Christina turned to Handwoven when she needed a recipe for a scarf for her husband.
Demonstrating gives me a chance to watch the eyes of the public as “the light goes on,” as they watch cloth appear out of threads.
The pressure to create a beautiful handwoven garment, scarf, or tablecloth from scratch with only a vague idea what it should look like can be paralyzing. Anita Luvera Mayer has some excellent advice for those scary moments: do something. . . anything.
When Madelyn writes about weaving, she does so in a way that makes it all seem so simple. While I’ve not had the privilege of attending one of her classes at the Weavers’ School, I have learned a great deal from her project and articles.
I love silk. To me, it's the perfect fiber. It's lustrous and strong, with delicious drape. It is warm, but not overly so. It's not fussy to warp or weave, and it dyes beautifully, either with acid dyes or with fiber-reactive dyes and soda ash.
Deflected doublweave can create some truly amazing designs, and then when you wet-finish, the threads shift and right angles become curves and crosses transform into flowers.
When I put on a long warp I try to choose drafts that let me play with tie-up, treadling, weft color, and even sett to create many different designs and projects all on the same warp.
Yarn is both the weaver's best friend and our sometimes enemy. When we use it correctly and play nice, together we can create just about anything our hearts desire. When we use the wrong yarn or when we mistreat our yarns, bad things can happen.