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 …
I released my first self-published book, A Weaver’s Guide to Swatching, back in January. Some of you know the back story: The previous year I had reached out to Angela at Purl & Loop to see if she could devise a tool that would help me swatch while working on Handwoven Home. To date, there were …
This is the wool version of one my most popular posts about the different types of cotton yarns available to weavers and how to select the right yarn for your project. It isn’t as straightforward a telling as it was with cotton and I’m warning you right now it is a long one. Cotton is a …
Yarn is forever, but yarns, sadly, come and go. An overwhelming number of respondents to the last survey I sent out, said that not knowing much about yarn kept them from weaving more. Many weavers mentioned specifically the challenge they have with making yarn substitutions, or that they only have big box stores nearby to shop …
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) …
After traveling for the past four concecutive weeks, I have been in dump-and-run mode. This took its toll on my yarn space. I’ve never really put this room to rights since we moved into our new home last July. Coming home to a pile of deadlines meant one thing-cleaning the yarn room was suddenly the most …
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 …
Nothing, nothing, nothing can replace the face-to-face interactions you get at a show—no amount of Tweeting gets you even close to the relationships you form when you are in the right forum for the task at hand. The National NeedleArts Association trade show is a very necessary part of your weaving life, whether you are …
