Weavers love to weave. Second to that, they like to read about weaving. They also love to talk about weaving with other weavers or, if none are about, with any marginally willing victim in the room or even the occasional cat. The Intentional Weaver by Laura Fry fills that need for discourse. A conversational text, it reads like a one-way weaving chat with a more experienced mentor.
The book is positively brimming with homespun (no pun intended) wisdom: “If you can’t be perfect, be consistent,” and “A thread under tension is a thread under control.” The Intentional Weaver is good-natured and kind, and while it’s also not quite perfect—there are some out-of-focus photographs and no index—you won’t mind a bit. These are quibbles about a worthwhile and readable book with much to teach.
A career weaver, Laura Fry shares important information that people—and books—often don’t. She begins with the physicality of weaving and moves to fibers and yarns followed by information—including drafts—on the most common weave structures. Through the whole of the text, there is excellent advice not often given. My favorite? “Never use a knot where a bow will do.” There is also a discussion on designing and, happily, a series of projects. Fry is generous in crediting others and in pointing to other resources throughout the text and in the bibliography.
As Laura Fry says in her lovely “Final Words,” which admonishes us to follow our own journey to a life of creativity and friends, “It’s all good.”
Prince George, British Columbia: Laura Fry Weaving Studio, 2018. Hardcover, 206 pages, $60.62. 978-1-7752610-0-1.