires that you play with your materials a lot. Getting to know yarn and how it behaves is learned by conducting lots of experiments. Designing is like a Mad Lib. The basic formula goes something like this: I want to make ____________ (project) …
Since I started #weaverwednesday a few short weeks ago, I’ve been thinking of all the weavers who have laid tracks for those of us who have stumbled upon the weavers way. I first met Sara Lamb when I was working on the SOAR staff back in the early aughts. She was the first one to show me how velvet …
On January first, I experienced a fire in my belly that only a New Year can bring. THIS will be the year! Every room in my house will have a new handwoven item designed just for it. I’m happy to say that unlike most of my New Year’s Resolutions this one is sticking. I’ve tackled the …
I love new beginnings! The world is sparkly and new, everything fits perfectly together in your mind, and nothing has gone wrong. (This won’t last, but that is also part of the process. For an excellent blog post on navigating roadblocks check out Kate White’s post on the Schacht Blog.) I’m starting my Year of …
Recently a colleague, who works on the knitting side of the craft, asked me what is up with Wraps Per Inch? There appears to be so much misinformation about how to use this measurement. I had such fun answering this question that I thought I’d share some of my thoughts with you. In my …
