Handwoven May/June 2020

NOT LONG AGO, A FRIEND AND FELLOW guild member, Liz, sent me a Handweaver & Craftsman magazine from 1973. Liz’s intent was to show me the article in it written by the “other” Susan Horton, who is also a weaver. I, too, got a kick out of the coincidence because writing a scholarly article about weaving in 1973 wouldn’t have been in the realm of reality for me. I read Susan’s article, which spurred me to read other articles in the magazine. From one article, I learned that there was a movement in weaving at the time to standardize drafts. Just as many of us purchased videotapes not anticipating the DVD, much less streaming, the author didn’t anticipate the effect computers would have on the weaving world. A draft is to…

WEAVING ABROAD I spent two months in Scotland from mid-September to mid-November and couldn’t face the visit without some sort of weaving project. Even though I have a loom that fits in the overhead luggage compartment, we didn’t have room in our car for the loom. We were being joined for three weeks by two good friends, and we would be moving locations—and there would not be room for a table loom. I decided to pack up my little tapestry loom and two small bags of thrums and tapestry yarn to match my cartoon: a stunning picture of my large bromeliad blooming. I am not far along here, but I am just starting to put the long, spindly petals in. The Handwoven is on my computer. I downloaded the issue, though…

A QUICK ONLINE IMAGE SEARCH for “Michele Wipplinger” reveals how many people, groups, businesses, cooperatives, and societies (from all over the world) interacted with and were influenced by this brilliant woman in her too-short life—simply because of her incredible passion for color. As the art of natural dyes began to disappear, thanks in no small part to the ease and lower price tag of synthetic dyes, Michele searched the planet for natural colors and learned the methods to extract them. Most importantly, she figured out how to use these traditional dyes in today’s world. She became an author when her book Color Trends was published in 1990 and also worked as an educator, photographer, master dyer, designer, consultant, and the business owner of Earthues. Her nuanced color sense touched many lives. Almost…

In 1976, I took my first real weaving class at the Boulder Free School. Everyone was weaving wall hangings back then and this class taught tapestry weaving. The class came with a loom (Schacht’s Original Tapestry Loom), so once it was over, I had what I needed to go home to weave. I slowly made progress and wove many simplified landscapes, with rolling hills at the bottom and plain skies above—all with acrylic knitting yarn. The wall hangings piled up. But soon I discovered the joy of weaving selvedge to selvedge. Weaving could be fast, I learned; I wanted to go fast. I went on to explore shaft loom weaving and then embraced the rigid heddle loom and inkle loom, never giving much thought to tapestry again. Fast forward to 2015. Again,…

WHEN I HIRED JOE COCA to shoot the first issue of Handwoven magazine in 1979, we were both ignorant novices. He was a kid lately out of photography school; I was a publisher making it up as I went along. That we kept working together for the next 40 years was more than inertia or complacency. It was that we kept learning. You can look back through those old issues of Handwoven and watch it happening. In Joe’s case, more sophisticated lighting, more relaxed model shots, more eloquent fabric portraits developed. That was how we thought about the cloth shots. “Give it a Rembrandt look,” I’d say. And he would figure out how to do that. “Make this cloth look like it’s flying through the air!” I’d say. And he would…

You will need: Loom: Min. six shafts 20ins (50cm) weaving width Reed: 12dpi (48/10) Warp yarn quantity and color: Cotton 10/2, natural white, 3¼oz (90gm) Weft yarn quantity and color: Tabby: Cotton 10/2, natural white, 2oz (60gm). Pattern: Cotton 16/2, dark blue, used double, 2½oz (70gm) Here’s how: Total warp ends: 480 not including floating selvedges Warp length: 60ins (154cm) Sett: 24epi (2 epd = 9.6 e/cm) Width in reed: 20ins (50cm) Finished length: 48ins (122cm) Finished width: 16½ins (42cm) Weave structure: Summer-&-winter on bronson threading, treadled “dukagang fashion”. This treadling uses only one type of pattern pick per block, which makes it look like the traditional Swedish pattern technique called dukagang. Warping Follow draft repeat threading five times. Floating selvedges are not included in threading. Weaving 1¼ins (3cm) tabby for hem allowance, then pattern as shown in the drawdown. Remember one tabby between each pattern…